On October 12th after interviewing contractor Steve Arnold owner or Avalon Home Services we entered into a contract for a three week remodel and gave him the first of many checks to cover goods and services. The demolition of our main bathroom began on October 20.
The first sign of trouble came when we gave Steve a check for $7,700 to pay for the bathroom furniture from Ambella. It seemed high so I found a site the next morning on the internet and was quoted $5100 for the same furniture. I called Steve to cancel the other order and was told that his salesman already had the check and we would be charge a 30% restocking fee if we pulled out. I also explained that Ambella had said the vanity was unavailable until Dec. 1. Steve assured me his guy had it in the warehouse. We told him to go get it and put it in the garage and were told it was in his warehouse in Atlanta. Another red flag: What Dallas based sales company buys a product from Ambella in Dallas to ship it to Atlanta and pay storage only to have to ship it back to Dallas??? By Dec. 1 when we had no furniture and when pressed, Steve admitted he was having trouble getting the guy to call him back and maybe he was filing bankruptcy. He assured us either way he would pay us back. We told Steve we were cancelling the order and we went to the Ambella showroom and bought a different the vanity and mirror which is now installed.
The bathroom was not ready for Thanksgiving and to be fair we had added to the job and taken out the door between the guest room and the bathroom and had new wall board installed. They were also overhauling some electrical. And we were still waiting for the LED lights we had paid in excess of $3000 for. But Steve claimed Meletio kept telling him they were on backorder.
Comes December 23rd and we still have no bathroom. The glass guy comes and takes measurements for the glass shower enclosure which we have paid $2000 for. I say will you be back tomorrow to install it as we have company coming for the holidays and Steve told us it was a 24 hour turn around. The guy looks at me like a fell of the turnup truck and says, "Are you kidding? It takes 8 to 10 days for the glass. This is heavy duty tempered framelss glass." So Steve shows up to collect another $4000: ($1,100 adjustment on the glass and for various services; some completed, some yet to be done.) I suggested he take it from the $7700 he already owes us. Steve says he doesn't have that money yet. They "guy" is going to write him a check the first of January. My husband says we should keep the two separate. With much trepedation I give him two more checks as he wants them to be for $2000 and $2100 so the bank will cash them and he can pay his workers before the holiday.
Then he disappears leaving a mound of trash and debris that stretchs from the alley to the back of the house and standing about 3 feet high. The hitch broke on his trailer and he hasn't had a new one installed so he can pick up the trash we have paid him $700 to haul away.
We hear nothing from him for days. When we finally hear from him again, he has had salmonilla poisoning. He will be by to take a look at the job. I tell him my mother will be here on Feb. 3rd and I need this bathroom to be finished. No problem, he says. He stops by, looks around with his worker, takes the door jamb and door off and leaves. Now it's a good thing we DON'T have a toilet, because we no longer have a door! Steve finds out the toilet he said he could get in 24 hours has to be ordered and will take a week. I have been telling him since December to order it. He brings in a little $100 toilet to serve as a temporary toliet for now. He suggests we throw up a shower curtain if we want to use the shower which still has no overhead shower heads but side body wash system is in.
After repeated attempts to get Steve to tell us the name of the glass guy whose first name we know is "Tommy, " we are beginning to think that the glass has not even been ordered. It is now Feb. 1 and it was supposed to be ready in 10 days on December 23rd. Steve tells us Tommy sent him an email he was supposed to sign off on and fax back and he didn't catch it so now the glass will take 10 days. This is on Feb. 12.
My husband has finally gotten suspicious that Steve has been less than honest with us and calls Meletio Lighting in Dallas on February 14. He finds out there is no order for Steve Arnold, Avalon Home Service or under our name. When confronted about this, Steve says he doesn't want to discuss it, his mother just died. When my husband questions whether that is just another story, Steve swears at him and hangs up. (His mother DID die.)
We give him a week to deal with the loss. His helper comes by on Monday and puts the shower heads in. The steam controls are still being ignored. The heated towel rack has been put in backwards and the hole is too high and if they lower it, there will be hole in the wall the Venitian plaster will need to be matched.
Then we don't see him again for weeks. We send him an email listing all the things needed to be done before the job is complete and asking for a face to face meeting. We hear nothing. I call him the Monday after his mom's funeral and he says he's stopping by to check the job. I say, "Great, we'd love to sit down with you. Tell us what time to meet you." He says he will check his schedule and call us back. We have not seen or talked to him since. We have left repeated messages. We have sent numerous emails. Last week (2/26/09) we sent a list of demands and stated what the consequences would be if did not respond to us by Monday evening. The time came and went and still no response.
I contacted Best Contractors.com where we got his name based on their website info about how their contractors had been thorougly screened and researched only to find he had been taken off the site in January for similar complaints. They gave me this website to file a report. When they called Steve, he got terse with them and hung up. My husband called Steve later that day (3/3/09) and Steve said he was probably going to file Chapter 11. He would call us later in the week.
In googling his name I found he was registered on two new sites: Service Magic.com and LinkedIn. He is still actively out there drumming up new business. He has hired two new people since January 1st that we know of. That means this bathroom remodel which is now in the fifth month and still not completed; and the approximate $14,000 he has taken for goods and services not delivered, may never get completed unless we hire someone else to come in and finish it. His refusal to sit down with us and come to a satisfactory end suggests he has chosen to walk away from this job and leave us holding the bag. Our goal is to get the word out to other potential consumers before they hand over their hard earned money in good faith. I certainly wish someone had warned us six months and several thousand dollars ago.
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