a to z super hero

Halifi was a charming guy at first, but it soon became apparent he was neither a competent nor an honest contractor. Here are a few examples: 1) Halifi asked us to pay the dealer directly for the flooring tile, and said that he would deliver it. It was obvious his delivery was less than the amount we paid for. When challenged on this he angrily disputed the charge, and tried to lie about how much breakage to expect. He actually asked me to buy more tile to finish the job ? even though it was obvious he had shorted the delivery. There was a dramatic scene where Halifi took offense and grudgingly offered to make it good. We are reasonably certain what he did was go to whatever job-site he took our tiles to and bring them back. In the end ? I can count ? we paid for far more tiles than he delivered, and breakage doesn?t count for the discrepancy. 2) Halifi removed the toilet ? in perfectly good shape - to install the flooring, then instead of re-installing it as we had requested, the toilet disappeared. Then he asked us to buy a new one. Once again, he met our challenge with anger and bullying, then agreed to replace it, but did so with a cheap one. Halifi?s work is shoddy and not to code, and not even professional. (According to one of the blog posts cited below, he has never passed the California State License examination.) He put our home and our son, who slept in the remodeled room, in danger. Here are a few examples (by no means an exhaustive list): 1) Halifi or his workers capped the copper supply lines for our laundry with what we discovered were actually aluminum electrical conduit fittings. 2) He used the wrong size pipe for our drain. 3) He failed to install a safety valve on our water heater 4) He installed a room air conditioner not only out of level but also out of plumb, so that it leaked condensation back into the room 5) Several of the electrical outlets he installed do not work, or sparks appear behind the faceplate when you switch the switch 6) An exhaust fan exhausts up into the ceiling, going nowhere. 7) The shower pan leaks. 8) Woodwork trim looked as if it had been cut by a kindergarten class. 9) Floor tiles are cracking five years later. 10) Despite his assurances to clean the worksite daily, he did not haul a speck of trash away until the project was over. We had to beg him to clear the trash from the worksite, and even then he did not remove everything. 11) His workers used tools that belonged to us that were in another part of the basement, and destroyed our shop-vac by vacuuming plaster dust without the filter on. We had to hire a plumber to re-plumb the entire project. The plumber we hired was appalled at what he found. We also hired a carpenter to remount the air-conditioner. We are still not certain whether the electrical systems are entirely safe. Once we realized what we were dealing with, every day was a trial. We constantly caught Halifi in misrepresentations, and each conversation turned into a dispute, as he defended himself with attempted intimidation. Our project included replacement windows, for which we prepaid, and as our relationship with him went sour we felt as though we were held hostage by him for those windows. Once the windows were installed ? and we had to beg him to caulk them! - all we wanted to do was get him out of our house. As a parting shot he left the old glass panes in our basement, rather than hauling them away. We chose not to file a complaint because we were so glad to get rid of him, but seeing his name appear on Angies? List has motivated us to comment. The guy?s an incompetent and a con man, and you will be sorry if you hire him. Although we cannot definitively affirm their accuracy, there are posts on RipoffReport.com by two former customers who had work done by Halifi under the auspices of his ?new? company, Milano Design, that parallel our experience: http://www.ripoffreport.com/directory/Ben-Halifi.aspx