We signed a simple contract (no fancy company form) with a plumber. They did not show up, nor called until I called them. They said they will show up some other day, not sure when. A long story short - they rescheduled, but seemed uncooperative after I wanted a county inspector to inspect their work (after they would be done in the future) and after I asked them to pull a work permit. They seem not to be licensed with Residential Builder's Commission. Now they told me I must wait nearly 2 months to get my money back as they say they already bought the materials for the advance payment that I paid them. I said it's ok to refund part money and part materials for the job, but they still unhappy and they now told me the plumber went to a hospital for 1 month. I think they are liars and they just trying to keep my oney, but they don't realize how big of the trouble they got themselves into since I'm gonna file a complaint of unlicensed contractor to the State Investigations and Enforcement commission etc. I guess I hit the scammers yet again... but I know what to do: report them, they get fined, cease and desist and prison time, then sue them in Small Claims Court and go to the end until their property gets sold and I get compensated. The money they got from me is over $1000 (for buying materials). I also will write and post my story in the forums and on a blog, so their plumbing company gets really damaged and hopefully they will not get much business anymore. Once I go after someone, it's for life. Any additional suggestions or experiences?

I agree that mistake #1 is letting a kid decide to go live elsewhere 'BECAUSE THEY DON'T LIKE THE RULES'... I mean duh! what kid likes the rules and wouldn't want to go live where they think they can get away with more? When you abdicate your parental authority to the grandparents and they are not savvy enough to watch her.. or they are older & don't have the energy to keep up with what she's doing or whatever the reason... I don't get why people think that it's okay to send their kids off to grandparents to raise, especially when they cannot control them themselves. And the he wants to be able to exert some control from his recliner? (Sorry, I just get a mental picture of a guy, relaxing in his easy chair... yelling at kids to stop jumping on the bed.. but he's too lazy to go into the next room and see what they are doing or make them stop. and then gets really mad at them for not listening when someone falls off and gets hurt!) The only advice I can give is to tell your DH to get off his easy chair and go get his daughter and BE A PARENT to her. It ain't easy and he may not get the results he wants, but if he's going to send her to live with anyone else, he has no right whatsoever to complain about what happens...

You could also maybe give your friends a break. I had a close friend who was very self involved. I told her three times what I wanted her to do (come see my very big project). She had time. She was in the area. She made really lame excuses why she didn't. Then she moved away with no notice and instead of calling me where she knew I'd be, she left a message on my answering machine saying the only time I could see them before they left was at a party they were having during my work hours. I didn't know how to respond and the advice I got was "who says you have to?" Then she wrote some letters without one word inquiring or commenting about me. Not the 2nd grade "How are you?" that we're taught to open with. We've been in touch a few times since, but I basically dropped her. I regret it. I know I needed to do it rather than be hurt by her, and I have better friends, but I do miss her and I wish I could have just let it slide and accepted that that's the way she was. Another friend stopped talking to me because I didn't understand what she needed from me after a death in her family. I didn't know why until at least a decade later, when she got back in touch, briefly (I'm guessing a therapist told her to mend fences). When she told me, she mentioned that she'd done what she needed for herself for me when my uncle had died. I didn't know that she was doing it so couldn't pattern it. It wasn't articulated that that's what one does (in her lights) when someone loses a family member. I would have tried. I miss her too. I have closer and better friends, but I wish she could have explained or accepted, and given me a break.

if it is helpful, I can post up the contract. @midcenturymodernlove What is crazy is we haven't given them a hard time about THEIR mistakes or about how long this has taken. As long as it is done right. But know the owner is somehow determining that all the sloppy work that was done is somehow my fault. @M V Much of it is sloppiness. Or forgetfulness of what was requested. I kept track of everything with pictures and notes, but haven't presented them to the owner of the company yet. For the reason explained above with midcenturymodernlove. We have some solo contractors we work with that could finish the job if need be. that is the point I was at today. For instance in this picture.. it was my fault for not telling them to move the molding before tiling. Why should I have to tell them that. Isn't it common sense.? They consider this a change on my part. @GreenDesigns Just a basic contract. We asked for time frame.. he said he would get it to us. Months in to the project we realized that was a lie. They have been paid 3/4 of the total to date. Recently they tried to get us to make the last payment or part of it,, and we flat out declined until everything was done. There are no mention of changes. None of my changes were changes to anything in the contract. It was stuff like.. " Can you make the shower control higher" While walls are open. There were NO DESIGN DOCUMENTS AT ALL. This is what irked me the most. During the contract phase he told us we would have a designer to help us. Then when it came time to put walls up they said they would only have the designer come in AFTER we choose were to put the walls and how to part the space. They are licensed, don't know if we have copies. Same with insurance. Don't know about bond or the rest @inabunker We should have cut this off early when we saw the warning signs. @Anthony Perez NO manager on site at all. The workers showed up around 7:30am on their own. SOMETIMES, if we were lucky the so called manager would come at 10 for about an hour. It was evident there was no management to me... once we had to fight with the contractor to accept they had to fix the joists and take down the wall they put up. We told them to contact their boss and verify. So instead of the manager overseeing and finding mistakes, I would. Which wasn't a problem. i informed them and let them now.. However, now I regret it.. because all of those fixes are being blamed as changes on my part... or incorrect things I instructed them to do.