I know this doesn't help, but paying out that kind of money and not getting the goods/services immediately is a big fear of mine. Maybe it is time for a drive up the coast to check things out this weekend. How much do you think it would cost to get someone else in to finish the job? Did you have a contract?

Good luck.

In my state you can contact the state attorney general consumer protection division.

Does your local TV station or newspaper investigate consumer complaints? (We have some that do.)

You said he contacted you via GW, does he have an account?

Maybe a GW post like, "Trying to find John Smith cabinetmaker in City, State - to finish job he started."

Hire an attorney, some have investigators who are good at finding people.

"He reached out to me after reading my post on GW and said he could turn cabinets around in just a few weeks."

If he saw YOU on GW........

FinallyHome - I am thinking about having a friend in LA trying to track him down. I have no idea what it would cost to finish, probably the majority of the project. I imagine it could be even more expensive for someone to try to use boxes someone else made and match exactly.

mdln - My husband and i have been talking about getting a lawyer involved, but we are both still hopeful that he is alive and this is all one big mistake. I love the idea of the "trying to find..." post. I don't really like publicly shaming people, especially because I would like to work this out and there hypothetically could be a good explanation (maybe he's been in a coma? the small part of me that isn't furious is actually very worried about him). But it may be our best option to figure out what happened. Yes, he has a GW account, and another GWer wrote a few years ago about a great experience with him. I think his name changed slightly since the move to Houzz, but it looks like he was last active in late June (after he stopped responding to me).

I'll give it a few days, because as lavender_lass pointed out...maybe he will read this and come to his senses.

After reading this I've decided that you are apparently waaaaay nicer than me! Because after ignoring me for that long, the last thing I'm concerned about is publicly shaming someone...

7 months ago he said he could turn around cabinets in a few weeks and you're still being nice after he took your money and disappeared? I wouldn't be so nice. And yes you can get doors etc online. In fact that's how my custom cabinet maker did mine. He made the boxes but ordered the doors from an unfinished door maker who only makes doors. google unfinished kitchen cabinet doors

Ug. I understand your frustration. We were thinking rather badly of our no-show countertop guy with the full voicemail box and no email, text, or phone replies. We did make tasteless jokes about what could have happened to him. And that was just a countertop. (He did come back after his bypass...)

As far as finishing goes, is it a small kitchen? That sounds pretty inexpensive for half a kitchen. Call some of the local custom shops (also Scherr's or Barker) and see if they'll have pity or advice. Doors can be had. Drawer boxes, yeah.

And maybe, he (or his heirs) will call you and ask you to come get them. :(

Legal action is going to cost you a lot of money with probably no return. From what you describe, how likely is it that he can just write a reimbursement check? A drive down the coast sounds like it might be more productive than legal action.

I had work done by a finish carpenter who started out doing amazing work. Then some wasn't quite so amazing. Eventually I found that that the morning iced tea wasn't iced tea. The job was completed. Overall it was far better than "good", so I was very lucky. It still saddens me that such a gifted person was being derailed by personal demons. I wonder if similar is affecting your cabinet maker.

If the work you have seen so far looks very good perhaps you can figure out some way of getting him to finish the boxes at least. cpartist's suggestions for the doors is good. Finish? No idea.

Perhaps you could advertise the finished boxes on craigslist or a wood worker's site and recoup at least some of your money.

Tigger and cpartist - yes, I am probably too nice for my own good. But my rationale brain knows he has most of the work done, so I would think he is motivated to finish and get the rest of his money. I also worry that if I'm too much of a jerk he will finish but do a crappy job. You guys are helping to motivate me to do the public shaming. I just don't what else people do in these situations.

Fori - it is a medium-sized kitchen ~200sqft. The budget also includes some LR cabinetry. His pricing is really good for the quality which is part of why I have been so patient, but I am definitely reaching my limit.

12crumbles - I think if he's not going to finish the job by the end of this month, I need to get a reimbursement check. I would like to avoid litigation if possible, because it never ends well for anyone.

That's very sad about your carpenter. I feel lucky that the only issue we have had with this remodel is with the cabinets - but this is the second cabinetmaker we had a problem with and a huge delay that is quite expensive considering we can't even cook and have been paying for appliances we can't have delivered. Maybe I was just meant to have IKEA...

Interesting turn: I found his contractor's license # online and it appears it expired in April. Maybe that is part of the issue? I may call the licensing board in the morning and see what they know.

Might not be a good idea to make that call yet. The Board won't know anything other than he hasn't paid/completed re-registration forms or some other ministerial act. If you get the Board involved maybe he won't finish, even if he was going to finish. Technically he shouldn't be doing the work anyway if the license is not current.
Strange situation. You aren't up for a drive down the coast? You may have more luck getting some reimbursement in a face-to-face. He doesn't sound responsible enough to take legal action seriously unless he has enough to lose that it's better to pay. Seeing his environs could help you assess.

have you recently googled him?

