HOSEA RICHARDS EXCAVATING COMPANY

Description of Work: josea richards did no work for me. I called him for excavation of approx 220 feet of sewer line. initially he said he could come out and estimate. it took about a month for him to come out to the place. he gave me a verbal estimate of between 10k and 16k. i could never get him to come back out. ultimately i abandoned the project. this was at a time when all contractors were much in demand.

Description of Work: Mr. Richard had done several jobs for us before, but we had always requested written estimates. We were pleased with his work. After the last job he did for us, we told him that the next spring we would like some dirt moved around the barn and he promised to let us know when he could do it. I called him in the spring and he said he was real busy, but had 1 day he could spare, to move the dirt. I asked him what he would charge us for that and he said $1,500. I told him that was fine and that I had put aside that amount for him to do the job. He came out and after the first day still had not finished the job. My husband called from out of town wondering how the project went and when I told him Mr. Richard still had his equipment here, he got very worried and said for me to talk to him, as we could not afford him working more days here as he originally quoted. He kept moving more and more dirt, even though I reminded him that we had a easement going through our property for the landowners behind us. I also told him I worried about the extra cost. He said not to worry. After 3 days he left and said he'd be back to finish, but never did. We received a bill for $7,000.00. We were in shock. I called him and he said that there was more dirt to move than he thought when he started and not to worry about the extra money, we could make payments. A few days later another bill came demanding the full amount. I tried calling him and even went to his house, to no avail. I sent him a check for $2,500 along with a detailed letter reminding him of his verbal agreement with us. Another bill and letter came, demanding the full amount or he would take us to court. We had to take out a home equity loan in order to pay him the full amount.