Contractors AKA Con-men: 2011

I am starting this blog in the hopes people with similiar experience find this information useful and to be a cathartic exercise for myself. First let me start off that my intent with this blog is not in any way to slander or make any accusations. I just want to state the facts as they played out and what we did.

Being a homeowner there are always different areas of the home that you want to improve, in this case it was our kitchen. When I purchased the home in March of 2004 I never was happy with the kitchen as it had an outdated country look so it was on my short list of the first few things I wanted to upgrade.
May 2011
We began getting bids for our kitchen renovation and met with about 5 different contractors. After communicating and getting estimates from these different contractors we decided to go with Johannesen Construction http://www.johannesen-construction.com . Peter Johannesen visited us and stayed in contact with us during the whole time we were looking for contractors. He seemed very knowledgable,convincing, and is very charismatic. In June/July of 2011 we did some background searches on him and didn't find anything at the time. The site we found Johannesen Construction on was BestContractors.com which had raving reviews on him as well as reviews on Insiderpages.com . The other contractors were not responsive except for 1 or 2 and didn't seem very interested in doing the job and not as enthusiastic.

Peter Johannesen aka Johannesen Construction

July 27, 2011

On July 27th we wrote a check to Peter Johannesen for 50% of the contract value minus the appliances which came to $13,000. The total value of the contract was for $26,000. I need to mention we added pulling up the carpeting in the living room floor to replace it with tile or wood that was included in the estimate. He had originally given us a quote for the living room for $2600, which he said would be for everything in regards to the living room flooring.

8/22/2011

The subcontractor started tearing up the carpet and prepping the floor for the wood flooring.

8/23/2011
Peter came over and then stated that the living room floor would now be an
additional $500, if we wanted quarter round because they didn't realize the baseboards were not flat on the backside. Isn't this something a professional should know? This was the first of many red flags. We started to get concerned when Peter started to add a multitude of charges for items that we had wanted prior to signing the contract.

8/24/2011
The subcontractor finished setting the remainder of the floor but did not install the thresholds as one of the thresholds that was bought was the incorrect kind. The other threshold would be held off until the new kitchen flooring is put down.

Since the flooring was near completion we had to make a final decision on the flooring. We were still leaning towards Travertine but for some reason Peter kept trying to point us toward travertine like tile instead.

We decided we still wanted Travertine and Erika informed Peter that we decided to go with the Travertine Versaille pattern. This is what we had in mind from day 1 with our initial meeting with Peter.

Some examples of these charges are the following.

Adding a new line in the kitchen for the under cabinet puck lights we were informed by Peter that he talked to his "electrician" and that it would require adding a new circuit to the kitchen and this work order change would cost $1,500. I thought this estimate was a little outragious so I called an electrician and asked them how much a new circuit in the the kitchen would cost and they said it would cost $250-$300 and then they preceeded to ask why I needed it. After explaining why it was needed they told me that there was no need to run a new circuit because the puck lights would only pull 2-4 amps.
Peter then changed his tune in an email that he only budgeted .50 to 1.50/sq. ft. and travertine would cost an additional $650. This was when our second red flag came up.

8/26/2011- 9/13/2011

From receiving his email on 8/25/11, it had been three weeks since we last had any contact from Peter.

9/14/2011

On 9/14/2011 without hearing anything from Peter from almost 3 weeks I sent him the following email with no response.

Peter,
We have a number of concerns in relation to how the kitchen renovation has gone
thus far.

