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Jason Timmerman A/K/A "Fetch" or "JET Construction" Fraud, Misrepresentation, Ripoff Stamford, Connecticut
We lost a lot of our net worth in the 2008 economy crash, so we had to sell our home in a more expensive part of Connecticut and move to an older home in Shelton. An old in-law apartment that had been part of the Shelton home had to be repurposed into office space for my small business. Jason Timmerman, who operates under the name of JET Construction, offered his services. He had done some work at the Stamford house that was necessary in order to sell it. He had done excellent work on a tight deadline and we were very happy with him.
He also wanted to do the work on the Shelton house. He said it was a win-win because he needed to expand his capabilities, so in exchange for a photo portfolio of his work that he could use to attract more business, he would give us a terrific rate and allow it to be paid in pieces on a weekly basis as the work progressed instead of having to pay big chunks. He also needed more tools than he had, so part of the deal was that I would purchase the tools, and after the office reconstruction (which I would pay for) he would do additional work on the main part of the house to pay off the tools. All of this was a real financial stretch during a difficult time, but we couldn't afford the traditional way of going about this, and he convinced us this would work for everyone.
The work ended up being very significant because the underlying construction was so poor. Eventually Jason decided it had to be stripped out to the studs and joists and completely redone (I believed him, but in retrospect I have no idea if he was right).
We started to run into certain kinds of performance problems early on. It started with slovenliness, with cigarette butts being left all over the place even though we asked that they be disposed of properly and food containers being dropped on the property, nails and screws being left in the driveway and that sort of thing. Then it was tools being left around so he had difficulty finding them when he needed them. With lots of dialog going on about what needed to improve, his performance grew steadily worse. His appearances became more and more erratic; he wouldn't just be late, he'd be FOUR HOURS late, routinely, after making arrangements with us so we'd be there to let him in, then be left standing around waiting for him.
He also brought some REALLY questionable people in to work as subcontractors. One fellow named Carl was brought in to do the plumbing work. One night in the middle of the project Carl went out and got drunk, stole a car, and got into a hit and run injury accident on a major highway. Turns out Carl is a "recovering" heroin addict who still had an active problem going on. Just who I wanted in my house. Another guy named Kevin got info a physical fight with Jason over an operating table saw on the property, then after that was broken up, he managed to fire a nailgun nail into one of the heating pipes. Exit Kevin. More delays. I kept cursing the fact that I didn't have the cash to do this the right way, because now I was in REALLY deep.
The completion date for the project became a moving target. Since I needed to be able to bring clients into the office, I was very limited in how much of my business I could operate (and I needed to attract a new client base because I had relocated, so this was slowing down my ability to prospect for new work). It became a vicious circle in which Jason slowed my business down to the point where I couldn't make enough money to replace him but we could trickle along and I could keep praying that he would put on a burst of speed and finish the darned thing.
Finally when I realized I had paid Jason and his subs more money than it would have cost to do the whole project the "right" way, AND that it had taken months longer than it should have, I sat down with him and asked for a commitment to a completion date. He gave a date a few months out and confidently told me that if it wasn't done by then, he would not charge for any work after that date.
You know the rest. The date came and went, his visits became more and more infrequent (always with a "dog ate my homework" excuse), a promise to be there the next day or the day after which would be broken as well, all in an endless cycle.
Jason lives with his mother. A long talk with her and with other people who know him reveal that this is Jason's life. He did this with classes in school, he did this with every job he ever had, and now at about 30 years old (as of 2011) he does this with customers. He'll start a project, reach the point of true commitment (like when all the walls have been torn out of a building) and then abandon it and start something else in another place, with another employer or client, and repeat the cycle.
I'm coming up on two years into a project that should MAYBE have taken three months. Jason has done no work in the last month and a half, though he has promised every few days to be there in the next few. The room is together enough that I can do SOME work, but it's nothing like what it needs to be. And the rest of the house, which was supposed to be done in exchange for all the tools I bought, is a disaster. As for the tools, he was so careless with them that they are unsaleable, so that's a loss as well.
Meanwhile I hear he has recently started other projects with other people I know. I warned them about my experience, but Jason is very charming and engaging. He convinced these other people that my expectations were unreasonable and that I was impossible to work with, and that his departure was my fault. In one case he managed to get several thousand dollars out of one of these folks for re-siding a house, then once he had the money he stopped working except to show up every week or so for an hour or two and take a halfhearted poke at the job. That person called me to express his embarrassment at not having taken my warning more seriously. And he's a smart guy who can usually spot a problem in advance.
