JOY CONSTRUCTION & LEASING

I was referred to joy construction by a friend of a friend. That person worked with Richard at Joy construction many times and said that they would do good work at a fair price. The work that needed (and still needs) to be done is replacing my sewer line from the house to the main, its 80 feet of pipe and goes across the street. We had about 10 other quotes from other companies at the time all ranging from $10,000-$18,000. We have a 40 foot "belly" in the line, meaning that it sags and has the potential to back up into our basement. this had already happened twice in the last year. there is also the potential for the pipe to completely collapse and then, well, no indoor plumping for us. Playing Russian roulette with the pooper is not my idea of fun so we wanted to get the work done as soon a possible, but without spending ALL of our children's college fund. So I contacted Richard and asked him for a quote, gave him the friend or a friends name and he said he would get back to me. It took about a week but he finally called me back and gave me a price. He told me it would be $3,300.00. I couldn't believe the price so i asked him multiple times if that was correct and for the full pipe, going through the street and replacing the road. he assured me it did and that they had been doing this for 40 years. the only thing it didn't include was the price of the permits and the bond for the road. I asked if they would be putting those in their name. They said they could if we wanted to. I said yes, we wanted them to pull those that way they would be responsible for the work. We knew we would have to pay for the permits and bond above and beyond the $3,300.00 for the work. I asked him to get me something in writing so we could move forward. After several days, he called me to tell me he messed up the numbers and that the price would be $1,000.00 more than we discussed. I was concerned and not happy about this but the overall price was still reasonable to me so we told him we wanted to continue. I told him I had a $3,000.00 cashiers check ready for him and I would pay him the rest when the work was done. He finally came by to get the check and have me sign the contract. I asked him when the work would be done and he said they were very busy and he did not know. Upon returning from the U.P. Tuesday morning i noticed that Miss dig was out and the water department had been out to mark everything. I called Richard and he said "oh i was going to call you today, they are coming tomorrow" My husband and I scrambled to get our landscaping moved and my husband also took the day off work so he could be here while the sewer was being done. The guys showed up with heavy machinery and supplies and told us they were only planning on replacing part of the pipe. I told them that was not the agreement and to not break ground until we agreed to the work being done. After contacting Richard and waiting around for over an hour, he called me back and said it would be more money than agreed upon because he "misunderstood" what we wanted. I was not happy, I told him to get his guys off my property and i wanted my money back with in 24 hours or i was calling my lawyer. I had told him multiple times that we wanted the whole pipe replaced, i have no idea how he thought we only wanted part of it done. I called him today to find out where my money was and he said he mailed it to me. I informed him that that did not get it back to me in 24 hours, he told me to call my lawyer. I have been dealing with this company for almost 2 months now. I have no trust in them at all now. I feel that they have lied to me and do not care at all about doing the work, doing it right or for the agreed upon price. If they are doing it to me then they are doing it to someone else. I do not like being taken advantage of and I think that other people could be easily fooled by this company. I highly doubt that I will get a check in the mail, and if i do, I have a bad feeling it wont be the $3,000.00 that I gave them to do the work.