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11. Exposeco War Stories: Tales from the Contractor Trenches
37 Plays1 year ago
Join Brian and Paul Tarpy from Exposeco as they dive into real-life contractor horror stories—"war stories"—that expose the shady tactics used in the industry. From roofers who disappear with deposits to contractors who play the long con, they share personal experiences, lessons learned, and tips to protect yourself from being the next victim. Got your own war story? Share it with us and be part of the conversation!
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Transcript
Introduction to War Stories
00:00:15
Speaker
Okay, good evening. It's Brian from Expose Co. I'm here with my co-host Paul. Paul, how's it going tonight? Great. Excited to be here. Thanks. Putting me on. and getting this thing going. So I'm excited.
00:00:27
Speaker
Nice. and Nice. but Tonight's a fun night. We'll have lot to talk about. Yes. Yes. This has been a topic that we've been itching to do since the beginning, since the inception of Expose Co.
00:00:38
Speaker
We've really wanted to talk about war stories. And so what we're going to do tonight is just ping pong back and forth, sharing a few of the war stories. And in the midst of that, we're going to do lessons learned. Like,
00:00:51
Speaker
What are some takeaways from these war stories? How can we prevent these things from happening? ah this is This is exciting. And
Paul's Experience with Dishonest Contractors
00:01:00
Speaker
it's not just we want to share our war stories with you, but we actually want you to share your war stories with us.
00:01:07
Speaker
So if you're listening and you're seeing this on a reel, Please go ahead and comment and to share what are some of the war stories you've experienced and what were your lessons learned? Or maybe there were like, I don't know how to avoid that kind of a situation.
00:01:22
Speaker
We'd love to hear from you, the listener. So without further ado, Paul, ah kick us off. We're talking about war stories tonight. What comes to mind? Yeah, sadly, i have a lot.
00:01:33
Speaker
This is the whole reason why we exist is because I have a lot of horror stories. you know If it was a one-off thing and it was in 20 years of contracting, only seeing it a couple times, I wouldn't say that it's a habitual problem within the industry. But I mean, it's proven time and time again that we see consumers, homeowners, property managers,
00:01:54
Speaker
investors, all these different, even professional people that have dealt with contractors for years still end up getting screwed in the end. I've gotten screwed many times by contractors. I actually just finished building a new home and I've experienced it in the past year and a half. It's crazy. And I've have 20 years experience in the contracting industry. And also am one of the owners of Expose Co. So, you know, it's everybody can fall prey to this, no matter how skilled you are,
00:02:29
Speaker
Now there's a lot of different things you can do to prevent it. And that's why we exist is to help prevent that. But even then when it is, you do all the right things. I mean, there's still those shady characters out there that want to take advantage. And I'll bring up some of the the crazy war stories that and I have. And I'm going kind of share little bit about the process that I had to do to to right those wrongs and also deal with those situations. I had a roofer on a project and this roofer, you know, he came in with,
00:02:59
Speaker
Great sales pitch. you know he was He was the guy that said all the right things, had the right lingo, talked about getting the job done on time and on budget. and Pricing was was good comparison to the other prices that I did get. and It was a fair price. It wasn't that it was you know so crazy low that I thought he was just going to lose it all. This guy He came in and like right when he had started the work, he asked for ah large deposit.
00:03:29
Speaker
You know, it was for a metal roof, which metal, you know, I come from the sheet metal industry. So I understand like there is a lot of upfront costs and to putting a metal roof in.
00:03:39
Speaker
So
The Importance of Legal Action
00:03:40
Speaker
I gave in and we ended cutting him a significant check for like almost $40,000 for material. The project was a significant project and you know the guy showed up once or twice.
00:03:53
Speaker
The second time he shows up, the first thing he does is he goes, you know your roof looks a lot bigger than what I anticipated the roof being. Initially, the way I dealt with it is I said, hey, you know what?
00:04:04
Speaker
The plans never changed. This is the exact roof that you gave me the proposal for. So the plans never changed. The size of the roof never changed. Did you measure it wrong? So long story short, I've already given this guy $40,000 towards getting the metal for my roof.
