Jeff's Complete Home Repair

29 November 2013
On
9 August 2013, we signed an agreement with Mr. Jeffrey White (Pennsylvania
license No. 057433 [Jeff's Complete Home Repair, 224 Reese Street, Sharon Hill
PA 19079, +1.267.984.8734]) that specified a completion date of on or before 13
September 2013 above his signature for a total of $3700.00.  Mr. White's company is insured by the T****
Insurance Group, per the Pennsylvania Attorney General's home repair
contractor's website, http://hicsearch.attorneygeneral.gov/.  The agreement included as its first item
opening the French drain outside the basement door (a job for which Mr. White
quoted a price of $2200.00) connecting the drain to the existing sewer pipe,
and repairing the concrete broken to access the drain under the basement
floor.  Mr. White stated that he would
include a new basement door.  The second
item on the estimate was to repair and replace basement laundry room ceiling tiles
(a job for which Mr. White quoted a price of $1200.00).  The third item was to replace a wooden window
sill with fresh wood and cap it with aluminum siding, and the fourth item was to
perform several minor electrical repairs that included adding several new
electrical outlets in the basement (jobs for which Mr. White quoted a price of
$300.00).  We provided a $2200.00 deposit
(check No. 0108, 12 August 2013) by check (check No. 0108, dated 12 August
2013).
We
signed another estimate written on 6 September 2013 for a small painting job
above the front porch and several extras for the basement (jobs for which Mr.
White quoted a price of $500.00) for an overall total of $4200.00 for all
contracted jobs.  At that time we
provided a check (check No.0110, dated 06 September 2013) for
$1000.00 as a deposit on that work to enable Mr. White to buy supplies and hire
help.  On 18 September 2013 we
gave Mr. White a check (check No. 0111, dated 18 September 2013) for $600.00,
since he stated that he "ran out of money"; at that time, the job had
already continued beyond the promised date of 13 September 2013.
Mr.
White subsequently completed the basement ceiling work, the windowsill
replacement, and some smaller electrical and painting jobs as detailed on the two
estimates.  At this point, Mr. White
began to cite bad weather, broken equipment, and lack of help as reasons for
delays in initiating the work on the drain. 
Additionally, we had recommended Mr. White to another family member and
a week passed as he completed a painting job for that person.  Mr. White offered assurances that he would be
at our house immediately after completion of the painting job, but failed to
come despite several promised dates.  With
a few weeks, Mr. White stopped returning our calls and did not answer his
phone.  We had found the work Mr. White
had already performed very satisfactory, therefore at this time (mid-October)
thinking that he was intimidated by the larger plumbing job, we offered him the
opportunity to paint all the window frames instead of the more demanding job
with the French drain.  We indicated that
upon completion of the painting job, we would consider his obligation to us at
an end.  Mr. White accepted this offer,
made several promises to come to our home, but neither showed up to perform the
painting job nor called.  Our calls to
him went unanswered and we heard nothing further from Mr. White.
On
14 November 2013, a call was made to Mr. White requesting that he return
$2000.00 to us to cover the money we had advanced to him for the work, in order
to hire another contractor to perform the undone work.  In the call, it was stated that we would
allow five working days for him to return the money.  A letter was also sent to his home address
above, stating that unless the advanced money was returned in five business
days, we would take our complaint to the Better Business Bureau and the
Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office of Consumer Protection.  It was also stated that we would pursue - if
necessary - all options to recover this money.
We have heard nothing
from Mr. White to date.