Eli Elbaz Ovonto Group Eliyahu Elbaz Ovonto Group Ovonto Group LLC Chimney zero complex Stole $500 told me they did a repair, didnt, got me to pay them, then told me they would come back and fix it, disappeared, wont respond to calls or text messages. Hallandale Beach FL

The automatic gate on a rental property I own stopped working. I called a random repair company from searching on google. I spoke to someone who said they would have a technician get back to me shortly. 15 minutes later Eli Elbaz called me. I told him the situation and he said he would be able to get there within the hour. I was very happy. Eli got there and told me that I needed a new receiver and that he would get a quote from his "boss" and get back to me shortly. He called me back 30 minutes later and said his "boss" said we can do it for $1500. I said, woah, that’s a lot more than I thought this repair would cost. I said what exactly is wrong with it. He said I needed a new receiver. I said Im sorry, thats way more than I thought it would be, I need to do some research.

I went online and looked for the receiver and saw it from $69 to $129 depending on where I looked. Eli text messaged me and said "send me your email please-Eli". A few minutes later, I received an invoice for $1139. It says "Replacing receiver to the GOT access system, 2 remote, service fee $39 for inspection" along with the link to pay now. the invoice came from "Garage and Gate". He then called me, to tell me he was able to get his boss to go from $1500 to $1100 and that he sent an invoice. I said, sorry Eli, thats still way too much to just replace the receiver, its a $100 part. That means $1000 for 30 min of labor?" He said, well take the weekend, think about it, I said ok. On Monday he texted me "Hey Matt, good week. I dont get any response from you, but its okay. You need to transfer me the service fee for my inspection. $39 my zelle is ovontogroup@gmail.com Thank you and have a great day." I wrote back to him "what price can you do the receiver for?", he said $600 including the service fee, I bring the parts". I responded "too much, thanks anyway, I sent the $39". He said "thank you matt, sorry for the inconvenience."

This was on Jan 22nd. My next renter wasnt checking in for a week so I was going to call a different company. Well, the week got away from me, and by the time I remembered, renters were coming in 36 hours. So, I reached back out to Eli and asked if he would do it for $500. He said "Hi Matt, how are you? I will help you and do it for you, no problem." He said he would try to do it that day or the next morning. He asked for my address. I send it to him. The next morning he messaged me "hey good morning, The part will arrive at 12:00 and I will be there." I said "great, thank you". At 630pm he messaged again saying "Hey mate. Im over here, where are you put the remote" I said "please put them in the cooler by the front door, there's more than one right?" He said "yes, I will update you after". About 30 minutes later he called me to tell me that he changed the receiver but it still didnt work. He now thought it was the batteries in the back of the unit. He said he would get new batteries and come back first thing in the AM and replace them and fix it. I said ok, even though it sounded strange being that the unit is plugged in, I didnt even know it had batteries. He called me the next morning at 1145am and told me that he had replaced the batteries and everything was now working. He told me he left the new clickers in the cooler like I had asked. He then sent me an invoice. It was for $500, I immediately paid it via zelle.

When my guests left on Tuesday I went to the house. I opened the cooler and there was a universal garage door opener, unopened, brand new in its original wrapping. I was confused as I was told there would be 2 new receiver "clickers". I tried pressing the buttons, it didnt work. I tried programming it according to the instructions in the packaging, it didnt work. I tried my old clickers, they didnt work. I tried calling and texting Eli numerous times, he didnt answer or respond. I left the property with the gate still not working. Two hours later, Eli messages me. He said he was in Tampa for work. He said that he thinks he accidently left me a brand new remote, in its packaging, instead of the one he opened and programmed for me. I cant see how that could be true, how could you leave an unopened remote instead of one you had to open from its packaging and program by accident?

I realized when I was was there trying to figure it out, there was no new receiver, just the same old one that he told me needed to be replaced. While now responding to me, Eli says he had told me he figure out the receiver didnt need to be replaced, just batteries. I say if the old receiver is working, and you replaced the batteries, than the old clickers should work and they dont. I said I have guests coming Thursday, I need it working by then. This is on Tuesday. He nsaid he will give me an update in the morning. I dont hear from him so I messaged him at 330, and he says hes still away, but can come to my house the following morning, Thursday. I said please do, as guests are checking in at 1130. Thursday morning, I message him at 10:44 and say, "are you around?" He responds "Yes I will arrive soon." That was the last time he responded to me. I messaged him at 230 "Did you get there?", no response. At 430 I messaged "hello", at 530 I messaged "?", all got no response. I messaged him twice on Friday, morning and evening. I called numerous times and messaged 5 times on Sunday. No response. I messaged 6 times today from 930am all the way to 6pm. No response. He went dark and just stopped responding. I should have known something was off right away. Going to a $1500 quote, to $1100, to $600 for the same job should have been a red flag that something was off. 

UPDATE: I messaged him one last time on the evening I wrote and was about to post this on 2-12-24. Told him I was going to post this message as well as BBB and file a complaint with the State AG. All of the sudden after 5 days of no responses, he messages back in 2 minutes. Multiple excuses and apologies, says he will come or get someone to come fix it. I told him I alreasdy have a new company coming between 10-2 tomorrow to repair it. I said get their first and you can fix it, otherwise Im not canceling them. He messaged me in the AM saying he'd be there in an hour. Hour came and went, other company showed up and fixed the gate for 1/2 the price Eli took from me to do nothing. 100% scam.

-No receiver

-No repair

-Nothing working

-Took $500

-Said he was coming back multiple times never came