00:04:21
Speaker
And he's already starting to make up reasons why he needs to increase his price. This is actually a pretty classic move on contractors that are just downright dishonest is that as soon as they get that money, they're able to squeeze you for a little bit more.
00:04:40
Speaker
It's a tactic that's super dishonest. As soon as he started doing that, i recognized what he was doing. So in the end, so what I had decided to do is I said, look, we can measure the roof out.
00:04:52
Speaker
And if it's any more of a square footage than what you had determined on your ah proposal, what we'll do is we'll write a change order. for the amount extra that it is based on the price per square foot that you had allocated. So you know for conversation's sake, it was an a $100,000 roof and the price per square foot was $14 a square foot.
00:05:14
Speaker
When we measured the roof, it was a little bit bigger than what he had put on his thing. And I said, okay, so it's $14 a square foot. So long story short, he said, no, it's not $14 square foot.
00:05:28
Speaker
It's 25% more than $14 a square foot. And at that point I said, okay, well, how about you just refund me my money because you haven't performed pretty much any work and you just refund me the money and I'll pay you for what you have done.
00:05:41
Speaker
And we can part ways and I can find a different route for to do my job. He had agreed that he would refund me the the money for the metal that ah I had provided And he was going to take back the medal, which he never proved that he ever bought the medal.
00:05:54
Speaker
And then he just disappeared on me. Basically, soon as I was calling bluff and not giving into his excessive overcharges, he basically knew that he wasn't going to be able to get away with it.
00:06:09
Speaker
And so he made up a you know fake invoice, sent it over to me that I owed him the whole amount for The work was performed. I went
Lessons Learned and Cautionary Tales
00:06:17
Speaker
to his bond. Bond in California, they have a $25,000 bond. So this has been a learning experience for myself is that they don't pay out unless...
00:06:25
Speaker
they get a judgment. So you have to actually sue that company and win in court in order to receive the funds from that. So we're actually in litigation actually right now. And ah in the end, me as a person do not like to engage in like legal riffraff and having to take people to court and stuff like that. It's just nobody wins when that happens. But when somebody is so dishonest and takes advantage of people, they have to they need to see the pain that they're inflicting on other people.
00:06:58
Speaker
They need to feel that for themselves and have a learning experience. So I'm happy to be the one that has to inflict that pain. It's kind of something, you know, sad to say that I have experience with just because I was a contractor for 20 years, understanding both sides of the law. And, you know, he just ended up messing with somebody that is more skilled than he probably anticipated at this stuff. So resolution is to be determined, but extremely confident in the case that we have. So yeah, no, that's that's the first war story. And that's a fresh one. And it's a big one. It's a big one. So yeah I was shocked that it happened. It's funny because ExposeCo, we started this business because of this. And having this happen was just like,
00:07:40
Speaker
I couldn't believe it. You know, I was like, man, this is reassuring to know what we're doing here is really to help people not get into this position. Because believe me, if you didn't have the means and the knowledge, you would feel so helpless.
00:07:56
Speaker
Yeah, there's no doubt. That is, you're throwing haymakers right out the gate. You know what I mean? You gotta gotta have somebody on your side that can level the playing field. Because you know what?
00:08:07
Speaker
That guy knows... the right moves to make in order to make people feel like they don't have a choice. You know, it's sad. It's really sad. Yeah. And here's the thing that strikes me about that story.
00:08:20
Speaker
You're an extremely resourceful person. you you knew how to kind of come after him and... to push back where I don't think like your average person is going to know, okay, this is what's going on. i'm super aware of the sales process. I'm super aware that he's trying to change the the price of this.
00:08:39
Speaker
And he would be successful probably in 90% of the cases. He ran into somebody who he thought he probably profiled you as just like a middle-class or wealthy person and just said, you know, I'm going to take this guy for as much as I can and still do the work.
