HUBMLE – Margie Borders is a retired medical worker who says it was hard enough to dip into her savings to pay for unexpected repairs, but never actually having those repairs done has her sending a warning to others.
“The joy of cooking is gone so I try not to cook now,” Borders said.
She said she used to love to throw down in the kitchen, but that was before it was badly damaged because of a leaky pipe caused by last year’s historic freeze.
“All of this [cabinet] sunk in. It has come loose and the drawers started coming out and wouldn’t go back in,” she said.
The kitchen walls and ceilings are also peeling.
Last fall, Borders said she decided to hire a contractor who had done good work for a friend.
“He measured everything in here and said, ‘Oh yea, we can give you a whole new kitchen.’ So I was going to get a whole new kitchen done... or so I thought,” Borders said.
Borders said she initially gave the man a $1,800 deposit to buy equipment, but he never came back.
“I had to call him to see what happened, so he said that he was in the hospital and he had a diabetic attack, and then he said he wasn’t ignoring me,” she said.
After being texted a picture of a blood sugar monitor, Borders said she gave him the benefit of the doubt.
“Well, I called him again. He said, ‘I needed more money because I could not get all of the equipment.’ I’m asking him what about the equipment you’re already supposed to have that you’re bringing out. ‘Oh I’ll bring it out, I’ll bring it out.’ But he never brought it out,” Borders says.
She said she forked over a total of $2,800 before the man eventually stopped responding to her text messages and answering her calls.
We have tried to call him as well but after no answer.
Borders is now sounding the alarm.
“He kept putting me off and putting me off and he never came back,” Borders said.
Consumer experts say some ways to avoid being scammed include asking the contractor to give you a written contract and proof of insurance, which Borders says she now wishes she did.
We’re withholding the contractor’s name in this story because a police report has not yet been filed, but Borders said she plans to do that.