Electrical Woes

[Renee]

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our hot tub in a week or two (J-365).  We contacted an electrician the 1st week of July...he came out, gave us a bid, he sounded very knowledgeable and indicated he had done electrical work for several hot tubs in the area.  He said he could do the work the following Thursday.  Great.  We had to pay him 1/2 ($471.50) for materials & work permit.  Guess what...he never showed.  We can't get ahold of him.  We finally found his address, and he won't answer the door.  I'm fairly certain this guy never intends to do the work for us.  His voice mail is always full, so my guess is he's collected a lot of other people's money as well.  The county building inspector said this guy is "shady" and has recently been in trouble with the law.  Found out today, he was in a 16-hour standoff with the State Patrol's SWAT team 4 months ago, and was holding his kids hostage.  He threatened to shoot others and himself.  Wow....I found a real winner this time.    Does anybody know what recourse we have, or are we just out the $471.50?  This incident kind of sucked the excitement right out of getting a hot tub.  I could kick myself for not getting references, but he seemed on the up & up when we met him.   I will chalk this up to "stupid tax", but just wanted to get people's input on what steps we could take next.  My main goal is to stop him from doing this to other people, but I don't want to get sued for defamation of character in the process.   Thanks for any insight you can give us....

[Vinny]

Considering he was in a standoff with a SWAT team ...

... I would call the money gone and find another electrician.

Of course if you are a SWAT team member and can use a sniper rifle ...

[Jacuzzi Jim]

Wow that sux, Check with your dealer about another one (electritian)if you havent already.

As far as getting money back not sure how it works but see if he's bonded,but how to get that money not sure??

 Or just go throw rocks through his windows till it about 400 bucks worth,just kidding of course!!  Sorry to hear about the problem.

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

By any chance do you live outside of Denver?

[Renee]

By any chance do you live outside of Denver?

No, we are in Central Nebraska.  

[In Canada eh]

I will chalk this up to "stupid tax"

I love this term

  Just last month a local man suffered 2nd and 3rd degree burns to his upper body because he tried to cut the top off a propane cylinder with a 4 inch grinder and a cut off wheel.  He claimed he wanted to use it as a flower planter

  Now I feel bad for his suffering and his family but a imposed stupid tax might be a good idea

rnblaise,

   Sorry to hear about your bad luck, I would check with your dealer to see if they could recommend a different electrician

[Renee]

   Sorry to hear about your bad luck, I would check with your dealer to see if they could recommend a different electrician[/quote]

We originally checked with our dealer, and he didn't know anyone to recommend (or wouldn't give us a recommendation).  I'm going to HIGHLY suggest that he pays attention to the good electricians while he's installing hot tubs and starts giving out referrals in the future.  It might save somebody else the headache of getting someone that doesn't know what they're doing, or worse yet, getting ripped off like we did.   You would think it'd be in his best interest to continue working with the same electricians.  But given the events of the last couple of weeks, maybe I'm missing something.    :-/

BTW, "stupid tax" is a Dave Ramsey term, if you're familiar with him.  Everybody pays for something that was a stupid move on their part at some point in their life.  This has to rank up there for my stupid tax.  

[Mez]

  I will chalk this up to "stupid tax",

Consider yourself lucky that you only coughed up $400+.... I hate to admit it, but I paid $1000 a long time ago and got taken, swore it would NEVER happen again..so far it hasnt.
I only pay now upon completion of the job and if they dont want to do that I say screw 'em. I tell them, you know where I live, I'll sign a contract, you can always put a builders lien on my property, what recourse do I have if you try to screw me? It works every time.
Write it off as a learning experience and get out the local yellow pages and look under E for electrician...I doubt it will cost anymore than what you were "quoted"...my total bill was $472 for about a 40 foot run from the breaker box to the tub. Good luck.

[hottubdan]

Did you pay by check or credit card?

Can you go to the DA?

[apple]

I always use the BBB website for referrals and have not had a problem.

[Brewman]

If you paid by check, and it is cleared, or worse, cash, then about all you can do is sue for performance.  Take him to small claims court- he probably won't show and you'll win by default.  If he does show you'll win anyway.  You'll get a judgement against him, which you probably won't be able to collect- he's probably got dozens or more already piled up.
 File complaints with everyone that will listen- State attorney general, BBB, State board of Licensing or whoever is in charge of electrician licenses, etc..
 Not that any of them can help you directly- especially the BBB, which in my opinion is a joke, and he might not even be a member anyway.
 
If you check hasn't cleared put a stop pay on it.

If you paid by credit card (unlikely), then dispute the charges.  

Then move on and chalk it up to lessons learned the hard way.