FRAUD, SCAM, FRAUD, SCAM
i contacted Austin Cowboy stucco, a…read morecompany i found on google with 5/5 on 20 reviews with a prestigious address downtown Austin and an impressive facebook portfolio and website.
The phone listed asked me to dial 1 then redirected me to a voicemail. i did not leave a message. 7 minutes later, Lee Jimenez, the contractor called back and introduced himself as Austin Cowboy Stucco. Lee came across as experienced, kind, polite and respectful you'd be shocked to realize all this is a front for a professional scammer. Naively, i signed an estimate, not even a contract, with this stucco contractor for $52800. the contractor Lee Jimenez started to push for a 50% payment to buy supplies. i paid him $25,200. Once he got the money, he started to not be prompt at answering phone texts. he was supposed to give me invoices for materials ordered, agree and commit to a warrantee vervatum in a contract , and he was supposed to give me a bid for stone work. He never did. After a series of lies, i started to be suspicious. I was confused when I noticed that the company name on the estimate was Lone Star Construction Services and Lone Star Stucco and Stone with no mention of Austin Cowboy Stucco . i looked up Lone Star company reviews on google, Houzz, BBB and other sites, they were poor across the board, with several reports indicating a pattern of walking away with customers money, doing minimal or no work and then not responding to all communications. i visited the location of Austin Cowboy Stucco who i originally called. it was a residential building with a fake suite number 111 that never existed in that building. I realized it was a Fake company with fake address and fake reviews and a phone number that connects you to Lee at Lone Star Construction Services. I realized Lee used the shell company name Austin Cowboy Stucco to bypass his poor reviews which expose his fraudulent behaviors, and to collect customers money through deceit. All this happened within less than 2 weeks of our initial meeting. I texted him to cancel the order and pay me back. He stated he himself was not interested in doing the job. he was surprised the bad reviews were not taken down as it was 8 years ago, but actually most reviews are much more recent than that one review on Houzz which indicates this behavior goes back at least a decade. Obviously he manipulates the platforms reviews to his favor.He never returned my money. He never produced invoice evidence that he purchased any materials. Again, as reported in other reviews he is unresponsive to communication. I was a lucrative fraud victim of this criminal. I will keep you posted of the law suit coming his way.