Mark Martinez Markus Run away with our Money Colorado Springs Coloardo

My husband and I decided to change the existing wood fence to be vinyl so we bought the materials except for concrete. We both became busy and decided to hire a professional to do it instead. We called several Fence companies for a free estimate and they would schedule and all but no show and has no decency to call us at least that they won't do the project anymore. So we moved forward and went to craigslist. We came about this guy's advertisement. Here are the links: https://cosprings.craigslist.org/…/landscap…/6552099598.html and https://cosprings.craigslist.org/…/haul-awa…/6552075720.html It was April 6 and called Mark "Markus" Martinez and he immediately went to see the project and gave us a high quote and I got to negotiate till it became reasonable. Contract signed and gave the deposit. Contract states the start date would be April 16, 2018 and completion date would be the same. That night I realized what's the deposit for if we got the materials except for the concrete. We called him to ask and he said it's a deposit/reservation fee as well since a lot would cancel.

I should have trusted my instinct and called our bank to stop payment and now I know why people would cancel on him. He also stated that he could start earlier in case his other projects gets finished. Come April 16 around 11 am he called to say that locate would be in our house and after they're done he would also be here to start the job. It's already 3pm and I still don't see CO Utilities dropping by. I called him to ask what's happening. He said they emailed him that locate should be in our house. I asked him to email me what Utilities emailed him. I called 811 to validate this and to my surprise his wife Sarah Martinez called and requested for the ticket around 2pm and locate date is April 18, 2018. Why on earth he would say at 11am that locate would be here if his wife sent a ticket request at 2?

This made me so upset and confronted him with his lie and I didn't receive any apology but rather got excuses. I know it's BS and this has become sketchy so I gave him till April 18 to to the job and if not return our deposit .Of course he agreed with this. I started researching this person and according to the Locate request business name used was M&M Custom Landscapes which is not registered or listed. I did a phone number search and shockingly he is a scammer in CA and no wonder why he moved here. Here is the link for the rip off report: https://www.ripoffreport.com/…/mark-marcus-martinez-this-ma…, https://www.ripoffreport.com/…/mark-martinez-marcus-warning…. It's now April 19, 2018 and no word from him. In short he has now run away with our money. I can't believe that despite the many complaints he is still out there ripping off people. Please help to raise awareness, he has to be stopped.