KANSAS CITY, Kan. — From $800 to more than $27,000, that’s how much people say they were taken by a construction company.
The company owner lives in Atchison, Kansas, but all his angry customers are in the metro.
“Shame on him,” Regina Walker said as she shook her head, staring at the mess in her backyard.
By now, Walker should have a beautiful new deck. Instead there’s a just a pile of debris from when she tore her old deck out last May after giving 5 Star Construction $7,000 as a deposit on a new one.
But instead of new deck, all she has received are excuses.
“Two more weeks, two more weeks.” That’s what the text messages said from company owner Chris Peters, who has since changed the name of the company to Deck In A Day.
Walker isn’t the only unhappy customer. The Better Business Bureau lists numerous complaints from people who say they paid and either received no work or bad work.
Problem Solvers has also received multiple complaints. One elderly couple told us they are out $800. Another couple said it’s out $10,000 for work paid for in January but still have never seen.
The BBB lists 5 Star Construction as closed since May. Its new incarnation — Deck In A Day — already has a D+ rating with the BBB.
Next month, Peters is due in court in Johnson County where he’s being sued by another unhappy customer.
That couple claims in the lawsuit to have lost more than $27,000, calling the work Peters did on their home “shoddy” and “incomplete.” Plus, the lawsuit states, Peters never applied for a permit.
5 Star Construction used to be based in Merriam, but it vacated its office there months ago, according to an adjacent business owner who told FOX4 that 5 Star’s customers regularly stop by trying to find someone.
To get Peters’ side of this ugly tale, we paid a visit to his home in Atchison. Peters’ wife told us he was in Kansas City working.
We finally reached him by phone the next day. He claimed he was innocent and blamed either his customers or the rain for being behind schedule.
But that excuse is difficult to swallow since some customers have been waiting for more than a year. Regina Walker said Peters hasn’t responded to her text messages in more than a month.
All she wants is her money back.
“The only way I’m going to get peace is to get this guy out of my life, get my money back because I don’t even trust him putting up a deck.” Walker said.
However, Peters insisted he’s still planning on building her deck “in two weeks.” We’ll be checking back to see what happens.
Peters refused to talk to FOX4 about complaints involving other clients. He referred us to his attorney. We called him, but have yet to hear back.
