Complaint Review: John F. Pastore - Newark California

To Whom it may concern:

This web page is devoted to those that have been victims in the last 20 years or more by the contractor and handyman John F. Pastore of the Fremont/Newark area. I have done considerable research and have also been a victim of John.

As with any prospective contractor that you might hire, be wary of giving any money up front to cover construction materials. In speaking to some of the others that John has done work with. He almost always does this. He asks money for tile or other product. He says that he has a guy that he works with and can get a good deal. He has taken money and never did work form many of his victims.

In some cases he takes money, then starts the job and seems to make some progress. Then after a week or so the job stalls. He asks for more money for this or that. Pretty soon he has lots of your hard earned money and he keeps stalling. You try to call him on his cell phone. He assures you that he will get right on it. He may come and work for a couple of hours and then he goes back to a no show for days again. This is particularly bad if he has your kitchen or bathroom torn up. He knows he has you then and tries to get more money from you. Please be aware!!!

John is really slick. He seems like a likeable fellow. You may have met him at the local hardware store or from a Church or a referral from a friend that goes to Church. His business card says that he has been in business for over 50 years.

To my knowledge as well as the State of California Contractor's licensing board he has never had a license. I know that there are some handy man contractor guys that don't have a license and do very good work. There are also some licensed Contractor's that I have hired and they do sloppy work. It's best to do your homework and check the person out before you hire. If the job estimate seems really reasonable that might be a red flag too.

For those that have had money collected by John and their work not done or never completed, John's way to not pay you back is to declare bankruptcy. He has done this many times and will most likely keep on doing it as long as the law allows him. I am not telling you to hire him. Just check out for yourself and make an honest decision about hiring him or anyone else for that matter.

Please refer to the links at the bottom of this post. They can give you more info on John and how to hire a Contractor.

One of John's main customers appear from my vantage point to be Christians or folks that have got his name from referrals at Christian Churches. His victims seem to be mainly Christians. Please be aware of that. He uses Christianity to his advantage. Please don't get burned. For those that have already got taken by John the only advise I can give is to forgive him. Let it go. It's only money. Don't be mad at God or other Christians. If John was really a born again Christian like he would have you believe, he would not be behaving in this manner.

Matthew 7:15-20 talks about knowing a Christian by the fruit that they bear.

I could tell you more but I will remain general in this web site. It is not my intent to get even or lash out at John. My true intent is to inform others and to have a way to connect with others that have gone thru a similar experience. For John to change something needs to happen in his heart that he has done wrong. Until then I believe that he will continue to steal from innocent hard working people.

Thanks for reading!

John

Newark, California
U.S.A.