Chris Challof from CMC Systems refuses to pay me
 

Ok guys I know this is not boat related but I need to get the word out on this guy.

I have over the last few years done a number of jobs with this Chris Challof from CMC Systems in Dover, MA. Every time a job finished there would be a balance owed. Then the next job would come in and he would promiss to make good on the end of that job... You know how this story goes... The old rob Peter to pay Paul.

There was a job that we were working on that I was there almost daily for over a year and a half. It was a job that we took over from another company that was a mess. It had a lot of things that needed to be fixed like wiring issues and equipment that was broken. After a lot of time on the job the customer said that they wanted the system to be stable for 3 months before final payment was made. This was back in December of 2012. I had been asking Chris to put a bill together for final payment since that time and get it over to this customer. That way after the 90 days had passed they could get a payment out. Well the other day I emailed the customer and asked them if it was OK for me to just bill them directly because I had not been able to get Chris to respond. They called me up and told me that they had received a invoice from him in June or July for what they thought was the final invoice and had paid it in full and thought that they were done. They told me that they did not like working with him so they hired another company. They are going to send a letter of reference for me because they did like my work. If I was just to bill for my estimated repair time this was over 18,000 dollars (when I started the job I had no idea how much stuff was wrong). I also paid over 1500 in sub contracted labor that I brought on the job. These guys never got paid by Chris so I paid for them because I felt responsible for getting them involved with this guy. There are thousands in equipment that he never paid me for.

While the above job is going on I was also working with him on another job. This was a job that we were starting from scratch. I did the design of the system. His company was going to do all the install and I was going to do the program and terminate the fiber. I sold the customer a decent sized 200,000 dollar system. Chris got some payments from the customer and called me up to order equipment. The stories started with him. He told me that the customer shorted him on the checks and that he just had enough to order the equipment from me but not to pay me the profits that he owed. I ordered the equipment and got it to him anyhow. I did this because he convinced me that the customer still owed him a substantial payment. I should have known something was wrong when I went on site and saw a lot of equipment that was not what I specified. It was a lot cheaper then what I had put in my design. There were amps missing (still are) and other things that were not part of the spec. Move in date comes and Chris had never ordered the remotes for the job. He kept telling me that the customer had never paid him for the remotes and that he could not get them. The customer and I ordered up 11 Ipad Mini's and installed them so that he could have a functioning system on move in. We got the system up and running with the Ipad Mini's. The customer liked the Ipad mini interface and cancelled the other remotes. Some time went on and after not being paid any money I stoped responding to the customer. He emailed me a while back and asked why I was not responding. I told him that I had not been paid any money for his job. He and his wife were floored and pissed. He told me that he thought he had paid in full for the job. He asked me to do a full accounting on the system. I did. He gave me a list of all the checks that he had written. He was as far as I could tell paid in full other then some small work order changes. In fact he had over paid for the system! I showed this to Chris and he said that he would figure out what all the work order changes are and get back to me. When I initially asked him what the work order changes were he said between 5 and 10K. After he saw the accounting that I sent him all of the sudden he was telling me that the work order changes were 20K. I waited and waited and nothing for his add on list and I of course never got it. I texted him 2 days before Labor Day and asked him if he could get me the accounting with his add ons by the tuesday fallowing Labor day weekend. He said he would. This never happened.

I am now trying to figure out what to do. This guy has screwed me probably all total for between 75 and 100K (the range depends on if you look at the estimates or the actuall time spent on jobs.) Add to that lost money if I was working on different jobs instead of his. This has been a staggering loss for me. The guy that owns the last house has now hired me and I am working directly for him trying to fix the mess that has been left behind. He is going to pay some of my past bill but it is looking like it is going to be about 30K short of what I should be paid. He is also of course going to pay me on a go forward basis. I can try and go after him in court but if I get the judgment is there any assurance of payment? Probably not. This whole thing sucks and as you can see is keeping me up at night.

Thanks for listening and getting the word out.

Jon

what a piece sh1t,break his jaw

Lawyer up!!!!

I have left a few messages this AM for some guys to call me back. I think getting the judgment at this point and time will be the easy part. I just don't know if I can ever leverage that into getting paid. Maybe I can sell it off to collections once I get the judgement?

