Miracle Renovations/Miracle Deck & Fence

I gave him a $2000.00 deposit. He made excuse why hecould not return my money. I did get $1500o f the money back after several rounds of discussion. He has since changed his telephone number and operating under another name. I expect to file a claim in court seeking the returns of my funds. Other names may Decks and Fencing by Rick. He advertises in the Classified and offers 30% of his prices. I am sure there are others he fail to return deposits. . I informed him I was uncomfortable with contractors, because they fail to perform according to contractural terms and expectations.

I had a signed contract. Work was to begin on April 4, 2012 at 10:00 AM. Mr Higgins called me at 7:45 AM that day to confirm the start time. I told him I'd be home by 10:00 AM and he said, "OK. We'll be there!" I was so excited to finally get started. At 9:45 AM I got home to discover a note on my door reneging on the contract due to a "personal situation." Enclosed with the note were money order totaling $2,875 for some of the deposits I had given him. During our many interactions over the prior three weeks, I also gave him a Home Depot card I had in the amount of $103.16 saying he could apply that amount against my final bill. He fully understood and agreed. Since I received that note on the door reneging on our contractual agreement, I have tried to call him many times to ask him to contact me and return the remaining $103. Of course, he no longer answers the phone or returns voice mails. I choose not to visit him at his place of business, which is also his home. I have made a simple request many times via voice mail, asking him to contact me to return my money. He can mail it to me, tape it to the door as he did the note he left on my door, or mail it. I don't care--give me my money, and we'll be done. Since then, nothing. No response, no money. So now, I'm writing this in the hope that no one else will be so badly treated. I am a single senior citizen, so this was especially difficult--but it shouldn't happen to anyone! I have researched his movements around town for the past 10 days. He has no excuse that falls under the "personal situation" he cited. He did not call to find out when work could start that morning as he implied. Rather, he called to find out how much time he had to get to the post office when it opened, buy money orders and slither on to my house to put the note on the door before I got home. I firmly believe that Rick called me that morning for a completely different reason than the one he gave me. I suspect he discovered that he had underbid the job and wanted to get out of it. If that was the case, he should have faced me and told me the truth. Man up! The thing Rick doesn't seem to understand is not only the financial loss but the emotional upheaval he caused. I had worked on the plan for a very long time, and now I had to begin again. Even if he were to return all of the money, he is still in breach of contract. That contract has begin and end dates and very specific components of the job which he signed and agreed to perform. Of course I'd like the money back. But more importantly, I'd like him to admit the truth and the fact that he clearly breached the contract. I won't hold my breath waiting for that to happen, but I will suggest strongly that anyone considering a contract with him think long and hard first.

Initially, we had a very good impression of Rick Higgins and his employees. We found that after they installed the fence however that the posts were wobbly, several boards were not nailed well or even nailed at all, and the chain-link fence could be pulled up without much effort- essentially it had not been cemented into the ground at all. Higgins claimed that he would repair the fence and fix any problems but he proved to be evasive and irresponsive. We called him and made appointments with him at least seven times, asking him to remedy the problems with the fence, and he never showed up for the appointments he made. He swore he would show and he never would. We feel frustrated and like our money was poorly spent. Our neighbor had the same experience.