Like Father, NOT like Son (Why you can't trust ANYONE in DR)

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SKing

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Nov 22, 2007
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Well,
I must say that first of all, it pains me to write this thread but all of us here have an obligation to other expats to disclose when we've been ripped off or otherwise used.
I am very upset and although my respect and admiration for Hillbilly remains intact, I believe his son should be shown for the thief that he is.

I used HB's son for various projects around my house, lost a lot of money and gained a lot of nothing. I trusted him, because I trust his father and he took that trust and my naivete (spelling?) and used it for his personal gain.

He took me to buy my Inversor and ceiling fans. He told me not to come into the stores because if they saw me they would double or triple the price. The Inversor is not working now and I have since found out that it was bought used. Betania says that she thought it didn't look new when he bought it into the house and she asked him and he said "No, este es nuevecito con su caja y todo". I barely knew what an inversor looked like and had no reason to distrust him. I called him last night to tell him that the Inversor was not working and he said he'd be here this AM. Of course, he did not come. When we called this afternoon his answer was that he has been calling me all day on my cell phone which is a lie because I have my cell phone with me at all times. We are still waiting for him as I write this and of course, I already know that he will not show because he never does.

The ceiling fans that his worker put it began to rattle after about a week and we were told that they sometimes do that, another lie. I had to repay a Dominican to put them in correctly and they have not rattled since, that was in October.

All of the work that I needed done could have been completed in 1 day, at the most 1 and a half. But his worker and he stopped by randomly for 2 weeks for an hour to 2 hours doing work and each time I had to pay something.

I was charged 1200rd to fix a hole in the Cisterna that I subsequently had 3 Dominicans look at and they each told me separately that to fix it should've cost 200rd-300rd (2 of them said 300rd, and 1 said 200rd). One day he bought a Haitian to my house to finish the hole in the Cisterna and had me pay the Haitian 500rd for fixing it even though he had already charged me 1200rd.

His worker fixed a doorknob for my bedroom TWICE. Meaning that he put a brand new doorknob that I bought at Ochoa on for me, it fell off, he came back and put it back on again, it fell off...the 3rd time, I called Betania's brother who came and put it on for me and it hasn't fallen off since.

They charged me and CLAIMED that they "fixed" my water heater when the only reason it didn't work was because I had 110 voltage from Edenorte instead of 220 voltage. They knew this and charged me even though they did NOTHING to the water heater. When I called him on this he says "Oh yeah, well I've gone to Edenorte to have them change your house to 220. They will be there in the next week" knowing damn well that you can't just go to Edenorte and have them change something on a house that is not yours.

He charged me for electrical work that was not needed nor done, trying to scare me by saying that if he didn't do it my appliances would all fry and I would have to buy them again. The work was not needed nor did he do anything because the renter before me had all ceiling fans, air conditioners, and more expensive appliances than what I have and nothing ever fried because everything was already grounded.

I have asked him for an Invoice over 10 times for the work that he did to my house so that I can give it to the Landlord to try to recoup some of the money and have STILL yet to receive the Invoice, this has been since October asking. I even stooped so low as to send HB an email to ask him to have his son give me an Invoice. Today is January 18th.....still no Invoice, waiting since October. After telling the .Landlord about the work and what he charged me she asked me for the Invoice which we are still waiting for. She says to me a couple of weeks ago "He is never going to give you an Invoice because he knows that you are going to give it to me and I'm gonna call him on it because he cheated and used you."
Seems to be the truth

I try to be cautious and not trust Dominicans but now I see, and I'm letting you all know, that we have to be cautious with even people that we think are looking out for us or are recommended. HB is in no way responsible for the actions of his son but because it was his son I did not question some things that normally I would have. For 2 weeks everything was fine but as you see, in the end it isn't.

With materials and what he charged me I spent over 15,000rd, not counting what I had to pay to have the majority of the work redone or paying for work that wasn't really done, and this is money that I have to now suck up.
I may brag on what I make but I am single and I support 3 kids here in Santiago, I pay ALL of my college daughter's bills in North Carolina (school expenses, phone, rent, lights, gas, water, car insurance, etc), I pay my OWN Midwifery school tuition, buy 2 International flights per month to go to work, and I don't have money to throw away.

I just thought you guys ought to know and even HB ought to know because I am very upset and disappointed with what his son has done to me.

Now I will try to sell this NON functioning USED Inversor so that I can buy a NEW one, and this time I will go INTO the store and make sure myself that it is new.

Thanks,

SHALENA
 
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puntarucia

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Jan 19, 2013
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Probably my first and last post: No name calling

WOW! Talk about a surprise! Oh well. For my first post on DR1, here is my side of the issue brought to light by Miss King.

I took Miss King out shopping for many things for her house, including ceiling fans at a hardware store which she chose and paid for. Then I took her to a Batteries and inverter store (top quality in the country) where she got the inverter and brand new batteries. As it was explained to her, she got the inverter that was on display and for ALL the ITEMS she got a RECEIPT and WARANTY. I did ask her to let me do the negotiations at the store because I buy like a 100 inverters a year for my Industrial clients from this company, got a good price and discussed this with Miss King. She agreed to buy these ITEMS. All this time and as a favor to her for being a friend of my beloved father, I was being her personal driver on my bill.

