First off, let me address the elephant in the room: WHY do I do this? WHY do I spend exorbitant amounts of time, worth more than the value of the financial losses I've suffered when a shady company lies, cheats and steals? The answer is simple: because I believe in fighting back against the CUMULATIVE amount of damage done by organizations (whether it's a criminal tow company or a malicious cop). If Michael and Son is doing this to me, how many others out there don't have the time or resources to fight back, implicitly allowing this company to continue perpetuating this kind of contract fraud?

Sure, I've spent more than $1000 of my time on this site over a fraudulent $980 charge that Michael and Son is perpetuating, but I don't think about the dollars that I have personally invested. I think that by exposing this corrupt behavior, companies like Michael and Son will either change their ways, or consumers who may be ripped off in the future will avoid using a company like this and seek out a firm that will acknowledge their mistake, correct it, and build further trust with their customers.

In other words, while I net lose in terms of money and time, it's my sincere hope that the community has a net win by either not doing business with this shady organization, or the organization changes its practices to behave fairly and equitably, delivering a quality service with integrity.

Michael and Son in Arlington, VA screwed up a contract. In good faith, I accepted the value of the contract because while the price was high, I just wanted to get the work done and I trusted they would do a good job. The contract's total value was listed at $1000, but Michael and Son tried to shake me down for an additional $980 because the estimator put "1980.00" in a field on the contract labeled "Warranty Description and Length of Warranty".

Instead of acknowledging the mistake they made, Michael and Son chose to blame me for it and tried to fraudulently charged my credit card for the amount. When I refused to accept the blame, they dug in and lied to me and the BBB, specifically claiming that I was verbally told the price.

They have finally acknowledge to Amex to release the funds back to me, and requested that I remove this site. But in the interest of transparency and in pursuit of the above objectives, I've chosen to leave it active as a cautionary tale for others.

Below you will see the facts of this case; all information is true to the best of my recollection and supporting evidence is provided.

The crux of this entire situation is based on this section of a 4 page "contract" that they sent me for doing some stone and siding work (I've added arrows to highlight key sections):

While any reasonable person wouldn't accept a $2000 bid for this work (the job was 3 hours and I had to provide my own Bondo, stone, and paint), some dummies like myself would accept an already expensive $1000 just to get the job done and forget about it.

In hindsight this "contract" had two problems:

1. There was a number in the "Warranty Description and Length of Warranty" field that any reasonable person would just ignore given that a warranty wasn't needed for some painting and stone work.
   • If this number had been in the "Total Price of Contract" field, any reasonable person like myself would have rejected the proposal.
2. The "First Payment" field wasn't a number but just said the first payment was "Due Upon Contract Signing".
   • If this field said "$1000", any reasonable person would have asked questions about why the total price was $1,000 but the "First Payment" and "Final Payment" added up to $1,980.

After paying the $1,000 and having the work done, Michael and Son billed me another $980. Once both parties realized the clerical error, instead of acknowledging that in a contract the "Total Price of Contract" means the total price of the contract, Michael and Son instead decided to dig in, lie to me, lie to the BBB, misrepresent multiple facts, and repeatedly promised a refund that didn't happen. (It was only thanks to Amex's fraud protection where I was able to file a dispute that I eventually got the funds back after 2+ months).

So I'm exposing this publicly because at this point I have sincere doubts that this "clerical error" was real in the first place. Given their multiple lies I am inclined to believe that this "typo" was deliberate. Given my experience here, I now think Michael and Son did this on purpose to trick victims like me into agreeing to a contract on false premises so they can be shaken down later for exorbitant prices. This is of course just my opinion, and their lies and victim-blaming documented here are the only evidence I have of this. But read below and decide for yourself whether you think this is the kind of company you want to do business with.

The below is in reverse chronological order with the most recent events on top, so start at the bottom to read through the timeline of events in order.

June 16, 2025 - Removal Request Denied, Victim Blaming

After sincerely offering condolences for personal issues the owner may be going through, I denied the request to take down this site which factually reports every piece of information related to this situation.

