Ralph Dietrick E.R.C. Remodeling Took deposit for materials May 30th and has never came to do work or returned deposit. New Kensington, Pennsylvania

I signed a contract on May 30, 2012 and gave Ralph Dietrick $2,600 in cash as a deposit, half of the contract price, to replace the roof on my home. I was told at that time that he would start the work the week of June 18, 2012 and could pay the balance when I returned from vacation June 22nd.  When I got back, the work was not done so I called him to find out when he was going to be out to do the job, he told me that his truck broke down so he was now 3 weeks behind with his jobs and he would be out as soon as he could. We then had a very bad storm on July 4 and because of the rain coming into the
house through the bad roof the hallway ceiling on the first floor came down. I called Ralph as soon as this happened and he assured me that he would get there in next day or so to replace roof and that he would fix the ceiling at no charge, he never showed up or called to explain why he didn't.  I continued to text message and call him but most times he would not answer, asking when he would he would be out but to do the job but all I heard was one excuse after another why he could not do it.

When I said that I wanted my deposit money returned so that I could get the roof replaced, again I got excuses.  He stated that the shingles were "special ordered" and that he would have to talk with distributer about returning them because there would be a restocking fee involved.  I then told him that the contract that I signed did not state that anything was "special order" so nothing would have additional fees to be returned.  He replied that he was returning them and that as soon as he had the money back from the distributor that he would return it to me. That was in September and I still do not have my money back or any communications from him as to when that is going to happen.

I then filed a civil case against him October 30, 2012 for $110.00, with a court date of December 4, 2012 but he did not sign for the certified letter from the court so I now have to pay $55.00 for the constable to served him the papers.

I did get another contractor to replace my roof but because Mr. Dietrick did not return my money I had to withdraw the money from my retirement account costing me a penalty to do so.