1. Both Erika and I are in a fog as to what our budget is on materials up to this point for any items other than when we went and picked out the wood flooring as to which you told us to keep it between $2-4 a sq. ft. This was one of the reasons I was asking for an itemized list so that both parties had clear understanding of what the budget was and how we can plan and pick out the items we would most be happy with without any confusion. When I asked you about having a buffer so we wouldn’t go over budget, you said there was a buffer built in. I don’t see any buffer in anything.b. In regards to the living room you had stated that it would be $2,610 for everything, yet when it came to needing the quarter round you were wanting to charge an additional extra $500. Which I think is outrageously expensive. So what does the word “everything” mean to you? That is part of the flooring, is
it not? An itemized invoice or estimate would have clearly stated what we would be getting for $2610 but as of right now it looks like $2610 only got the floor put down and not everything. The flooring looks unfinished and we noticed several areas throughout were there are gaps.
2. The cabinet guys came over and showed us samples and said they would come back with the stain examples we wanted but we have never heard anything back from them. You even stated that you would be by with samples before anything got made and in the last email we received you wrote that the cabinets would be here in about two and a half weeks. But as of yet we have not seen any
samples.
3. In regards to the flooring for the kitchen, I am hearing that our budget is now .50 – 1.50 a sq. ft. which again I believe is outrageously low. Have you not seen the pictures of what we wanted? Given this new development I am concerned your budget is not going to be in line with anything we want going forward without substantial up charges. Travertine alone is more than double what you are budgeting for. So can I go with the assumption that everything you budgeted going forward falls in line with this type of estimating? I thought I had made this clear at the beginning in our conversation in this regard to making sure you were on the same page as us and we would get a loan that met the
expectations of what we wanted. Going forward I can only assume now that everything we will want will be a considerable up charge.
4. We went up to the Dal-Tile and met with Memo, as you instructed, thinking he would point us in the right direction as to what we should be looking for. Memo was caught off guard and had no idea where to point us to. Furthermore, this helped again lead me to believe that you are not communicating well with us or with your suppliers.
a. Going thru the granite we now understand there are six different level
s of granite.

We can only assume that you only budgeted for level 1?
I recall you making the point on how great your granite prices were and that you could get a good deal. Giving off the impression that you do this a lot, yet when we got to Dal-Tile we had zero guidance from Memo. Giving the impression that this was the first time you had ever done this.

b. We didn’t see level 1 granite we liked.
5. In regards to the dropping a new circuit in the kitchen, again $1500 is
outrageous, I called an electrician and got a quote of $250-$300 for a new
circuit but he stressed to me that I could pull of the existing circuit for puck
lights and they wouldn’t pull more than 2 amps. So going forward are all your
prices marked up 500%? How can we trust you now going forward with anything?
a. I am doing this exact thing in my attic above the garage myself to put
a light and plug in
b. So why would I not hire an electrician and pay $300 rather than have you
do it for $1500, I would need my head checked.

How do we move forward and get the kitchen done with any expectation level based
on your original estimate? Because it seems apparent to us that you lowballed
everything to get the job, but once we signed the contact you could make up the
difference as the project progresses.

All these concerns support the argument that your estimating are not in line
with what we want. And that everything we are going to want is does not fall
within the estimate of the $26,100.

Up to this point the only thing we have gotten done is the floor in the living
room and even that has an up charge. We talked about travertine since day 1 and
that is an upcharge. The granite, clearly if we don’t like level 1, that is an
upcharge. Electrical for puck lights, upcharge. So clearly everything we are
wanting has an upcharge.

At this point it does not seem that you can deliver what we want based on your
original estimate. Since it seems that your original estimate does not take into
consideration any of the things we were wanting. How can we have faith that we
can get anything done and that it is not going to cost us another $5000.

If you wish to call me on my cell phone- xxx-xxx-xxxx or home phone xxx-xxx-xxxx
to discuss our concerns.

Brian & Erika Silvers
9/20/2011

I left Peter a voice mail stating that we hadn't heard from him for over 3 weeks and I sent him an email with no response and I give him 24 hours to contact be back before I pursue would legal action against him.

9/21/2011

After waiting 24 hours without hearing anything back we sent Peter a certified letters thru the postal service, one to his business address and one to his home address. Here is the contents of that letter.

