M & A Construction Co

I contracted M & A Construction Co. to do a partial construction on a retaining wall that bounds my property. After signing a contract with them in May of 2011 and paying them $9,300.00 of a contract that was a total of $11,800.00 they demonstrated utter incompetence and they were completely unprofessional. They hustled me to pay them well in advance of any work they completed and would show up to work sporadically. They asked me to sign three contracts for the same project for three different dollar amounts. One of these they claimed they lost and could not give me a copy. I found out their contractors license was suspended for failure to comply with a bond payout after signing the contract with them. (I think they used my money to make this bond payout). They carried no workers compensation insurance. As far as showing up to work sometimes two weeks or more would go by before anyone would show up to work on my project. They used every excuse in the book. Out of six inspections scheduled from 5/22/2011 to the end of 2011 they failed or cancelled five inspections and only received a partial pass on one. We were lied to by M&A as to what the inspector approved. I had to stay in contact with the inspector to get the straight story. After fifteen months of going round and round with this company the only work they completed was a partial demolition of the wall and they managed to pour 4 feet of concrete. If I had not followed up with the city on everything they did and hired my own engineer to come up with the plan to do this wall I would still be trying to figure out how to get this job completed. In the end I paid them $9,300 for a job they weren't capable of doing. I paid two engineers for the same job. (The one the contractor provided charged me for a plan that couldn't be done.) I fired M&A Construction on July 31, 2012 and hired a competent contractor who has done a great job completing the work. My advice to anyone would be to avoid this company like the plague.