Complaint Review: Lewis & Wilson Construction

The Worst Experience EVER with a Contractor

I needed to have my mobile home remodeled inside and looked up contractors in the phone book. I had looked up each one on the BBB website to see what their ratings were and if there had been any complaints etc. The ones that were clean I started calling. The first one I contracted went to voicemail so I called the second one which was Lewis & Wilson Construction in Monroe and he answered. He went on and on about how he had worked on “hundreds” of mobile homes. I explained I was on a limited budget and what needed to be done. I asked him to come and give me an estimate and he assured me he would be able to do what needed to be done and come in at a cost I could afford.

On May 8^th, he came and I showed him all that would need to be done, basically a complete remodel.......carpeting floors, painting all walls and doors, replacing cabinet doors, sinks, skirting and some plumbing and electrical work. He kept saying I can do it all. He quoted me $6500 for labor and a figure for parts and supplies based on what he would spend with receipts used to decide on what I would pay for and what he would absorb himself. I told him he could not spend huge amounts on supplies thinking I would pay him something like $6000 for supplies on top of the $6500 for labor. Tony (the Wilson in Lewis & Wilson Construction) told me all payments had to be made to him in cash only. ( I never would see a copy of the contract, never see one single receipt for parts or supplies and I knew something had to be up with a “legitimate” businessman taking thousands of dollars in cash only for a job.)

Luckily I had a receipt that I made him sign when I gave him cash and how much it was. The original total for the job including supplies was to be $8300.00 and I paid him that amount in cash between 5/9 and 5/16. He said he needed another $300.00 to finish and he signed my receipt on 5/20 saying payment in full was $8600.00. Once he received that much he did not return for 3 weeks (on 6/13) and demanded another $300. He had removed my bottom kitchen cabinet doors and he was going to have new ones made to replace those doors. I kept asking him about the doors and how much longer this remodel was going to take since he had originally promised to have the job completed by the end of May. What I came to realize was he was holding the doors “hostage” in order to keep bleeding me for more money. So after dragging through May and now into June, I was becoming frantic on when this project would be completed.

Once Tony had the majority of his money in those first couple of weeks, he had no more interest in finishing up the job. (In the meantime I am living in dust and dirt all over the trailer week after week and we are talking about a 14 X 64 trailer one of the smallest on the market.) I logged over 63 calls to him between 5/8 and 7/8. He would constantly whine and complain about how much gas it took to come to Simsboro to work on the job (although while the money was coming in he had no problem with the drive) how he had lost his shirt on this job; how much he had to pay his workers (even though that was suppose to have been figured in on the labor costs) and for the supplies. I told him whose fault was that? He knew there was a budgetary limit and he had agreed to the amount and he had signed off each time as payment in full. Every time I asked him for receipts to see how much he had spent he always forgot them at home.

As for his crew Tony warned me a few days into the job that “he would never steal from me but he could not guarantee the same from his men.” Guess what happened? Several tools from my tool kit disappeared along with two large plastic mouse bait traps underneath the trailer which were owned by Terminix. No one other than Tony and at least two of his men were underneath the trailer to do plumbing replacement and to have the skirting around the trailer replaced. Since no one ever comes to my place they were the only ones who had access to the tools and the traps. But the biggest problem I had was the constant lies he told me. When I would call his phone he would say whatever he thought would appease me like “I have everything I need to finish so I will come tomorrow or two days from now or on the weekend and he would never show up. I would call his number over and over and over and he would lie and lie and lie to me. He knew almost nothing about remodeling a mobile home.

There are only certain places you could get parts and then he would whine and complain that he didn't have enough money to purchase these supplies (the same supplies or parts he told me he had already purchased and if he had worked on “hundreds” of mobile homes shouldn't he have already known where you had to purchase parts and supplies for them?) In order to come back in June he wanted another $450.00 and I told him the most I could give him was $300.00 and he reacted like a giddy schoolgirl. When he finally returned on 6/13 and got his $300.00 they only worked a couple of hours. I am now in my 7^th week of living in filth and dirt waiting for this project to be finished. After dozens of phone calls he returned for the last time on 6/26 and got everything done except putting on the one cabinet door because he never bought the hinge for the door and the weather stripping for the front outside door. He told me he had a job in the next week right down the road from where I lived and he would come one day after he was done there and finish my job. Another set of lies. When he left on June 26^th (I had given him another $40.00 for supplies and gas) he never intended on returning to finish the job and after another 8 or 9 calls to him between 6/30 and 7/8 there was no question he would never return.

In the intervening weeks it has become apparent that the carpeting that was purchased and laid on May 16^th was so cheap (he claimed that he paid over $2000 for the carpet and labor and again no receipts to prove any of it but the carpet could not have been more than a couple of hundred dollars) I am having someone come in and fix up all the frayed places in this carpet. He will also finish up all of Tony's unfinished work. I did have another contractor who looked at his work and I told him that Tony said he had lost his shirt on my job. The contractor told me “no way did he spend $8940 on supplies and labor from what I'm seeing. I would guess he pocketed between $3500 and $4000. No contractor takes on a job and loses money. It just doesn't happen.”

One of the things Tony did to “make me feel at ease” was to talk about his Christian faith and values and how he was the most honest and upright person you would ever meet. The first time he says that to you, hang up the phone or get him out of your house. The only god he worships is MONEY! As long as the money is flowing in he'll do what needs to be done. Once the money tree dries up so will his visits and the quality of the work. Stay as far away from Tony Wilson of Lewis & Wilson Construction in Monroe as you can. If you use him you can't say you weren't warned. I only wish someone had gone on the BBB website and complained about him and his business practices. No one should ever have to go through what I went through and I definitely don't want anyone else to go through a similar nightmare. As far as I am concerned he is a con man and scam artist and no way can his tactics have been unique just to me. He preys on people who don't have someone in their life who knows what to ask and what to look out for. If there had been a man in the household I have no doubts none of what I went through with him would have happened. Live and learn. Just don't make the same mistake I did.