Business ProfileforSGB Builders

I had contacted this company to replace the siding on our house and some of the trim work. Also, we were interested in having front steps built at the main formal entrance to our home. I met with a rep from SGB Builders. He seemed like a very personable young man. He asked how we found their business. I advised that I had located them through the Better Business Bureau website. He seemed quite proud of being part of the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and assured me that in order to be listed with the BBB, the BBB has strict requirements that the business must meet. I found this comforting. This was my first mistake.He looked over all the work to be done and advised that he would be sending an estimate at the end of the week. I had expected to receive a formal proposal, but I thought I would address this matter once I decided on which contractor to hire.I had read through the BBB recommendations to the consumer about how a consumer should go about hiring a contractor. I have also been in law enforcement for 20 years and am painfully aware of how people can be taken by contractors misrepresenting themselves or by doing shabby work. With all this in mind, I asked this rep for references and proof of insurance. He advised that he would have his insurance company send me proof of insurance. He would email me a list of references. All seemed to be going well. However, when I received the list of references, the phone numbers listed were all from out of state. Namely *************, ***********, and even as far away as Virginia. The whole point of asking for references is not only to speak to past customers, but to be able to drive and look at the work that has been done.I am aware that sometimes when people move out of state they keep the same cell phone number that they had from their home state. With this in mind, I email this company and explained what I had noticed about the phone numbers originating from out of state and requested a few local references. To say I was shocked and pretty upset at their response would be an understatement. This company responded as follows: "Yes I do but those I have gave you already also live right in ****** *******. I'm sorry but I'm very busy to have to give more references. I wish you the best on your project but I will have to respectfully decline."A company refusing to provide local references and/or not be willing to explain - without taking offense - that the references they have already supplied were located in *******, sends up big red flags for me. I had met with other contractors prior to meeting with this company who I had informed I would not be hiring as we had decided to go with SGB Builders. Now we are left with a mess and have pretty much-exhausted contractors serving this area. I don't think that a company should agree to take a job and then quit because the consumer has asked for local references. I would think that since this is one of the things the BBB tells consumers to do prior to hiring a contractor, that they would ensure all the contractors listed on the BBB site are abiding by and cooperating with the BBB recommendations. If the BBB is not doing this, then how can they recommend/accredit anyone?I had also asked this company if we could arrange the timing to have the siding stained prior to installations, due to the fact if it is not stained on both sides the siding will have a greater tendency to warp. All the other contractors I met with recommended doing this for that very reason. This rep had advised that they don't do any painting and he would have to speak with the painter that they use. This is why I was asking if he could coordinate staining prior to installation. It appears that he considered this an unreasonable request too.In the end, I thought if I hired someone listed with the BBB they would gladly provide references and be willing to work with the customer's reasonable requests. This was my second mistake.