I was refered to Rick Brown by a friend of mine who didn't know him personally, but from a business relationship he had used him 6-8 times and never had an issue.
I am a single Mom of 2 small children purchasing my first home since my divorce and was very excited. I had him come by to give me an estimate and he quoted me $3000 to install a hardwood floor, get 6 new screens which needed to be replaced, replace a storm door, a prehung door in the basement and a basement door, tile a foyer area and then we got into discussing a small renovation for my bathroom in which he quoted me another $3000 so the total job came to $6000.
I gave him $1000 cash for the first part of the job for materials which is normal, then he asked for another $1000 for additional material which I gave him. He put the floor down and was about 90% finished with it and began fixing the screens. Instead of purchasing new screens, he used a spool of mesh and just changed out the screen portion using my old beaten up frames. I questioned him and he said he had a tool to fix that. Then he began to renovate the bathroom, tearing out an old shower and built a wall where he was to place a new shower unit or tub. He tried to upsell me on building me a custom bathroom with glass doors, etc I advised him I was on a strick budget and needed to stick to the $3000 estimate. He then asked if I had another $1000 for materials. When I questioned him about all of the little jobs he started an that it would be best to complete one thing at a time, he stated he just wanted to start the bathroom because that was most involved. So again, I have him another $1000 cash.
When I had friends come over while he was working to view his work, I was advised by my friends husbands that he was ripping me off. So I began to question little things that he was doing and why hasn't the storm door and screens been completed, that he now had half of the work paid for and nothing was completed.
He then told me that after leaving my house one day after working on it, a truck dropped a chunk of metal out on to the road and his rear tire caught it and he txt me a picture of the tire, of course I felt bad, but then he told me he had to use some of the money I gave him for the materials to fix his truck. He purchased 4 brandnew, had new shocks and brakes put on his truck. After I've had enough, I asked him what he did with the money that I gave him to purchase the materials, I also asked him to provide me with all of the receipts for what he has purchased, he couldn't supply me with one receipt. He had installed a door in the basement, when I asked him why this wasn't a prehung door like we discussed, he took the door out and never put another one in.
He claims he was tapped out and couldn't shell out money for my materials though he spent the money that I gave him on his truck and whatever else, his vacation that he took. He asked for more money. I was in a time crunch to get this bathroom done so I can close on my house and get it appraised so I now paid im a total of $5500 in cash and advised him he will not be getting the remainder until the final nail is nailed in. He never showed up to finish the work and ignored my txt messages and calls, when I told him I was going to take legal action, he then txt me that he was in the hospital until 4am and then then next day cursing at me not to threaten him. I stated I paid you in good faith $5500 to come and get this work done and you had more than enough time to complete it. He hung up on me and then he called back and started another argument that he wasn't coming back to finish the work.
Rick Brown is a liar, a theif, and he rips people off of their hard earned money. He hit on me left and right, sending me inappropriate txt messages, sexually harassed me, I found him to be very offensive. He smokes and threw all of is butts all over my yard.
I have every txt message he has ever sent and I plan on taking legal action. The work he completed was probably $2500 worth.