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Good Contractor's List Kicks Out "Bad Apple"

 

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Lancaster (CBSDFW.COM) - Curtis Floyd has worked in the commercial construction industry for 30 years.

"That's why we were real selective about who we were going to go with," said Floyd.

Floyd walks with a cane after a bad fall at work.

"That's what I use to take a shower with because I can't stand up," said Floyd pointing to a chair in his bathtub.

The Floyd's needed a contractor to put a stand up shower in his bathroom and install a tub in the second bathroom of their Lancaster home.

They turned to the Good Contractors List, which is a website that vets contractors and guarantees each job up to $10,000.

"Because I had never seen anyone else do that," said Floyd of the guarantee.

Floyd hired Russel Jones of Total Home Service and Solutions off of the list.

"I asked him a lot of construction questions and he answered them," said Floyd.

The Floyd's paid him nearly $4,000 for materials but their contractor never came back.

"That money's gone. That money we saved is gone, down the tubes," said Floyd.

When Jones wouldn't call them back, the Floyd's called the Good Contractors List.

"I wanted to dive in and do some investigating because clearly we had an issue," said Charlott Barry of the Good Contractors List.

Barry found nine families that hired Jones and were now out thousands or stuck with half done projects.

John Hill started the Good Contractors list.

"He had a guy pose as the owner of the company. We got conned. It broke our heart," said Hill.

The website gaurantees each job so the company is either paying the families back or finishing the half done work.

"We're out $18,000 to $19,000," said Barry.

Russel Jones is listed as the owner for two companies: Total Home Services and Jonesco Construction.

Both appear to be fully in business.

CBS11 went to the address listed for his business but his employee said he wasn't there.

Court records show Jones was arrested for theft of property of more than $1500 with two prior theft convictions -- something the Good Contractors List would have caught if he used his real name.

"You are making this right. Why not just say, ok, we're taking care of this, no one even has to know this happened," asked CBS11's Cristin Severance.

"This is a guy, whose still doing business. We've got to take every step possible to make sure he's not taking advantage of people," said Hill.

CBS11 is still waiting for a call back from Jones.

(©2016 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

 

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