GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A Grand Rapids woman says her family cannot get back thousands of dollars from a mason they hired to redo a portion of their backyard, after he failed to complete the job by the agreed upon deadline.
According to the mason, who is under investigation, a postage error delayed the refund.
“It's definitely been like a stressful thing and unwanted distraction,” said Emma McClure, who lives in the city’s northwest side. “We get so few hours home with our daughter after work, so having to talk about this and figure out what we're gonna do, and do we need to go to court over it?”
In May, McClure and her husband hired BlackStone Partners LLC to rip out and replace their patio. The couple put down a $4,300 deposit, which equated to 50 percent of the project’s total cost.
McClure says she found the company through social media. Posts obtained by FOX 17 show a man named Joshua Woodworth, who claims to own BlackStone Partners, pitched himself to potential customers in various groups as a member of law enforcement in search of a career change.
It’s unclear if Woodworth actually works as a police officer though. FOX 17 reached out to several agencies in West Michigan, who said they did not know of any current or former employee by that name.
A spokesperson for the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office did reveal someone filed a complaint against Woodworth and his company at the end of July, but declined to release more information because of the ongoing investigation and possible criminal charges.
“He kind of caught our attention with that [Woodworth’s law enforcement background],” said McClure. “He had some pictures of his work and a Facebook page, so I reached out to him for a quote, he came in within a couple $100 of another company that we had quote the project, so all seemed in line.”
McClure and her husband signed a contract that stipulated BlackStone Partners would finish the job by July 7. The date came and went though with no work performed.
Text messages provided to FOX 17 show McClure messaged Woodworth at the end of July about a new start date, but he pushed it back because of the weather. He went on to blame the conditions two more times.
“It got to the point where several times he said, ‘I’ll be there Wednesday to Friday this week,’ or ‘I’ll be there Monday to Wednesday next week’ and he just wasn't showing up,” said McClure. “He started getting less responsive, so at that point, I started to wonder, 'Am I being scammed? Is is he an honest guy, but maybe he's underwater?'”
Toward the end of August, Woodworth suggested he could mail a check if the couple did not want to wait any longer. McClure asked where their project stood in comparison to other clients, but without an answer, she eventually requested the refund.
Woodworth responded that he planned to send back the money on September 5. According to McClure, the check never came.
“All we want is our hard earned money back,” said McClure.
In an email to FOX 17, Woodworth reiterated that he dropped off the refund earlier this month. He added there was an issue with the its postage that led to a delay, that he did not know about until this past week, and assured the couple would soon get back the money.
“The check was dropped off at a mail dropbox about two weeks ago,” wrote Woodworth. “It was returned to the office on Monday with the wrong postage. It was resent out, I believe yesterday, with the correct street name, so I’m not sure what the story will be.”
Woodworth did not respond to follow up questions about the apparent error. McClure says he did not communicate any of the issues to her.
A search of state records show Woodworth and BlackStone Partners do not hold the licenses needed to do masonry work in Michigan.
