The Con Is On and Ike Victims Are Paying

People who own property in the Hurricane Ike area are being ripped off and screwed day after day, by not only the hundreds of storm chasers who have invaded, but even by some local companies who live and work right here among us.
Here's one example. I contracted with a couple of local carpenter, roofer, and everything else types who are locals. The deal was that I would buy the materials and pay them $200 a day for three days to rebuild my utility room which was washed out by the tidal surge.
So I gave them a check payable to the lumber yard and they got the material. They brought it to my house where they worked about two hours and said, "see ya tomorrow."
When tomorrow came I got a phone call. I can't remember what their reason was but they weren't coming that day. Same thing the next day. One reason after another. They showed up about three days later, worked a few hours and left. "See ya tomorrow," again their parting words. Tomorrow another phone call and another reason why they wouldn't be here to finish the job.
This went on for two weeks before the three day job was finally completed. I will say that the final product was a good one. They did a good job, but it took two weeks to do the job they said they would do in three days. In the meantime, other things I wanted to do were put on hold pending completion of the utility room.
A week or so after they finished the utility room they came back wanting to do another rebuilding project downstairs. OK, I said, same deal. I pay for the materials and pay you for the labor. Sure, they said, $400 a day labor for two men. What! That's twice what you charged me for the utility room job.
The guy had already forgotten what he charged me and tried to bump the price. In fact, he tried to double it. When I reminded him what he charged me for the first job he said, "Oh, you got me, you're right, it's $200 a day."
By the time I got through dealing with these guys I was so paranoid I stuttered. I didn't fall off the turnip truck, I know when someone is trying to screw me and these guys were out to give me a royal screwing. They won't be back on my property.
Then a fence man came. "Yes sir Mr. Porter I'm going to give you a special deal. The insurance companies are paying $27 a linear foot for fences and I'm gonna build you a new one for $22." Great, that sounded fair to me. About a week later I called him back and asked if he could come remeasure because I wanted to extend the bounds of my fence taking in more of my yard than I had originally planned. "Sure," he said, "no problem." He never showed up and I never even got a phone call from him.
Here's the game that these guys are playing with all of us. It's like the airlines that double book then bump you when everyone shows up for the flight and they don't have enough seats. These guys are booking jobs on top of jobs. Then they run from one to the other doing a little work on each one and stringing everyone out. A couple hours at my house, run to the next one and work a couple of hours, then to the next one. The job you were told would be a two day job takes two weeks. Plus, they are asking for draws (partial cash payments) on each job to keep their heads above water. Sound familiar?
The lady at the post office told me that she hired an electrician to fix her house so she could get her electricity turned back on after Ike. He gave her a price, she said okay, but when the job was complete the price was considerably more than what he quoted. At no time during the job did he mention to her that there was some additional work or material needed. He just slapped her with a bigger bill than what he quoted.
Well guess what friend. If you sign a work order authorizing one of these jerks to work on your house, you've given him the right to take a builders lien on your home, and these characters will do it. It's all about money. They didn't drive here from out of state to be your friends or to do anyone a favor. When they leave here, they'll be off to another disaster area where they can screw someone else.
These unscrupulous locals that are bilking us can be dealt with. If you have a run-in with any of these types, let us know. We'll give them some free advertising.