Hometown Handyman

Home Town Handyman I recently contacted Home Town Handyman to do a small job for me at my house. I am a senior citizen 73 years old with Arthritis and Diabetes and other elements that effect older citizens which kept me from doing the job myself. My hands just don’t work properly like they use to and it is hard for me to hold a hammer. Anyway, I found the Home Town Handyman advertisement in a local paper and call them. They sent out a man by the name of Mike. He was a very nice looking gentleman with an excellent presents and persona and I liked him very much. He really seemed very nice. He and I went over the job that I wanted done and he gave me a price of 1500.00 dollars that I thought was very reasonable. I told him I wanted him to do the job for me. He then said his company required half the price of the job up front. I was reluctant to write him a check for 750 dollars but I wanted the work done before winter set in. I told him that giving him that much money was against my better judgment but I wanted the job done and he seemed honest enough so I wrote the check and gave it to him. He and his office manager whom I had talked to earlier told me I could check with the Better Business Bureau and Angie’s list, that the company was in good standing with both. I took them at their word for this. After Mike left I got to thinking about what I had done. I had given Mike a check for 750 dollars and I did not know anything about him or his company. So I went to the BBB online services and did a search for Home Town Handyman of Knoxville Tn and there was no listing. I went to Angie’s list and could not check on them without sighing up for their services for which there was a fee. So I paid the fee and joined Angie’s list. I ran a search on Home Town Handyman and there was no listing for them. I thought immediately they had miss represented themselves and that I had probably lost my money. On the Monday morning after Mike had been here the previous Wednesday I called their phone to get the office manager to help me find their name on Angie’s list and the phone had been disconnected. I panicked and called my bank and explained what had happened and they got my money back from the Home Town Handyman’s bank account. I realized I had no way to get in touch with him to tell him that I had recovered my deposit and that I did not want him to do the job. Then on Wednesday after the above I called the number again and the office manager answered the phone. I told her I had called Monday and their phone was disconnected and she said that AT&T had disconnected them by mistake and they had the phone service back again. I told her the disconnection had caused me to withdraw my deposit from their account and she advised me the work order I had sighed was actually a contract that would hold up in court. I said well OK and hung up. The next day I noticed that Home Town Handyman had debited my account for 750.00 dollars with an affidavit. I called my bank and told them what had happened (I have online banking is how I knew the moment the funds were debited from my account.) and they retreated the money back to my account because it was an unauthorized withdrawal from my account. I told them I wanted to cancel the job but they were insisting on keeping my 750.00. This is where the issue stands now I don’t know what will happen next.