Quality Home Improvement

I contacted Rodney H based on his posting on Craigslist for a handyman. I wanted someone to repair rotting fascia board and fix my bent gutters. Rodney gave me a quote for $1300 on Wednesday, 10/23. I decided to use Rodney to start the job. He said he needed half the money up front ($650) to purchase materials and start the work. He told me that he would start the work on Friday 10/25 at 8:00 am. He deposited the check to cash on the evening of Thursday 10/25. On Friday 10/25, after not showing up and not contacting me I reached out to him, at which point he told me that someone hit his car and he was being checked out at a health center. He said he would come to the job on 10/26 at 8:00 am. He did not show up at all on 10/26. However, in the afternoon of 10/26 he texted me and said that after ripping the fascia boards down there was more damage than he initially thought and he would need to buy more materials. He has never been to the house since collecting the deposit check. He stopped returning calls and text messages when I started asking about the status of the project. Efforts to have the downpayment returned have failed.