EUGENE REED

Eugene assured us on his initial walk thru that he was well qualified to install laminate flooring, paint the interior of the house, widen a doorway, build a ramp, install a toilet, and build a closet. We had a 9 day window between closing & moving in and wanted to know how much could be finished. He assured us that all but the closet could be done in 1 week or less, because he was having helpers. I thought this quite incredible, but he again assured me that they should be done by the end of the week. He gave us an estimate of 2300.00. We OK'd him to begin work bright & early on the 16th. I waited at the new house until he called late in the afternoon, wanting to know if we were going to have electric & water the next day. This should have been my first clue that he wasn't paying a bit of attention to what was needed. Long story short--Eugene was SO disorganized, that he was still finishing up 4/18/11--a whole month after he satrted. He was told repeatedly that the move was on 3/25, but still had the garage full of all his stuff when the movers arrived. I even spoke with him face to face the day before & early that morning. The quality of the work was mediocre. After he planed my front door to keep it from sticking, I had to call a locksmith, because the door would no longer latch & lock. After he installed a shower head, I had to call a plumber, because no water at all came out. My bedroom window will not close. None of these things were problems at closing. I had a thorough house inspection that took 3 hours & all of the above were functional. Someone poured paint down the garbage disposal & stained the kitchen sink. Black thresholds were placed on oak laminate(glue was all over the place) To top it all off, I have had 2 of the workmen contact me because Eugene has not paid them for their work, despite his promises. One of them even advanced him start up cash & bought additional materials later. I not only paid Eugene, I bought all of the paint before the job began. I got the same song & dance from Eugene about making checks out to someone else due to legal issues. Last night, one of the workers came to my house & threatened me with a mechanic's lien, because Eugene hadn't paid him & told him that he hadn't been paid yet. If you want the job done right the first time, on time, all someone else.

He wanted paid half up front and half when the job was finished which I was uncomfortable with that but I had done it twice and had no problem. The day before the final incident he wanted a check for $250 in advance of work and he wanted me to drive him to his home for something he needed there (which I did) and on the way he wanted me to drive him to the bank so he could cash the check I had paid him in advance. I told him I wasn't wasting gas driving him from one side of town to the other and he'd have to cash the check himself. Thank God I didn't take him to cash it! Our "M. O." was he would get dropped off, shop for supplies and I would meet him there to pay the bill. On the 3rd time, he called me saying he was in the store and I told him I was already at the store picking up some additional supplies and instructed him to call me when he was finished and I would pay for everything. After one hour, I hadn't heard from him and I called his cell several times and left VM. I waited 2 hours in the home improvement store and had left about 20 messages. When I got home, I immediately contacted the bank and put a stop payment on the check. He never returned any of my phone calls. I hadn't realized it but, he had left some of his tools in our garage. The girlfriend had called and said she was having trouble with Mr. Reed and apparently he was lying to her. I told her what had happened and he had told her an entirely different story. At any rate, the following afternoon, I went out to the garage to discover all of his tools and some of mine were gone. I called the girlfriend, since she had left her number, and she said she had gone into the garage and taken them. I told her some of which she took was not her property to take and I would be reporting it to the police. I also told her I would be reporting Mr. Reed to the police as he had indeed cashed the check without doing any of the work in addition to the theft and going inside my home without permission. I called my bank, and while the money fortunately didn't come out of my account, Mr. Reed had cashed it somewhere. This was in June 2008. A few weeks ago out of the blue, September, Mr. Reed left a voice message on my phone, saying he was "returning my call." Additionally, there were 8 calls from him. I returned the call and asked him why he was calling me and that he can be assured I didn't even have his number and if he called one more time I would report him to the police once again; which I did. My mother told me he had told her that he "researched" me on the Internet and had "some information" on me. With this additional information, I felt it necessary to go to the police at this point. This was just too strange. He's a liar and a thief.