Brent's Landscape Maintenance and Irrigation Repair

I hired Brent’s Irrigation Repair twice before and was happy with his work. In particular, on the last job he came back in person to correct some problems and to be sure everything was satisfactory. I wrote two 5–star reviews for his website and sent a copy to Google. When we needed more work done last week, I called Brent. He came out to look at the job and gave me an estimate of $1000 to $1200. We needed to replace the lines in the front yard which were old and springing leaks. I felt the price was high, but Brent said there was a lot to the job. He offered to take $1000 if I paid cash. I agreed to the $1000 price because I trusted Brent and did not believe he would overcharge me. That was my mistake - I should have gotten another estimate. He sent two men over Friday (11-1-19). They began work at 7:00 and were done by 10:00 – the entire job took 3 hours. I felt that I had paid way too much and called Brent that evening. I hoped he had made a mistake and that he would be willing to make an adjustment. I said I was unhappy and believed I had cause to complain. Brent returned my call almost immediately and apologized for misestimating the job. He agreed $1000 was too high and that he would charge me only $500. He wanted $110/hr for the labor which he put at 4 hours. (extra hour to pick up materials). Materials were put at $90. The total was $530 but he said he would take $500. He promised to bring the $500 refund by the house Monday or Tuesday. Brent never came by with the money. He called me Monday and promised to come Tuesday. I told him then I would pay $550 to cover materials completely. He called Tuesday and said he would put a check in the mail that afternoon. However this time he acted like he was a victim, saying that he had not made any money on the last job and would only break even on this one at $550. He did send David by on Thursday to put a line to a plant they had missed and to adjust sprinklers so that the system was workable. (less than 1 hour) By Friday it was clear Brent had not mailed the check. I called him twice more over the weekend and left messages. I asked him to name another price if he felt $500 was not enough. I offered to work with him on the price. He did not return my calls. In summary Brent charged me $1000 for a job which took two men 3 hours to do, using less than $100 in materials. (add 1 man-hr. to finish up Thursday). He told me himself that the price was too high by his own figures. He promised repeatedly to refund $450, but didn’t keep his word.