Victim Location 78620
Total money lost $10,000
Type of a scam Home Improvement
Gary Salvatore Sabatini used a fancy business card, his incredible gift of gab, references to his second business Sabatini Concrete, and the phrases, "This is what I do," and, "my guys," among others, to pose as a highly experienced landscaper and hardscaper with a reliable, professional crew. Protect yourself and your property and steer very clear. After promising an elaborate landscaping design and new asphalt driveway, he delivered over three months of excuses, delays, gross underestimations, numerous minor to significant and permanent damages to our property and mature trees, and, ultimately, a scam job on the driveway, which was installed by teens with shovels splattering black paint for seal coat. We paid nearly $6000 for just the driveway, none of which was returned to us despite promises of a partial refund over six months ago. The asphalt was hardly compacted, and was essentially loose tar gravel crumbling along all edges with cracks and grass growing through it within days of its installation. We eventually paid out of pocket to have the driveway demolished, hauled, and completely redone by actual professionals. We later were told by the asphalt labor he hired that they were never paid, meaning he took our money, bought materials for cheap, and pocketed the remaining thousands of dollars. The landscaping project was abandoned shortly after the installation of the shoddy driveway and long before being completed, despite having already spent nearly double what was estimated and our property looking like a bulldozed construction zone. It turned out Gary ("Sal") did not have his own crew of landscaping professionals, as after nearly three months, he admittedly used the fact that he was hiring day labor off the street as an excuse for the excessive delays. Among many things, this man is compulsively dishonest, not a professional, and a crook. Numerous court cases in several counties (at least Hays, Dallas, and Travis) against him and various businesses he owned that we wish we knew about sooner have us disappointed in ourselves that we ever trusted such a man. Lesson learned.