When an officer of a company violates the trust of a potential customer on the contract negotiation stage, and subsequently refuses to return a check, which I requested in writing, and in a fax for three times, then it is appropriate to seek remedy for the situation via social media, the BBB and legal means. Everything I write is true, and documented. If requested, I will provide copies. The person who visited my home is Rick Diano, and according to his card, he is the Vice President of Interstate Heating and Air, doing business under several similar DBAs. I found the company through Angie’s List, which I partially blame for their referral to this substandard company You see, my water heater blew out, the second one in 10 years for the same reason as the previous one: sediment. Common sense indicated that I needed something different, so I looked at tank less water heaters as the best solution. I also told Rick that I was going to have another contractor come, and give me a quote after he left hoping that that would assure a fair offer and accuracy. Later that evening, I reviewed the two contracts, and that is where I found the first of several errors on the Interstate contract. The first was sufficient for me to terminate the contract, and I sent notice via email and fax to that effect. That first major error was that Rick wrote somethings on the contract after I signed it, and then changed the $300.00 down payment, which I gave to him in a check to $250. It is almost as if he was thinking that he could pocket $50.00 through that act of fraud if I canceled, but did not specify that the check be returned; only what he put on the contract. In other words, outright fraud. The second major error in the contract was that the contract specified only the brand name of the water heater, Navien, but it did not list the size I needed Therefore, I emailed and faxed the following: Dear Rick: This email, and subsequent fax will serve as my official notice of the contract signed earlier today. As a security deposit, I gave to you a check from the Pennsylvania State Credit Union in the amount of $300.00. I wish that to be returned immediately along with a reply to this email acknowledging receipt of this email and fax. Thank you for the time that you spent with me, it was instructional, but FYI, your solution of just the heater alone did not address the primary issue of having to replace two tank water heaters within 8 years for the reason of sediment build up. If you choose to mail the check back, please write “VOID” on the face, and drop it in my mailbox, or in a USPS mail box Physically, they are about 3 miles away from me, on the same road as my home. Therefore, the request for hand delivery was an option for the sake of his convenience. At 8:00 the next day, May 22, he replied, but did not address the issue of the check return: I have done hundreds of hot water heaters in the city of Geneva although Geneva has 22 grains of hardness in there water many homes do not have any filtration systems on the water enjoy longevity on there water heaters. The reason for this is quality equipment and quality installation plus we always put a prefilter on the Navin To my way of thinking, his avoidance of the issue of the check was his attempt to further his fraud against me. The next day, he left me a voice mail on my phone: TRANSCRIPT of voicemail Date : May 23 2019 01:06:04 PM From : INTERSTATE,HEAT (13157816601) To : John Thomson (1315828XXXX) "Good afternoon John this is Rick up the street interstate heating. Yeah that's no problem I mean if you wanna go somewhere else that's that is fine. I'll just rip up the check. Don't worry about anything. See ya." Quoting Yogi Berra, “ déjà vu all over again” On Thursday, May 23, at 6:53 PM I sent him this email: What is it that I have failed to communicate to you? This is now the third time I send to you the same message; RETURN MY CHECK. DO NOT TELL ME THAT YOU WILL TEAR IT UP SEND IT TO ME VIA USPS, OR HAND DELIVER IT RETURN MY CHECK Have you sufficiently understood my legitimate request? As a result of this dance of denial, I came to the conclusion that there is no doubt that Rick Daino, through his company, in which he is a senior officer is committing fraud, and wants to deny my reasonable request. Further, it is my opinion that he submitted the check to his bank, and is possibly skimming $50.00 off the top, and if that is the case, he is also defrauding his company in the same manner as he is attempting to do so with me. BTW because I intuited that something like this would happen, I stopped payment on the check, and I have a carbon copy of check #7243 written to Interstate in the amount of $300.