Jon Cerrito, Jr. Chimney Cricket, Inc. Tuck Pointing NOT Sarasota Florida

This gentleman, Jon Cerrito,Jr. appears quite demure and professes to have vast experience and great knowledge with chimney work starting in the Michigan area where his family has a similar run business.  He particularly claims to be proficient with tuckpointing brick, which was the reason he and I met to begin with.  He arrived, gave me a written estimate for filling in the gaps between my bricks on the porch and collected half the amount of his estimate before beginning work. He supposedly returned the next day to do the repairs and called me several times during the day to collect his final payment.  Actually he was waiting for me to get home from work to collect the other half of payment.  I wasn't sure the work was done  or even done properly, as it appeared no work had been done at all.  The truck he used to perform the repairs and was sitting in when I arrived home had no used cement bags, buckets, tools...nothing.  My porch was saturated with water, so I presume something had been done at the house, however, the bed of his pick up truck was immaculate. There was some cement droppings in the yard (he failed to clean up) and it appeared as though he put some dark colored cement into some of the gaps in the brick, but the grout he used did not match the existing grout and it was not clean work. To be completely honest, I was confused as I didn't know what to expect and this is entirely my fault.  I really didn't know what to expect and had tried for quite some time to find a contractor that did this type of work.  When it came to Mr. Cerrito, I simply threw caution to the wind, as I had wanted the work done for so long.  Well, as the saying goes, a fool and his money are soon parted, and I was foolish to pay the remaining amount (or any amount) to Jon Cerrito of Chimney Cricket, Inc. of Sarasota.  Mr. Cerrito had the nerve to give me an estimate for additional work he claimed I needed on my Chimney.  His wife called a few weeks later and asked when he could start that work.  I said, never...I mean, um...tell me when the spaceship lands.  I will never part so easily with $2,000 again in my life to hire a person to do work I am unfamiliar with.  This was my first home, I was excited to begin some badly neeed repairs, and I took Mr. Cerrito at his word.  I have seen brick tuck pointing on other older homes, and the work looks nothing like what Mr. Cerrito attempted to do to my porch brick.  The existing morter is gray and Mr. Cerrito used black cement which looks horrible.  He simply slapped it on and took no care to wipe away properly for a clean grout line.  FYI:  Apparently there are numerous complaint filings with his family's business in Michigan as well.  So, folks.  If you hire him, do not pay him a dime until the work is completed to your satisfaction.  Buyer beware, let my mistake not become yours.