He Tracked Down the Contractor Who Ruined His Remodel—Only to Discover the Man Didn’t Even Have a Business License
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I could rant about contractors who don’t do a very good job all day, and the person who wrote this story probably could too.
He tells us about one particular contractor who does pretty shoddy work. That’s what put him on his radar and set him on a mission to contact the guy.
What he ended up discovering got the contractor in even more trouble.
If you learn anything from this story, let it be not to lie and to do your job well. Otherwise, expect consequences.
Let’s read all about it.
Unlicensed contractor pays the price.
Some years ago when I was a maintenance technician, we had a local contractor win the contract for a major project.
Flash forward to project completion and final inspection, and I don’t know what our inspector was smoking that day or if there was some shady dealings, but he signed off final acceptance on SERIOUSLY shoddy work.
As the maintenance tech, I inherited a complete mess that took months of work and thousands of dollars to remediate.
Let’s just say I had a grudge against the contractor.
Later on, he had to investigate a contractor.
A couple of years later, I got involved with our professional association that administers professional certifications, education, public affairs, etc.
I worked my way up to VP of the board.
Our president asked me to investigate a contractor who was claiming to be certified and a member in good standing with our association, neither of which was true.
Our calls were going unanswered, so we needed a business address so that we could send a cease and desist letter from our lawyer.
Life has a way of coming full circle.
Guess who the contractor was!
I figured that the easiest way to get the business address would be to check with city hall to get the address that his business license was registered under.
Well, it turns out that he didn’t have a business license either.
The lady who does the business licenses at city hall was pretty ticked off that someone would dare do business without a license, and gave me her card to call her personally when I found out where this guy was operating from. She was going to throw the book at him. She did not strike me as a person you want to cross.
Time for payback.
Not three days later, I’m driving down the road and see the contractor’s truck and trailer parked at a job site, and him out front working away.
I called the lady at city hall, and she was like “Gotcha sucka!”
I drove by again about an hour later; bylaw officers are there and the guy’s truck and trailer are being impounded! Great Success!
The lady at city hall later provided us with his address, and we sent the cease and desist letter.
Lying doesn’t pay off.
A few weeks later we check the contractor’s website, and in place of where he claimed to be certified, he had a link to a half coherent rant about our professional association and how they go on vindictive witch hunts against companies that aren’t members.
In reality, if he’d just done good work on the project we hired him for he never would have been on my radar.
I learned a few years later from friends in the industry that his business had folded and they had hired him briefly, but the quality of his work hadn’t improved and he was let go.
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Moral or the story: do quality work, don’t lie about your credentials, and make sure your paperwork is in order!
Yikes! I hope the contractor can find a job in another career field. He definitely doesn’t sound like he’s good at working in construction.
Let’s see how Reddit responded.
This person knows OP did the right thing.
I completely agree with this comment.
One person has a question.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a deli counter employee who tells a customer they’ve gone too far when they want them to do their shopping.
Everyone thinks he did the right thing.
It’s so annoying to hire someone to do a job, and then they don’t do a very good job. It’s so frustrating! I’m glad OP did some digging on this guy and reported him. He shouldn’t even be allowed to work if he’s not licensed and doesn’t do a good job. I feel bad for all of his clients.
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