[PPLEPEU]

Our garage has a western exposure -- as a result, we can hardly stand to be in the garage after noon once temps get into the upper 80's. Realizing at a minimum we needed attic and garage door insulation, I began investigating service providers.

Around the holidays, I ran across Stephen Tyler from Rite-Temp Insulation while he was insulating the attic and garage doors on a neighbor's home. A few weeks later, my neighbor reported he was still happy with the work, and I found a post here on TOTV (Another Option for Garage Door Insulation - Talk of The Villages) commending Stephen and Rite-Temp for work they performed at a member's home.

Stephen, his wife/partner, and their 5-year-old child came to our home and spent 1.5 hours quoting the project in great detail. The price was reasonable for our oversized garage, so I accepted their quote a week later. Within a couple of hours, Stephen and his wife/partner Andrea Mansholt stopped at my home and provided me with a precise schedule -- and requested a $250 down payment to secure the project.

That was the last I ever saw of Stephen Tyler or Andrea Mansholt. They cashed my check within a half-hour, then disappeared with our money. Drat, how could I be so naive -- providing a down payment to a contractor?????

Then I ran across Rodney Ward from Reichel Insulation. Rodney listened to my tale of woe and said he'd like to help us. He came over to inspect our garage and provided us with a quote -- then he said, "But, I'd like to do your project for the balance of what you were going to pay Rite-Temp."

I was surprised, but very grateful for his generosity. In the end, Rodney lived up to his word and provided excellent work. Our garage is 20-25 degrees cooler than before insulation was installed. Great outcome - all the way around.

Thank you, Rodney.

CLIFFS:
- I foolishly paid Stephen Tyler and Amanda Mansholt $250 as down payment for insulating my garage
- They disappeared instead of performing the work
- Reichel Insulation salvaged the situation and performed exceptionally well
- Thanks goes to Rodney Ward

Reichel Insulation can be reached at
- (352) 508-9184

[alwann]

Seems odd considering your neighbor was satisfied.

[PPLEPEU]

Originally Posted by alwann

Seems odd considering your neighbor was satisfied.

When I spoke to the folks at Seniors vs. Crime, they said that was pretty typical, especially in relatively new neighborhoods. The creeps do one or two *excellent* jobs which become referrals. That leads to neighbors wanting similar projects and the money starts to flow.

These two, though, might simply be bad people and/or druggies. Who knows. I was surprised, though, that they involved their 5-year-old kid.

[kaydee]

We had a similar situation a few yrs back with a rip off artist who did an excellent job painting one of our neighbors driveway. We, along with a few other neighbors, hired this dude, gave down pymts and needless to say we all were scammed. Lesson learned!

[PPLEPEU]

Originally Posted by kaydee

Lesson learned!

Yup.

One of my neighbors had a great suggestion when faced with a request for a down payment. If you think the request is legitimate, tell the contractor you'd be happy to write the check -- and your spouse will take a picture of you handing it to him while you are both standing behind his vehicle with the license tag in clear view.

At least the cops will have something to use to track down the bum.

[Jima64]

Originally Posted by alwann

Seems odd considering your neighbor was satisfied.

Get one good reference in the neighborhood and fleece the rest of the flock.

[flyerguy]

Our neighbor, back up North, needed their home painted both interior and exterior. The job required a lot of paint. They did get bids but failed to get any references. They settled on a painting contractor. He told them that he would buy all the paint and deliver it to their home providing they pay him for the material before he gets started, leaving only the labor fees to be paid after the job is complete. Sounds reasonable, right?...wrong. After all if he doesn't come back they still have the paint. He did deliver all the paint needed for the job, several 5 gal. pails They paid him for the paint and set up a start date. The contractor never showed up. After several contact tries they decided to hire another contractor for labor only.

The new contractor came over and gave them a quote for labor. The home owners showed him the paint stored in their garage. He said the 5 gal. pails didn't look right. He asked permission to open the buckets and found they were all filled with Water.