I also offered to withhold the removal request out of respect but immediately got this "victim-blaming" reply, "firing me" as a customer. Obviously I would never do business with this organization ever again, but they continue to take the stance that I'm the bad customer rather than acknowledging they were wrong and apologizing for the mistake.

I chose to post this correspendence to honor my commitment to share all relevant facts related to this situation, and I consider this type of response indicative of the kind of treatment others may expect if they find themselves in a similar situation.

June 16, 2025 - Removal Request

After expressing gratitude and promising to publish the refund confirmation for full transparancy, I received this request to take down this site.

June 16, 2025 - Don't Refund, Do Refund

A week later I got the following, including internal communication to not do the refund immediately after telling me the refund was authorized. Although I'm not sure how Amex fraud investigations happen, it seems like they acknowledged the bogus charge once Amex reached out to them.

June 9, 2025 - Another refund promise

I got this reply - another promise for a refund. Technically at this point Amex has accepted my fraud claim but I'm hoping that I actually see the funds refunded soon.

June 6, 2025 - Notice that site is live

Here are the emails notifying Michael and Son of this site. My first emotionally charged email was after reading their lies to the Better Business Bureau, which was ignored. The second is just notifying them of my disgust of their practices and my intentions with this site.

I sincerely hope that by exposing this behavior they are able to change it for the good of all their victims customers.

June 2, 2025 - The exchange with the BBB (BBB gives up)

My reply on 5/30 calls Michael and Son "disgusting liars", calling out the lies they are spouting to the BBB and their attempts to victim-shame.

Worse, at this point the BBB is done with this feud, and apparently don't bother sharing this with the liars at Michael and Son. The BBB instead replies with:

None of my comments were untrue but in hindsight, this exchange exposes the delicate position of the BBB between pissed off consumers and lying businesses. To the credit of the BBB they can't indefinitely keep up a conversation between a company and its victim - that's what the courts are for.

For now I'm mad that that the BBB is marking this public record as claiming they have not heard back from me, despite me literally replying within hours each time I got correspondence from them. I get that generally it's not their job to mediate or expose lies about the companies they report on, but it's infurating to me that they're telling lies themselves, or at least are lazy about lumping "consumer did not respond" with "consumer remains dissatisfied" in the same response. This is a disservice to anyone who reads this review in the future and has doubts about whether the consumer abandoned the complaint or the just remained dissatisfied (forgetting about the fact that they have no obligation to fact-check anything that's posted on their site).

It would be fair to say "customer remains dissatisfied" but not that "The BBB has not heard back". So, know that when you think you can trust the BBB for being a third party mediator as you review their site, also know that THEY will also lump invalid statements in their analysis.

May 30, 2025 - The exchange with the BBB (more lies)

My reply on 5/20 was as follows. I convey to the BBB that they are lying that there were two signatures, and convey disgust of their comment about me doing anything about an issue "after the fact".

To which their reply is acknowledging that they miswrote the contract but lie that I was verbally told about it.:

Again, a lie. Never once was the price verbally communicated. But true that I refused to pay "final", despite Michael and Son billing my Amex card anyway.

May 20, 2025 - The Exchange with the BBB (response)

The response comes from Michael and Son via the BBB on 5/20. They have lied about having "signatures" on anything and don't address the issue of what the actual value of the contract was. To me this reads as if they know how to play the BBB by providing a reply and know that ANY reply will satisfy them, regardless of how useless, out of context, or untrue it is. Note the BBB never asks them for proof of those two "signatures", as it doesn't exist.

So rich to claim that they "are not sure why that became an issue after the fact"!

May 15, 2025 - The Exchange with the BBB (submission)

I got my first response from the BBB immediately, and their site doesn't allow for all the correspondence to be easily captured with screen shots. Here's all I can see of the conversation between me and the BBB, but they don't list all the correspondence between all three parties (the victim, the BBB, and the business).

