Pittsburgh-area company finishes project left abandoned by another contractor

A West Mifflin family paid thousands of dollars to a contractor for a new wall, but two years later, all the couple had to show for it were unanswered text messages and a sliding pile of dirt. When a local company owner heard what happened, he said he wanted to make it right. 

Muddy, messy and nowhere near done, the Ruffing family called KDKA Investigates in early April to ask how long is too long to wait on a home improvement project. 

Pam and Dennis Ruffing wanted a new wall and hired Shiloh Landscaping out of Bedford, Pennsylvania, nearly two years ago for a $6,750 job. But after handing over $4,000, the project never happened.

"He said his truck broke down and then he had a fire in his trailer and then just didn't see him," said Pam Ruffing.

After KDKA-TV's reporting hit the air, local contractor Ray Benvenuti reached out.

"I had a guy on Facebook, one of my good friends, IM me and say, 'hey, one of your friends covered a story' — and we actually just did a job for a lady who got scammed out of money — and he gives me a call and says 'she just covered a story, some people in West Mifflin got scammed out of money' and I'm sick of seeing this stuff going on," Benvenuti said.

So his crew from Benvenuti Landscaping and Reconstruction got to work immediately, donating their time and sweat equity. And a local hardware store got involved too.

"Option Supply helped out with the block and we took care of the rest," said Benvenuti.

The Ruffings couldn't believe it. They watched it all unfold from the front porch.

"It's amazing," said Pam Ruffing. "I really appreciate it."

And the finished project stunned the family: a brand new wall, and even another small corner wall framing the steps to the front door. It was a few days of hard work, versus what the Ruffings called "two years of excuses."

"It's a little tedious because we had to start from scratch a little bit and match somebody else's work. I mean, we'll get it done, we're professionals," Benvenuti said. 

That they are, restoring the Ruffings' trust in contractors again.

"I'm very thankful," said Ruffing. "I didn't think it was ever going to get fixed."