'Scam me out of $1,000? It's gonna cost you $1,000,000': Contractor gets back at shady businessman who tried to scam them

Author image for Brad Dickson
Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
May 14, 2024 10:00 AM EDT

Money makes the world go 'round, and what goes around comes around… Or so they say at least. Come to think of it, there's a whole lot of going around happening when comes to these types of things and it's hard to make cents of the chaos. It really makes you wonder whether or not a lot of those "totally evil" crime syndicates shouldn't be adopting something wholly less evil as their logo—you know, the usual skulls and bones and all that jazz. Instead, why don't they just use a ferris wheel or a merry go round or, you know, something that actually goes "around" for their imagery.

With all this going around, as it turns out, when someone scams you out of some of your money you're going to want to make sure it comes back around to get them too. That's what this contractor did when they came at odds with this shady businessman who refused to handle their business above board.

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  • 01
    "Scam me out of $1,000? It's gonna cost you $1,000,000."
    via Luis Villasmil
  • 02

    "Scam me out of $1,000? It's gonna cost you $1,000,000"

    I'm going to keep this intentionally vague and I apologize for the long read, but this has been a little bit of a complex situation that requires a bit of backstory. I (29M) own a specialized equipment cleaning and maintenance company. I've been running the company for the last 12 years. I take great pride in my work and run an honest business. We service everything from Government facilities to small mom and pop operations and I try to make everything as clear, transparent, and honestly priced
    via u/YouAreRegard
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    For the last 10 years I've had had a great relationship with Big Company. Big Company is a service provider, something of a middleman actually, in my industry. They contract me to service roughly 35% of their customer base and we have grown to have a mutual respect for one another. They're probably my largest customer, or at least close. Well, roughly two years ago Big Company brought on another service provider to contract owned by Shady Businessman. Shady Businessman claims he has many differe
    via u/YouAreRegard
  • 04
    I often do follow up work at businesses that he's done installs at - it's not good. Improperly installed equipment. Crazy repairs and electrical work that just don't make sense. It's horrible. Talking to customer after customer, I find he's taking advantage of their mechanical ignorance. Up charging 400% the price of parts and double, even triple the usual going hourly rate for this kind of work. For example, a $300 part that would take two hours to install, he's charged $1,500 for the part and
    via u/YouAreRegard
  • 05
    Flash forward about a year and to the start of my troubles - I get a call from the owner of Big Company telling me "hey, we have a new account, they're a bit more complicated, a little out of our wheelhouse. Can we give the account to you?" Sure. Within a week I'm down at the account doing a cleaning and maintenance. The type of system they have is a bit more complicated, but I am very experienced and familiar with these systems and it isn't an issue. Or so I thought. I go to start everything up
    via u/YouAreRegard
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    and the system isn't turning on properly. The owner comes in and says "hey, we're going to have to start operations in a little over an hour. Are we good to go?" I tell him "the system seems to not want to start, I'm going to track down the issue and we should be good to go." He gives me a frustrated huff and leaves the room.
    via u/YouAreRegard
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    Fifteen minutes later I get a call from Shady Businessman. "Hey OP, I heard you're down at XYZ account. Owner wants you to stop work immediately and head out. I'm going to come down there to take over." Owner comes back in the room and confirms "Hey we're like 45 minutes from open and we've used Shady Businessman in the past, we just need to get this system going." Sure. I take off.
    via u/YouAreRegard
  • 08
    A few days go by and I get a call from the account. They tell me I'm going to need to call my insurance and file a claim. Their system is broken. Needs a new motor. $58,000 repair cost. We go back and forth for awhile with me trying to figure out what they're talking about. They're adamant I broke this system on the word of Shady Businessman. Call insurance or see us in court. I call up my insurance. They're specific to my industry and have specialists that know the ins and outs of the job. I te
    via u/YouAreRegard
  • 09
    A little while later I get a call from Shady Businessman. He says "hey man, I'm sorry. It wasn't meant to be you." "What do you mean?" Shady Businessman "Well, to be honest, I had done a lot of installation work for this company like six months back. They owe me something like $12,000. I figured if their system wasn't working they'd call me in a pinch, have to pay me the money they owe me to get me down there. Plus, I'd have some
    via u/YouAreRegard
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    guaranteed work doing the repairs on their system. It was supposed to be one of Big Company's guys though, not you. So I'm sorry man." I was livid. This dude booby trapped the system so that when it was being taken apart, the release of this sensor would short the motor. I try everything I can to get him to admit it again, text me, email me, say it on the phone. Anything now that I'm collecting evidence. No dice.
    via u/YouAreRegard
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    I tell my insurance. They say they'll get everything taken care of. It's all I can do. I tell the account, which is a pretty small business and they're livid. See the thing is, Shady Businessman is a smooth talker. He makes up a lot of complicated stuff the customer doesn't understand and they just think he's the smartest guy around. So far he's cost this small business near $70k in unnecessary work. I warn off my customer base from this dude, try to get word around in the industry a little bit,
    via u/YouAreRegard
  • 12
    Four months go by. I get a call from the account's insurance. Standard business insurance. This insurance agent is a dill hole. Apparently he worked in the industry for a short while and considers himself an expert. Imagine being a surgeon and getting lectured by someone that took an anatomy class once. He was so obnoxious. He's telling me I need to get a different insurance company because my insurance is garbage, they've denied the claim
    via u/YouAreRegard
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    because they're claiming it's not my fault and anyone with half a brain can figure out that I'm at fault. I explain the situation to him. He just thinks I'm some dude trying to avoid accountability. They've paid out $58,000 for repairs on this system and they want me to pay $1,000 for the customer's deductible. Non negotiable, pay or court.
