James Carter Contracting

Description of Work: After renting my home for 16 years I decided to buy it when I retired last year. I kind of knew what I would need to have done in order for me to enjoy my retirement years. This contractor was recommended by some neighbors and I did everything on a handshake and trust. Big mistake. This contractor told me that he only gives prices based on each complete job. I never saw any receipts from him. When I often asked him how much he paid for materials he always answered "I don't work that way." As each job was started he always asked for half up front. As the job went along, invariably there would be another job that he said he needed to get to. He always asked for full payment from the first job and then half for the next job. I feel "scammed" on so many different ways. Here are a few: He lied by telling me he was a licensed iContractor in the city of Philadelphia, he isn't. L&I never heard of him. An electric line he told me he ran "all the way to the breaker box" was simply looped off of an adjacent outlet less then 2 feet away. A hot water line that was supposed to be run to the dishwasher was hid in back of the appliance and capped off. Never connected. I fully paid for 6 beautiful Pella windows to be installed in the front of my house. Only 4 were put in and so badly installed that I had to pay someone else to reinstall them. I fully paid for for 4 Pella's to be installed on the back of my house. They were installed so badly that during a heavy rain storm they leaked buckets. Mr. Carter suggested stone window sills for all the windows. He said they would be expensive. He installed two and charged me $900. Because he left me with 2 to install myself I found the identical stone sills. They were $85 for two. His work area and every bit of my home was a construction zone for at least 4 months. December 6, 2012 was the last time I saw him. He just walked off the job and never answered any phone, text or e mails I tried to contact him on a daily basis for more then a month. Nothing. He just walked off the job after being paid in full. $35K.