Complaint Review: Steve Noble and Melissa Kage

We found a local masonry company - Brick One LLC - in the ValPak as well as their website.  They were located in Troy near our house and we called for someone to come out and quote rebuilding a damaged chimney.  We met Steve and Melissa one evening and hit it off - they had been in the business a while, had great rapport, etc.  We had some follow up via email, settled on using a stone product and Melissa dropped off the samples for our selection.  We paid them a deposit check to get started the following week.  

The check was cashed the following day - Nov 17, 2022.  

We never heard from Steve or Melissa the following week and began to call them to find out why work hadn't begun. After a week or so of calls, we heard back from Steve that he had been hospitalized.  We rescheduled.  No show.  Rescheduled again, cancellation the night before.  Reschedule ... on and on.  Excuses from another job running over, to deaths in the family to more illness.  Most times it was no call / no show, we'd have to contact Steve's cell to get answers on why nobody showed up to start.  

After a month and a half, we requested our deposit back.  No response.  

Then we sent registered letters to all three siblings - Steve, Melissa and Jeff (business is licensed in his name).  No reponse. 

We filed a small claims suit.  No reponse to us or court.  No show at the hearing.  

MEANWHILE, we had to find another brick company to complete the work.  We had a quote from Cornerstone Custom Brick - Joel, the owner asked who ripped us off and said, "Oh, their company isn't around anymore".  No acknowledgement that THEY WORK FOR HIM.  Turns out, he's been tagging them as sales team in his Facebook marketing for at least 5 YEARS.  Only stumbled upon this fact by checking out the BBB complaints against Cornerstone.  Complaints that ALSO mention Steve by name.  

So moral of the story, STEER CLEAR of the Noble family and Cornerstone Custom Brick.  The Nobles seem to be running a scam ring and Cornerstone has known complaints against their employees and are apparently unconcerned.