Complaint Review: Northern Lakes Building Services

We received a bright yellow flyer in our mail box (no postage, hand-dropped) with all kinds of glowing information with multiple services offered by "Lakes Residential Services", highlighting "Spring Special:  1/3 off".  We needed our deck power washed. We called and left a message, and were a little confused when the recorded voice announced the company as "Northern Lakes Building Services."  Anyway, a guy called back the next day, said he was nearby in Pequot and could come right over to give us an estimate for power washing our deck in the Nisswa / Lake Shore area.  He gave me an estimate of $275, and I told him a kid did it a couple of years ago for under $100, so he said he couldn't beat that price and lowered his to $225.

He seemed knowledgeable.  What put us over to deciding on using his services was that he said cedar was a soft wood, and he had a machine like a floor cleaner that used a circular brush and was gentle on the walking surfaces. So we went with him.  Amazingly, he was able to do the work the very next afternoon, July 12, 2012.

We arrived home just as two young men were finishing up and leaving.  We had stuck the check on the door and they had it. At first glance, it seemed like a decent job.  But then I started to sand and stain it, and found some boards that had been over-worked with the wand and were really reamed out. Our deck is only two years old, so I knew it was from this job. And they missed several spots, all the railing spindles, etc.  We figured oh, well, we just won't hire him again, but then Bill Temme called us up a few days later to ask how the guys did.

I explained the issues, and Bill said we should have called him because he likes satisfied customers, said he was coming by to look at it. And ALSO.... by the way, he said, he needed to come by because a crazy thing happened to that check --- on the way home, a notebook and the check flew off the truck and landed in the lake and sank completely.  So he needed another check.  Well, my mom wrote him another check for $225 and he walked around while we talked about the parts undone and the boards that had been ruined from over-power-washing.  He said he'd send them out again to do touch-ups, but argued with me about the overdone boards a bit. 

Finally, he said he'd replace those five five-foot boards and he drove off.  We called him three times over the next ten days to ask him to hurry up on those boards and to NOT do any touch-ups because I had completely finished sanding and staining. He promised he'd replace them two days ago, Thursday 7/26/2012. Well, I just called again, and his phone mailbox is full. I looked it up and it's a cell phone listed in Crosby, MN, southeast of Brainerd.  Then I looked up to try to find him on the internet and all I see are complaints from 2010 and 2011.  So I'm afraid we got scammed.  

We'll go to the bank on Monday, and at this point we're afraid we may find that he cashed BOTH checks for $225, receiving a total of $450.  If that is the case, we will pursue all avenues.  To be continued....