00:08:53
Speaker
I imagine like he still had in his mind, he was just going to charge you a ton and change orders and then do the work. But maybe not. Maybe he had, you know, he still had other things. The thing that started this whole ball rolling was that he gave you probably a very strong proposal and estimate and it was competitive or even better than many of the others. And so,
00:09:14
Speaker
The lure to go with that is clear because you want to save money. It's a good deal. That's probably the thing that like us as consumers, like me as a consumer would be more prone to act on too, you know? So it's like in the incentive for this the one who is not good, like the not good contractor to make a good deal up front, but then come around the back and be really shady behind the scenes about how they're ah they're actually making money.
00:09:42
Speaker
You do business. What a crazy war story. i am so I'm thanking God that that has not happened to me because honestly, i don't think I can manage what you went through.
00:09:53
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's yeah it's just one of those things. I'm somebody that has experienced these war stories multiple times. i mean, that is just one of them. That's a recent one. It doesn't stress me out because of the fact of knowing the facts, you know, and and when you understand the facts and you have the confidence that you're doing the right thing, obviously, it doesn't feel good to have a lot of money taken from you.
00:10:17
Speaker
But ah understanding at the end of the day that you're going to be able to recover that because you know the law and you understand the laws on your side when it comes to it is a good feeling. Pretty crazy to think that you're going to have to, you know, really sit and fight for this thing for probably, you know, over a year to recover anything.
00:10:35
Speaker
It's really something that can be prevented and it... Even with somebody with such such skill like me, i wasn't able to prevent it, you know, the enticement of a good salesman and said the right lingo and everything else.
00:10:47
Speaker
It was crazy how quickly that can turn on you. But, you know, it goes back to our saying you don't want to pay until work is completed. And that just reinforced that for me, even though I had almost had too much knowledge and insight that it caused me to feel for the guy when it came to knowing what the upfront costs were to get that job started. so Yeah, because you were compassionate to the contractor because he had been in his shoes before.
00:11:15
Speaker
ye you you felt like You did something you wouldn't normally do. Correct. Yeah. But but now you're like lesson learned now. So I got to go back to the root like what we know to be true.
00:11:28
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, it's exactly right. It's you know, it's ah getting an emotional response to me of feeling bad and going, I want to
Common Contractor Scams and Prevention
00:11:37
Speaker
make sure that, you know, the job gets done right, this and that.
00:11:40
Speaker
And I don't want this guy to to, he couldn't come out of pocket to be able to do it. He needs money to get the materials. In the end, it's just the wrong guy. i ended up and hiring a different roofer and the different roofer, I didn't see a bill from him until 30 days into the job and 30 days into the job. And it was a progress payment and then the progress payment, it was just the normal billing cycle.
00:12:02
Speaker
And the guy did a great job, showed up when he said he was, And in the end, I just pay him as it went along and as progress happened and he didn't bill until the work was done. So in the end, we're having a great experience with them and things are getting done and there's not been a bunch of surprises. That's abnormal and it shouldn't be abnormal.
00:12:22
Speaker
You know, it shouldn't feel like that has to be like a strange occurrence. But every I'd say a lot of the contractors that have been replying to us have been acting like, well,
00:12:33
Speaker
Good luck getting work done if that's the way that you expect to do business. Like nobody's gonna take your jobs unless you provide you know minimum 50% upfront. We wanna say, i don't think so. In fact, it depends especially on the kind of work that it is and especially the price tag. We kinda think that you don't need money upfront in order to begin the work.
00:12:54
Speaker
The fact of it is, is good contractors that budget well that know how to actually manage their finances really don't need to have money up front. And that's not a common practice for legitimate contractors. The smaller contractors are the guys that are you know extremely disorganized, that don't have the financial backing to be able to actually run a profitable contracting business, usually are the ones that are asking for money up front because they're they're chasing bills. And those are the guys you got to stay away from as a homeowner, because those are the guys, they're
00:13:29
Speaker
running around collecting checks as much as they can. And pool contractors are extremely notorious for this. is They'll go dig a hole in somebody's backyard and they'll put rebar in it. And digging the hole and putting the rebar in is the two least expensive things about a pool. And they'll collect half of the cost for the pool contract based on that. And a normal homeowner doesn't know that the pool costs are really on the tail end of it with all the tile, with all the cement,
00:13:56
Speaker
you know, all the plumbing, all the the plaster, those are all the expensive parts. Well, these pool contractors, they come in and they front load, it's called front loading, where they collect all their money up front. And then they leave, they just leave that hole there for a super long time.
