TOTAL HOME SERVICES & SOLUTIONS

I am a senior widow who recently bought a smaller home, which needed a lot of work that I wanted done before I need to move in. I wanted to fill in the pool and replace the fence and the retaining wall immediately. The contractor I wanted to use was not available immediately so I was going to check with Angie?s List but saw an outfit called Home Advisor.com that said it was free. I put in that I wanted foundation work done as well as the pool. One of the responders was a man named Russell Lynn Jones whose company was Total Home Services, Inc. and was supposedly located in Addison. He has a web site. He provided good references and said he could get to work immediately, as soon as he got a permit. The contract stated he would be finished by August 9th. I contracted to give him the pool, fence and retaining wall work to start with and paid him about $10,288. I am accustomed to paying for materials in advance. The other amount was half the labor. His price was good. He couldn?t get a permit for a week. Okay, I can understand that. Then, his people kept working for a couple of hours and leaving because of a few rain drops or they were too hot or something. Russell was never responding to my calls. When he did respond, it was a ?dog ate my homework? kind of excuse. Recently, he told me that they had had an inspection on the 20th and that he needed to add more holes in the bottom of the pool and the hot tub. He kept saying that the inspector couldn?t come until the next day etc. Meanwhile, no more work was done ostensibly because the inspector had told him not to do anything else until he passed the inspection. I called the city about the inspection and found out that Mr. Jones had not called for a rough inspection since the 20th, when he failed the first inspection. I left a message about that. He did not respond. Yesterday, his ?helper? called and said he was at the house with a foundation man from Houston and he couldn?t get in the house. I told him that I had already hired a foundation man and to tell the man from Houston that I didn?t need him. He said that Russell was coming over. I told him that I did not need his foundation man and to have him leave. I have not been back in the house since they were there. I?m afraid to look. I know they have been taking things since the previous owner left a lot of stuff in the house and the garage, which has disappeared. I had already been there several times yesterday and did not feel like driving back to meet this man since he did not request me to meet him. He has not responded to calls from me, my daughter, my son or my attorney. I guess I can kiss the money goodbye. Meanwhile, Russell not only has my money, he also has a garage door opener and a key. He is not responding and his people are not working. These are older men, by the way, who should not be working out in the heat. They have accomplished little. I would advise anyone who is considering using him to spend the money to check him out on instacheck.com or a similar service. Spend the extra money to get all the information. I have been taken. Other names are Russell L. Jones, Jonesco, Russell Lynn Jones.

After some calls back and forth, he finally said he would come out and take a look at the work. I went out and bought the fixtures and got the place ready for the work, but he never called. I left more messages, and he has not returned any calls.

DID PROMPT BID AND GOOD ESTIMATES. PRICE LITTLE TOO HIGH, GOT LOWER BID.