MLRS

To all others who were scammed by Russ Birch through the Canadian Handyman site.... My name is Debbi Austin and I would love to hear from you. This sociopath through misrepresentation, conned me out of over $20,000.00. I won my small claims court case and was being payed back some of the monies until he filed for bankruptcy. I am currently opposing my court order not survive the bankruptcy due to fraud and breech of contract. For more details please feel free to email me dawgydeb@gmail.com. Please DO NOT allow him to continue taking advantage of good people. Thank you.

Hired him in 2009 and he took the money and never came back.

Russ Birch came to build a wrap around deck at my home in Surrey. He had all kinds of pictures in a photo album of his apparent work. Things looked great. He talked like he knew what he was doing. Boy, was I wrong. What a scam artist. I lost about $2500.00 to this chump. I know why Russ Birch is a con man. He is an addict. I know this because I saw him doing drugs in his truck out front of my house. I think he's so out of touch with reality that he doesn't realize people see him. He was doing it right out in the open broad daylight. When he saw me standing in my doorway, he came up to me, rubbing his nose. I told him I think he had better leave. I believe he has started up a new painting company, now going by his middle name Todd. Beware of this guy. He is about 5'6".

A zero star rating out of 5

While working on my project he used the aliases of Russell Shakes, Russell Burns and Russell Birch.

While working on my project his company was known as LRS, dropping the "M"

He can be found on facebook.

He has also 2 complaints on ripoffreport.com

Modus Operandi: Get as much money up front without buying much for supplies and apparently don't pay your workers. Do only the work that shows progress. Beware that he gets you to buy supplies as well. His shoddy work showed in that he knew he would never be around for the final product.

I am further saddened that he is now probably pulling the same con on someone else.

Now I'm stuck living in an incomplete basement while my upstairs remains demolished.

How is this guy still getting jobs! Is there anything we can do to get this guy to stop robbing others!

This website should put the caveat on his page to ensure that all potential clients read the reviews that have been written.

Russell Birch needs to be held accountable for all of these transgressions! He has run the same scam over and over again, the latest, that we know of, is Ingrid the single mother who gave this con man $4K upfront!

I don't know how many times e promised he would be there at a certain time and date and then not show for a week!!! Though it has been about a year since I have dealt with him, it still annoys me to no end that I allowed this clown to get away with this! I should have fired his a@# at the forst sign of b.s. The lies!!! I mean, how can you go around telling people your wife has breast cancer one day and then she is cheating on you the next???? Then take thousands up front and then ask for more n cash because a supplier went bankrupt? What happened to the advance?????? Birch once told me that he hired a guy to build something and then concocted a story that the individual ran off with his money.......why not just tell the truth???????????

Why weave such a web? The first day he was to begin he said that he had to go on vacation to a specific location, which we agreed to...moving the start date back 2 or 3 days......when I asked him about the location months later he said he had never been!!! Meaning that he had forgotten his initial lie....why? because the freakin 3 week project had gone on for 4 months and he was starting to forget what lie he had told us, vs. the other suckers (clients)!!!!!!!!!!! What a jerk!

I hired the conman called Russell Todd Birch. He was a smooth talker promising everything under the sun. Showing me pics of the work that he did. I gave him $4,000.00 cash (stupid me). I paid for most of the supplies with my credit card. He has done 1/4 of the job. He promised me that the work will be done in 5 days. This all started the end of February 2010. I went away for 3 weeks and I called Russ and wanted him to come and finish the bathroom. I called numerous times until he finally returned my calls. He promised that he would be here on certain days and never show up. When he did he worked for 1/2 hr and dissappear for the rest of the day. He is a pathological lier. Making excuses like his second wife cheated on him. The first wife was a psycho ect. He also complained that the contractors that he was dealing with went bankrupt.

I am a single parent and he knew that, so he took advantage of my situation. He told me that his mother was a single parent too. This has been nothing but a nightmare for me. Please do not hire this guy. He acts like he is the best son and father in the planet. I really feel sorry for his children. I am not finished with him yet!!!

The worst experience of my life. Mr. Birch of MLRS has ruined my confidence in all contractors. In short, a project that was to take two or three weeks ended up taking 4 and a half months and was way over budet. He was hardly ever on site and when he was he acted as if he was doing us the favour. While always apologetic, he was always ready with a story to explain his absence or slow pace....shoulder injury from falling down the stairs, marital problems, vacations, identity theft, welder running off with his money. It was a terrible ordeal dealing with this guy, and I would not recommend him to my absolute worst enemy.

The worst experience of my life. Told us every lie in the book. They turned what should have been a short term project of a few weeks into a multi-month joke, often only showing up once a week for a couple of hours and then taking off! Not to mention the stories we were told. In the end, we paid a price well over budget and were happt to pay it just to get this guy out of our lives!!!

Russ Birch of MLRS did not finish our basement or our pergola. Russ did not pay any of his sub-contractors and took off with all the money for supplies. As a result we are out a lot of money. Stay away from this con artist. We can supply contact names and numbers of other people that have been scammed by Russell Birch of MLRS. Excuses and Lies are all you will get out of Russ Birch. BEWARE.

My office hired this company after posting a request for a locksmith on this site. MLRS replied that they would like the job and they were hired. They did not show up for the first appt and called to say that he had been a victim of fraud and that he had to go deal with the bank. The same excuse was used for the next appt. The main part of the job request had been to install a more secure/better locking doorknob on an inner office door. He removed the existing $300 locking doorknob and installed a home bathroom doorknob. When asked to return to improve the lock it took a few attempts again and he showed up without a new lock. We decided re-keying the original lock would be the best course and he took the doorknob and some spare parts to take to a locksmith to re-key as he was not a locksmith only a handyman. He wanted his cheque and he promised to return the next week to complete the job. We gave him the cheque and since then it has been over 2 months and he has not returned. He rarely returns calls and when he does he has a new excuse....either blaming the locksmith he left the knob with or saying he dropped his cell phone in cement or claiming he is in the hospital. His name is Russ and I think he owns the company as the number is his cell phone and we never dealt with anyone else. I do not recommend hiring MLRS. He may have good intentions but he mismanages his time and does not take responsibility.