00:14:11
Speaker
And they slow play them on the ah finishing of the project. My neighbor took two years to build their pool and the guy went bankrupt before the pool was finished. So, you know, that's It's a very common thing as well.
00:14:22
Speaker
That brings me to my war story. That's a perfect dovetail. Yeah. So in my other profession, in my vocational life, we hired a contractor who was reputable and somebody we knew and had worked with before to put replace two air conditioning units in one of our buildings.
00:14:39
Speaker
And this guy was the best price because he was somebody that we had known and worked for before he gave us kind of a sweetheart deal. He, in his personal life, and I came to discover this later as we pursued him, he was having some family issues. He was also having some financial issues, but he didn't let us know that.
00:14:56
Speaker
He didn't let us know in advance. And in fact, he took our money, ah which he needed apparently to purchase the unit. So that was, um, half of it to purchase the units, went ahead and finished one of the units. It was an air handler, a new AC unit, I think it was 10 ton unit. And the second unit, when it came time for it to go in, he received the other portion of the money. So 50% of it additional.
00:15:22
Speaker
And that was the moment in which we have not seen that guy again. He literally is gone. I followed up with him several times. He left the country. He's working. He's from another country, but he's he was an American citizen.
00:15:36
Speaker
One of his family members died. And and so he he gave us like you know all of the sob story to help us feel you know more compassion to the situation. But the reality is, is that we paid for an air conditioning unit that we never received.
00:15:50
Speaker
The lobby of that facility still to this day, because a small budget operation, they are still missing that air conditioning unit. And it's hot in the lobby, especially, you know, we live in Phoenix area. You can imagine during the summer that 10 ton unit is working double time to try and cool extra space. So big time lesson learned there. Just because it's somebody that you know,
00:16:11
Speaker
It does not guarantee or even really, I feel like some people that you know are more likely to mess with you than maybe some of you don't know, but I don't know somebody that you know doesn't guarantee that you're going to actually get that job done.
00:16:24
Speaker
That was a big eye opener. Don't skip over cut corners on on the things that you know you should be doing to protect yourself just because it's a friend or somebody you've worked with before. Because, you know, if something happens in that person's life and if their life, their personal life is very unstable, they could just take advantage of you and who's left holding the bag. You're left ultimately holding the bag for a situation. then if you don't have the finances to fix it, yeah, you're really you're in trouble.
00:16:52
Speaker
Yeah, no, that's that's crazy. I mean, it's sad to say, but
Prevalent Issues in the Contracting Business
00:16:56
Speaker
you know when you pay people before that the the job is done, i mean, if they have underlying issues, then their issues become your issues. People go through hard times in life and it's sad to say, but it's really not your problem to deal with when you hire somebody to do a job. You're trying to help them, right? And really to be able to help somebody do that job is to to make sure that you're protected as well and that they can finish the job and then they can end up making some money at the end and be able to help their situation. But really all it does is, you know, it creates a criminal. It's it's it's crazy. And being in the contracting industry, you see it all the time with, I i would go to different homeowners houses and they would just, you know, they would have a half completed project and the half completed project would usually be just a mess.
00:17:44
Speaker
I hate to say it, but it's ah an example of the type of business that that contractor runs. It's just a mess. You know, they're not showing up on time. They're not calling people back.
00:17:56
Speaker
They're asking for money when they shouldn't be asking for money. They're not doing quality work. You see the truck that they drive inside the truck is just a mess. Their paperwork is not in order.
00:18:08
Speaker
They're probably... it's just a reflection of the organization that has, um you know, done the project. There's those unicorns out there that are not that way. I mean, the experience that I had with my personal war story wasn't that way when they showed up.