She could compare the prices for everything she bought at the hardware store and the inverter place and decide for the BEST one, and she did. She also knew d@mn well what an inverter was because she used to have a busted one when she lived with her husband before as she told me. I also explained in detail at the store what we were doing.

I also explained to Miss king that my line of work was industrial and commercial and one of my workers with residential experience will take care of her installations, she discussed prices with him, and I agreed to this prices and he gave her a written piece of paper (yellow if my memory is ok) and did all the installations for her. Her wiring in all the places where she was going to put a fan had to be redone because in order to install the fans you need to rewire with three lines instead of the two that she had on EVERY place that a fan was to be installed. If the fans made noises, she should have called him, since she had made a deal with him. I told her I don’t do residential work but as a favor to the old man, I would help her out.

Her cistern was a mess!! This is what we found:
Busted pipes and the automatic shut off valve was broken or unserviceable, two holes in the cistern walls, a busted check valve and MUD in the bottom of the cistern. This was a bottomless pit for wasting money, because, when they had power, water and electricity where wasted… BIG TIME!! Imagine if you can, a motor running ALL day and a pipe leaking water on the yard and infiltrating MUD back into your cistern.

After agreeing to a price with my worker and consulting me abut it, the following actions were taken:
Plumbing was fixed REALLY WELL, Automatic valve was changed. All materials bought and paid for by Miss King herself. I was not involved in these purchases.

The cleaning of the tank, unclogging of the check valve, sealing of the holes in the wall left there by a prior owner finished this job.

What was the problem here? Well I had to bring another of my workers to dig a hole a meter deep to reach these holes from the outside walls, cement and seal it and then work the inside of the cistern.

And YES, as Miss King points out, he is a Haitian who happens to be a LEGAL HARD WORKING resident of the DR that has been working with us for five years with no complains from ANY of our clients. A REAL worker.

I had no Idea of a doorknob been installed in Miss King’s house by my worker but there is no excuse it should be installed in a proper manner by the worker.

The water heater subject was brought to my attention after Miss King arranged this with my worker and when I took a look at it I discovered that it was plugged into a 110 volt circuit and It needed 220 volts to work properly. This I discussed with Miss King and used my industrial contacts to ASK EDENORTE to supply her with a BTC2 service replacing her BTC1 service. I find out latter that when they called her she was out of the country and with my busy schedule I forgot to follow up on this for which I’m really sorry and the only one to blame. This is a simple change of service there is no extra cost involved other than “fianza”—a security deposit-- from BTC1 that is aprox. RD$ 1200 to BTC2 that is aprox. RD$2400.

The main electrical supply to her house had been changed from thisBTC2 service and the ground cable removed by the prior owner leaving her main breaker box TOTALLY unprotected, poorly wired and all secondary grounding in the house unconnected to anything. Her washing machine wall receptacle had NO GROUNDING WIRE as the ones in the kitchen where ALL her new appliances were plugged into.

Following UL and NEC codes, I unplugged the main supply from the box and EDENORTE, pulled the two supply cables out and put them back in along with a third cable for grounding, and connected it to the EDENORTE ground and, as an EXTRA protection (because sometimes EDENORTE disconnects their ground by accident, and every line becomes 220), I installed a grounding rod for the whole system. All this work was done in my presence under my supervision and in front of the person in charge of the house at the moment with materials bought by Miss King herself.

ALL of my suppliers are the best local suppliers and they REALLY honor their warranties as I do with my work and the few complaints are solved in a proper professional way. Of the thousand or so clients that I have and the hundreds that I help solve their problems referred to me by my Beloved father known to you as HB, only three, including Miss King have complaiedn and TWO of those where taken care of at NO COST honoring a WARRANTY, Both of them from out of the city (Esperanza and Sabaneta) . The untimely delays were the main issue and that I had absolutely no control over, besides constant phone calls to get them moving on this. Today, both systems are functioning fine.

Regarding the issue of the Invoice, she has a point. There are some complications. Since I did not receive any payment directly for my company—my employees did, the ones that she asked to do the work and that she paid They got the money and there was no ITBIS or Income Tax paid to the government, so I can’t generate an invoice with my RNC number since I would then be on the hook for that tax money! I can give her a receipt and have told her that. Her landlord wants a receipt with an RNC….Catch22! I will try and find a solution to this. All I got out of this was the expenses of driving my workers around finding the parts and supplied needed to solve her problems. Lesson learned.

Most of my father’s friends use my services to buy electric equipment in Santiago at the best market price and I think this is the first time someone called me what Miss King did regarding the purchase of equipment, Friends in Puerto Plata, Samana, Sosua, Luperon, Santiago, ETC have paid contractor prices instead of retail price on ITEMS related to my business.

NO PERSONAL GAIN was involved, just some fuel expenses getting people around, even out of the city, as I did with Miss King when she went shopping for her furniture. And all this I do and did because when I am doing them a favor, I’m also doing my DAD a favor. Most of the people are grateful to my father, some just take advantage of him but that’s his way and I REALLY LOVE HIM FOR THAT.






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