Peter Johannessen

Johannesen Construction

3523 McKinney Ave #216

Dallas, TX 75204

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Dear Peter,

I am writing this letter to document another method in an attempt to communicate with you. I attempted to contact you via email on 9/14/2011 describing our concerns and received no response from you. I waited 6 days for you to respond. I am attaching the email correspondence in this letter. On 9/20/2011 I left you a voice mail informing you that your lack of communication for almost a period of one month is a breach of contract and I stated in the voice mail that I would like the money back minus the $2,600 you quoted for the flooring for the living room otherwise I would begin legal action. Once again, you failed to respond to my attempt to communicate with you. This is my last and final attempt to give you an opportunity to make things right. I would like the remainder of my money back in 1 weeks’ time of you receiving this letter. I am in the process of filing both criminal and civil charges against you and for me to drop these charges it will require you to pay back the money you owe for lack of delivery of services. What you have done is a felony and I am filing charges against you. In addition to the above I have filed a claim with the Better Business Bureau describing the events. I will then start leaving reviews anywhere and everywhere on the internet that I can find you or your business’ name starting with Angie’s list. Social media is a powerful tool when it comes to getting people informed. I guarantee that the small amount of money you owe me will pale in comparison to lost revenue your business will incur. Right now I am willing to settle for $10,400 but as this progresses I will want my full $13,000 plus any additional out pocket costs for any and all litigation against you.

Sincerely,

Brian Silvers

After many failed attempts from hearing back from Peter and any hopes of getting

our money back we then decided on warning people about Peter Johannesen and his

business. We began leaving posts anywhere and everywhere his company was listed in

hopes of saving someone else from being another of his victims. We left negative

posts on Angie's List, insiderpages.com, kudzu.com, etc. This interestingly got

Peter's attention and I received an email at 2AM on 9/23/2011 with some story

that he had a death in the family and it was impossible to send out emails or

use the phone, which clearly was not true because of: a) he spoke to his

subcontractor earlier in the week, b) tweeted offers/discounts for his business,

and c) he registered a new business website for his company. By 9/23/2011 it had been almost 2 months since we wrote Peter a check for the kitchen renovation and not a single piece of material was bought for the kitchen to date.

9/22/2011
We started searching all his business listings and found the following negative reviews on insiderpages.com

Liz R.
09106111: 'Warning to all home owners'
Pretty certain that this review will not result in any comfort for me but I hope that this will help
another home owner who will surely go through what I went through with Peter Johannesen (formely known as Johannesen enterprises--current name/ business alias is Johannesen Construction).

Let me start by saying this--this guy is a born crook and a THIEF. He is very charming initially and
will convince you that he is the best contractor around. Unfortunately, you will find soon that he has a long standing history of walking away from jobs once he has made a homeowner put half of the
money for the project, up front.
He doesn't follow up on the project for weeks and doesn't return phone calls or e-mails, no matter who calls. We were left hanging dry after we hired him as he literally walked away with our deposit (half of the money for the entire project) afterjust finishing up only 20% of the renovation. We had to hire another contractor and had to pay for all the material and labor once again. Frankly, we ended up losing thousands of dollars because he just completely disappeared.
Wish, I had read some of the reviews on here and after some digging up, I found he is actually the
same guy who is listed with the Bestcontractors Website. Apparently, contractors can pay a few
hundred dollars and get registered with best contractors website and us consumers fall into the traps
set by crooks like him.
Lastly,I will just have one piece of advice--PLEASE SAVE YOURSELF FROM GETTING RIPPED
FROM HIM AND RLiN AWAY FROM JOHANNESEN ENTERPRISES/ JOHANNESEN
CONSTRUCTION as you will not be pleased with the outcome.

Michael B. 'STAY AWAY FROM THIS GUY'
Peter Johannesen is a scumbag. He comes off as knowlegable and honest and is anything but. He took our deposit money and ran.I've spoken with others and he has a history of this with Johannesen Construction, Johannesen Enterprises, Brushstroke something. He's a loser and I would be willing to bet he wrote the glowing reviews himself. STAY AWAY! (i HAD TO GIVE ONE STAR TO POST THIS IT WOULD REALLY BE -10)

The following are from kudzu.com
Lucasp
8/17/2011
Stay Far Away from Peter
Do anything don’t give Peter any money in advance. He runs his business under Johannesen Enterprises as well and has over 11 complaints in BBB in just 1 year. Took money never finished work had to hire other contractor to finish his job. Stay Far Far Away.

