Business ProfileforB & R Fence and More, LLC

My husband and I hired Robert and his "company" to install a fence in Feb 2021, paying a cash deposit. He wrote up an estimate for what the entire job would be which we both signed, as acknowledgement of the quote only. Robert promised that the fence would be started AND finished by "springtime", as we expressed the need for the fence due to having multiple dogs in our home. Time passed and we were not hearing from Robert, or seeing any signs of the job beginning, so we began to reach out. We were given a multitude of excuses, from deaths in the family, personal injury and illness, even the weather (as though we were not living in the same city, experiencing the same climate). We told Robert that we understood, but that we had paid $3500 in cash for a service that was not being provided. We even expressed interest in receiving our deposit back, so that we could go with a different company, and were told that we "signed a contract and couldn't back out now" (Robert persisted in calling the estimated quote a "contract" through the remainder of our communication). We informed him that what we had signed was NOT a contract, but simply a poorly written estimated quote, which wasn't even dated, had the company name scrawled sloppily across the top, and included statements such as "about 125 feet". Additionally, our requests for receipts for materials has not been honored, yet he is always saying that he is going to the store when he leaves our house. At least once a week, if not more frequently, we send a text to Robert at the number he provided, asking about progress, or when the next time he and/or his crew could be expected. He eventually began to show up at the house, for only an hour or 2 at a time, usually by himself, some days not even doing work that could be seen, around mid-June. Each time that he would show up would be the day after we texted him, threatening to contact the BBB, media sources, etc... to let them know of his terrible "work ethic". We are at the end of June, well into "springtime" (his promised deadline), and approaching summertime, and we currently have about 10 bare, unsecured posts along the side of our garage (where there is already an existing fence from the neighbor) and 2 that are barely in the ground in the driveway. His crew lounged on the steps to our house when Robert left for some unknown reason, for hours at a time, vaping, on their phones, throwing water bottles into our landscaping (which were not picked up), all while the kids and I were in the house, uncomfortable to even step outside. To date we have a few unstable fence posts in the ground, Robert's personal tools and materials scattered around our yard, and he has yet to return our deposit or finish the job that he so scarcely began. There have been many suitable days for work, and yet when we text him we either get no response at all, or yet another feeble excuse. DO NOT GIVE THIS MAN A DIME!!! HE WILL DO NOTHING BUT TAKE YOUR MONEY AND DISAPPEAR.