Walt Taormina is banned from contacting us and we are not the first customers he has threatened and frightened to the point that he has been barred from their property. Others have experienced the same hostility and threats as well as shoddy workmanship and dishonesty. We are sharing our experience with the hope that others heed the warning.
We hired Walter to renovate kitchen and reface cabinets. The positive reviews on Home Advisor are about Jose, realize that they are all focused on Jose, his carpenter. Walt said Jose hurt his back, his workers said they had a falling out and then Walt in another review rubuttal said he had had to go to Cuba for his dad. Just more untruths. Start of project- Walt told us that Elias woodworking was "the best" and would be making our cabinets. Two months in, Walt had a falling out with them also. We contacted Elias in Canada who politely responded "We will not be working with his company moving forward. (We also learned that Walter charged us for stain fee that they had refunded)
We expect that Walter will respond to our review defensively as he has with the other negative reviews. Apparently, defensiveness and blaming the customer are his default-- to bad reviews and whenever there is a hiccup in the project. When our countertop was cut too small, everyone was calm... except for Walter who couldn't contain himself. His barrage of anti-Semitic, profane-laced laced texts included threatening my Navy veteran husband, challenging him "to fight in a cage match" and a wildly inappropriate right-winged political text and commentary about being "part of a New America". He added "you complain like a little old Long Island J*w b*tch". We felt for the safety of our family, he should be prohibited from contacting us again and wrote him a text "given what transpired, we think it is best...." He responded with 11 texts describing what an elite athlete he was and attaching photos of his trophies.
A contractor who witnessed everything that transpired came alone to finish the job. (This was his first time working with Walter). He had the integrity and skill to uncover issues that would have put our family in grave danger. What he (and an independent licensed electrician uncovered was disturbing on another level. The electrical work was shoddy and not to code. A metal conduit was cut straight through and drywalled over. (Only because the new contractor insisted on redoing the shoddy drywall job was this discovered). We learned that Jose, Walt's contractor who replaced the other Jose) was not a licensed electrician. This is how houses burn down. All of it had to be redone at our own expense. We learned that Walter is unlicensed AND uninsured.
It goes on: Walt sold us a sink that he had in his garage that he overcharged us for and was damaged. He added random, undiscussed charges to our final bill, including $600 to remove the old granite counter (which sat in our driveway for weeks). Though he promised us that he didn't make money in mark-ups, he marked up items as much as 500% (he charged us $120 for a $23 Lutron switch). He is a thief. We were missing a handle from out cabinets and when we asked Walter, he feigned ignorance until finally retrieving it from his truck, explaining that he was going to use it as a sample.
It is unfathomable that someone like Walter Taormina is out there getting work, terrorizing customers along the way. We agree with other reviewers who describe him as "a vile human being" and "threatening". If he ever comes near our family or contacts us directly, we will contact the police. read more