My seventyish mom was just scammed out of three thousand dollars.
A young white dude drove up to her place in a large, late-model pickup, and offered a great deal on paving her gravel driveway. (There's been torrential rainfalls in this area until the the last month or so for the past year, and erosion had pretty much destroyed said driveway.)
He said he could fix it for six hundred bucks.
He came out with a dozer and a grader and a crew of five or six Mexicans, who I'm pretty sure were illegal immigrants. (My mother said one of them came to the door, speaking Spanish, and she realized he was saying something about "agua." She thought he wanted a drink of water, but eventually realized he needed a hose to fill the radiator of one of the machines.)
They had told her 600 dollars, but when all was said and done, they wanted 3,000. And she caved in to their demands and gave them a check for that amount, saying she must have must misunderstood what the fast-talker had been saying. ("Fast talker" is my characterization. I briefly met him on the back end of the deal.)
My mom's road is certainly more drivable now than it was before, but I'm pretty certain that won't last long. Probably next time I visit mom, it will be even worse that before the "improvements."
The guy identified himself as "Billy Wilson," but I think that is almost certainly an alias. The names to lookout for are "Teddy Lee," and "Pop's Pavement" of Bessemer, Alabama.
It's probably too late to get my mom's money back, but if I could be a small part in getting these assholes locked up in prison, that would be sweet.
Reporting them to the AG would probably be the best bet for having something done about them. You may be able to get ahold of other people that they've ripped off to bolster your complaint.
I had the same thing happen to me, we own a business and the guy came by, saying he had an extra load of asphalt, and offered it to me at $1400.00. Then when he finished, suddenly it was 4200.00 dollars. I haven't paid him. I would like to find out if anyone had filed any charges against this guy, and if there are any open lawsuits, warrants, etc. He is suppose to be meeting my husband at our business tomorrow. Would love to have the law waiting on him if he shows.
Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators
Important Notices: By participating on this discussion
board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules
page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the
opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent
the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.