This review reflects the way that I was treated by Tomas of Pathway Stone Design Ltd.. He was recommended by a paving company that I had used for our driveway. Because of this recommendation, I chose Tomas over three other contractors.
On March 30, 2015, I signed a contract for an extension to our existing interlocked paver patio. It was a small job for $ 2542.50 and Tomas said that it was his second signing of the season. He told us that he would be starting work by the end of April or beginning of May.
As I didn't hear from him in April, I phoned on May 7th to schedule him on my calendar so that I could be home while he worked. I made several attempts to contact him through the first half of May and had to leave messages on his voice mail, but he didn't respond to any of them. Finally on May 19th, I left a message threatening to cancel. Within 10 minutes, he returned my call and told me that he knew that I'd been calling and that his phone had been broken. I didn't believe that a contractor would be without a phone for such a long period of time. He said that he'd start on Monday May 25th. He didn't show.
When I managed to speak to him on the phone, he gave me the excuse that it was raining where he was so he had sent his crew home. It was sunny where I live, but he didn't bother to phone me to inquire about our weather conditions nor to tell us that he wasn't coming. His actions of the past weeks set up a red flag in my mind.
He said that he'd come the next day, but because we didn't trust his word, both Tomas and my wife mutually agreed to cancel the contract. He promised to reimburse my downpayment of $292.00.
By August 21st, after many telephone and email requests and many verbal promises by Tomas to return the money, we still hadn't received it. He even ignored two requests by the recommending contractor. I had to assume that he had no intention of returning it. On the contract and on one of his websites that I found, only PO Box numbers were shown, so I couldn't go to an office to question him.
Unfortunately, I made the mistake of not having Tomas include a date for completing the work on the contract, therefore I can't successfully take him to Small Claims Court. I paid a penalty for trusting him.
My advice is (1) don't hire this company, (2) always have a date of completion shown on a contract and (3) think twice before dealing with a company that uses only a PO Box number instead of a street address.
