Creststone Landscaping & Construction

Mike came out on 3/12/2013 with his brother and immediately went to work. He worked h****** removing all the walls, cleaning up the yard, and getting the new walls built. We were pleased with the looks of the walls. When the walls were completed he had already gotten two of three installments paid to him from us. He came to our door and asked us for the third installment even though the work was not completed. He deducted $750ish from the final installment and said he would come back to finish the work when the weather got a bit nicer. He said he expected to be back in 10 days. He said we could pay him the now fourth installment when he came back. We had no reason to believe he was dishonest and we paid him the third installment. We discussed with him our plan to buy 35 bushes to place around the retaining wall he had built. He offered (we didn't ask) to put them in the ground for us after he had finished prepping the ground and soil around the wall. He said he would do this at no additional charge and just wanted a good review. He left our house 3/20/13 with his third installment. On April 2nd 2013 we had not heard from him and texted him to ask if it was okay to buy the plants yet. We didn't want to get them too soon. He said that would be fine and he would be back later in the week to finish the job. That was the last Mike ever contacted us. Despite many calls to the office, texts, and voicemail messages, he refused to talk to us. My husband was able to get ahold of his brother on April 15th, and his brother mentioned that they had had to go out of town due to something and they would finish the job that week. Nothing. We called the office a lot and the lady said they were really backed up and didn't know when they'd get to the job. We kept asking for Mike to call us, but there was never a call. Finally hired another contractor to finish the work, which was going to cost us more in the end. Called Mike's office on April 24th to tell the lady that we had hired someone else, and she didn't even apologize and just said she would tell Mike. We got the feeling it was not worth it for them to come back out and they were holding out hoping for us to find someone else. Mike, who in the beginning was helping us save money by "giving a good price" actually cost us more money in the end. He left us with grading, a mud pit for a backyard, planting of bushes (that are now dying because they were in the pots too long). He left us with topsoil, seeding, straw, and still drainage issues that he was supposed to fix. It was our fault for paying him too much too soon and not protecting ourselves. Be careful.