SCOTWORKS WOODWORKING

Scot gave a very good first impression when he came to discuss my need for two cabinets in my bathroom. One was to be a wall cabinet with a door on one side and open on the other with adjustable shelves. The other was to be a base cabinet with a tip-out hamper compartment (to hold a wire and fabric insert I had already obtained) and a countertop. He inspected the area and made notes and measurements. His later estimate was very reasonable and I asked him to continue. Then the delays and failures to respond began. Instead of the three weeks he promised, it stretched to five and I was never able to get in touch with him except to leave messages. When he showed up he apologized about "family problems" and proceeded to install the cabinets. I immediately noticed that the cabinets, which I asked to be painted white, were painted with flat paint. Who uses flat paint in a bathroom environment? I decided to let that go, but then he found that the base cabinet did not fit the insert I had him carefully measure and had to be rebuilt. Also, there was no interior structure to support the wire frame; just a tip-out door. I asked for the cabinet to be rebuilt, and admitting there may have been miscommunication, offered to pay for the redo. Weeks later, he returned with the base cabinet rebuilt. This time the counter top was not measured correctly and was too narrow for the width of the space. He tried to make a cut to fit around the room door frame, but used a hand jigsaw and the result was a ragged, uneven cut. Again he said the countertop needed to be rebuilt and left (with my extra money for the rebuild). His last words were "This is a cluster." I also noticed that he made no provision to fill the gaps between cabinet and walls, or cabinet and floor, but left a gap of 1/4 inch on one side, 3/4 inch on the other, and 1/2 inch between the base cabinet and floor. The cabinets themselves seem very cheaply made and the flat paint leaves the impression of an unfinished product. My walls were damaged during the installation. It has now been an additional month and Scot has not contacted me or returned my messages. My next move is to see an attorney. DO NOT hire this person; he is unprofessional, unresponsive, and provides very poor workmanship. UPDATE 2/24/2015: After many calls threatening court action (which I followed up on with detailed paperwork to be served by the County Sheriff) Scot finally returned my calls and said he would finish the work. He came and measured for molding to close the gaps with the walls and apologized for all the hassles. He did not return my calls for a couple of months (my travel schedule was part of the problem). He then came and installed the molding, but forgot a final piece of molding. He made measurements of this piece and went away. He did not return my calls for a couple of weeks but finally called and said he had "lost" his measurements and had to come back to repeat them. He did that and then again became completely unresponsive to my calls for weeks. I will now have to either follow through with court action, or simply have the cabinets torn out and replaced by someone who knows what he is doing. In the delays, the countertop has sagged about 1/4 inch and knots have opened up on the countertop, indicating raw unseasoned wood used. There is at this point about 20 minutes of work to be done to finish the job, but Scot will not respond and finish it. This experience has been so terrible that I am almost willing to eat the $800 I paid him and find an actual professional to build me a real cabinet. I was initially willing to pay about $2000 but cannot find a cabinet maker who wants to do excellent work. Welcome to New Mexico!