Rudy Rauben

I am giving Rudy a D rather than an F because 1. He didn't charge me for the incredibly shoddy work he did, and 2. He had the integrity to replace the expensive special-order lumber he had ruined. The experience could have been worse, but it was very bad. My first impression of the man was that he was arrogant and unlikeable, but the friend of a friend of a friend who recommended him said he does good work and I was concerned about getting the work done in the time frame (before winter). I convinced myself that I didn't have to like him as a person if he did good work. I had to ask him numerous times for a quote, for a list of lumber to buy, and for a drawing of the pergola. He always had numerous excuses that he would couch in vaguely new-age terms, hinting at his advanced spirituality and always indicating how good but incredibly busy he was. When he finally came to do the work, I arrived at home from my job to discover that he had decided to shorten the structure by 6 feet without consulting me. In so doing, he had cut and therefore ruined all the expensive lumber I had purchased. He had sunk 6 posts for the pergola in a very sloppy, amateur fashion. The posts are not straight and big chunks of concrete were splashed everywhere. Apparently, Rudy does not know how to use a plumb bob, nor has he ever poured concrete before. He left scraps of lumber and junk all over the yard and tramped a fruiting shrub into oblivion. When I informed him that his decision to shorten the structure was not acceptable--and not in accordance to the drawing he made, the plan we discussed, nor the amount of lumber I had purchased, he was very contrite and said he would make things right. He then basically went missing. For the first couple of weeks, he would email me with increasingly elaborate excuses about other work that he had to get done. He did insist, however, that I was a top priority . He then ceased to communicate at all. When I emailed him and insisted that he needed to finish the job, he replied with a condescending message about how he had told me about his schedule and that I would have to live with how busy he is. When I pressed him further and insisted that he needed to return and finish the job, he quit. I was able to get the wonderful Isthmus Handyman to finish the job. Although we had to contend with Rudy's crooked posts and mess, at least a competent carpenter was able to make this a decent-looking structure. I ended up with something that was not what I initially envisioned but that I can live with. The other parts of my complaint are not as objectively verifiable, but were important and disturbing aspects of why nobody should ever hire this person: He is hypocritical, manipulative, and appears to be out of touch with what he has said and done. He talked down to me and he lied to me. He brought his dog over and left the animal unsupervised and loose. I find this very disturbing because I am an animal lover and Rudy allowed the nice dog to roam all over--even in the street. The dog defecated on my next-door neighbor's lawn twice and Rudy did not clean up, even after the neighbor called him out on it. I smelled liquor on his breath at 4:30 p.m., and he and his co-worker (who never got paid for the job) made sexually suggestive comments to my cleaning woman. I have learned some of these things gradually long after Rudy disappeared. I felt unsafe having this man on my property and I hope I never see him again.