My name is James Farwell, I am the Head of School at Montessori School of Fort Myers since 2013. On August 9, 2024 our school signed a proposal with Jason Cottrell, the owner of JCI Home Services LLC for $49,708.84 to do some renovations work on our playground. We promptly paid a deposit of $16,569.61 on that same date. Jason was very nice to work with before he received our deposit. We gave Jason a set of sketched drawings and list of the exact hardware that we wanted. On October 10, 2024 we received a first draft set of engineered drawings. On October 15, 2024, we requested minor changes that should have taken the structural engineer less than 10 minutes to make. We requested an update on November 4, 2024, November 22, 2024, and December 5, 2024 with "we are working on it" type responses. On December 5, 2024 I notified Jason Cottrell that we were unhappy and that we needed to discuss ending our relationship and choosing another contractor. I called and texted Jason Cottrell several times and received no reply. On December 18, 2024 at 4:57pm, I emailed Jason to say that we were terminating our agreement with him per our contract which says we have the right to. It was over 4 months at that point without even having received a set of finished engineered drawings - let alone the future time needed for permits and completing the work. I called and texted more with no response from Jason. I spoke with his office staff who said that he was out of the country for approximately one month and would not be able to contact me. A month with no mobile phone? This is an unacceptable and unprofessional response. On January 8, 2025 I clarified that we were moving forward with another contractor. On January 21, 2025 I emailed Jason to notify him that he had until January 22, 2025 at 5:00pm EDT to call me to discuss a peaceful ending. On January 22, 2025 at 4:55pm (5 minutes before my deadline to file the lawsuit against him), Jason Cottrell called me to apologize for handling the whole project poorly. He agreed to give us a full refund and I agreed to give him one week for us to receive payment. On January 29, 2025 Jason Cottrell passed that deadline and we are now pursuing litigation with JCI Home Service LLC. To date, we have been accused of doing nothing wrong nor otherwise causing difficulty on this project. I has been now been over 5 months that Jason has held our money. Per the contract, we have Jason caught red handed and we will also be seeking reasonable attorney fees, costs and expenses in addition to other relief. That said, we are a small family-owned Montessori school with no desire to engage in a dispute like this but this is one of those times in life where you are forced to fight. The time and money to fight that will hurt our school - staff, students, and their families. If this is how Jason treats a calm reasonable client with modest needs, I can't imagine how he treats others. If you are considering working with Jason or JCI Homer Services LLC ask him about this review and if any part of it is false - you will find that it is not. Caveat emptor.
Update 2/18/2025: After I filed several reviews like this one, and filed a complaint with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) for Jason's contractor license and the Office of the Attorney general for the State of Florida, and had my attorney begin drafting the lawsuit, Jason finally called me. He mumbled excuses and said he needed more time to refund my deposit since he didn't have the money, mentioning that he would have to "hawk" some things to raise the money to pay me back. I told him that I refuse to believe that a business owner of his age and assets does not have $16,569.61 to pay me back, and that the only thing that mattered was giving my money back, that I would pursue my options to get my money back, and I ended the conversation. He finally decided he did have the money and gave me a check later that day. While I have lost lot of time and endured a lot of stress from this ordeal, I did get my money back but I still don't feel the situation was settled fairly since I will receive no compensation for the trouble caused to me and our school. read more