Jacquelyn M.

We were connected to, JDW EXTERIORS in Wilmington NC, on 4/27/20, through HomeAdvisor. David, the owner, called us, charmed us, & gave an estimate. He even watered our plants! What a charmer! He sent a link to apply for a loan to fund the job & he walked us through the process to apply. He instructed us to send him a check for $4,246.66, which we did. He put a dumpster in our front driveway, weeks before the project was to start. This is a vacation rental home with potentially 4 vehicles or more needing to park. The day the dumpster was placed we contacted David & explained the situation, asking that it be moved to the back yard entry where there was ample room. Initially, David sent us a message saying he didn't believe the dumpster blocked the driveway. After sending him pictures & explaining how critical this was to our business if there was no parking, David said it would be moved in 2 days. It was never moved – it sat there for weeks blocking the driveway while no work was being done. We received a bad review stating the dumpster was a"HUGE EYESORE" that spanned across 4 international vacation websites & got no rentals for weeks after that in peak season. After sending David $4,246.66, & paying the set up fees & interest for the loan he had us obtain, JDW EXTERIORS did not show up on 6/6/20 as promised. David sent us a text & a picture of rain stating they couldn't work. Our local rental manager reported to us that there was no rain. We relayed this to David & asked him where he was & where did he take that picture? No reply received from David. After more messages from us he finally said "I don't believe those people" in reference to our rental manager's report of clear weather. Unbeknownst to David, we drove the 4 hours from our home in Charlotte to the site that morning & saw that it was not raining, had not rained, & there were no clouds, no thunder, only sun. We informed David of this but he continued to say things like "I won't send my men up ladders in the lightening." There was no lightning. It was a beautiful day. We continued to message David that we didn't understand what was going on. Then David changed his story & said he was working in another town where it rained & his tools got wet so he couldn't work for the rest of the day. Now David must think we're stupid as it was so sunny that any wet ladder or tool would have dried in 30 minutes max. So an entire company is going to shut down their business for a whole day because a ladder got wet? We are not idiots. We sent a message to David asking him to please call - after several hours he did. He basically relayed to my husband, they had big jobs that were more important & they don't typically do jobs like ours. Huh? Why did they take on our job if this is not a job they normally do? So basically what it boils down to is they had another more lucrative job they were working on somewhere else. David sent us a message stating they would come & get the small amount of siding they had delivered & mail back our deposit check if we preferred to cancel, & we could find another contractor. We asked him to please do the right thing & just do the work they promised. We stopped hearing from David. He would not respond to messages.
The next day we notified HomeAdvisor, by writing a complaint & we emailed JDW EXTERIORS of this. Shortly thereafter that say, Johnnie Williamson, from JDW EXTERIORS sent an email stating they were "pting out" of our job. We immediately emailed a response telling them to remove the small amount of siding they delivered & the dumpster if they were not going to do the work. JDW EXTERIORS sent us a receipt stating we owed them a balance but they were going to waive it & just keep the $4,246.66 even though they did NO work. How can a company agree to do a job, take money, do no work, then cancel the job & keep the money. Now this is quite a racket! You could do this all day long & make a nice living, huh? We had put a hold on rentals that week for this job which cost us an additional $1,670.42. We will never know how much the bad review cost us in rentals. Reviews are one of the main driving forces behind vacation rental property revenue. We have texts & emails documenting EVERY interaction with JDW EXTERIORS from day 1 as evidence to our claim. We would like to know how JDW EXTERIORS likes having a review like this that potentially hurts their business just like they hurt our business & ripped us off. We are giving everyone who reads this message & those we come in contact with a very strong warning against dishonest, JDW EXTERIORS. My husband is a senior citizen at 74 years old & I'm a nurse working 13 hour days through the covid-19 pandemic. We want to warn everyone of companies who prey on the elderly & take advantage of others during difficult times - Companies like JDW EXTERIORS.