"I should have known better."
That's the name of a 1964 Beatles song — and also the universal cry after someone gets ripped off by a home contractor.
Surely, that applies to the Alvarez family in Colleyville. More than most, the couple should have known not to give a big deposit to the concrete man.
He burned them. He never did the job.
Stephen and Lauren Alvarez are the first to admit their failure. But they're not hiding their embarrassment. They want to warn others: If it can happen to them, it can happen to anyone.
What makes them special?
The couple are professional house flippers. They've flipped 15 houses on their own (their Colleyville home will be No. 16). They also supervised 50 other home renovations in their job as producers of house-flipping reality TV shows.
Suffice to say, they know how to hire reputable contractors.
Except this time.
"My husband and I feel like idiots that this happened," she says.
Excuse after excuse
"We were in a hurry," Lauren Alvarez tells me. "This was the last thing to do in the house. We didn't do our due diligence."
Her house is a beauty — TV-worthy — except for the outdoor concrete patio, which is a mess. After a Google search, the couple hired Paresh Bhakta, owner of Level It Concrete and Rigidize Foundation, to help them.
He asked for a $693 down payment for materials.
"I need a deposit to get you in line," Lauren remembers him saying. "I can do it next week."
She told me: "He's a teddy-bear looking guy. So we gave him a check."
A week later, he never showed. Lauren picks up the tale.
"We called him. He said, 'Oh, my machine broke.'
"Three or four days go by. 'Oh, the parts weren't right. I've got to order new parts. It'll be another week. Other people are in front of you.'
"It was just excuse after excuse after excuse.
"My husband said, 'I want my money back now.' He'd say he was coming over, and he never did.
"Weeks go by. He said, 'Oh, my mother-in-law just died.'"
The couple went to the police, but they wouldn't take the case.
Meanwhile, Bhakta had more excuses. He had to work in Oklahoma. His father had a heart attack.
Three months passed. No refund. No work on the job.
"I'm ashamed"
In several phone conversations last week, Bhakta, 46, alternated in mood swings from loud anger that he was being questioned to deep regrets about his actions.
He kept calling me "Paperman."
He told Paperman, "I will admit I put them on the back burner. I had to finish a lot of work I had piled up in Oklahoma.
"Am I a good, successful businessman? At this point, no. I'm ashamed of myself. Will I ever be? I hope God lets me."
He told me he always intended to give the couple a refund. As proof, he showed me his texts with Stephen Alvarez. After I interviewed Bhakta, he texted Alvarez: "OK, can you at least admit that I always said you were getting a refund..."
Stephen answered, "Yes you have told me multiple times I am getting a refund, but you've never showed up to pay me."
Due diligence
When Lauren talks about due diligence, she says she means she could have done better research before hiring Bhakta. After problems arose, she searched the web and found negative reviews. Too late.
"Horrible company!" Trey N. in Fort Worth writes on YELP. "Do not use these guys. They do not show up as promised and will steal the 33% they have you give."
"RUN AWAY from this company," Jim B. of Sachse writes. "They are only interested in getting your deposit money."
"Do not give him any money," Deborah A. in Dallas writes. "He will do no work and lie, lie, lie ..."
Susan G. of Lewisville: "This is not a legitimate business. He asks for money up front and does not do the work."
The biggest lesson
Bhakta told me the incident with the couple changed the way he does business.
"I don't even charge deposits anymore because of this headache," he told Paperman.
He said he will refund the money to the couple after he returns from Oklahoma.
"The biggest lesson I learned from this," Lauren Alvarez says, "is no matter how experienced you are in construction and house renovating and how worldly and educated you are, anybody can get taken if they don't do their diligence when it comes to hiring a contractor.
Bhakta asked me, "Paperman, if I refund her, is that going to make the story go away?"
He should have known better.
Staff writer Marina Trahan Martinez contributed to this report.
Hiring a contractor
Don't hire a contractor without knowing where their place of business is situated.
Always search for online reviews of the company and its owners.
Ask for the names, addresses and phone numbers of the most recent customers and check the company's work. Tell the contractor you will pay in full when job is done and done right. Avoid early deposits whenever possible.
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