Vics Home Services-unlicensed contractor

This man is a thief, and a scammer, We wish we could give him ZERO rating. Victor Valdovinos was referred to us by someone, we wanted to get the interior of our 3 bedroom condo repainted. We contacted Mr. Victor Valdovinos on August 10th 2024 and he visited our house on Sunday August 11th, 2024 to inspect and discuss the details of the job that he will be performing for us. Mr. Valdovinos gave us the quotation of $4,500 includes material and labor using paint Dunn Edward and detail of the work order as follows: 1- Remove wallpapers from all the bathrooms and vanity room next to the master bathroom and clean texture walls to match existing ( after removing the wall papers) 2- Paint all the walls, which includes 3 bedrooms, all the bathrooms, laundry room, passageways, kitchen, dining and living areas. 3- Painting the ceiling in the guest room and kitchen area. Also removing the box and replacing the ceiling lights in the kitchen. 4- Prime (where it is oil paint base) and paint all the doors, vanities, stairway railings, cupboard in the passage, trims and baseboards. 5- Fix minor repairs and holes. Kitchen Cabinets to be painted for an additional $1,500 So the grand total became $6,000 The work was suppose to start on Tuesday August 20th and should be completed by August 22nd. On August 11th he requested an advance deposit of $1,000 and we paid $750 via Zelle and $250 via Check total of $1,000. Mr. Valdovinos called on Saturday August 17th and asked for additional $1,500 as down payment and we refused to pay that stating that the balance of the amount will be paid on the day of completion as per agreement. I receive the text he will not be able to start the work on Tuesday August 20th as per our original agreement and he would like to start on Wednesday August 21st to which we agreed, informing him about his original agreed time. Then on Wednesday August 21 at 8:08am we received text that he was unable to come and will start work on Thursday August 22nd, we replied and said we do not agree to this and we would like our refund. As of today we have not received our refund or any response from Victor Valdovinos. We think he is a scammer. Be careful when dealing with him. He is avoiding us and has not refunded our deposit