Complaint Review: A. GROSSO AND SON IMPROVEMENT - Bloomfield New Jersey

My experience with A. Grosso and Son Home Improvement was one of the worst I have ever had with any company in my 40 years of doing business. I hired this company to do a home improvement project, and was given a "contract" outlining all the work and pricing which was agreed to. Thinking I was dealing with a reputable company (mainly because they were LICENSED), I felt safe and thought my project was going to get done. Little did I understand then how these people operate, and that ultimately the contract I was given wouldn't be worth the paper it was written on.

The contract I was provided listed pricing which undercut all the other offers I had from other companies, so I thought i was getting a good deal. Mr. Grosso made it point of asking me what I was going to pay other people, so he could undercut their prices and take the work.  I thought this was a good thing initially, but now realize I made a horrible mistake in hind sight.

I should have realized something was very wrong right from the beginning, when Mr. Grosso senior kept pressuring me to make payments on the contract, even though the work specified had not been totally completed.

What started out as contracted work that was supposed to be paid upon completion of contract line item? Quickly changed to "I need a certain amount of money PER WEEK TOWARD THE CONTRACT PRICE to meet my 'payroll'or I'm walking off your job and breaching the contract...I dont care how much work is done each week"..So not having much of a choice since I had to have the work done, I agreed to keep making weekly installments..

Slowly but surely through this process, I began catching Mr. Grosso senior in multiple lies week after week, and his "words" stopped lining up with his actions. I came to the conclusion at the end, that Mr. Grosso Sr. is a complete pathological liar (in my opinion after dealing with him extensively) and one of the most dishonest con men I have ever dealt with...

Once all of my money on the contract was paid in FULL? Mr. Grosso totally changed his tune. His new story became: "Sorry, I 'underbid' the contract..I know you paid me already for all this work (which I havent completed) but there's no way I can keep working here to complete the "contract" you paid for already for FREE now. You'll have to start paying me on a weekly "labor rate" of $3000 a week, to complete the work you already paid me for..Sorry..I made a mistake"...

This statement was made to me at the very end of the job DIRECTLY AFTER I had paid him the last monies I owed him, on the assumption that upon payment?  He was going to finish the job and stay until he did.  To my understanding, that was what a CONTRACT meant.  You pay a company what you owe them, and they finish the work.  Apparently Mr. Grosso's intepretation of a "contract" is that he writes on a piece of paper whatever he has to (be they real prices or fictions theres no way he can feasibly deliver) to get you to hire him - he then sucks all the money he can out of you weekly; and when that money runs out and he's spent all of it? 

He then reverts to the "I can't complete the contract without more money, sorry" routine..This is CLASSIC bait and Switch fraud, but astoundingly according to Mr. Grosso and through the numerous conversations and agruments I've had with him?  He feels this is a perfectly acceptable way to conduct a licensed business.  It's incredible.  I've also now talked to MULTIPLE other consumers who he has done EXACTLY the same thing too, so this is nothing new and it's something he pulls on everyone apparently.

When I began protesting about the fact that I had already paid for the work?  Mr. Grosso would scream, yell and become obscene with me over the phone, and somehow seemed to in his mind blame "me" for this situation; As I should have "known" that he underbid the contract and that it wasnt realistic in the first place...And his contention was that I should be "grateful" that he even did the work he did, without walking off the job...This was easily the most insane conversation I have ever had with another human being.

Be advised that Mr. Grosso has no qualms with yelling at, screaming at, and cursing out his customers (as was done to me personally MULTIPLE times throughout the job) And mainly he does this when you as a customer protest to him changing the deal around midway, or after you've caught him in numerous lie(s), and of course once hes confronted and asked to make good on his word (which he may have given you the day before; but that now changed 5 minutes later the next day).

Mr. Grosso CANNOT stop lying (from my experience).  And it's absolutely crazy making trying to deal with a liar like this, because there is no "reality" with him except for the one he creates moment to moment in his own mind.  You can shake his hand and make an agreement one minute, and the next moment if you're agreement doesn't suit his purposes any longer?  Then according to him you never had that conversation, or he "remembers" it differently, or YOU are crazy. 

In my opinion Mr. Grosso is a pathological liar of the worst caliber, that is also verbally abusive, obscene and profane to the point of disbelief, and mentally ill on top of it all.  This is my honest assessment of the person who runs this company as a customer/victim of his, and this is only my opinion based on my experiences with him.

The story however for me got a lot sadder...As having no choice any longer and being in to deep with this guy and his "company", I paid them almost $14,000 MORE over our contractual obligation, week after week for about 4 weeks on his "labor rate", during which time almost nothing was getting done in the house any longer. I came to realize finally at the end of this;  after the last payment that I made, that this individual was scamming me further, and dragging out the work as long as he could in order to keep squeezing a weekly "salary" out of me..

Finally when I put my foot down, and told him that I was going to have to supervise him going forward and check to see what he was doing everyday, and only pay for the work that he completed everyday? He then became completely irate and insane, and refused to have any supervision, nor accountability of any kind..And I was basically told "I will do whatever i want work wise, at my own "pace" and I will expect you to pay me at the end of the week, no matter what has been completed..Or I'm walking off the job.." I wrote that in a nice fashion, but the actually statements were screamed, and cursed at me like a lunatic.

Finally I had had enough, as I was out thousands, and thousands of dollars, and only about 80% of my work was completed even though I had paid $14,000 OVER the contract price..And I told him I was no longer going to pay him any more money, and I wanted the work done in accordance with what I paid...

His words were basically: "Ok so you're "firing" me?"..This was now his excuse to leave the job 80% completed, after being being paid 150% of the contract price at LEAST, and leaving me to hire another contractor TO PAY TO FINISH HIS WORK, I ALREADY PAID HIM FOR + AN ADDITIONAL $14000!!!   

The final incredible act of this person and "company" if you want to call it that - Was when I told them and Mr. Grosso that I was planning on very rightfully suing him in court and contacting Consumer Affairs?  Mr. Grosso stated REPEATEDLY that if I did so?  He was going to FILE A FRAUDULENT mechanics lien on my home to create more problems for me.

Dealing with this person Mr. Grosso has been an absolute nightmare, and I felt I had to share this experience to protect any unwitting consumers who may be thinking of dealing with this company without all the facts of how they operate, and who you are dealing with.  Be warned that in the BEGINNING?  Mr. Grosso is a very smooth talker, and all he can talk about is how honest he is, and what a great guy he is, etc, and he's as nice as pie. 

But once he has you over a barrel?  And once he thinks it's safe to drop that act?  You WILL find out who you are really dealing with, and trust me from my experience if you get to that point with him? You're in VERY BIG TROUBLE financially and in every other way.

If you're going to hire these people?  Take my advice and retain a LAWYER at that same time you sign their "contracts", because you WILL need one.

DONT BE THE NEXT VICTIM OF THESE PEOPLE AND DONT MAKE THE MISTAKE I DID OF TRUSTING A. GROSSO AND SON!!  

Good luck to you all out there and be safe.