AAA The Renovators (o/a Fire Sprinkler Technologies Inc. o/a Jet Plumbing and Contracting Inc.)

My wife and I hired Joey to work on several parts of our house, but mainly the front porch roof and the exterior siding. Joey and his crew managed to make a mess of everything they touched and Joey's carelessness was directly responsible for allowing a huge amount of rain water to enter our home and destroy our living room, dining room and fully finished basement. Having removed all the original siding from our house in preparation for stucco work, he did not think to cover the remaining "barn board" cladding with a tarp or anything at all. Joey and his crew "don't work on the weekends" and our 100+ year old house was left totally unprotected. When the heavy rain came on Sunday, it all went straight into our house, starting from the second, filling our living room ceiling, pouring down through the pot-lights and then doing exactly the same thing in the basement.

We had an electrical fixture in the ceiling of the front porch. Joey's crew pulled down the original ceiling (as requested) and then they "secured" the wiring by twisting the black and white wires together with a marette. When-ever the porch light switch was accidentally turned on, the breaker would pop and kill all the power to the front of my house. I had to go fix the wiring myself.

Shingles were installed on our porch roof using the same air-gun driven 4" construction nails that were used for the framing. Not to mention that the shingles were the wrong colour and when we pointed that out to Joey & co. we got nothing but an argument.

Joey Benedetto / Joey Bennet / JP Bennet (pick your favourite alias !) is only truely interested in collecting as much money from you as he can, as quickly as possible. Once things start going wrong or when he looses interest, he will walk away and move on to the next poor sucker. If you have ever received good/fair service from this person, consider yourself very lucky and never hire him again. Joey did not finish anything he started and we have had to carry on without him and pay new contractors. He has proven to be completely incompetent, has destroyed a large part of our home and has still managed to walk away with several thousand of our dollars in the clear.

DO NOT HIRE "AAA THE RENOVATORS" or "FIRE SPRINKLER TECH" or "JET PLUMBING AND CONTRACTING" or "EXTREME GLOBAL SPORTS" or "XTREME GLOBAL SPORTS" UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES (an honest business person would not need so many alias's, don't you think ?).

I posted my project on the Handy Canadian site & got 3 responses. It was a small project so 2 of the contractors were not to interested. AAA The Renovators (Joey Benedetto) were so I agreed to have them do the job.

Joey talks a good game but the results were not there, poor workmanship & the balcony is once again leaking. DO NOT HIRE AAA THE RENOVATORS JOEY BENEDETTO under any circumstances, I didn't do proper background checks and am now very upset with myself about that. There has been no reply to my e-mails and phone calls to AAA The Renovators, PLEASE BEWARE.

My mistake cost me $2,500.00, just wanted to advise everyone out there.

Regards

Joseph

Joey and his crew were friendly, helpful and came when they said they were coming. I hired them to strip my exterior brick and they did a wonderful job. They even cleaned my neighbor's houses and yards to ensure there was no brick dust on their properties. I have since hired them for other jobs and am equally happy with their work. They even did some extra work by painting my fence and front door. He really cares about the end product and the work looking good. I will definitely use Joey in the future.

Many hours of other contractors' work, and thousands of dollars later, we are able to use our kitchen but the disastrous quality of the work Joey Benedetto completed must be recorded.

The cupboards that Joey installed were not actually screwed into the walls (screws were too short), and they were not leveled; the extra cabinets were left with a piece of 2 by 4 as support, and the joins of the cupboards and the light surrounds are left unevenly joined. The paintwork has long sloppy drips down onto the baseboards and is generally messy. After Joey's chummy behavior and many urgent requests for instant cash (which we complied with), the job is full of disappointments and I can only hope that other people benefit from our experience of trusting what this man said.

Joey has not returned our phone calls, e-mails or our keys, or any part of the money he owes us for work uncompleted and certainly not finished to the high standard he claims to provide.

The whole experience was deeply costly.

Since April 2, we have not had a kitchen because Joey Benedetto has failed to come through with the work he promised and was paid for. We paid Joey every dollar he asked for, and more for more work, and we are still waiting to hear from him -- his phone message box is always full and he does not reply to e-mails. He is in debt to us for thousands for dollars of work that he has not done.

Someday, someone will catch on to Joey Bennet's game, his constantly changing stories and his empty promises, and I hope that someone gives him even a fraction of the grief he has caused us since we hired him after posting a job on this site.

