VALLEY DRAIN SERVICE

He said it would be $7,500 and he would need $3500 to get the permits and permission to do the job and the check would be returned when the job was finished and they had approved it. I gave him check #501 dated 8/29/08 for $3500. He gave me a receipt for $3500 and wrote Total $7500 down in the lower right hand corner. Sat. 8/30/08- His crew arrived and work began. I complained that the price seemed too high. After he left, I couldn t find the receipt for $3500 that he had given me. 8/31/08- Work was completed and everything seemed to be in good working order. Mr. Valenzuela came to me and said that since the job had finished sooner that expected, they would give me a credit for $1000. I countered with $2000. He came back with $1500, so I wrote him a check #502 for $6000 dated 8/31/08 and he gave me a receipt for $6000 and marked it paid in full. He left and came back a little later to say that he had talked to his partner and that they would give me another $300 off if I would put $3500 on a credit card and write a check for $2200. He said there were two different departments that needed to be paid separately. I agreed, so he returned the $6000 check. I then gave him check #503 dated 8/31/08 for $2200. But I made an awful mistake. He asked to borrow my pen, which was erasable, and I could not find it after he left. 9/1/08- I checked my bank accounts on the internet as I usually do every day and discovered that the check I had given him #503 for $3500 had been cashed for $8500. I then called the police and put a stop payment on #503 for $2200. I also called the credit card company to cancel the charge for $3500 and canceled the card and ordered a new one. I later found that check #503 had also been cashed for $4200. The top part of check #501 had obviously been fraudulently written over and changed from $3500 to $8500. After he took my eraser pen, he was able to change the $2200 check to $4200. He has stolen a total of $10500 from me! A couple days after I called the police, I received a receipt from the owner, Judd, saying that my credit card was charged $3500 and that is it and that my bill was paid in full. Mr. Valenzuela was an excellent con artist. This is truly an extraordinary case! Thank goodness my bank realized this case and gave me $7000 back in my accounts. I will never deal with this company again.