8/17/2011
Nancyro
The finished work product was adequate, but only because I was there to make sure everything was done correctly (after all, isnt that the Contractors job?). When contacting the CEO/Contractor of Johannesen Construction, Peter, about problems we experienced during the remodel, he was unresponsive leaving my husband and I to "clean" up the pieces and resolve the problems on our own. Peter showed up to our home only at the beginning and the end of the project to receive his check for the services rendered. After the final check was issued, we contacted Peter about repairing our porcelain tub, which began to chip a week after the project was finished. Yet, despite his continued promises to make the repairs "soon", nothing ever becomes of these false promises to do so. We have since filed a complaint through the BBB in Dallas and Peter has not responded. Something of interest, Johannesen Construction used to be Johannesen Enterprises. One search of Johannesen Enterprises on BBBs website reveals that he has an F rating with BBB and has had MANY other unresolved complaints against him (and these are ONLY the complaints from the past 12 months). I encourage you to review these complaints and think long and hard before hiring Johannesen Construction. His estimates may be on the low end, but I feel that his lack of integrity and his lack of responsiveness is not worth the lower prices on his service. If you do choose to work with Peter, just realize that if you have issues with the

samr123
10/13/2011 'Worst In town '
Stay away from him. There are several honest construction people in Dallas. He will just show you one picture and do completely opposite. Ripped us off and left.. Check his BBB rating under Johannesen enterprises.. Worst possible decision of our life.. I can't imagine anybody giving him thumbs up. Those review sound fake and made up by him. Beg you to stay away..

9/23/2011

Email from Peter Johannesen

From: Peter@Johannesen-construction.com (peter@johannesen-construction.com)
To: bsilvers@yahoo.com;
Date: Fri, September 23, 2011 2:42:16 AM
Cc:
Subject: Re: Kitchen renovation concerns
Brian,
First let me start my apologizing for not responding to this email. For some reason it was sent to my spam box. I have been out of the country handling a death in my family and due to the time difference plus dealing with family coming and going it has been impossible to check and respond to emails. I have read your email and I assure you that my original estimate is enough to give you what we talked about originally. Also because of me being out of town I stopped my guys from doing anything until I was back. I didn't want to make a very tragic circumstance worse by having my men do work that I could not check everyday. I did not expect to be gone this long so I did not tell any of my clients and for this I am very sorry. I will make everything right and put things back in order when I get home next week. I think I need to go with you to look at the rest of your samples so I can show you that I have budgeted enough for what you want. Once again I am extremely sorry for any inconvenience I have caused you. Trust me I would rather be remodeling your kitchen then dealing with what I am going through right now.

Peter Johannesen CEO
Johannesen Construction

**************************************************************************
This is a flat out lie.
**************************************************************************
9/23/2011 4:14PM

My Response

Peter,

This is further notice of termination of contract due to failure to perform
services. I have attached the letter I sent via postal service, the details are
in the letter. Bottom line, I want the remainder of my money back minus the
flooring, $10,400. I want no further business dealings with you. Once I receive
my money, I will no longer pursue any legal action against you.

-Brian

9/23/2011 5:08 PM

Brian,

I am very confused. I replied to your email as soon as I got it. I didn’t
realize your email had been sent to my spam. Further I even texted your
wife and had Jeb call you to explain that I am out of town due to a death
in my family. I am sorry that the death in my family inconvenienced you.
If your are upset imagine how me and my family feel. I have not taken your
money and in fact I am trying to get everything settled even though I am
out of town dealing with this tragic event just so you and Erika don’t
worry. I did not plan on having to leave town to deal with a death. I am
not sure if you have ever had to deal with something like this but it
sucks.

I am more then happy to meet with you and Erika when I get back in town
next week so we can go over any and all details that you want. I am not
trying to take your money in fact I am trying to do the opposite. You
signed a contract that states I am going to build you a kitchen. It says
nothing about breaking a contract and getting your money back when you the
contractor has to go out of town to deal with a family tragedy.

Once again I am trying to do exactly what I promised I would do. I am not
in breach of contract and I am offering to finish according to the
contract guidelines that you signed.

Fri, September 23, 2011 6:11:37 PM

Peter,

Irregardless of your personal life, you run a business and as a professional you
let the people that paid you money to do a job know you had a personal tradgedy,
whatever, and that your leaving town for x period of time. You didn't do that ,
therefore you breached the contract. End of story. Give me my money that you owe
me.. The contract is null and void. End of story. Right now it's $10,400, once
i have to make another call to my attorney then I'm going to want my full
$13,000 plus any additional litigation fees against you.