Jason will pretend to have a home improvement license (required in the State of Connecticut). He doesn't. JET Construction is a real company based in Stamford, Connecticut, but it's not his nor has he ever worked there (JET just happen to be Jason's initials, so he uses their name without their knowledge or permission). He does a lot of business via his Facebook page, but he carefully removes all negative or critical posts from clients so a prospect won't see them. For example, a post to his page that says "You've promised to be here for the past 3 days and keep no-showing - what's going on?" will be removed as soon as he sees it. He does not return phone calls though he will occasionally answer the phone when it rings. Text messages are returned occasionally, usually with an empty promise to show up in another day or two.
Of course it doesn't start this way. In the very beginning he's all over your project and you won't be able to imagine that the ball of fire whizzing around sizing everything up and making plans will turn into what I've described. Believe me it will. I've been there.
Recently Jason confessed to me that he is a "recovering" cocaine addict who has fallen off the wagon. That, of course, explains his behavior completely. So before you engage Jason for a project or hire him as an employee, know who you're dealing with. He is intelligent, well-spoken, and when he makes an effort to clean up he can appear quite professional. And when he does work, the work product is good. He WILL fool you. He can charm the plating off a chrome bumper. He WILL make you believe that the story you're reading here is just a story from an unreasonable customer. But his personal issues, his additions (to both cocaine and alcohol) and his near-compulsive need run away from projects make him someone to avoid at all costs. Don't make the same mistake I did.
4 Updates & Rebuttals
One Who Knows
Shelton,Connecticut,
USA
Your Story Parallels Mine Exactly
#5Author of original report
Tue, February 12, 2013
Yours is a near-duplicate of my story, including all the insulting hyperbole at the end. In my case once he decided to walk away with the job undone, * I * was suddenly the con artist. In the fantasy world Jason spun, I had engaged him for the project knowing the scope was greater than I told him (keep in mind I'm an electronics guy - I don't know a darned thing about home improvement and he looked the job over and determine the scope of work himself).
Beyond that I was unethical, my fiancee whom I live with was a liar and a cheat (and I believe insane, if I remember his rants correctly).
The bottom line is that once Jason turns on you, he will remanufacture everything that happened so it is either 100% your fault or some mix of yours and someone else's - but never his. From what I've heard from other victims, this is a completely repeatable pattern.
Please update this record once you've taken the matter to law enforcement. Hopefully you'll find an investigator who is willing to take this farther than just the most surface face value. In my case he told me that he had deliberately done some things to the house that didn't meet code and would be very expensive to fix, and that if I pursued him further he would tell the zoning people what they were. Since he is broke and judgment proof, the expense of fixing them would be mine and since there would be no way to recover the damages from him, I would be stuck.
I hope this dialogue saves some future potential victim some money. Too bad it's too late for us. By the way you got off easy. I think I'm about $35,000 in the hole compared to if I had engaged someone else to do the same job from the start.
Have You No Morals?
United States of Americare: the judgment-proof d****e
#5Consumer Comment
Tue, February 12, 2013
I don't believe I will have a positive outcome since he told me that he's broke and he will still finish the repairs if the car is unobstructed by snow. It was not snowing in August when he was hired for the job and I received a quote for $1722 for just labor - 18 hours to fix his "repairs" - and that quote is assuming that he just took apart things that he didn't have to and that there are no missing or broken parts from his negligent sloppy "work." The shop that currently has my car called today asking me to come in tomorrow telling me it was going to be more work than he thought and I need to come see it.
I want to bring him to small claims court but you can't get blood from a stone, he'd probably not show and I would receive my judgment; however it would probably be what they call "reasonable payment" which is $35 a week. I probably still wouldn't get that from him; just a headache from trying to prove that I have his correct address and that he is not active duty military.
Text messages are considered a written contract and I have plenty of those saying "I'll be there tomorrow to finish," so from a civil standpoint even if the disputed the suit, I have soooo many texts proving his breach of contract that would yield a ruling in my favor.
Since I last posted, I tried to contact Jason several times before proceeding with legal action and told him just that via texts that he just ignored. I caught him off guard by calling from a different phone and with a slight slur in his voice and the din of background bar noise he told me he was busy and couldn't talk but would call me back. How many times can I hear that line. He did inform me that he had just responded to my text claiming it wasn't impolite something of that nature.
It was, in fact, delusional claiming he would finish the job because he is broke and can not financially right his wrong. As if I would have him touch my car when his work put it in a state of near disrepair. He also said he never claimed to be a business and he took on the repair as a favor. I don't know who taught him that word, because favors are free. When you are paid it is a job and one that I'm told he had me overpay for.
I shot back a few snippy texts about why he can't be within 500 feet of my car after I paid for him to further break it. This is where it gets interesting. He claimed that I'm a drug addict and I was lucky he never said anything about pills he found in my car. Any pill I take is doctor prescribed that I dropped on the floor and couldn't find. For him to find a pill in my car, he would have had to dig in cracks and crevices searching it like a police officer, so what was he looking for in there when his job was clearly under the hood, not inside the car. And why wouldn't a normal human being say "hey I found these pills," and give them back. It could have been heart medication or some other necessity. It was something that he could abuse and I called him out.
