M S CONTRACTING INC

Mick is the 'contractor' for this company and has beautiful and high quality designs. His professionalism is super terrible. First of all, he doesn't manage his subcontractors very well...he leaves that up to us. The drywall guys showed up and had no idea what to do or what was/was not supposed to be drywalled. We had to take time off of work to come manage them. He wasn't even there to direct them...or any of the subcontractors. But the real root of this problem is the current issue with another subcontractor that he didn't manage. He hired Hotwire Electric to do the electric work. (I also wrote a review on them). There were to do the standard electric work associated with a basement finish. Because we had a full electric panel, the recommendation was to install a sub panel. We asked for that. It wasn't done. Mick didn't care and then tried to pretend it wasn't necessary. When we pushed the matter, he called them back out to have them complete it. He had told us that portion of the electric work was about $350. So, when we paid the final bill of our contract which we paid in full, Mick identified the 'extras' he was billing us for above and beyond the original contract signed. He said we owed $500 for the electric subpanel..remember he quoted 350. He said we owed $200 for some cutouts he did under our stairs He said we owed $35 for some cable that he ran for us for the entertainment area That came to a total of $735 of additional billings. I talked to Mick about our dissatisfaction with the way we had to do his work for him on the subcontractors. I had tracked the time and we had probably spent 4-6 hours doing work that he should have done. He never specified his hourly rate, but we asked around and an estimated going rate for basement contractor is about $50 per hour. Thus, 6 hours at $50/hour, I told Mick that we were going to reduce our final payment by $300 for having to do his job with managing the subcontractors. I said I would just round down to $400 to settle the final payment. He said he was surprised that we weren't happy but accepted the final payment as long as it was in cash and would be paid immediately. We paid it the very next day. Now he won't pay the subcontractor for the Electric. Their bill is $532. And he has lied to them and told them we were to pay them directly. So, let's review. If Mick's assertion was correct, that means he must think I owe him $400 for $235 worth of work. I don't think that's accurate. What's happened is that he is trying to milk both sides of things and because he is tough to deal with, he has intimidated the lady in charge of billing at Hotwire electric. When she first called to ask who owed the bill, she told me she was scared to talk to him because he was so rude. So, he has been paid for what he has earned. Now he owes his subcontractor. He won't pay them and now they are scrambling and coming after us. He is slimy and sneaky and tries to get away with stuff. Save yourself a large headache and don't use him. Plus, on the phone and in person, he is rude and treats you like your stupid. No one needs that. Look elsewhere.