-Brian

9/23/2011 6:59:51 PM

Brian,

You are correct and I got back with you 6 days later. Like I said the email went
into spam so I naturally assumed Jeb had called you like I told him too. I
would never had just left and not left directions for my workers. Jeb must have
forgot. Like I said I am very sorry and I am willing to complete what I
contracted to do. Having a death in the family and forgetting to call a client
is not a breach of contract. I am trying to work with you. You can't sue me for
wanting to complete my contract. I am willing to finish what we started. You
like Jeb and you know he does a good job. He is the one that will complete it. I
have not taken your money and I have not left the job. I want to finish. So stop
saying I took your money and disappeared. I am here and trying to settle this.

Peter Johannesen CEO
Johannesen Construction

Sat, September 24, 2011 8:35:14 AM

Peter,

It's nice to see that your math skills are just as bad as your estimating
skills. No you actually got back with me 9 days later. Furthermore, you actually
went 27 days without contact having $13K of our money, so again
completly unacceptable. If I left my job for 27 days without any notification to
my employer I would be fired. So guess what, you are fired. Yes, it is a breach
of contract. A 27 day absence with no communication is considered failure to
perform and a breach of contract. You are making it clear you are not willing to
give me my money back so come Monday morning I am going forward with filing both
criminal and civil charges against you.

-Brian

Sat, September 24, 2011 10:10:54 AM

Brian,

I don’t understand why you are being so rude. I am offering to complete
your job for the contracted price you agreed to and signed. Once again I
am not in breach of contract and any court will agree. I am not refusing
to do the work nor am I being rude or nasty like you are. There is nothing
in my contract that states any kind of a time line or that I am not able
to leave because of a horrible circumstance. I know you talked to Jeb and
asked him about the Granite and at that time he explained to you
everything was ok and that I had not abandon the job.So you did have
communication regarding my circumstance. He will testify to this. Not to
mention that you signed the portion of the contract that states you
forfeit 35% of the contract value if you decide to cancel the contract
just because.. I have NOT abandoned the job and I am offering to complete
it for the contracted value this is what I will tell the court. Your whole
case is the fact that you are saying it took to long for me to email you
back. If you don’t want me to finish because of that you are the one in
breach of contract not me. Please forward this email to your lawyer and
have him contact me if he has any questions. I am trying to work with you.
I want to finish

Sat, September 24, 2011 11:14:22 AM

Look dude, pay me my money back and you can go back to ripping people off and
I'll leave you alone.

-Brian

Sat, September 24, 2011 3:44:15 PM

Leave me alone. Holy crap you are doing just the opposite. I just got a
huge alert that someone was going around the internet posting reviews of
my company so I checked it out and its you. Also you mentioned that you
already contacted the BBB which I will tell them the same thing that I am
offering to finish the job for the contracted value and that you signed a
contract saying that if you change your mind for any reason I keep 35%. I
was considering just giving you back your money so you would stop
bothering me. Why the hell would you go and write all the crap and then
try to get your money back. That was ass backwards

Sat, September 24, 2011 3:44:15 PM

My Response

You can make it stop, because I'm just getting started. Pay me my money back
and I will retract, delete everything.

September 28, 2011

Demand letter sent to Peter Johannesen, aka Johannesen Construction.
Contents of demand letter

