Complaint Review: Total Home Services Inc. - Addison Texas

 I am a senior widow who recently bought a smaller home, which needed a lot of work that I wanted done before I need to move in.  I wanted to fill in the pool and replace the fence and the retaining wall immediately.  The contractor I wanted to use was not available immediately so I was going to check with Angie’s List but saw an outfit called Home Advisor.com that said it was free.  I put in that I wanted foundation work done as well as the pool.  One of the responders was a man named Russell Lynn Jones whose company was Total Home Services, Inc. and was supposedly located in Addison.  He has a web site.  He provided good references and said he could get to work immediately, as soon as he got a permit.  The contract stated he would be finished by August 9^th.  I contracted to give him the pool, fence and retaining wall work to start with and paid him about $10,288.  I am accustomed to paying for materials in advance.  The other amount was half the labor.  His price was good.  He couldn’t get a permit for a week.  Okay, I can understand that.  Then, his people kept working for a couple of hours and leaving because of a few rain drops or they were too hot or something.  Russell was never responding to my calls.  When he did respond, it was a “dog ate my homework” kind of excuse.  Recently, he told me that they had had an inspection on the 20^th and that  he needed to add more holes in the bottom of the pool and the hot tub.   He kept saying that the inspector couldn’t come until the next day etc.  Meanwhile, no more work was done obstensibly because the inspector had told him not to do anything else until he passed the inspection.   I called the city about the inspection and found out that Mr. Jones had not called for a rough inspeition since the 20^th, when he failed the first inspection.  I left a message about that.  He did not respond.

Yesterday, his “helper” called and said he was at the house with a foundation man from Houston and he couldn’t get in the house.  I told him that I had already hired a foundation man and to tell the man from Houston that I didn’t need him.  He said that Russell was coming over. I told him that I did not need his foundation man and to have him leave.  I have not been back in the house since they were there.  I’m afraid to look.   I know they have been taking things since the previous owner left a lot of stuff in the house and the garage.  I had already been there several times yesterday and did not feel like driving back to meet this man.  He has not responded to calls from me, my daughter, my son or my attorney.  I guess I can kiss the money goodbye.  Meanwhile, Russell not only has my money, he also has a garage door opener and a key.  He is not responding and his people are not working.  These are older men, by the way, who should not be working out in the heat.  They have accomplished little.

I don't know why he would call in a foundation man from Houston since they are plentiful in the DFW area,unless they were going to scam me in some way.  I don't know why he would respond to my reporting that he had been lying by trying to get more work.  The first job was not finished.  I am out the money but am grateful that it was not more.

This is a lesson not to take references literally.  I didn't know about this site and the BBB had nothing on his company name.  It had plenty on his own name, which I found out later.  I will be reporting this to the BBB and to Angie's List.  I wouldn't use the Home Advisor Site either since I have had some strange people respond.  There were some perfectly nice and perfectly legitimate people respond but I wouldn't trust any site that refers people who pay for the referral.