After paying Joey Benedetto every dollar he asked for, we still have an unfinished kitchen and an incommunicado contractor. Joey has been unreachable and unresponsive to our requests for attention. The job started April 2; we are still washing dishes in the basement and have a kitchen without a sink or countertop, and now no one responsible.

Joey asks us to trust him, and we have, but he is not living up to his side of the bargain.

Our kitchen renovation with Joey Benedetto began April 2, with good days of work put in by Joey and his workers. The problems began with poor communication, first about his trip to Cuba (a few days; then 10 days, which would be fine because it would be while the countertop was being made; then 11 days with no payment made on the countertop --although he had the money from us), then he didn't tell us that the payment had not been made when he returned from Cuba on April 26 and hence the countertop was NOT being manufactured (meaning still no sink or water in the kitchen for at least another 2 weeks after payment is made), and since then he has made and broken promises about the payment, which has yet to be made as of today, May 18.

Joey completed other jobs on the outside of the house, all of which have been finished (paid for in advance), but the kitchen is not completed; his promises of a) communicating with us, and b) responding to our requests to ensure our satisfaction over the details and c) making good on the work outlined in his contract have not been fulfilled.

We have been patient, tolerant of his erratic work schedule; we have paid in full according to his own payment plan (which involves a down payment and then 2 large amounts of money before the job is finished, with $500 left to pay at completion). Joey is keen on trust but in spite of our trusting him.

We are left with an unfinished kitchen after 7 weeks, and Joey is incommunicado -- at least with us. Apparently he has found someone else to work for but I hope they are less trusting than we have been and pay only when work is actually complete, not just promised.

I hired Joey in March 2007 after I had read several favorable reviews on this website. He proved to be affable and chummy but not very reliable in showing up for work when he had promised and I had trouble getting him to return phone calls. He told me that he was very familiar with the job I had for him which was to install three ceiling beams to support the upper floor so that partition walls could be removed. In addition he quoted the lowest price of the three contractors who bid on the job. I provided him with the architects drawings and specifications but the job failed the building inspection because he had made two of the beams with 2 plys instead of the 3 required. I was able to get the engineer to approve adding the third ply with the beams insitu but I had to do all the running around and provide the documentation for the inspector. Joey did send his men to make the corrections at no additional cost however. I paid Joey 1/3 up front. 1/3 after start up and withheld the final 1/3 until the final inspection. It was perfectly clear that neither Joey or his men had ever done a job such as this before. As an example I arrived to find them unable to install the first beam because they said the company they rented the jacks from had given them unserviceable equipment and that they would have to delay until they could return them. I took one look at the jacks, got out some wd 40 and couple of my own wrenches and had the jacks working in 5 minutes! The job took at least twice as long as he had promised and was interupted by a trip to Cuba.

Thanks for your reviews and write-ups as they have saved me huge grief before I hired Joey and company! I spoke with Joey over the phone and setup an appointment to review the job site - roughly a 10,000 sq/ft commercial area which was being redesigned. He seemed very courteous and responsive at first. I walked him through the job site to which he never took a penciled note, a picture, had no measuring tape - he never wrote down anything. At the end of our 15 minute walk through, I asked him how we should proceed. His main concern was getting a retainer up front and to outline his payment plan. Secondly, Joey said he would provide his initial quote within 48 hours. That's short order for a job of this size and magnitude (I had my doubts) but I agreed and told him to proceed. This is where it get's really funny - I offered him the architectural drawings so he could price the job accordingly to which he replied, " I don't need them. I've done lots of this type of work so I'll get a copy of the drawings after I give you the quoted price." HA! That was unbelievable - Anyone in this profession knows the specs, scope of work can't be assumed. The devil is in the details - fire alarm, sprinkler sizing, electrical layout, HVAC design, etc.. Additionally, he never wrote a thing down on paper, didn't have a measuring tape and we hadn't talked about most of the details. It only emphasised to me that this guy is a complete fraud. Thanks for the comments on this website - they have saved me from making a huge mistake by hiring this chump!. They opened my eyes to some things before awarding Joey the job, and saved me huge amounts of money and more importantly, time and grief! I feel sorry for all the others who were taken advantage of by Joey, but rest assured your words and written comments have taken bread out of Joey's mouth - he's not getting any of our business - roughly 300k worth of work -- you can smile at that!