Jason proceeded to tell me I was definitely an addict and making up stories and said something only a true scumbag could. I've been unemployed for a while since nobody gives a crap about my associates degree in liberal arts I've told him that I absolutely need the money to fix the car since I receive a pittance of unemployment and it's awful to take public transportation with a 10 year old who got permission to stay at her out of district school when we moved, so there isn't even a school bus. He's known all of this.
His last communication was to stop living off of the government and my family (not a single family member helps me financially by the way) and I am most definitely and addict. I need to sending jiberish and send texts that are facts. So now I'm and addict, liar, suck off of the government, and essentially that I could pay for my repairs instead of suing him if I had a job. As if I'm not trying and just choose to be incredibly poor when all the while I feel like I have very little purpose if I'm not working 50 hr/wk. I told him explicitly that I want no further contact from him at all and I will call the police for harassment if he tries.
I found a statute under which I can have this handled criminally. The only caveat is that I need to prove that he never intended to finish the job at all. ummmm.....huh? Anyway super long response. Just thought everything he said was super bizarre. Sorry about the power vent session. I am going to go to the police and see if they will arrest him for grifting me. I'll let you know what the outcome of that is in a more condensed version.
One Who Knows
Shelton,Connecticut,
USA
Jason is judgment-proof
#5Author of original report
Sat, February 09, 2013
To "Have You No Morals?" -
I'm sorry to hear you've been stung as well. Actually, Jason was into auto mechanics before he was into home improvement. He just couldn't stay employed. Hmmmm. Wonder why..? It's amazing what you discover in hindsight. So I guess he has returned to being a mechanic.
From what I've now learned between speaking with Jason himself and people he knows: his father died of cancer while Jason was a young teenager. He suffered for a long time before he died - quite a few years, from what I understand, so Jason pretty much grew up with his father dying. Jason says he first got into drugs by stealing his dying father's medications. He blames his personality on his father's illness and untimely death. (Yes, I think that's stooping pretty low).
Jason's mother seems like a very nice lady but the strain of losing her husband and all the trouble she has been through with her son has left her very confused. When one speaks with her she will vent about all of Jason's behavioral issues, but when push comes to shove she will defend him to the end. She either worked or works as a paralegal and has gotten him free legal help when he has needed it. I feel terrible for her: she lost her husband whom she clearly loved and all she has left is Jason. If she loses him too either through his dying of an overdose or going to prison or disowning her because she didn't protect him from the consequences of his own behavior, she has nothing left.
To answer your question: no, there has been no restitution. Jason is, as I said, judgment proof. Could I have gone after him criminally? Maybe, maybe not - it all comes down to what could be proven and it's one word against another. After I posted the original story on this incident I learned that Jason had stolen a number of power tools that were used on this job - tools that I had bought and that were mine, not his. But the records don't show serial numbers, so again it's one person's word against another.
What it comes down to is that Jason will rob you blind if given the chance, and he's such a charmer up front that he'll do it while he's smiling at you and you'll never know what hit you.
I hope that between my posting and yours we'll save some other individual, or some employer, the experience we've had.
And if YOU have a better outcome than I did - by all means post here and let us know!
One other thought: Jason runs with a rough crowd - including at least one individual named Andre who is believed to have committed murder. It's always possible that he'll do this kind of thing to the wrong person. Then it will be retribution instead of restitution, which is all I think Jason actually understands. If he does this to some of the people he knows he will be lucky to only have his legs broken; if he does it to others he may not survive the experience. That isn't how I do things so I prefer to watch and wait. Karma can be a wonderful thing sometimes.
"Jason's Victim"
Have You No Morals?
United States of AmericaHelp? Totally empathetic/need to know the outcome
#5Consumer Comment
Fri, February 08, 2013
Jason has now moved on to auto mechanics, and my story is so incredibly similar to yours that we could easily meld them together as one. I feel for you, and my plan is to take legal action. Just wondering if you might update me with the outcome of your situation. My mother moved to shelton a bit before the crash, and my daughter and I followed. We were probably neighbors.
I live in Norwalk now and Jason came up from Stamford as a "gift" from my aunt so that I wouldn't pay what we call "hood mechanics" who hustle outside the auto parts stores for a cheap labor rate since they are clearly not licensed. Guess what... none of them have ever... well, I'll save it for my post.
Many contractors are a little rough around the edges (my little sister's father being one), but they've usually been working with their dad on the job since they were allowed to hold a hammer and know the trade from every angle blindfolded. We missed the signals, but hopefully have each learned a life-long lesson to take to the grave. I just wanted to let you know that you've not alone, and I was, of course, also wondering if you ever received restitution or he retribution. Thanks