Black Swamp plumbing

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• By Logan W.

  September 6, 2024

  Soffit Lighting

  $1,600

  Unfortunately, I am making this post to inform others of the situation I have found myself in. I was searching for a qualified electrician and reached out via Facebook for recommendations. Black Swamp Electrical came under recommendation of several, all with good things to say. I am writing this review to inform people of my very poor experience with both Black Swamp and the owner, Benjamin Depuy. I am not disputing his work with others or his reputation. This is simply for consideration by others. I would be glad to privately share the full story and all correspondence should you want additional information. Anyone personally defending Ben, I urge you to do a quick search on Findlay Municipal Court’s website for additional information on the person you will deal with.
  The work I contracted Black Swamp to do was in my opinion, a fairly straight forward and “simple” project at my house (8 soffit lights) that I was not able to complete before a deadline. Ben came by, walked the job down with me and gave me a quote (of which I thought was reasonable) and I informed him I would like to get on his schedule. He was over an hour late, but I understand people get held up. Ben informed me that I would need to put roughly 35% down to be placed on his schedule and he would try to work with me on schedule. He refused to communicate on the phone and would only respond via Facebook messenger. I was not comfortable with this, but I needed the work done and took a leap of faith.
  Ben reached out on Facebook the following morning at 6:36am after telling me he was booking jobs out into October the day before, and told me he could be to my house by 9am. I also understand that jobs finish early and he was trying to do me a favor when he could squeeze in my straightforward job. I could not be there but we had walked it the previous day. I also gave instructions on Facebook as well as put blue painters tape in areas where work was to be completed. I asked Ben if he could run speaker (provided by me) in the same pathway he was running electric wire, understanding it is right where he was going to be and would require very minimal extra work, but I anticipated an upcharge. Ben agreed and said “depending on how long it takes though it could be a little upcharge for the extra labor”.

  The first issue:
  Once all work was said to be completed, Ben sent me an invoice from his phone and left about 15 minutes later. Total time onsite, about 4 hours. I arrived home from work and noticed that some of the work agreed upon was not completed and that there was a decent mess left over. He said “shiiiit” and promptly came back which I thought was great. When he came back, he finished the job he was contracted to do. He did not clean up after himself, leaving wire insulation, saw dust, aluminum soffit shavings, as well as dirty handprints all over my siding, soffit, facia, and interior drywall. The wall box for the speaker wire was installed in the wrong location, roughly 4’ away from its designated location and the drywall was overcut beyond what a cover plate could hide. There was not enough wire left to hook my speakers up since the box was in the wrong place, and I had to get in the attic to add additional wire. The light switch for the soffit lighting was and still is crooked, and the wires in my attic look like spaghetti. These were all things that were disappointing but something I was willing to live with.

  The second issue:
  We then reviewed the invoice I was sent in my Facebook messenger. I noticed that he charged me for what I thought was a completely unreasonable amount for the extra 15 minutes it took him to run the speaker wire. I was already upset about the quality of his work, but just wanted to lick my wounds and move on unit I noticed this additional 20% of total contract value for a very basic and quick task. His argument was that it was really hot in my attic and the insulation was itchy….
  We negotiated a lesser rate that was more palatable to me and we shook hands. He requested I pay him by the end of the day for the remaining balance owed. I suggested cash but told him I would need to run to the bank and meet with him tomorrow. He told me to just send it in PayPal and we would be fine. This was around 6:30pm. I had sent the remaining balance that night, and it didn’t clear until the next morning at 6:26am. The money left my account, and I left it at that. Admittedly I am not a power PayPal user and only had the app to work with Ben. He did not receive my payment from PayPal until 9/6/24 (7 days later).
  He is now charging me a higher, never agreed upon amount via Change Order which I had never agreed to, PLUS interest on the total invoice amount every day until I pay it. I was never notified of this issue until this morning and after I had made good faith effort to pay our agreed upon invoice. He is harassing me, threatening to put a lien on my house should I not pay his selected amount, and has been verbally abusive (nam

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