Arles Karl Goodnight - Deceptive Practices, Fly-By-Night Contractor;

This is a warning to anyone who should come by this person: please avoid engaging this person on any professional or monetary level or hiring him for any job in any capacity.  He has demonstrated both lack of honesty in his business practices and thoroughness in his workmanship.  I trusted this person to complete my project and, seeing an opportunity to rip me off, took it, and I only having discovered it after it occurred.

I had previously hired this person to help me complete a patio cover in my backyard that required a City inspection and approval.  From the start, he was avoiding the inspector even though I offered to bring him by many times to approve of slight changes in the original plans.  When I did bring the inspector, he cited that Arles had somehow overlooked installing backing into the rafters of the cover, something he cited as a “rookie mistake,” and other professionals since having done so as well.  However, I don’t believe Arles Karl Goodnight is a rookie at these things; no, I’m convinced it’s more plausible that he simply took shortcuts and such at my expense and hoped that "nobody would notice."

After the inspector left, he started working on fixing the mistake he made but, in the process, not only did he cause damage to the materials that needed to be removed, he was planning on charging me for every day he worked to fix his mistake.  However, as mentioned, backing is a fundamental part of carpentry.  Even if it wasn’t spelled out on the plans provided by the City, there’s no way that someone with his years of experience could have overlooked this.  Simply put, he took shortcuts, and wanted to charge me for the incorrect work he did.  And I, naively, paid him for this; it wasn’t until later that I discovered his dishonesty, and when I brought it up to him, citing that I can’t pay him any further since I did previously overpay him, he responded by threatening me with violence.

While the work he did choose to complete correctly was done professionally, I will never do business with this person and advise you to avoid him the same.  Mistakes can be made, but dishonesty is a choice.  Also understand that this person is a part of a large nationwide labor union; he may travel for his work, and so be advised that he may reside in different parts of the county at any time.