Mercury Services of Louisiana LLC

Working with Mercury Services was the worst experience we had in a 2-year full gut renovation of a house in New Orleans. At first the owner was fanastic. He had a tricky situation to figure out and installed 6 (maybe 7?) Air conditioning units including a split unit AC that not many people were familiar with. Things weren't perfect but he was quick to address mistakes without assigning blame. He returned calls and came over on holidays, special events...he was great. But then. The wine closet. We had a desire to install a wine closet under our stairs but we could not figure out a way to do it - the air cooling system is tricky for a wine closet because the temperature differential between what you are blowing out and where the unit exhausts can not be more than 20 degrees. Living in New Orleans clearly means you can't vent to the exterior....and we did not want to vent to the interior of our house. We had given up on the idea when Felix, the owner of Mercury, finally came up with a solution. It would cost $6,000 but he would move the guts of our interior AC system, create a closet space under the stairs, finish the room (flooring and sheetrock) and install the cooling unit to vent into our return air ducting. it was expensive but brilliant! He asked for $3,000 up front and $3,000 when he finished. And he promised he would be finished with the job by April 16th. That was a condition of the work (our house was to be on a home tour). This was on March 13th. On March 21st he submitted it a formal invoice in the amount of $6,000 for ?installation of interior for wine cooler, A/C system and closet ? all materials and labor? with $3,000 due then and $3,000 due upon completion. We paid $3,000. On April 13th; With three days to go before the deadline he emailed, ?Trying to get done ASAP. Here are a few invoices I need paid.? Still not mention at this point that the wine cooler hadn?t even arrived. He included an invoice for another $2,000 toward the $6,000 that originally he said he did not need payment for until the job was complete. April 19th: Three days after he promised the work would be complete he emailed me that the wine cooler unit was due in ?today.? April 20th: He sent me a text message asking me if I have ordered lights ? with no previous mention that I needed to order lights. May 5th: He sent a text telling me that his repair guy would be calling to schedule installation of unit. Then, the ultimate joke: On May 8th He sent me a text ? no phone call, no email, no further discussion, ?Wanting to finish Monday?We want to patch the hole and seal the a/c unit to make the room a wine storage instead of a cooler. The cooler unit would cause problems if we installed it in the a/c return duct as we had designed it. The physics of return air and trying to cool the room is the concern. Thanks. May 22nd: With still no follow up call or note about not being able to complete the project or any notice about extra fees incurred, he sent an invoice for $1800 over the $6,000 originally quoted expecting me to pay him $2800 more than the $5,000 I had already paid for something he dreamed up, then couldn't make happen. As of the writing of this, July 7th, 2011, I have not paid the remainder due and I am seeking legal advice.It is terribly sad as it can be difficult to find great workers in New Orleans. Felix was one....but then something happened and he became, literally, the worse contractor we have EVER worked with.