    via u/YouAreRegard
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    I'm so over this situation, I just pay the $1,000 and move on. Well that same day I'm picking up supplies from a warehouse and I run into Big Company's owner and owner of even Bigger Company that I've been trying to pick up as a customer. We get to talking and I tell them about the insurance call I got, explain the back story a bit. Their faces both go pale. Apparently, they've both been using Shady Businessman and they've been
    via u/YouAreRegard
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    having all manner of issues, but he's such a smooth talker, they've never connected it to him. They begin telling me all the issues they've been having at their different locations. Everything from electrical problems to some "state of the art equipment" that was installed by this guy that created a whole slew of problems that surprise surprise, only he could fix.
    via u/YouAreRegard
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    They're curious if I can take over handling his role for them. They want to cut ties. I tell them certainly. I've expanded what my business can cover and we can take over the backlog of work Shady Businessman has waiting for him. The next day they both send me lists of all the work they're waiting on him to do. One by one I start putting together quotes for each job. The list
    via u/YouAreRegard
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    they sent me has Shady Businessman's existing quote figures on there and I'm finding that most every quote I'm putting together is half, if not a quarter of the price and that's being generous to my own wallet. Some jobs include fees for things that sound complicated but are just made up terminology. One job for example, he's upcharged the equipment cost from $75 for the part to $600, is charging $1,800 in labor for a one man, two hour install, and has
    via u/YouAreRegard
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    added an additional hazardous material charge (not at all a thing for this job) for nearly $1,200. So $3,600 total to a little mom and pop brick and mortar that I dropped the material down to $75, the labor down to $600 and dropped the hazmat removal entirely. From $3,600 to $675.
    via u/YouAreRegard
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    We're so specialized that really there's only a few of us in the state and this mom and pop felt like they had no choice. Another job was $800 per $100 part times 6 plus nearly $15,000 dollars. in labor (for a six hour job) for something one guy could do, plus an additional mileage fee of $400 (he lives 10 miles away) plus a "material transportation fee" like what? These six parts could fit in a backpack. Over $20k for a job that I ended up charging
    via u/YouAreRegard
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    $3,000 for. This is another small business trying to open a second location and this dude is being so Shady and manipulative with his pricing. He's going to drive them out of business as they're trying to take a leap and open a second location. Breaks my heart. All in all, after I priced everything out, he had bid out a little over a million dollars in work for himself over the next six months that I got down to just over $280,000. From a tad over $1
    via u/YouAreRegard
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    million to a bit over $280,000. I could not believe it. My new customers I've inherited have all been so grateful and gotten me connected with even more work in just a short while, I've easily doubled my business as a result of this over such a short time. Shady Businessman is apparently not doing well. The smaller businesses have some sort of Facebook group that word has been going around in not to use him and it's gotten to the bigger
    via u/YouAreRegard
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    business and corporations and now his credentials have been exposed as bogus. Businesses he was doing work for, big household names are calling me to take over as their local provider and it's just the start. I genuinely hope people start taking legal action against him. Taking advantage of businesses, often struggling to get, just because
    via u/YouAreRegard
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    Cygnata 13 hr. ago Booby traps like that are probably illegal as well.
    via u/YouAreRegard
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    YouAre Regard OP. 10 hr. ago Not that this makes a whole lot of sense but I've come across a number of his "traps." It might not make a lot of sense but to give my best explanation: A company was having an issue with their equipment and I diagnosed it as a faulty switch. Simple fix. In all honesty the replacement piece looks like a standard household light switch with a secondary cover over it that is designed to protect it from the weather. Simple fix.
    via u/YouAreRegard
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    Big Company hired him to do the repair. He removed. the switch entirely and installed a large brass fuse. The equipment can only be shut down at the breaker or by removing the fuse now. No switch. It's dangerous. The company complained that their equipment shut off again. I was on site when it happened. The machinery that it's on
    via u/YouAreRegard
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    vibrated the fuse out. His repair fix? He used a binder clip to hold it in place so it won't fall out. Cost to repair? $1,200. $1,200 for a binder clip! He knew it was going to rattle out of there too. He saw me looking over at him while he was putting the fuse back in and slapping a binder clip on and just laughed and said "repeat business! You'll learn, you're still young."
    via u/YouAreRegard
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    azzirra 10 hr. ago I'm loving this. You should also steal his skilled staff if you find any that aren't sketchy! YouAre Regard OP. 10 hr. ago Believe it or not, he has an incredibly hard time with staff retention
    via u/YouAreRegard
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    random-username-1234. 12 hr. ago Epic! Appreciate the time it took you to write this out. The world needs more honest business people like you.
    via u/YouAreRegard
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    CoderJoe1 10 hr. ago If this is petty, I'd hate to you off. Well done. YouAre Regard OP. 10 hr. ago Been a contractor all my adult life. Petty has a whole different meaning in this world!
    via u/YouAreRegard
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    TL:DR: Shady Businessman booby traps account to collect overdue money and gets me blamed. Exposes he's grossly overcharging small businesses. I inherit his customers and drop the cost for his previous customers from over $1 million to $80,00
    via u/YouAreRegard

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