00:18:23
Speaker
You know, I didn't see those signs, right? But it was ah it was a contractor just flat out being shady, right? He was out to just take advantage of a situation because that's, you know, it's sad to say, but a lot of roofers do that. They rip the roof off and then they know they have you.
00:18:37
Speaker
And that's when they start hitting you for extras. Roofers are notorious for taking your roof off and saying, hey, there's a lot of wood replacement that's needed. You have wood rot, you know, and there's nothing you can do because you have to get that roof back on or else your your house is going to flood. And so making sure that you have a trained eye like us when you're you know looking to get that roof replaced.
00:19:01
Speaker
It's super important because look, we know that before the contract sign, you're going have a price per square foot of plywood when it needs to be replaced. You know exactly what that price per square foot is. And you can go up there or you can have a third party.
00:19:18
Speaker
You can have them take pictures, send it over, send over proof that the actual wood needs to be replaced. So there's a lot of ways that you can foresee that stuff to make sure it doesn't affect you in a negative way. I mean, I've had to replace dozens of roofs and I've learned that over the years. And after the First time it happened to me, I was a lot more wise to it and didn't allow it to happen ever since.
00:19:41
Speaker
And I've gotten plenty of roofers to do the projects and they did them well and they they were honest and and got it done. But you know you find a bad apple and if you don't know how to get it set up from the get-go, they'll take advantage of you when your roof's off. It's crazy that that guy, I knew that and he still tried to take advantage of me in a different way. yeah yeah it's It just shows you how greasy they are, you know?
00:20:05
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. I think that the connection for me with the story about the pool, right? They dig the hole, they lay the rebar, and they play the slow game because they've started another house, they've dug another hole, and the most expensive thing is for them to come you know finish that pool. The thing that the contractor that I had war story with what he was doing was he owed other people work.
00:20:29
Speaker
And so the way that he was financing the work that he had already promised to other people was by getting new jobs and then getting people to pay for their jobs. And then he was taking the funds for those jobs and buying units for other jobs to complete those jobs. Does that make sense? So he was at the saying robbing Peter to pay Paul.
00:20:48
Speaker
And then ultimately, like the person at the end of the line, like people along the way already getting screwed because they're not getting work done until he finds new jobs or he's ghosting a certain number of people because he has personal life expenses and stuff.
00:21:01
Speaker
We happen to be the people, especially at the end of the line where he did half the job and then ah nothing more. And then he's disassociated, i guess, from us. he He won't communicate with us anymore.
00:21:14
Speaker
Yeah. You know, Rob and Peter to PayPal is like the perfect example of what, you know, contractors that don't have a good organization or good management, good business skills. That's a prime example of what they do.
00:21:30
Speaker
And it's contractors are notorious for it. I hate to say it's just contractors are disorganized. They're usually really
Wrapping Up and Call to Action
00:21:36
Speaker
disorganized. And, ah you know, it falls into many different avenues and it's lame when the the homeowner has to pay for it.
00:21:44
Speaker
Well, this has been a good ah first War Stories session. I want to do this more regularly because it's actually quite fun. I hate to have fun on like this kind of a note, but it's interesting to hear the stories and stories are what move the world. So in the future, look forward to more War Story podcasts and reels.
00:22:04
Speaker
What we want to hear from you, our listener, is what are your war stories? We want to know. What happened to you? How did it get fixed or did it get fixed? Or were you stuck with the bill? Tell me how you prevent it in the future. Like, what are your thoughts? And we want to hear from you and Hey, maybe one of your war stories will actually make it into our podcast in the future. so Yeah. And post it on our Facebook or Instagram.
00:22:30
Speaker
You know, we'd love to hear about it and create a dialogue. Love to talk through it and and just vent a little bit. Love that. Yeah. Yeah. Vent. Let the world know you're mad.
00:22:41
Speaker
ah Burn the world. Let's go. All right, Paul. This has been a fantastic conversation. Again, great stories. Great time. Great insights. We look forward to talking again next week.
00:22:59
Speaker
Come on.