I've been ripped off for BIG bucks before. A judgement is all well and good, but it comes down to the integrity of the person you're dealing with. A judgement cost me money and I haven't seen a dime.

Never looked into the collections thing, but trying to bleed a rock in the end made me just give up. I feel for you for sure.

you need to start looking into the structure of the business you are dealing with (CMC Systems)

if it is not structured properly or if their have been "piercings" in the veil of that corporate structure then you can probably use a court judgement to start placing a lien on personal property like real estate and cars as well as any company property

that is if the person is even incorporated and not just a sole proprietorship if they are a sole proprietorship then you can probably immediately go after personal assets after any judgement

keep in mind that a lien only works when it comes time to sell or liquidate those assets that have a lien on them AND you have to "perfect" that lien properly right from the start and then maintain that lien through the years with repeated filings ect

if this individual has personal assets that are unencumbered and you can get a lien on them either because it is a sole proprietorship or because of a poor corporate structure or poor dealings between the corporation and the individual that will probably what gets their attention the soonest and for the highest resolution

so this will require a judgement in court of course and then research on what type of entity you are dealing with and possibly even looking at the structure and the financials of that entity if it is a corporate structure before you can decide where you are able to best place any liens

Appears to be an obama voter

I guess it's of no real relevance but I'm trying to decipher what your line of work is..... Alarm systems?

In Oklahoma you would file a lien against the company cmc was hired to do the work for

Go Get a Tetanus Shot.................

[QUOTE=Audiofn;3992528]Ok guys I know this is not boat related but I need to get the word out on this guy.

I have over the last few years done a number of jobs with this Chris Challof from CMC Systems in Dover, MA. Every time a job finished there would be a balance owed. Then the next job would come in and he would promiss to make good on the end of that job... You know how this story goes... The old rob Peter to pay Paul.


Pantera has been doing this for decades. Good luck getting your $$$

Slap a lien on every house where you worked and not paid. I know it sounds ugly but that's what a guy I knew in the ac business did (he got screwed by the builder). Amazing how quickly he got paid once the home owners found out.. not 100% but better than 75%

I install large home automation systems. Control lighting, camera's, HVAC, TV, Theater systems...

Thanks for the advice guys. Looks like I am going to have to legal up. It sucks because all I asked was for him to work this out with me. Hell even set up a payment plan. Now I am going to have to spend money to try and get what I worked for.

Wobble the problem with that idea is that Massachusetts only gives you a very small window to file a lein. There also has to be certain documentation in place. I had never been one to do contracts and in this case it is going to perhaps bite me in the ass. Also a number of these customers are now hiring me directly so I don't want to mess that up. We shall see.

I have always hired nice ethical lawers in the past to help me out with stuff like this. This time I am looking for a pit bull! I want him to feel my pain.

A baseball bat and cement shoes???

If only...

Happened to a concrete guy I know the same way, he was pouring basements and drives for a builder, builder could not pay him when he was done so concrete guy had to sign off to the bank/homeowner that he was paid other wise the builder could not get his final check from bank and ever pay him. it progressed to where the builder got paid for a house and paid him for the concrete from PREVIOUS house. As time went on the builder got further and further behind to the point he was owed concrete guy 100,000$+ then bottom fell out of the housing market and, builder went bankrupt, never did collect and went bankrupt. He now drives semi out in ND in the oil fields, sucks, hope you can collect but doesn't sound good!!

Exactly how my friend in the AC business got screwed, however the market was stronger here and the liens worked.

People like this give the real estate/construction business a bad name, what a POS, I was in the business for thirty years and was lucky enough to only get burned a few times and they were fairly small amounts, but I made sure that everyone in our town knew what a POS these guys were, so at least I got satisfaction that they couldn't do it to someone else, sounds like you're doing what you have to do, talk to a attorney and see if you still have lien rights, but make sure it's gets out the he's a POS, good luck.

Man up, knock him out of his shoes... Trust no one!

Had a jackass owe me for two years. Every time it snowed over 3 inches I would plow his doors in just past midnight. Snow was up to his roof line when I was done. He found out it was me and paid me off. Make there life ****ty and they pay.

I like the way you think! LOL

keep sending scary people to the door to remind them they owe money, very politely but make sure only the wife at home when you do it.