My project was a full basement renovation. I hired Fire Sprinkler Technologies Inc. which is owned by Joey Benedetto. I have found Joey Benedetto to be a dishonest and disreputable person. He is a liar who will say anything to avoid responsibility. He continually makes excuses and blames others for the problems he causes through his dishonesty and lack of professionalism. I have now spoken to several of his former employees, customers and subcontractors, all of whom have nothing good to say about Joey Benedetto. He has bounced cheques to his employees and subcontractors, while taking thousands of dollars from customers and then abandoning their projects unfinished. I know of at least 3 persons who say they plan to sue Joey Benedetto.<BR>

My basement renovation was supposed to take 4 WEEKS to complete. Joey started my renovation on May 22, 2007. On Sept. 11, 2007, I officially terminated our relationship based on his breach of contract. AFTER 16 WEEKS MY RENOVATION WAS ONLY ABOUT 50% FINISHED!! Throughout the little work that he did do, Joey often cut corners and failed to do what he had been contracted to do. The electrical wiring that he did was substandard and haphazardly done. He failed to properly correct a leaking foundation wall. He failed to provide proper quality control and supervision to the drywalling resulting in walls and doorways that are not level or straight. My new contractor has had to do a good deal of work just correcting the deficiencies that Joey left behind. As part of my renovation, I had to have inspections done for the plumbing, framing and electrical work. Joey failed the first inspection for each of these things!! I find it shocking that a contractor who claims to have 17 years of experience did not know what was required to pass basic building inspections.<BR>

During the time of my renovation, Joey was frequently away. He took 3 week long trips to Cuba between June and August, 2007. Though he promised to leave the project in the hands of a capable foreman and to have the work continue in his absence, during two of his trips nothing was done while he was away. He failed to arrange for subcontractors to work during his absence and during one trip he left the country without paying his employees for that week. <BR>

What is most disturbing about Joey Benedetto however is his DISHONESTY and seemingly COMPLETE LACK OF ETHICS. Joey has little regard for the law or for written contracts. I had a set payment plan for my renovation that Joey himself drafted. However contracts appear to mean nothing to Joey. Joey continually came to ask for more money ahead of schedule. After less than a week on the job, Joey said that he needed more money and that he would renege on his contract if he didn't get it. And this is after being given half of the contract price upfront. Joey said that it was a trust issue, that we had to be able to trust each other if we were to work together. In fact, he continually told me that he was trustworthy. That old adage that if a man tells you that you can trust him, best run in the opposite direction has never been more true than in the case of Joey Benedetto. Joey appears to repeat the same method of operation with all of his clients. In my case and it seems in the cases of Susan Hughes and Alison Cassidy, both of whom have posted negative reviews of Joey, Joey appears to start a job professionally. The first few days he is very conscientious. He seeks to get your trust and then he starts asking for more money ahead of schedule. But once he has most of your money, he then treats your renovation project with complete and utter disdain. He makes promises he doesn't keep and continually lies and makes excuses for his lack of performance. He provides extremely poor customer service. He never answers phone calls or emails. I must have emailed Joey over 3 dozen messages during the course of my renovation. He never answered a SINGLE email message. <BR>

Once Joey had most of my money, the pace of work on my renovation almost completely stopped. In the last month of my renovation with Joey, he accomplished but a single days worth of painting!! It appears that Joey has squandered all of the money that I gave him (perhaps he spent it on his frequent trips to Cuba). When he came back and asked one last time for more money and I refused to give him more money since he already had enough to finish the job, he just stopped doing any more work without explanation. <BR>

I urge you, DO NOT HIRE JOEY BENEDETTO OR FIRE SPRINKLER TECHNOLOGIES OR JET PLUMBING. Just to show you how SLIMY Joey really is, when I asked Joey for some references that I could call to check on his work, he gave me the phone numbers and names of two of his EMPLOYEES. Only after a few weeks when I learned the last names of these employees and their phone numbers (Joey gave me their numbers when he left on one of his trips to Cuba) did I discover the truth. How can a contractor who claims to have over 17 years experience not be able to provide a couple of references of clients who are satisfied with his work?

DO NOT HIRE THIS CONTRACTOR. I paid him almost everything up front on June 6, 2007 and as of today's date August 2, Joey Bennato, has not come back to finish the job nor has had the courteousy to call me.

Although, he has had the time to go to Cuba twice.

I have not had countertops, sink or water in my kitchen since June 6, 2007.

He also goes under the name of JET PLUMBING. I am doing this because Joey said this was a trust issue with giving the money up front and I do not want any other consumer to be taken advantage of by Joey Bennadetto.

His business ethic is non existent and he only cares about himself and not the customer.

I am very disappointed of putting almost $14,000 up front and now have to hire another contractor to finish the job. I had to refinance my house to be able to renovate the kitchen. BEWARE...

Alison Cassidy, Mississauga, ON