Purple Heart Property Maintenance

My parents paid him up front $1,300 of a verbally agreed upon $1,500 to do a gravel laying job, put up a gutter on the garage and lay a pipe to drain from the gutter. He came and spread the pile of gravel (that my parents had bought and had delivered prior to hiring him) but the machine my dad had rented to flatten the gravel they couldn't get working. So Phil Daniels left to come back at a later date to complete the job. Before he left he asked for payment of $1,300 for a job he only did one fourth of (there were two big piles that he did spread). So he still needs to flatten the gravel so all that isn't washed away or plowed away, no gutter on the garage, and no pipe for drainage. He said he would return to complete the job so my parents trusted him. After two weeks of waiting for him to return my dad called him. The owner said he had hurt his back and the doctor told him to not get on a ladder. And he would would return to do a new estimate because the $1,300 was JUST for the spreading the gravel. My dad did get a working machine and flatten what he could of the gravel (which with his Parkinson's he should not have done, it laid him up for 3 days but he was stubborn and was stressed about upcoming weather). It is my parent's fault to not get things in writing and to pay him so much up front, but I do think they were cheated and misled. I don't think spreading gravel for $1,300 is comparable to work that was supposed to be completed. My dad it a Vietnam vet and is suffering from Parkinson's and can't do this work anymore. He chose this person because he figured a Purple Heart vet would be trustworthy. My parents are both retired and have limited funds and have had difficulty finding trustworthy people to do work my dad can't do anymore. What I would like is to have Phil Daniels refund my parents a fair and significant amount of payment (I can't imagine the work left undone would only be $300 worth.) He was paid $430 an hour then to spread the gravel! $1,300 for approximately 3 hours of being here.