PHILLIP PALMER

When he finally did start working a few days later, he arrived with a 1970s-era backhoe which turned out to be too small for the job. He would arrive late in the afternoon, if at all, and work for maybe 3 hours. We had agreed upon an end date, three weeks out. Every day that he was scheduled to come and work, we would have to call him to remind him to come - he rarely arrived before 1 in the afternoon. One weed before the cement contractor was scheduled to arrive the job was not yet complete (we were inordinately patient with him) we asked how he expected to complete the work by the scheduled end date. He remained vague, saying only, "I'll do my best." He was at least honest with the fact that he was doing our work between other jobs, but at the same time, he never showed up when agreed, and then always late. There was never a contract, just a signed receipt from us for the first half. After he didn't show up for a few more days, we called another excavator, who stood around shaking their heads and trying to hold back the expletives about the mess Phil had made. They said it was apparent he didn't know what he was doing, and pointed out that he'd blocked in his backhoe behind a pile of dirt. We called Phil to let him know that we would be hiring a different excavator (and yes, they cost more than Phil, but they actually got the job done). Phil's backhoe remained on our property in the meantime; apparently he didn't need it. We called Phil and suggested that he give us at least some of the money back, as he made more of a mess than a hole, and he seemed to see the logic in that (we were pretty nice about it). He had agreed to pick up the backhoe by Friday but never showed. On Saturday morning a policeman knocked on our door. He seemed to believe we were holding Phil's backhoe hostage for a refund. Phil and his wife and kids were waiting in the car. Apparently Phil had told the policeman that we had threatened to keep his backhoe until he returned some of the money we paid. That's not how it went; we had suggested he return some of the money, and he seemed to agree on the phone that this was fair. We never threatened to keep his backhoe, but suggested that he bring some of the money with him when he came to get the backhoe. Instead he brought a policeman! Turns out he couldn't remove his backhoe that moment because he had left one of the piles of excavated dirt in front of it, because he didn't know what he was doing; also because the new excavator's backhoe was in the way. So we had to arrange for the other excavator to remove his machine AND get the pile of dirt out of the way so Phil could get out, and we never received any refund, and we will likely take him to small-claims court over it.