Chi from Edmonton

I hired Anthony of Generation Contracting Inc. because he was the mid-priced quote of the three quotes I had received. Also he had mutual friends. In summer of 2014, we paid him a deposit of $11,000. He started working on the garage pad at the end of August 2014. He said he had some financial problems because his partner had screwed him over and moved back to Ontario. He asked for most of the remaining balance as he would be working on the garage pad and driveway pad was to follow. So we paid him $12,000 with a holdback of $500, until the job was completed. He worked some days, but nothing consistent. He had a bunch of excuses. In October 2014, Anthony asks if he could start a job for a friend to pour a pad. We were not planning to build garage package until 2015 so I agreed, as long as he could still complete our concrete by spring of 2015. Anthony said he could do it, and as soon as this job was done, he would be working on our job. He did started working on the garage pad and even poured it, during the snow days. He said he couldn't do the rest of the concrete because the ground was hard and would need a "proctor" exam. I started to get worried, and asked for the proctor exam results on many occasions -- constantly following up. He was good to come up with excuses. I told him I wanted my money back. He said that the concrete had been paid for and he would see about getting it back from Edmonton Transit Mix (ETM). I said fine. Make sure you get it done by summer of 2015. He said for sure he would. We would be ETM's first pour in May 2015. I went on vacation. Came back in April of 2015. I called his cell phone. It was disconnected! I then facebooked messaged him. He called me back. I was relieved. He said he had to disconnect his old number because of a crazy ex-girlfriend. I got his new cell number. He said we were still on for a May pour. He felt bad for taking so long, and said that he would put epoxy on top of the garage pad because it would look awesome, plus he could use the photos on his website. I think because the garage pad turned out poorly. It was not smooth. Unlevel. Plus we asked him to put curbs on three of the four garage pad edges.. the back curb was not completed and the framing was not square. We contacted each other, and finally scheduled a date to start, which was in end of May 2015. When he was supposed to start, he called me and said he was going to get a divorce so he had to deal with that. I felt bad for him so I gave him some time to deal with that. In June 2015, he said he was good to start on driveway pad. Finally! I was working out of town so I was texted him on progress, and I was expecting the work to be done by the time I got back in a week. I come back to the driveway pad dug out and two huge mounds of dirt and gravel in my backyard. Now, I cold not get a hold of him. His facebook account was deleted. He was not answering text messages, phone calls, or emails. I was angry! I called mutual friends and subcontractors to get a hold of him. I even visited his apartment. A couple of times his truck was parked out on the street, but he would not answer his door. Even his buzzer was disconnected, but furniture and his dog was inside. I received a text after a few weeks saying he was going through tough times.. he was going to lose his truck and apartment in the divorce. I said for him to meet up so we could come to a resolution. He agreed. We met up. He felt bad. It seemed sincere. He said he would pay back the money by either borrowing it. He was not able to borrow it so he has agreed to pay back in regular scheduled payments. He had agreed to pay an amount every two weeks. He had only made two payments. One was a partial payment. He said he had his truck repossessed by the bank, and he had to borrow money from his employer to pay for a replacement vehicle. Therefore he could not make another payment until December 2015. He would be getting a Christmas bonus so he could make up for the missed payments. When I followed up in December, to ensure he was making a payment, he said no because he was laid off, but was applying for jobs. In January 2016, he emailed me to notify me that he got a job and would start paying us back, when he started getting pay cheques. He gave me a date so I followed up with him via email. He said that both Money Mart and The Cash Store have been taking money out of the accounts he had been depositing his pay cheques into. He was not aware of this so he said he would open a new bank account for depositing future pay cheques so he can pay us back. He needed a "few" days. I followed up via email after several days. Now he is not returning emails, text messages, and phone calls.