I've used Chris over the last couple years on some smaller projects.
Things seemed to be okay so I decided to use him on a very BIG project in my business.
This turned out to be a very BIG mistake. TWICE.
I hired him to do a buildout in my spa for an expansion and space that I was taking over, I was in the midst of negotiating a new lease for the new space.
Chris swung by the space and got some measurements. He then got a blueprint of the floor plans to provide to the building owner as requested.
Chris then told me that he needed a deposit to "save a spot" on his schedule for my buildout.
He told me that the deposit was $10,000 dollars which would all be spent on the initial order of SUPPLIES AND MATERIALS.
I trusted him because I had worked with him in the past. So I went ahead and gave him the $10,000 to "reserve my spot" on his schedule against my better judgment.
He reassured me again that this $10,000 was specifically for him to purchase the initial materials needed.
The lease negotiation on this new space was abruptly put on hold based on some unforeseen issues which were completely out of our control.
So explained in length to Chris what was happening and we requested our $10,000 deposit be given back. But we were willing to pay him for his time spent measuring and for the floor plans provided.
He then told me and my husband that we were only getting $3,000 dollars back. He was KEEPING $7,000!
We were completely blindsided by this. We asked him how in the world he could justify keeping our hard earned money and so he supplied us with an outrageous invoice.
Charging hundreds for getting his quote together. Charging us for text messages and phone calls. I thought I was being pranked when he sent this invoice over to us.
We were forced to finally threaten legal action if he didn't return our $10,000 minus his fee for giving us the estimate and floor plans....
And that's when he admitted that he used my money intended for "supplies" TO PAY OFF HIS LOWES CREDIT CARD!
Fast forward about a month and a half--Chris still owed us thousands of our dollars for the deposit that he took from us and spent paying off his credit card debt.
We made our SECOND huge mistake.
We completed the lease agreement for the new space and finally had the keys and were ready for the build. This buildout consisted of 6 rooms and a hallway connecting the space I had to the space I was expanding into.. not a terribly big project.
I made a horrible decision in haste and because he was still holding onto thousands of my dollars, and decided to let him do the buildout since he already had the plans and my money.
He told me that this job would take about 4 weeks, 6 AT THE MOST. And of course he wanted me to start paying him immediately for more supplies plus a weekly check for his labor.
The entire experience was a living nightmare. He hired one of my massage students, who has some construction experience, to do 90% of this job. THIS IS NOT WHO I HIRED.
The only time any work was getting done was before and after my student finished class and internship. This student is a full time student, so the work he could do in this space was extremely limited. Chris would pop in here and there and then leave pretty quickly. We went days without anyone seeing him. We have cameras in our businesses so we can see as people come and go. He was also on camera talking "crap" about me TO MY STAFF as I'm paying him to do this job. I couldn't believe it. They were also pretty offended and came to tell me about what was going on.
Chris would ghost mine or my husband's phone calls, texts and questions regarding when he would be coming in or what the time frame of completion was at this point.
It was so obvious to everyone that something was very wrong, even to the student of mine that was stuck doing all the work. But Chris had so much of my money at this point I didn't have a choice but to be patient and make him finish despite how long it was going to take. He had over $20,000 just a couple weeks in.
After 11 grueling weeks Chris claimed to be "done." He wanted his final check which we had refused to give him until completion, despite his demand to get it all before the job was even close to being done.
My floors were suppose to be sanded down to the original concrete and glossed over with a high shine epoxy. But instead they are covered in old blue paint, yellow paint and black overspray from him painting my ceilings.
I spent over $32,000 dollars with Chris and was left with an undone and unsafe space. Crooked encased openings. Non working plugs and lights. Exposed wires everywhere. He changed sizes of rooms w/out asking!!
I had to hire another construction company to come repair what Chris did and finish the project.
DO NOT USE CMB. DO NOT GIVE HIM MONEY UP FRONT. BEWARE. RUN!!!
*We have every text, email, photos, video and documents of conversations had confirming every single bit of this!* read more