John gave estimate at time when storm damage was high. Once he was on roof he increased the fee for the job. He recieved down payment and 2nd payment for material never did job. What was started was mixed match shingles. There is an arrest warrent out for him. $ other victums. If you are a victum Please contact Bucks County District Attorney Office.
We hired John Chmielinski on September 19, 2014 to do our roof. He was using the name "John's Handyman Service" at the time. The job was supposed to cost $3600, with $1800 due upfront so that John could purchase the materials for the job. He showed up on Monday, September 22, at 8:00 am, exactly when he said he would. He worked for 3 hours and left. He claimed that a compressor broke and that he would be back the next day.
He didn't show up the next day. I called him and he had a recording on his voicemail that said he had a family emergency. He didn't return my calls until the next day. He showed up and worked 2 hours and then left. He claimed he had left a note on my door the previous day about a "death" in his family. There was no note. He even claimed my mother in law stole his note and threw it away!
That was September 24, 2014. We have not seen him since. He did 1/4 of the job. We have no shingles. He never came back with the shingles he claimed he was getting with our deposit. He kept saying every day he was coming and then he wouldn't show up. This man has been a nightmare. He had no intention of finishing the job.
I contacted the Better Business Bureau, The Bucks County Consumer Protection Agency, The Pennsylvania Attorney General, and the Police. All of these processes are ongoing. Do Not Hire This Man! He is a true predator!
After I called the police, he sent me a letter offering $500. He wouldn't even admit that he stole the money and didn't buy the shingles that we paid for.
He has other court cases against him. Unfortunately we found this out too late. I also have noticed he did this to another person who also filed a report on this website just a couple of months ago. Beware of this horrible person, John Chmielinski ! He is a THIEF !!!
If anyone else has been ripped off by this fraud, I urge you to please call your local police department
We called this company, owned by John Chmielinski, to fix a leak in our home originating at the chimney. The first estimate was fine, but over the next two weeks, the owner returned 3 times to collect more money, claiming that the repair was "more extensive" than he realized. In total, he charged more than four times the original estimate and insisted on having the entire payment up front to purchase materials. (By this time we were obviously suspicious, but we had a hole in our roof and felt we were at his mercy.) He claimed the chimney needed new parts; when the parts "arrived," he called to tell us, but never installed them. He regularly missed appointments and never gave us finalized paperwork, despite repeated and numerous requests--then demands--to produce them.
The first estimate for the length of the project (1 week) was also off by miles--that was in early May 2014. (We finally fired him in late June, with an incomplete chimney.) At one point, the tarp-covered frame he left in place on the roof--before disappearing for weeks--failed during a heavy rainstorm. The leak inside the house grew far worse than the original, and ultimately cost an additional $1,600 (homeowners insurance claim) to repair. During the storm, rain poured into the fireplace on the first floor. We called him almost daily after that leak, and he never returned even to adjust the tarp to prevent more leaking, let alone complete the job.
On the rare occasion when he returned our calls, we nearly always got a "dog ate my homework" excuse for why he couldn't come to finish his job. One day, he didn't even bother to give an excuse and said that he'd "forgotten" our appointment that he made the day before. Another time he insisted that he'd said Thursday rather than Wednesday, even though we had a voicemail message from him saying Wednesday. (He didn't show up either day.)
In the meantime, we had only a leaking tarp around a chimney frame on the roof. His ladders, equipment, and construction trash were piled on our patio for weeks. In late June 2014 we finally fired him, told him to come get his equipment and haul away the trash, and warned him never to contact us again. We received two calls that day: one from him begging us to please give him another chance (still no paperwork, still trash on the lawn, still no completed job), and the second call, bizarrely, from his wife, also begging us to give him another chance.
I should note that he did not make these pleas because he wanted to make things right; he made them after we informed him that we were reporting him to the Better Business Bureau, calling a lawyer, and filing a legal complaint against him with the state attorney general and our county consumer protection bureau. (The BBB has a report but did nothing because he refused to answer their calls; the other actions are pending.)
He never returned for his equipment, nor did he ever return to clean and remove his trash. We have since found records of four legal findings against him in our county magisterial court alone. We also discovered that this is his third business name; he seems to simply take himself out of business once someone files a legal complaint, and then starts up a new one when the coast seems clear.
Admittedly, we did not do our due diligence in hiring this guy. At the very least, we never 1) should have paid up front and 2) should have authorized the repairs without official paperwork outlining the job. Lesson learned and re-learned. But this guy is truly a predator. There are three of us living here; the homeowner is 65 and her father is 95, and those were the people with whom he dealt. He refused, almost childishly, to have any dealing with the one person who was highly suspicious of his practices. He bilked these two out of thousands of dollars for a job he never completed and for materials he kept for himself. He needs to be out of the roofing business permanently.