As you know, I represent Brian and Erika Silvers. Mr. and Mrs. Silvers have informed you that
they have terminated the July 1, 2011, Kitchen Remodel contract with Johannesen Construction because
of its failure to perform the contract, including (1) the absence of you or your workers from the jobsite
since August 24,2011, and; (2) your failure to communicate with the Silvers from August 26,2011, to
September 23, 2011.
After being notified the contract was terminated, you finally communicated with them claiming
that you were ready to perform, but you did not provide a valid reason for the work stoppage, your
absence, or failure to communicate. Your statement to me that the lack of a completion date in the
contract excuses any failure to perform, absence, or failure to communicate is specious. Likewise, your assertion that Johannesen Construction is entitled to withhold 35% ofthe contract price under the footnote on page J also fails because the language does not include breaches by Johannesen
Construction.
Johannesen Construction's representations about its work and the contract were false,
misleading, and deceptive under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act and
violated §§ 17.46(a); 17.46(b)(5), (7), (9), (12), and (24); and 17.50(a) of the act in that it:
1. Represented that goods or services have sponsorship, approval, characteristics,
ingredients, uses, benefits, or quantities that they do not have;
2. Representing that goods 01' services are of a particular standard, quality, grade, or that
goods are of a patiicular style or model, if they are of another;
3. Adveliising goods or services with intent not to sell them as advertised;
4. Representing that an agreement confers 01' involves rights, remedies, 01' obligations that it
does not have, 01' which are prohibited by law; and
5. Failing to disclose information concerning goods 01' services that Johannesen
Construction knew at the time of the transaction and it intended such failure to induce
the Silvers to enter into a transaction that they would not have entered had the
information been disclosed.
Additionally, Johannesen Construction's actions were knowing and intentional. Please issue a
refund of the $10,400.00 within sixty (60) days. If Johannesen Construction does not take the requested action within sixty (60) days from the date of this letter, the Silvers will sue for economic damages, statutory damages of three times the amount of economic damages, statutOlY penalties, prejudgment interest, attorneys' fees, costs.
Likewise, to the extent it may apply in this situation, this letter is also notice of construction
defects under Tex. Prop. Code Ann. § 27.004(a). Refunding the $10,400.00 to the Silvers can remedy the defects. If Johannesen Construction has not remedied the defects 01' if Johannesen Construction does not comply with the provisions of Tex. Prop. Code Ann. § 27.004(b), the Silvers have instructed me to file suit sixty (60) days from today's date for breach of contract and breach of warranty. If the Silvers file suit, they will seek all damages permitted by law, including, the cost of completing the renovation, any expense for temporary housing during the repair period, any reduction in the market value, and attorneys'
fees.
Please note that by this letter, the Silvers do not waive, and specifically reserve, all other rights
they may have against Johannesen Construction and you under Texas law. Please call me if you have
any questions.

Wed, October 5, 2011 12:35:49 PM

Brian,

After searching the internet I can see that you must spend much more time figuring out ways to try and hurt me then you must actually do working. The truth is I own 4 other companies and I am partners is 2 more. Each company is very successful and handles a different field of construction. The only problem I have ever had with a client is someone like you who thinks they should get more then they pay for. This is the last email that you will receive from me trying to handle this matter like a civilized person. I want to finish your kitchen and I want to show you that I did not abandon your job in anyway shape or form. I am sorry that a situation in my life caused you to wait a few extra days longer then you felt were allowable. I am done reading and seeing your stupid reviews. I made copies of all of them and I am going to forward them to my Lawyer by the end of the week and have sued for defamation of character is they are not removed ASAP. Please do not take me a fool. I am more then capable of causing you and your wife great stress and anxiety just like you did to me not to mention more money if this is taken any further. I will expect you to delete those statements by the end of the week or the next call you get will be from my attorney.

On Oct 5, 2011, at 1:04 PM

Why wait till the end of the week? My lawyer is Gregory A. Whittmore, and his phone # is 214-891-6277.
-Brian

Wed, October 5, 2011 1:36:01 PM

Hahaha. I think you misunderstood my email.

Peter Johannesen CEO

Johannesen Construction

Review links

http://www.kudzu.com/m/Johannesen-Construction-30036698/reviews/
http://www.yelp.com/biz/johannesen-construction-dallas
http://www.trustlink.org/Reviews/Johannesen-Construction-206437890
http://www.yellowpages.com/dallas-tx/mip/johannesen-construction-461381168

This is yellow pages, they keep deleting any negative reviews you leave as Peter just reports it as abuse. I would NEVER trust yp.com for any reviews as they are on the side of the business owner, always

http://local.yahoo.com/info-89545346-five-star-construction-dallas

This one says in business for 50 years from his website about us section

http://www.ripoffreport.com/builders-contractors/peter-johannesen/peter-johannesen-five-star-con-dd0e7.htm

This is our ripoff report that we submitted. Peter has yet to reply with a rebuttal or anything.

