There are certain home repairs that require hiring a contractor, but it’s not always easy to find an honest and reliable contractor.

In today’s story, the contractor one person hires is unable to fix the fireplace that needs to be fixed, and the contractor also refuses to provide the customer with a refund.

The customer is not about to let the contractor get away with this scam, so he posts multiple negative reviews online.

That’s far from the end of the story.

Let’s see how the story plays out…

Should have just given me my refund

I’ll try to keep this short.

I hired a contractor to come and look at my gas fireplace insert that shuts off on it’s own after about an hour.

They did 4 visits all together, charged me about $700 for parts and labor, were late for every appointment and was a no show-no call for one also.

After the 4th visit and things still not working, they actually broke it worse for a bit, I asked for a refund.

I was told the owner would call me on Monday, this was Saturday, to make things right.

The owner wasn’t helpful.

The owner in fact did not even try to make things right.

He started telling me personal stories about his times with contractors going bad but things always worked in the end so he just dealt with it and paid.

I’m like, it’s been 3 months, it’s not working and I’ve paid, I’d like a refund for the parts that didn’t fix anything and the labor to put in those parts.

I was fine still paying for the initial service of them coming to clean it out, even though it didn’t fix the issue, just trying to be nice.

He said no.

The owner hung up.

I started to get a little cranky at this point asking why I’m paying for parts that didn’t fix the issue.

He then said he didn’t like my attitude and hung up.

I called the next day to try again.

When I said I shouldn’t have to be going through this to get a refund for a service he couldn’t provide, he hung up on again.

I called and left a VM saying that I’d like to speak to someone else if possible, and I’ll be leaving them a lovely review on any site I can find them on as well as the BBB and anyone else who will listen.

Still no call back.

The company finally calls back.

The following day after leaving a handful of reviews I also emailed the local news who has people that will go after contractors that screw people over.

I get a call from them, tell them my story and they’re very interested.

He tells me he’ll call them and call me back.

About an hour later I get a call saying they’ll give me a refund, but I need to remove all reviews I left for the company.

I’m to write them a letter stating they’ve been removed and I will not repost them after getting my check.

Reluctantly I agree, I need to get the fireplace fixed.

The contractor will give him a refund with a few conditions.

I asked the news guy how I’m supposed to get them the letter, by email, text, snail mail and he said he’s ask and get back to me.

After a few hours and not hearing anything, I send the contractor a text saying I’m agreeing to their blackmail, but would like to iron out the details.

I get a text back saying that once I remove all social media reviews and email them a letter saying I did so and will not repost them, they’ll mail my refund.

The contractor got ready to send a refund check.

The following day I get a call from the owner to verify my address, even though they’ve been here 4 times, and to verify the amount of the refund.

I wasn’t at my desk so I said I’d have to check, and he said he found my paperwork and he’ll write the check for $671.10.

Ok, I only asked for about $500.

I then decided to tell them if they want to try to be the bully bad guy, do it right.

He is putting some reviews back up.

I originally agreed to take down all the reviews, but your texted demanded I only take them down from social media sites.

So the review on Google, Angi’s list, and any other site that isn’t a “social media” site will be going back up.

As well as for trying to make me take them down, I’ll be posting it on more sites than I did before.

I also let him know I initially only asked for a portion of the refund, but I’m happy to take the whole thing now that he agreed to send it to me.

Check should be arriving in mail today.

If I were him, I wouldn’t have threatened to repost any reviews until getting the refund check and depositing it.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted…

He should call the police.

The reviews need to mention the blackmail.

The local news might like this story.

Friends and family could post reviews on social media.

Really, he could post on social media too.

Here’s advice before hiring a contractor…

Contractors like this give contractors in general a bad rap.

And there are way too many of them out there.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.