I hope you can contact him and get things worked out. If not, then yes, you can buy cabinet doors. That's what we had done when we refinished our cabinets and had a cabinetmaker add to the ones we already had. We put new doors on everything. Other people have recommended door companies here. There are two I know of in So Cal. Our doors were purchased from one, and the guy who ended up doing the finish work for us said he used a different local one who he liked better.

I would have a friend check it out, make the drive, or send a certified letter to ask for completion of the contract. If he's moved, died, or in some sort of care facility, someone should be taking care of his affairs.

You can purchase the drawers, doors, etc elsewhere but right now, your problem is that you paid 50%, the work isn't being completed and he won't return your calls. Something's not right. I think you've given him enough chances, I'd leave another message notifying him that you are going to contact the state attorney generals office if he doesn't contact you and with a definite date of completion. Then do it. Nothing gets them moving like a call to the State Attorney General. It is unacceptable that he doesn't at least let you know why there is such a delay. If he did have some personal health issues, or God forbid, passed away, someone should be handling his affairs and contacting you and any other customers to let them know what is going on with your order.

Honestly, if this guy found you via a forum, I'm guessing you've been had. For all you know, he purchased those boxes from someone else. Unless you've been to his shop, you have no idea. I would also suggest you move on. You won't get blood from a turnip or money out of this guy.

I must agree that if this guy contacted YOU from your post on GW, you should have been very suspicious! LA is a LONG way from SF. Always find someone local. Sorry you lost your money, but Sophie is right. You heard what you wanted to hear.

I hope 1929Spanish is wrong but . . . If this was a flimflam artist, contacting the consumer affairs dept. of you AG would be in order as well as perhaps filing a criminal complaint in the cabinet maker's area of business. I'd rather think he is a dead beat drunk narco addict than a thief in the GW community, but .

" I think if he's not going to finish the job by the end of this month, I need to get a reimbursement check."

I think you can pretty well count that out. I don't think he's going to finish the job, and I don't think he's going to reimburse you. I think you'll be lucky if you ever even find him. I would strongly (and very kindly) encourage you to do a reality check here. It's time to move on in trying to recoup time lost and get your kitchen done as best you can. (But do also report him to all the proper authorities)

Best of luck. :)

I was thinking about this further. So he took a cabinet job for $20k that was a 7+ hour drive away and at least one overnight stay? And when you add in his travel expenses how much different was this from your other quotes?

Building is booming in So Cal. The "good guys" are backed up weeks or months. How did he have two days driving time in and be able to do this job in a few weeks? Rhetorically speaking, that is.

As for public shaming, you've already learned that the information shared on this board isn't private because this guy jumped in and pitched you on his "services" after reading a desperate plea. If you are in a dispute that could go legal or otherwise with various authorities, don't show your hand and don't create a public record easily found by anyone.

Ultimately my suggestion is to take this out of the public forums and decide how you realistically will resolve the situation.

You've only lost 10K to him. Recuperating any of that would be a wash or even more expense than 10K in lawyers fees.

Consider it the price of an education. Hopefully youve learned the lesson that when its too good to be true, it ISN'T true.

Thanks for all of the responses! I do want to clear a few things up, and hopefully address all of your comments.

Yes, we originally wanted mostly walnut cabinetry, but switched to almost all white to save money and because we like the look. This was the cabinetmaker's suggestion and we are very happy with it. We made a few other changes to scope as well to meet our budget.

Most contractors in LA are notably less expensive than those in SF. For example, LA-based countertop fabricators are so much cheaper (same exact specs) than up here even with travel fees, etc. it's about $1K savings on average (we did choose a local fabricator, however). The pricing ended up being pretty close to some of our top local options, but we chose this one because he could do our cabinets in fenix (http://www.fenixntm.com/). I also don't think the LA-SF thing is that unusual. We found quite a few people who do it for a variety of reasons, though this is our cabinetmaker's first time and he's told us that it's harder than he expected.

This definitely did not start out as a scam. It may seem like one now, but I did enough research upfront to confirm he is a legit cabinetmaker (I was very suspicious about him contacting me as well). He put a ton of time and energy into this project over the first few months that was completely unnecessary if he wanted to scam us. He even left some sample blum hardware and other goodies up here.

But even if this started with the best of intentions, there is something wrong now. The last thing I heard from him is that he was almost done with our cabinets, but he didn't know when he would be able to come up yet because he was slammed trying to finish another project and dealing with another non-work related situation. It may be naive, but I don't think he was lying. The question I have is what happened?

I guess I need to go knock on his door and see if I can find out...

I'd Go south with a truck (or rent one in LA) and take the cabinets that are done and call it quits.

He's like many skilled workers - very POOR planning skills, poor business training, and unwilling to say no to any work because they want (and need) the cash flow from the deposits to keep staggering on.