Better Business Bureau listing of Johannesen Construction

http://www.bbb.org/dallas/business-reviews/contractors-general/johannesen-enterprises-in-dallas-tx-90132029

Linkedin Cached version of Peter Johannesen

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:eEmMoI6aPe4J:www.linkedin.com/pub/johannesen-construction/12/9aa/78a+johannesen+construction&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

http://www.respond.com/johannesen-construction/contractor---remodeling/TX/dallas/profile-1866666.html

This site says he's been in business 30 years

Mojo WFAA

http://directory.wfaa.com/biz/johannesen-construction/dallas/tx/75204/41201654

I got the feeling I was clearly being made a fool of and Peter had no intention of renovating our kitchen and/or completing the job as we were just another victim in his long list of victims. I informed him that he broke the contract by leaving the site with zero contact for 27 days. I then stated that if I left my job for 27 days and had zero communication with my employer I would

be fired. I restated he was fired and I wanted my money back as our floor in our living room was not complete and our kitchen looks exactly the same it did when I wrote him the first check. I felt he breached the contract because we were not getting the services that I felt had been described to us.

Now that he had been caught in his deception, Peter kept restating in emails that he didn't run away with our money and wanted to complete the job but after I read the other negative reviews and found his previous company, Johannesen Enterprises, thru the Better Business Bureau we wanted to get as far away from Peter as we could. Peter was using the excuse that a death in the family and he was out of the country was the reason for his lack of communication but we knew otherwise.

When we met with Peter he said this was a family owned business that they have been operating for 30 years but we could not find anything to support that claim. In fact, we could only find history on Peter doing construction going back to 2009 so we felt we have been deceived into signing a contract with him. Had we known the truth we would have never signed a contract with him.

September 23,2011 NEW DOMAIN!!!!
Registrant:
Peter Johannesen
5235 Merrimac Ave
Dallas, Texas 75206
United States

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: FIVESTAR-CONSTRUCTION.COM
Created on: 23-Sep-11
Expires on: 23-Sep-16
Last Updated on: 23-Sep-11

Administrative Contact:
Johannesen, Peter p_johannesen@yahoo.com
5235 Merrimac Ave
Dallas, Texas 75206
United States
(214) 883-4704

Technical Contact:
Johannesen, Peter p_johannesen@yahoo.com
5235 Merrimac Ave
Dallas, Texas 75206
United States
(214) 883-4704

Domain servers in listed order:
NS49.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
NS50.DOMAINCONTROL.COM

Registry Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Registry Status: clientRenewProhibited
Registry Status: clientTransferProhibited
Registry Status: clientUpdateProhibited

Peter now has a new company name, Five Star Construction, http://www.fivestar-construction.com . On his site he has all the same information as before when he was Johannesen Construction, just changed the company name. We found that all his testimonials on his site are FAKE, not a single one comes from an actual customer. We were surprised to read all the positive testimonials on his site, so we decided to look the customer names. We were surprised and shocked to see that the names were being used by many companies as their own, but in fact they were supplied as website template. Same goes for other areas within his site, passing it off as his own work, but yet again it was part of the template. Examples are all the names in the testimonials and projects and pictures that were not his. He has gone and taken down his previous website with Johannesen Construction, which leads me to believe he is trying to clean up/erase his previous companies identity which again is deceptive to new customers. Now this is his 3rd company that we are aware of and who knows how many others there are. It seems every time the negative reviews start to accumulate he just creates a new business name and adds his own awesome reviews how great he is and that company is so that consumers like me can continue to be fooled.

Per the Texas Attorney General's website

https://www.oag.state.tx.us/consumer/home_improvement.shtml

If your homestead improvement exceeds $5,000 in cost, the contractor is required by law to deposit your payments in a construction account at a financial institution. Ask the contractor for written verification of the existence of the construction account. Monitor deposits and disbursements to subcontractors, laborers, and vendors. Access to the account record should be included as a requirement in your written construction contract.

Peter did not deposit the money I gave him into a construction account. I was given no written verification one existed nor access to monitor any account. To this day I do not know where any of the money I gave him went other than the money he spent to by the living room floor and pay the contractor which he gave us the estimate of $2600, the whereabouts of the remainder $10,400 is unknown at this time.

So to summarize there are some people out in this world that are rotten to the core that have no heart, no consence, and no remorse. I encourage you as a consumer to leave reviews anywhere on businesses you do business with.

We are now looking for any other victims of Peter Johannesen and would like to get in touch with them.

Contractors AKA Con-men

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Monday, November 28, 2011

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Thursday, October 20, 2011