Sean Mansfield Plumbing & Heating

On December 4th, 2017 Sean Mansfield replied to an ad I posted on the website craigslist.com for a plumber. The ad stated that I had a leaking hot water heater and needed a licensed plumber that would provide affordable hot water heater replacement. I sent him detailed pictures of my current water heater, including the manufacturer badge with model, capacity and serial # as well as pictures of the leak. He provided his MA plumbing license number and assured me that he had the experience and knowledge to perform the job. He said that because I was on a budget, he would charge me $430 for his labor and he would put the cost of the new hot water heater, expected to be around $400, on his home depot credit card which I could then make a later payment to pay off. I thought this was extremely generous. As a freelance web designer, I am familiar with drafting project agreements for clients so I drafted an agreement that spelled out exactly what was going to be provided. We communicated both through telephone and text conversations. I had stated that I wanted to pay him through Paypal because I had the experience of it being a secure way to send funds and that paying in cash was not an option. Sean said that he would not take Paypal and that my only option was to use Western Union to send him the $430 that he was initially charging me. After reluctantly agreeing, I sent the money. I confirmed that the money was picked up by Sean Mansfield. The work was to be performed the next morning. The following day, December 5th, Sean showed up and looked at my current water heater and told me that the new water heater that he had planned to put in was not going to work because it was not compatible with the current venting system of the old water heater. This is despite the fact that he had detailed model information and pictures of the unit ahead of time. He told me that he had to do additional research on which model he could replace it with. The next day, December 6th, Sean told me that the correct water heater was going to be over $1200, instead of in the $400 range, and that I would have to come up with additional funds to cover the difference in expected equipment cost before he would buy the heater and do the work. After going back and forth several times, I told him that I could not pay him more money at that time. He said he would be available to do the work whenever I did come up with more money. I said I could definitely have it on the first of January. I attempted to check in with Sean in the middle of December to confirm that he would still be available the first week of January to replace the water heater. He did not get back to me. I also tried several times, unsuccessfully, to reach him the first and second week in January to perform the work. Today is January 19th. I have called, texted and emailed numerous times over a month long period with no response. I believe Sean never had any intention to replace my broken water heater. I believe his intention was to take my money which is why he insisted on using western union, which has zero recourse available for senders that are victims of fraud.