Kauer Contracting

Not too good. I found Mike Kauer on craigslist and had him give me an estimate to replace a small section of a box gutter, as well as clean out my gutters around the house. After sending me the estimate, I agreed on the price as it looked good for both of those services. On the day he started work, I met him at my house just go over the details again. When he arrived at the house, he came with his girlfriend and their child, which is no big deal, but a bit strange to me. I asked him at this time if he would agree to reinstall my chimney cap that fell off during a storm if i gave him an extra $35, which he said he would. I left for work and mentioned to call me if he needs anything. Later in the day, he called and said he was finished, but wanted to meet up for payment near the parkway because he was running late. Being completely naive, I agreed as he seemed like a pretty nice guy through the calls / emails that we previously exchanged, as well as when i met him for the quote. I met him, paid him the money, including the extra $35 for the chimney cap, and asked him if he would be able to send me an additional quote for a stucco project that I previously mentioned. When I got home that evening, the box gutters were complete, and from would I could tell, looked decent enough. HOWEVER, there was still vegetation visible in the gutters around the house, and the chimney cap was sitting on my front porch. I email Mike immediately after and pointed out he never cleaned the gutters and didn't reinstall the chimney cap, which I already paid him for. His response was that he'll do both of these when he comes to start on the stucco project (to which he also attached a quote). I again pointed out that I haven't even agreed to hire him for the stucco project as his price was 3x higher than the other quotes I got. After several email exchanges, I told him I didn't feel comfortable hiring someone for another job who still hasn't completed the first job. I then asked when he would complete the gutter cleaning, and the chimney cap. He claimed he would come the following week for the gutters, but since I technically wasn't billed for the chimney, he wasn't doing it unless I gave him the stucco job. In the end, he never came back to clean the gutters, and kept the additional $35 for the chimney. I would never recommend this person to any. Complete ripoff.