Dale Gilliam

Horrible. The experience was bad from the start. Came and gave original quote for re-pouring a concrete floor in our garage, and repair our front step (also concrete). Called the next day to say the quote would be higher. Dropped off written estimate with an additional amount for possible stone. This should have been factored in when he did the second quote, that might have been more understandable. Before the start of the job, he wanted 1/2 down. Gave him a check and then didn't hear from him for a quite a few days. We called him and he said he had to change the start date from Monday to Wednesday. He wanted the remainder on the day the concrete was poured, even though the job wouldn't be finished yet. He claimed that we could be assured he would be coming back because he wanted the drive-way job next year. When we inspected the work on the front step, he had only repaired 2 1/2 feet of the six foot wide step. When we asked him about it, he said that "If that wasn't going to be okay with us, he was going to need to come back and finish the rest another day." When he returned, he said that he wanted to be paid in cash, because he didn't have a checking account. He had originally stated that he would knock off an additional $25 dollars if we paid him in cash. Just wanted to be done with this fiasco, we went got cash and paid him, he returned the $700 check to us, and we gave him $675 cash. He is now saying that the original quote is wrong, and that he wants $25 more. We need our concrete driveway done next year (contractors feel free to send a quote) and I don't care if he comes in $500 cheaper than anyone else, we won't be using him. He screamed at me telling me over the phone that he can't cash the check anywhere (Krogers' wouldn't cash a check from a money-market account) and that it was useless to him. His financial issues should not be my issues. He needed a cash payment or a local bank so that he could cash the check without having to have a checking account. He did not say anything up front about requiring cash, if so we wouldn't have used him and went with any of the other local businesses. His professionalism is non-existing, his business management skills showed poor quality with the constant changing of the quote price, and the entire job seemed to be slip-shod from the beginning. We should have just cancelled the job after the second change in price. I will never use this contractor again. He yelled at me over the phone when he wasn't able to cash the check because he didn't have a checking account. (We checking at two of the banks he supposedly went to, both would have gladly accepted the check and even cashed it out-right if he had an account with them.) The first check we gave him was cashed the day we gave it to him, and nothing was mentioned to us at that time about any issues. (Apparently he went to a check-cashing service that charged him and he didn't want to pay the fee again. That is what he explained to us.) To yell at a customer that gives you a check immediately, especially one that you delayed the start date, and didn't contact for days after receiving an initial check, is un-acceptable in my book. Claiming that a check is "a useless piece of paper" borders on libelous, but is definitely rude. A quick call could have confirmed that more than that amount was and still is available in that account. The call to ask for an additional $25, three days after receiving the cash that he requested, is also very rude. We marked right on the envelope how much was enclosed and he could have called later that day to discuss the issue. We went out of our way, and re-arranged our finances, to get him cash, and took the time to go to the bank for him (basically cashing an additional check for the $700) and gave him $675 like agreed upon. Nothing was said when we gave him the check for $700 that the amount was (supposedly) not correct. And nothing was said when he returned the check and received cash for THREE days. Nothing was said when he called to come and score the concrete. It wasn't until after we thought we were done with the night-mare that he calls back and says we still owe him $25 more. This has to be our all-time worst experience with a contractor, and we've had a few.