Simple steps can prevent home repair ripoffs

Donna Coombs said this past summer she was thinking of having the concrete at her house painted and sealed.

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Tips to avoid home repair ripoffs

Coombs saw a man across the street working on her neighbors concrete, he came over to her asked if she wanted to have hers sealed. Coombs thought it was a great idea and a stroke of luck on her part, because she could see the work the man had done across the street and thought it was great and felt fairly secure about the whole process.

Coombs says he came over and did the work, including the sealing and staining and some other work she asked, and paid for.

"When I looked out my front door, there's a series of diamonds going up the pathway and as I looked out, one was very, very crooked and it looked like you were, you were drunk, almost, that vision type thing, so I called him and yes he said oh I’ll come back and fix it."

Coombs said she waited about a month and the man came back to fix the diamonds and offered to do other work, like trimming the bushes and bringing in mulch. Coombs said he would come back and forth, but never do any work and never fix the one spot that bothered her.

"He did come back after I called the Better Business Bureau, he came the next day and when he came the next day he did rectify the problem, the diamond is now in the same sequence as the others, there's only one problem, this diamond is about and inch and a quarter or half smaller than the other diamonds, so it's modified, it's not really rectified."

Coombs said there are other spots on the concrete where the sealant is already coming up and she doesn’t think that should be happening so soon after the work was completed. Coombs said she called the BBB back and told them it was many months in between the time the work was completed and the man still had not rectified the situation.

Kathy Graham, President and CEO, of the Better Business Bureau of Coastal Carolina said contractor home repair complaints like Coombs’ are fairly common.

Graham said home repair complaints are historically in the top ten lists of complaints that they get monthly, yearly, quite often.

Graham said some signs that you may be dealing with a less than reputable contractor; someone who asks they get paid for all the work up front, the work never gets done, the person never showed up, or after the final payment, they don't come back to finish.

"Anybody coming door to door saying I have left over materials from a job I did down the road, I would be very cautious about that, someone who only has a cell phone for their business card, if they're not listed in the local phone book, if they ask for all the money up front, that's an absolute no, no go, at most you should pay a third up front. You do want to go with referrals, you do want to know that the contractor is licensed, insured, and preferably accredited by the Better Business Bureau and any contractor that's legitimate and has all the proper licensing and insurances is going to have lines of credit and different suppliers so they don't really need you to pay everything up front."

There are also some potential scams out there you may be able to protect yourself against, if you know what to look for. You can find information about home contractors and tips to potential rip-offs by logging on to http://myrtlebeach.bbb.org.