Victim Location 13039
Type of a scam Home Improvement
Our local town (Cicero, NY) sent us a notice that roadwork would be commencing soon on our street, so when a road crew complete with rollers, a small bulldozer, half a dozen workers, a dump truck, and several commercial pick-up trucks, pulled up in front of our house, we thought the town roadwork was beginning. Within a few minutes a man came to our door and spoke to my husband. He led my husband to believe that the end of our driveway (a few feet) was in need of repair and they would do it for free since they were going to be doing the driveway across the street. As we watched them work, they quickly had not only the end of the driveway, but about 1/3 of the total driveway done. My husband went back out to talk with them, and they told him it would be $1600 for the work done and to complete the whole driveway, it would be $4800. My husband immediately told them to stop work and that it was his understanding that it was "free" and that it was only a few feet at the end of the driveway. At that point I entered the conversation. The man said they were not affiliated with the work the town was planning to do, he had no business card or ID, but said he would give us a receipt with the his information on it. I told him I thought it was a scam and we were not going to pay him anything and that we would report him to the BBB. After some arguing back and forth, he backed off and said we would not have to pay and it was a "free" job. The name on the dump truck was "Williams Bros." with a New York plate BLACKTOP1, and the trailer with the heavy equipment had a New Jersey Plate TLC-36C. After the discussion, I called our Town Transportation Department and they were not aware of this company. The manhole cover in front of our house had been marked by the Town as an indicator that this street was going to be paved, so this could have been one of the ways this company knows which streets are scheduled for repaving and they are taking advantage of the residents thinking as we did that they were part of the Town Transportation Department work. They continued on down the street where we could see them commencing work on other driveways. As for the driveway across the street that they initially told us they were going to do, they dug up some of the pavement at the end, but have not returned to finish that job.