John Chmielinski Reviews
John gave estimate at time when storm damage was high. Once he was on roof he increased the fee for the job. He recieved down payment and 2nd payment for material never did job. What was started was mixed match shingles. There is an arrest warrent out for him. $ other victums. If you are a victum Please contact Bucks County District Attorney Office.
We hired John Chmielinski on September 19, 2014 to do our roof. He was using the name "John's Handyman Service" at the time. The job was supposed to cost $3600, with $1800 due upfront so that John could purchase the materials for the job. He showed up on Monday, September 22, at 8:00 am, exactly when he said he would. He worked for 3 hours and left. He claimed that a compressor broke and that he would be back the next day.
He didn't show up the next day. I called him and he had a recording on his voicemail that said he had a family emergency. He didn't return my calls until the next day. He showed up and worked 2 hours and then left. He claimed he had left a note on my door the previous day about a "death" in his family. There was no note. He even claimed my mother in law stole his note and threw it away!
That was September 24, 2014. We have not seen him since. He did 1/4 of the job. We have no shingles. He never came back with the shingles he claimed he was getting with our deposit. He kept saying every day he was coming and then he wouldn't show up. This man has been a nightmare. He had no intention of finishing the job.
I contacted the Better Business Bureau, The Bucks County Consumer Protection Agency, The Pennsylvania Attorney General, and the Police. All of these processes are ongoing. Do Not Hire This Man! He is a true predator!
After I called the police, he sent me a letter offering $500. He wouldn't even admit that he stole the money and didn't buy the shingles that we paid for.
He has other court cases against him. Unfortunately we found this out too late. I also have noticed he did this to another person who also filed a report on this website just a couple of months ago. Beware of this horrible person, John Chmielinski ! He is a THIEF !!!
If anyone else has been ripped off by this fraud, I urge you to please call your local police department
We called this company, owned by John Chmielinski, to fix a leak in our home originating at the chimney. The first estimate was fine, but over the next two weeks, the owner returned 3 times to collect more money, claiming that the repair was "more extensive" than he realized. In total, he charged more than four times the original estimate and insisted on having the entire payment up front to purchase materials. (By this time we were obviously suspicious, but we had a hole in our roof and felt we were at his mercy.) He claimed the chimney needed new parts; when the parts "arrived," he called to tell us, but never installed them. He regularly missed appointments and never gave us finalized paperwork, despite repeated and numerous requests--then demands--to produce them.
The first estimate for the length of the project (1 week) was also off by miles--that was in early May 2014. (We finally fired him in late June, with an incomplete chimney.) At one point, the tarp-covered frame he left in place on the roof--before disappearing for weeks--failed during a heavy rainstorm. The leak inside the house grew far worse than the original, and ultimately cost an additional $1,600 (homeowners insurance claim) to repair. During the storm, rain poured into the fireplace on the first floor. We called him almost daily after that leak, and he never returned even to adjust the tarp to prevent more leaking, let alone complete the job.
On the rare occasion when he returned our calls, we nearly always got a "dog ate my homework" excuse for why he couldn't come to finish his job. One day, he didn't even bother to give an excuse and said that he'd "forgotten" our appointment that he made the day before. Another time he insisted that he'd said Thursday rather than Wednesday, even though we had a voicemail message from him saying Wednesday. (He didn't show up either day.)
In the meantime, we had only a leaking tarp around a chimney frame on the roof. His ladders, equipment, and construction trash were piled on our patio for weeks. In late June 2014 we finally fired him, told him to come get his equipment and haul away the trash, and warned him never to contact us again. We received two calls that day: one from him begging us to please give him another chance (still no paperwork, still trash on the lawn, still no completed job), and the second call, bizarrely, from his wife, also begging us to give him another chance.
I should note that he did not make these pleas because he wanted to make things right; he made them after we informed him that we were reporting him to the Better Business Bureau, calling a lawyer, and filing a legal complaint against him with the state attorney general and our county consumer protection bureau. (The BBB has a report but did nothing because he refused to answer their calls; the other actions are pending.)
He never returned for his equipment, nor did he ever return to clean and remove his trash. We have since found records of four legal findings against him in our county magisterial court alone. We also discovered that this is his third business name; he seems to simply take himself out of business once someone files a legal complaint, and then starts up a new one when the coast seems clear.
Admittedly, we did not do our due diligence in hiring this guy. At the very least, we never 1) should have paid up front and 2) should have authorized the repairs without official paperwork outlining the job. Lesson learned and re-learned. But this guy is truly a predator. There are three of us living here; the homeowner is 65 and her father is 95, and those were the people with whom he dealt. He refused, almost childishly, to have any dealing with the one person who was highly suspicious of his practices. He bilked these two out of thousands of dollars for a job he never completed and for materials he kept for himself. He needs to be out of the roofing business permanently.