So we were just getting ready for lunch when a man came up to our front door.
He was handing out business cards and soliciting work tree trimming, landscaping, or doing yard maintenance.
“Hey, Boss, we’ll give you a good price,” he said.
In Kaaawa, we would get visits like this quite often. Over the years, I hired several people who first made unsolicited visits like this. Some turned out to be good workers, reliable, and honest. And the fact that he was out looking for work on Thanksgiving seemed to be to his credit.
I took his card, thanked him, and he left.
His business card lists two phone numbers, with the statement, “Bonded & Insured,” along with a license number.
I was going to just drop it in a drawer for possible future reference, but then I noticed the license number. It just didn’t look right.
So I quickly checked online with the Professional and Vocational Licensing database, and sure enough, the license number isn’t in a format used in Hawaii. When I searched, there’s no record of a license issued in the company name or the individual’s name. So apparently the licensed part is bogus, and likely the “bonded and insured” claim as well.
A bit of additional searching online found that a person with the same name, and a similar sounding company name, was fined twice (for a total of $1,600) by Oregon’s Construction Contractors Board several years ago.
So here’s a question: Should I just throw his card away and forget it? Does someone in my position have a responsibility to help protect others who might not know how easy it is to check out this kind of offer? Should I feel obliged to become an enforcement agent and forward his card to state regulators?
Any thoughts?
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Forward it to state regulators and then forget it.
Call him and tell him!
?
Do not call him. He will know where you live. Forward to regulators and forget it.
Throw it away and don’t waste any more of your time. You easily found out he might be trouble…others can do the same. “Regulators” will do zip. And my take on someone soliciting and disturbing my peace on Thanksgiving is exactly opposite of yours…those are the people I would be most suspicious of because they approach you when your guard might be down. But then again I am a cynic and hide behind my fence and gate.
I’m with Jeff.
Ian, I think he was more likely scoping out your house to burglarize. He knocks on the door to see if anyone is home expecting you to be gone on Thanksgiving.
Regulatory enforcers rely on people like you, Ian, who see something wrong to call in an alert. The budget typically does not provide for independent inspectors to be roving around looking for violators.
Even having a report that he was making this misrepresentation might be helpful in any follow-up.
Forward his card to state regulators.
if it were me, i would also tell any neighbors i know.
Did you like him? If not, you owe him nothing and can be as destructive as you want.
If you liked him, you might call and tell him what could happen if he doesn’t tell the truth on his business card.
In the end, I don’t think I’d hire him and invite trouble which would have an unfortunate resolution for everyone.
Lopaka43 is correct. By and large, regulatory work is complaint-driven if only because regulators can’t possibly be everywhere & see everything. Forward the info to DCCA & let them follow up, or not.
I agree with the others who say turn the information over to the DCCA. I’m sure others who are not as savvy as you would appreciate it.
DCCA will do nothing even if you hand over everything on a silver platter. Even if he is obviously fraudulent, like soliciting business with a fake/no license. The staff attorneys are too chicken to follow-up unless the perp. walks in and confesses, and even then, DCCA will let them go with a warning. Remember when DCCA could have fined Ansaldo for tens of millions for bidding on rail while UNLICENSED, yet Ansaldo got the job and paid less than $50,000 in fines.
Best thing to do is to leave an anonymous-type review on Yelp or other review sites. If anyone does their due diligence in the future they will find your warning. If they don’t search, they get what they deserve.
What is the source of your information that less than $50,000 in fines were paid? They were fined $150,000 to settle two cases.
http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/blog/morning_call/2011/10/honolulu-rail-contractor-ansaldo.html
In other words:
This dude is likely doing it again right now.
Nice.
From the DCCA’s website: If you come across a person or business that is engaged in or offering to do contracting work but you discover that the person or business does not hold a contractor’s license, please notify the Regulated Industries Complaints Office at 587-4272 or call toll-free 1-800-394-1902. In order for RICO to investigate unlicensed activity, it is important to provide as much information as possible.