Eric of West Hills writes:

We contracted with Royal Oak to re-finish the hardwood floors in our home.  quoted us a price that included the refinishing of all existing floors as well as the cost of adding additional flooring to another part of the house.  We paid him about 75% of the money leaving out only the part that he was waiting to do.  

The tiles had to be ordered and the delay between both parts of the job was said to be about 2 weeks.  He never finished the job, said that the tiles were unavailable, and hasn't returned any of our calls.  

We called all of the tile distributors and found the tiles at the main distributor that he buys from. We only gave him the contract because it included all of the job and now that he took the money from the larger part of the job it will cost us too much as a stand-alone project.  The reason he got the job was because it was part of a larger job.  

We should have only been required to pay 10% of the total job, instead he took advantage of my wife and got the majority of the money.

In the process of doing the 1st part of the job his workers ruined the carpet that he was going to replace with flooring.  We have since had our home reappraised and the appraisal was less because the flooring was incomplete and the carpet was ruined.  

My small children now have to crawl and play on nasty, disgusting carpet.  

We entertain for business purposes often and it's embarrassing when people see the incomplete job.  Emotonally, we have been wronged.  My wife is now jaded against all contract type businesses, and I feel taken advantage of.  

If Mr. P signed a contract that obligated him to complete the work in exchange for the agreed-upon sum and he did not do so, then Eric should hasten to Small Claims Court.  There is a lesson in this:  don't pay too much up front.