Complaint Review: Dollar Construction Company - Caddo Mills Texas

Maybe I had higher expectations? I've always felt that home improvement projects were an exciting time, and that a contractor would be there at each step, walking their customer through the process to feel that they've been taken care of. That wasn't my experience with Mr. Kelley. Granted, our project seemed small in comparison to some of the others that he said he was working on, but we don't feel that we should have gotten put on the back burner because it was a smaller project.

Mr. Kelley (first name is Christopher, but he told us he goes by Michael - first red flag) is very personable, and a very nice guy; but i felt that as soon as we signed the contract with our deposit, that he was in over his head. He sub-contracted ALL of the work, despite telling my wife and I before we signed on the dotted line that he would be there for every step of the process. His guys came, set up the concrete forms for our new stairs...and for a couple of weeks there they sat. Mr. Kelley never came to inspect the work, and when two weeks rolled by...SURPRISE! The concrete truck is on its way, and Mr. Kelley comes to look at the project, and the forms for the stairs are all done wrong. "Not to worry," Mr. Kelley says. "I have two of my best guys here, and we will get this ready before the concrete arrives, so it's going to be perfect." as he takes my two checks (more on that later) for payment.

I return home just as they finish up, and immediately something is wrong. The stairs are all crooked, different sizes, etc. Mr. Kelley is nowhere to be found. He left his workers to tear everything down, reset the forms, and do all the cement work. He was there only to pick up the money. Phone calls and pictures later, he's very apologetic. No, they were not supposed to look like that, I'm going to tear it all out and re-do it. But it's going to be a while, as he has other jobs already lined up and the rains that we've had in the Dallas area has put everything behind. I've already paid him in full, I should be the top of the list? No, not so much. 

We finally get a date set...then...day passes and nothing. Next day we get a text from his wife - turns out he's in jail. She is trying to get everything sorted out and will re-schedule. He's been out of jail for a few weeks and is now not returning phone calls or messages. 

I read that on his profile it mentions something about being financially stable? That was not the experience we had with him. Right away there were issues with payment (apparently banks don't like to CASH checks for more than $2500). Why does he need to CASH the checks and not deposit them like a normal business? Then, before the project was completed, he was giving us a story that he needed the rest of the $$ to FINISH our project. That doesn't sound 'financially stable' to us. So our financial experience with him came off rather shady.

Do not hire this guy. Google "Christopher Kelley contractor" and learn about his history. He's left many other customers after taking their money - just like he did with us.