I paid David $1200 cash upfront as a 50% deposit for a $2500 job. Total job cost was $2500. He came and secured some boards in my backyard with nailgun (about 1-2 hours of work) and put up one board in my front patio. This constituted about 20% of the total job at most. The majority of the work was installing the boards in my front porch, of which he only did one board. Thereafter, he basically never showed. He kept telling me he was coming out to do the rest of the job and not to worry. He repeatedly told me that he was going to show up then didnt show and made excuses or just never communicated back to me. This happened over more than 2 months! Just one lie after another. In frustration, I got quotes from other contractors, but they all said that David only did a small part of the job and that there was no way they could do the job for $1300 (the $2500 bid - $1200 original payment I made to David).
I would like to say that David is honest and trustworthy, but my experience with him is that he is a liar! To emphasize my point about his lying, when I asked him for some of my deposit back, he actually told me he would send me $600 back after 10 days. When 10 days passed, he made further excuses and I never received any of my deposit. So, based on my interactions over months, David kept me strung along with lies and false promises, and essentially stole my deposit money. I would not trust David with any money or with any jobs after this.
I will be filing a complaint with the state contractors licensing board as well.