Priority Hardscapes

Victim Location 46240

Total money lost $9,000

Type of a scam Home Improvement

Chris L Hughes advertised on THUMBTACK as Priority Hardscapes in Indiana. He also operated as Memories Landscaping in Winston, Salem, NC. He came to our house in April 2017 to give a Hardscaping quote. He said he was an ex police officer, shot in the line of duty, and he retired from the force. He said he had five children and he was also busy with their softball schedules, and his wife, Kristana, was a maternal fetal medicine sonographer at Wake Forest & St Vincent, so ‘he didn’t need the money, but liked to work outside doing projects.’

Chris gave us a contract and asked for half of the money upfront, as is ‘normal practice’. He offered a 5% discount for cash. We paid him $9,000 in cash.

We travelled in June and expected him to begin the work. Materials never arrived. We contacted him regularly, but he stopped answering his phone, or replying to emails. Eventually he responded to say he was sorry, but his brother had been involved in a hit & run accident. He tried to buy further time by emailing us and pretending he also emailed another client; he used his own email address for this. When we contacted him to say we wanted our money back, or we would pursue legal action, he responded that he was an ‘honest guy’ but he was sorry to say his brother had just died.

We’ve never seen nor heard from him again. We did, however, find that he’s used exactly the same ‘brother dying’ story in Winston Salem, and that THUMBTACK had been informed by another customer in November of 2016 that Chris Hughes was a scam artist; this customer had already taken Memories/ Priority Hardscaping to court, which of course found in their favor for $34,000. He took $11,000 upfront from the customer, and the court ruled in their favor. Chris Hughes never appeared in court. This person had already complained to THUMBTACK.com, which did not remove Chris Hughes’ ad, despite the previous complaints.