MTS STONE WORKS INC

MTS did not finish our contract, have refused to refund advances we have paid them for work not started, and have performed work that does not meet building code. Do not hire this company under any circumstances! MTS came to our house, performed a very detailed walk-through and provided a very detailed bid. Per their contract, we paid 100% of the material costs and 50% of the labor costs prior to their beginning work on the project. Initially, things went very well; the crew showed up on time and did very good work. However, this changed dramatically later in the process when either we, our designer (on our behalf), or our contractor (on our behalf) pointed out items that were not done to standard or not done correctly, and asked them to correct. Additionally, we discovered that two major portions of their work (the rock installation on the tall stairwell and the rock installation on the fireplace) were not done to building code and needed to be redone. As the job progressed, less and less hours were spent onsite, with MTS stating other trades needed to finish many items before they could proceed. We discussed this with the contractor, and found that there were many outstanding items MTS could complete irrespective of any other trade. After voicing our concerns, MTS came to the site and agreed to complete the job in 2 stages on 2 separate dates. MTS did not come to the property on the first agreed date. After a number of days with no response from MTS, we had to get another tile company to complete various items so that the project could proceed as planned. Subsequent to this, we gave MTS a further opportunity to correct items as they agreed and complete the tasks for which they had already been paid of the labor. Their response was that they had now taken on additional work and had no time to complete our project, and they should be terminated. To date, we have hired another tile company to (1) correct items; (2) to do the tasks which MTS had not started but had been paid 50% labor; (3) to demolish and rebuild both the stairwell and the fireplace rock, as it was not done according to building code and would not have passed inspection. We have attempted via telephone, email and letter to come to some financial conclusion whereby MTS would return us funds for which they had been paid 50% but performed no work and also funds for their work we were required to have someone else complete and/or correct this has all been to no avail as we have had no response to either mode of communication. We are now forced to take formal legal action as recourse. This is unfortunate, as they were extremely eager to perform this work and the process started very smoothly. Again, do not hire this company under any circumstances.