HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. -- Beautiful white fences decorate many of the backyards in this Thonotosassa neighborhood.
“This is all he's done so far. There's supposed to be a gate here, and on the other side,” says Selena Lewis, who lives in the Grand Oaks Subdivision.
It's what Selena Lewis thought she would be getting when she paid Reutimann Fence Depot.
“What’s supposed to be right here? A gate to the fence,” Lewis said.
She says he came out and did half the job.
“He's left these supplies in the yard. We don't know what to do with them,” Lewis said.
But not the rest.
“We want our fence. We want our fence to be completed,” Lewis said. “It’s supposed to be 10 feet behind this tree,” said Rufus McGhee Jr., who also lives in the Grand Oaks Subdivision.
For Selena's neighbors across the street, "This check is deposited on work he intended to do with us,” McGhee said.
It was for $3,000. They say they wrote that check nearly three months ago hoping for a new fence and concrete slab.
“He cashed it, yes,” McGhee said. But never showed up to do any work.
“It's very tough, you know, because we work very hard for our money,” McGhee said.
They say phone calls have either gone unanswered or excuses are made.
"We called him, you get voicemail, then it says something about the hospital," Lewis said.
So we called him too, wondering where he was. He says there were medical issues and weather that got in the way and he promised to show up two days after our call.
That Thursday, Corbin Reutimann and his team were there.
“We get a bad name when it rains. But people don’t understand fences are the same way. We concrete every post. So, when you put water to concrete and it washes out, it washes all the concrete out," Reutimann said. "So, the rain has delayed a lot of things and you know we’ve had health problems in the family and stuff like that.
"Everything gets delayed and people don’t seem to understand that."
For these neighbors, they say they were patient enough. And although it took much longer than expected, they are happy that they finally got what they paid for.
“People take it easy on the contractors a little bit that are trying to get to what they have to do. Because we all take a bad rep when we can’t get to what we’re supposed to," Reutimann added.
"But even fence contractors, everything gets concreted. Your posts get concreted."
Now when it comes to contractors, many of them have to be licensed.
You can always check out any contractor you hire and look up their license number and any complaints filed against them by visiting this website.
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