CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — So what do you do? What can you do when you pay a contractor $45,000 to build a pool and spa in your backyard, and they start the job, but more than a year later, they still haven't finish it?
That's what today's Troubleshooters report is about: An Alice man who says this experience nearly ruined his marriage.
So, he's asked us to help get his money back from this particular contractor.
Every time John Prinz walks out the back door of his home and into his backyard, he sees his swimming pool finally being built.
But it's being built by the second contractor he's had to hire.
In January 2021, Prinz hired Steve Salguero and Loumavic Construction to build a 15x30 pool and spa in his backyard.
He said what convinced him that Salguero was the right man for the job was "he had a Christian symbol, and preaching a Christian word. I felt like he was a real Christian man, you know."
Prinz told the Troubleshooters he thought Salguero was an honest guy.
When you add up the five payments Prinz made to Salguero, it comes out to $50,000.
"How much have you actually paid him?"
"I've paid him $45,000," Prinz told the Troubleshooters.
Prinz added that Salguero told him it would take six weeks to get the work done. Yet, shortly after the work began, Prinz says Salguero's excuses did, as well.
"But every week he was saying 'I'm coming out next week. I'm coming out next week,'" Prinz said.
But, Prinz said Salguero's never gone back to do any work, and that's why he's called us for help.
We started making repeated attempts to contact Steve Salguero, to give him an opportunity to give us his side of this story.
We have continued reaching out to him, but he has not returned our calls.
We Googled his name and we checked with the Better Business Bureau, and although Loumavic is not accredited with them, they do have a C+ rating.
Another of Salguero's clients was Celeste Robertson, a local attorney.
She told us she hired him in 2020 to do work at her home. Estimates she paid him $40,000, but he never finished the job.
So what can you do if something like happens to you?
- Notify police.
- Notify the DA's office.
- Notify the State Attorney General's Consumer Complaints Division.
