Marla Barina John Barina BEWARE - They are professional Scam Artists use sob story take advantage of local Contractors! Bella Vista, Arkansas

The above fabricated story is so far from the truth, I, MARLA BARINA, am shocked and dismayed to discover this posting. Mr. DINO L. VERGURA, owner of A-AFFORDABLE AC, HEATING and REFRIGERATION , LLC based in Lowell, Arkansas is a total and complete liar. If you notice, he never identifies himself in this entire post. His personal attack on me and my husband is vicious. He is trying to hurt our reputation and make us look dishonest and untrustworthy. I am a piano teacher and musician. My husband is a retired architect. We live a quiet, peaceful life.

WE HAVE NEVER SCAMMED ANY CONTRACTOR !!  WE PAY OUR OBLIGATIONS !!

MR. DINO L. VERGURA is the PROFESSIONAL SCAM ARTIST!!

He quoted my husband and I a price for a used (14 year Old) AC unit and then tacked on a fee for installation. Nothing was on the paperwork other than these facts. We were not borrowing the unit or renting it, in any way! We PURCHASED THIS USED UNIT AND HAD A BILL OF SALE!!
It was the middle of July and we were desperate for a working AC unit. We would have more money come fall time, and DINO VERGURA put in writing that the purchase price of this old unit would be applied towards a new unit, upon installation in the fall.

Only problem is, the old unit began having issues and was putting off massive amounts of water onto the ground, where the drain pipe emptied onto our lawn. It was creating a pool of standing water, right next to our home's foundation. It was not cooling properly. I brought this to DINO VERGURA'S attention. At first, he agreed to come out and look at the situation, but then , he refused and over the phone told us that the problem I was describing was "normal." He said that it would be a waste of his time to even come out.

Since we had already paid him over a thousand dollars for the used unit, I felt that he should give us better service. After all, we fully intended to have him install a new unit in a month or so.
His attitude had us totally confused and was much different than when he had made the original, written agreement. So, I started looking into the situation further. His answers made no sense.

I contacted the State of Arkansas and spoke with the investigator, Mr. Joel Ledbetter. He informed that he would come out and take a look. He also informed that DINO VERGURA DID NOT HAVE A LICENSE TO INSTALL UNITS IN THE STATE OF ARKANSAS!!  Dino only had a license to do REPAIRS!! He said we could not hire MR. VERGURA TO DO AN INSTALL OF ANY TYPE OF UNIT!!

Mr. Ledbetter filed a report with the STATE OF ARKANSAS licensing authorities. An investigation was done and in January of 2011, MR.VERGURA WAS FINED!!! He was told to either get the proper license or only do service work and repairs. HE NEVER OBTAINED THE LICENSE TO DO INSTALLATIONS!! 

This did nothing to get our money back; although Mr. Ledbetter had told DINO that he really should refund us our money. The 14 year old unit was IMPROPERLY SIZED for the job and was not capable of handling our capacity properly. It was of no use to us and would have to be totally discarded. It was not the same tonnage as the inside air handler unit and that was a HUGE problem!!

WE HAD NO CHOICE BUT TO FIND ANOTHER CONTRACTOR!!

Dino told Mr. Ledbetter that he planned to come to our home and "repossess" the 14 year old unit. Mr. Ledbetter had documented our Bill-of-Sale and told Dino that we "owned " the unit. Mr. Ledbetter was shocked that DINO was going to do this. Mr. Ledbetter informed us that he would be there when Dino came for the unit and document the illegal "taking" of the unit. Mr. Ledbetter said this was the most ridiculous set of circumstances he had ever seen or heard from an AC contractor.

On the day DINO "repossessed" the unit, he called the Bella Vista Police Department and told them he needed "back-up" protection while he did a "repossession" at our residence. When the police arrived, Joel Ledbetter showed the policeman our bill-of-sale. He explained that he was the Investigator for State of Arkansas and told the policeman the entire story. The police officer was stunned.....said that he felt a false report had been filed by Dino and that this was not a valid "repossession" of any kind! We owned the unit! But DINO persisted and took it anyway. The officer said he could stop Dino from taking it, but told us it might be better just to let Dino take it. It would make him look even worse to the State Licensing Board. SO, we let him take it, but told him, he really had no right to take it.

We ended up borrowing money from my mother to get a new system. NOT ONE CENT WAS REFUNDED BACK TO US BY A-AFFORDABLE AC/HEAT or DINO VERGURA. HE IS STILL NOT LICENSED TO DO INSTALLATION WORK !!! His web-site: www.a-affordablehvac.com still says, under "Services" that he does INSTALLATIONS!!!   HE is still not licensed to do INSTALLATIONS...!!

BEWARE .....DINO VERGURA IS A LIAR..... HE DOES NOT KNOW WHAT HE IS DOING.....HE WILL RIP YOU OFF!!!! Call the STATE....Talk to MR. JOEL LEDBETTER.....Check with the Bella Vista Police!
REMEMBER THAT THE STATE FOUND HIM GUILTY AND FINED HIM FOR NOT HAVING THE PROPER LICENSE!!  Feel free to contact me, MARLA BARINA, if you want any other info. I cannot afford to fight this in court, our reputation and my name has been tainted by this hateful, wicked con-artist.