Complaint Review: Niko Southard Niko Johnson - New Port Richey Florida

This guy that goes by the name of "Niko" will approach you and offer an estimate to fix your car if you have damage from an accident. He will say that he can do it for less than the deductible he is a smooth talker and does know what he is talking about which makes you want to trust him more. He will usually have his older daughter that is 9 with him in the car and sometimes the younger one as well as his wife or girlfriend.

He will say that he does this on the side for extra cash for his family and bills that are due that are about to be cut off because he didn't have the money to pay them. He will tell you that you don't have to pay him till the job is done and if you don't like the work you don't have to pay him, but then he changes the story and wants money for the body work and then says he will come back after he orders the paint to finish the job. He will even get your vin number and say that he needs that to order the correct color paint (again sounds legitimate) He does the work mobile so he will do it at your home or work and has a messy trunk full of his supplies.

He will mix what he calls bondo, but from what I have read from other complaints I'm not sure it's even bondo. He will sand it down and the car will look pretty good most of the time except for the paint. He never returns to paint it and doesn't return your calls then his number is disconnected and you are stuck with a car that is not finished and possibly not repaired properly. Some of the other complaints stated that he did paint the car but it was the wrong shade and some people  said he didn't smooth out the work and just covered with tape and said it had to stay that way for a day.

While he is working he has his daughter help him with his tools and cleaning up which is even worse! As a parent myself that angers me to no end! His daughter usually needs to go to the bathroom which isn't unusual for a kid, but it did make my sister and I wonder if he is sending her in to case the house. He "repaired" my car and was supposed to come back and paint it, went to my sisters the next day because he seemed like a guy just trying to make extra cash for his family and my sister let him work on her car and ger daughters car, so now we have three cars that were never finished.

Obviously we feel really stupid too for believing him and trying to help someone out. Then people wonder why no one will help them out these days, it's because of smooth talking con artists like him that ruin it for honest people. We asked for his ID but he of course said he didn't have it both days. I did take a picture of his tag if it is even his real tag. He was driving a black Kia but from other reports he was in a tan colored car. He was arested in Dec 2012 in New Port Richey for doing the same thing in that area as well as Hudson, Lutz and I think Land o Lakes.

I live in S. Tampa so he is obviously changing his location trying not to get caught. He told me that he did a job for a company he works for and had left over supplies and was just trying to make extra money. His real name is Nicholas Johnson but he may tell you his last name is Southard which is his wife or girlfriends last name. Her first name is Lauren. The detective that arrested him is looking for more people like us to come forward so please do if you were also scammed by him.