Gallup Well Drilling

I've had trouble finding well drillers to drill on my land. Most companies that I've called haven't even returned my phone call. So, when I called Geraldine Pittman at Gallup Well Drillers, I was very pleased to get a return call back the same day. We set up an appointment to meet on my land the next day. I was of course very excited. However, when I met with him the next day, my opinion fell dramatically. My first impression of the man was "used cars salesman". He spent about an hour telling me how bad all of the other well drillers were, and how great he was. I of course was not impressed. He also told me that he had drilled all of the wells in my area, but, I had researched all of the drilling records, and he had only drilled one. The driller that had done my area had actually passed away in the past year, and had done about 95% of the wells. Once again, not impressed. We then discussed an area to put the well, which went okay. He then pulled out paperwork and wanted me to hand him over $10,000, before any work had been done! He also said he wouldn't contact us until he'd reached a limit of spending $18,000 of our money, if he hadn't reached water yet. At $22 a foot , that's over 800 feet. If you look at the records in our area, most wells are around 500 feet or less. Why would any limit be set that high!? He shouldn't never have to drill that far. I of course did not hand over any money, and at that point, his friendliness went away, and he got in his car and left in a huff. I feel very confident in NOT hiring this man. I feel that he would have tried to take me for a fool.