E Legnon Emergency Plumbing

Review: This is a formal complaint against [redacted] aka [redacted] aka [redacted], who works out of the Houma & Morgan City area.On Sept 9, 2014, Mr [redacted] came to our home to provide an estimate. By 'our', I am referring to [redacted] (owner of this house) & myself, [redacted] The estimate would be to replumb the entire house hence replacing all galvanized pipes. Also, he wanted to add several shut off valves & change a faulty hot water heater valve. Total estimate was $2300.Mr [redacted] agreed to work with us on payment & asked for a $500 deposit. We told him we agreed & would let him know when we were ready for him to begin working. We informed him that we work 7 days on & 7 days off from work & that he would work only when we were home.Mr [redacted] came to our home onNov 7,2014. [redacted] gave him a $500 deposit. He stated he would return after wrapping up another job & would like an additional $500 at that time. We agreed.OnNov 13, 2014[redacted] arrived home from work to see Mr [redacted]'s helper sitting outside. Mr [redacted] was not there. We were not told that he would be working while we were not present. She saw they had dug a small trench in the yard (please refer to attached pictures & video) & had exposed part of the main water line coming away from the water meter. [redacted] asked his helper how long had they been there because obviously we were not home at the time. He said about an hour. She asked where was Mr [redacted] & he replied that he had left to go get parts. Roughly 20 minutes later, he returned & [redacted] spoke with him inside where she had been waiting for him. They spoke for about 20 minutes & he informed her that he would return the next day to finish the trench & change the water heater valve. He asked for an additional $500 & [redacted] gave it to him. He was given cash both times & each time, he was asked to notate it on the original invoice estimate. At that time [redacted] asked him to also change our bathroom shower faucet. He agreed to do so for $200 parts & labor & added that to the invoice. (It was written in on the left side of the invoice) Bringing the total job to $2500, of which he had now received $1000. At this point, Mr [redacted] had worked a total of one hour according to his helper. He did not return the next day to do the work as he said he would.[redacted] & I began our days off from work on Tuesday Nov 18th. We called Mr [redacted] to inform him that he could come at any time to resume the job. When we were finally able to get a hold of him, he said he had another job to tend to & then asked if we had his $500. [redacted] said she would give him the money when he returned to do some work. We did not hear from him for the remainder of our days off. We returned to work on Nov 25th.We called Mr [redacted] at7amon Dec 2. We left a voicemail which he returned. I spoke with him, asking when he would return because we were again off for 7 days. He stated he had been hospitalized the previous week for pneumonia & wasnt feeling well. He did however, say that he would be here in a couple hours. He then asked me if we had his $500. I told him he will have additional payment when he returned to work on the pipes.By 11 or 12 that morning, Mr [redacted] had not shown up. I called him. He stated he wasnt feeling well enough to get out of bed. I told him to call us in a couple of days & we hoped he felt better soon. He then said he would need his $500 when he came back. Again, I told him he would be paid when he did more work. We did not hear from him again for the remainder of our days off.[redacted] & I returned to work on Tuesday Dec 9h. [redacted] called Mr [redacted] on Wednesday Dec 10th. She told him that we were not happy with his services. Since Nov 7th, he had 2 1/2 weeks of available time to work on the job we hired him for. All he had done was 1 hour of work with nothing to show for it but a hole in our yard with an exposed water line. He said he was waitimg for us to let him know when we were off. She reminded him of the phone calls from the previous week when he stated he was sick. She then told him we wanted a refund & for him to come get whatever supplies he had purchased. She felt it was more than generous to allow him to keep $200 of the $1000 we had paid him so far. He stated he couldn't return our money until Monday. I called him mid morning on Monday Dec 15th & he said he would be there after lunch. I called him at1pmor so & his side of the conversation was mostly unintelligable, saying he was coming & he hung up on me.After speaking with a family friend who is a retired master plumber, we realized a few things. Mr [redacted] does not have a state plumbing license # on his invoice. Nor did he have any signage on his truck. I then called the state plumbing board on Dec 15th. I spoke with [redacted] She informed me that they had one listing for an E. [redacted] & that he had let his license expire in 2004. I explained to her what had happened & she asked that I write this statement.When [redacted] got home from work early that afternoon, we began calling other plumbers in the Morgan City area. One we spoke with knew who we were talking about before [redacted] even said his full name. This plumber wishes to remain anonymous, as he worked for/with him many years ago. He told us that Mr [redacted] had been 'run out of Morgan City & has scammed so many people that it was ridiculous' & that he had heard of him charging an elderly woman $1000 to change a wax ring on a toilet. He also told us that Mr [redacted] had been arrested in the past for fraud/theft for doing this before. We asked him to look in their local phone book for an address, since there wasnt one on our invoice. Ms [redacted] with the plumbing board stated she needed one to send paperwork to. He gave us an address which you will see below. After hanging up, we did a little internet research with the phone numbers we had for Mr [redacted]. It turns outDesired Settlement: I want the whole $1000 dollars that I paid to this man. There were no services done and I am left with a large whole in my yard.