K & M CUSTOM CABINETRY

I am a licensed contractor here in pinellas county. I did a small demolition job for Ronnie and he will not pay me. He said he was not happy with the work. I had done jobs in the past without complaint. I told Ronnie I would re-invoice him at a discounted price and he agreed verbally but still hasn't paid. It's been several months now. Only person that ever refused payment in 9 years.

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY! I hired K&M to do my kitchen and floors. From the very first day of renovation all the way to completion it was a absolute nightmare. This is the most unorganized company I have ever dealt with. Ronnie Wheelock is the main point of contact and a great salesman. Don't buy it! He is dishonest! He will give you a competitive price then add unknown cost months after completion. He will blame you and his employees for his failures as the job supervisor. There were so many things that were unacceptable like unattainable time lines, mutilple calls and emails that workers were on there way that never showed. When my original kitchen was removed, they left multiple LIVE wires on the ground for days before the drywall guy realized they were live. Thank god nothing happened to my family or pet. Ronnie sent me an email on a Friday evening after they were closed and no longer reachable for the weekend that I had "copious amounts of mold" in my home and it was a danger to myself and his employees and suggested I leave my home. Turned out to be old linoleum under the existing vinyl flooring that was easily removed. During the initial consultation, Ronnie promised a flooring professional to install the floors. The same two employees that did all of the tear out showed up with direction from Ronnie to start installation. When I questioned them, they clearly told me they were kitchen installers and not floor guys. They had no equipment, no idea about the problem spots in my existing floors, and planned to lay the new LV on top of the uneven thin set from the tile removal. I stopped them from working and called Ronnie immediately...only to have him come to my home and blame me for all of the mishaps I had experienced. I fired them from the flooring installation and found a flooring company to complete the job the correct way for half of what Ronnie was charging me. RONNIE REFUSES TO REFUND MONEY THAT WAS PAID IN ADVANCE FOR WORK THAT WAS NEVER COMPLETED BY HIS COMPANY. I have never written a bad review in my life until now! I will be filing complaints with the BBB, PCCLB, and Pinellas county consumer protection.

Criminals!!!! I received notice today that after K&M responded that they were honoring the refund of my deposit for services they never did and a job they cancelled which resulted in the complaint being closed by the BBB that K&M contacted the credit card company to reissue the charge as valid and the $3093 was reprocessed. Basically they are now stealing my money from me for services never received...I think it is really important for other possible victims of this fraudulent company to be aware that this company is criminal. Contractor Nightmare! This was the 2nd job with them after a very successful 1st job with the Kitchen. With the 2nd job, a Bathroom remodel for my 82 yr old mother, they were incapable of keeping or setting a deadline, were inconstant with calls and emails. Took 5 months to get a "drawing" that was incomplete or incorrect. The quote was not terribly specific and there were no line item pricing separating cabinetry work, materials, installation and subcontractor expenses like I have had with previous contractors. Started planning Oct 5 2018 and paid a 60% deposit without seeing a sketch as we were so excited to start, had worked with them before successfully so trusted them. We were not in a hurry and happy to be fitted in between their larger jobs hoping for a late Oct start. Planning continued amicably and we had everything picked out in less than 2 weeks. By mid-December they apologized for the delays and we moved forward planning for mid-January. They were totally unresponsive between January into February and finally we were given a start date of March 18 after a review of the plans and changes (upgrades) at a Feb 28th meeting. These dates were not ideal for us, but they told us that it fit in with their other projects so we agreed. On March 14, when following up on the anticipated final measure visit, I called and had a familiar and friendly 9 min conversation with my usual point of contact. Unknown to me after a friendly close of the conversation, a misunderstanding had resulted and we received a caustic email including a threat to cancel our contract and refund the deposit. We tried calling and emailing to clear up with no response. K&M informed us that our questions were a burden on their administration, they resented working with us, felt they had under charged for the project and therefor had already worked with us enough and did not like to have to “babysit" their customers and would notify us of their final decision the next day. We received no response. Even with all the delays, there had never once been cross words or bad feelings on our part. Because my elderly mother liked them so much, we had even asked for upgrades that we understood would increase the final cost of the job and to which they agreed. On the day of the planned install, they sent an email in no-way neither addressing their previous comments nor acknowledging our apologies about the misunderstanding. The email stated that we either accept the new install date or receive a refund for the deposit. We opted for the refund as they never discussed the new install date with us nor could we accommodate it for that date. We requested the refund. They are now claiming that they are reducing the deposit amount to recuperate "fees" as "fair" for the work they have done to date. No work has been done in my home. The asked me if I agreed and I said no, they initiated the cancelling of the contract and offered the refund. Since they proposed the cancellation, I had not anticipated they would refund anything less than my full deposit. Nor does the quote paperwork say anything about it either. They then proceeded to send additional emails further insulting us and basically bending the truth into outright lies. They broke my elderly mother's heart as she is so confused by their behavior as the planned remodel was to make her bathroom more accessible. Ironically, if they would have told us they needed to move the start date or apologized/explained their first horrible email, we would have worked together to plan a new start date and to update the scope of work and quote/final payment to reflect the changes. What has made it worse is that these are contractors that we worked with successfully before, recommended and had already made plans for a 3rd and 4th job with them. Coincidentally, the same day all this started, a friend of mine who also just had her bathrooms remodeled and asked me about if they had pulled permits. We had never thought to ask, so we went to check and discovered no permits had ever been requested. Additionally, I had special ordered items that have exceeded their return windows. In my case I have lost almost $1000 in parts sitting in my living room waiting for the job to start that I cannot return. So if they are faulty when I get around to the work, I am out of luck. Senior Citizen's BEWARE!