The complaint was:

May 15, 2025 - The Text Exchange

Here's a text exchange from from the guy who gave the estimate and sent me the contract, starting after he left me a voicemail. You'll see three time periods:

1. He left me a voicemail on 5/13. I texted back saying I don't want to talk about this. At this point I want everything in writing and text him my position on the issue. I replied to his voicemail, he ignored my text.
2. He voicemailed and texted on 5/15. I again texted back wanting to keep everything in writing. I ask if the refund was submitted based on the information the other guy told me (and clearly lied about) and he says yes (also lying about this which I didn't know at the time because I took them at their word and assumed the refund would take a few days). I thank him, express my regrets that the relationship ended, and move on.
3. I text him again on 5/30 after the refund has not hit my account. At this point MAYBE it's because Amex is dealing with their own process dealing with the fraudulent charge on my credit card so the refund won't show up right away, but still the message was ignored. At this point, Michael and Son has chosen lies to the BBB and radio silence as their form of communication (more on this in the rest of the timeline) rather than explaining where the refund process is or why it hasn't happened..

May 15, 2025 - The Refund Lie

After waiting a few days with no response from these people at Michael and Son, I finally file complaints with the Attorney Generals' Office, the Better Business Bureau, and contest the charges on Amex. I inform them of this (CC'ing the "Management Team") and am told that the refund has "already been initiated" (spoiler: as of 6/4 it hasn't).

May 12, 2025 - The Attack and Defense

After finally getting receipts for what the other charge is that I've spent over a month trying to figure out, I'm done with the lies Michael and Son is dishing out. (I FINALLY find out that that the separate CC bill is for the Home Care Agreement. I'll share why those charges are illegal on another page, but for the context of this page, that matter is now closed).

This dude again has the gall to accuse me of trying to defraud them and lies that he asked me about a $20 payment "in the previous email", demanding that I prove to him "how I came to the $1k conclusion" - despite me emphatically and repeatedly saying "I came to that conclusion because that's what the contract said".

May 12, 2025 - Second Invoice Pushback

At this point I'm clearly done. I will not be accused of any kind of deception or accept any of this guy's gaslighting or lies. I ask if he's going to reverse this fraudulent charge and yet again ask about the (unrelated) charge which these people seem deftly adept at ignoring to this point.

May 12, 2025 - Warranty Description

During this thread I'm finally realizing at least WHY Michael and Son is trying to bill me an extra $980 due to their paperwork error but it's absolutely clear that I agreed to (but didn't sign) this contract for the value of $1000. But when this shady fraudster starts accusing me that "it would be difficult for me to believe you did not see the $1980", I'm done with these people.

Clearly this was a botched contract on their part and the correct response would be "Accept our apologies and we'll make sure our contracts are correct in the future." But instead this shady dirt bag digs in and starts attacking me.

I agreed to a price based on the contract but this guy is starting to accuse ME of not knowing that the "Warranty" field was supposed to be the price of the contract. And he conveniently crops the screen shot to misrepresent the rest of the contract.

This guy also has the gall to claim I'm ignoring them since the 4/21 invoice despite my repeated attempts to contact them and them ignoring my inquires. This is what criminals do: they attempt to put the blame on their victims and ignore every other fact in the issue at hand.

May 12, 2025 - Contract Fraud

The emails continue, Michael and Son claims the contract stated a final payment of $980, and I claim that I paid the total price of the contract up-front (because I didn't want to deal with financing or multiple payments).

May 12, 2025 - Second Invoice Responses

I immediately reply for the third time, and get yet another "we'll look into it" email from Michael and Son, to which I also replied. During this I find that Michael and Son has already billed my credit card for this invoice despite the previous claim that they'll look into it.

I still haven't received an answer on the other charge, but am clearly just trying to keep more fraudulent charges from popping up on my card.

May 12, 2025 - Second Invoice Again

With complete radio silence from Michael and Son, I forget about the issue until weeks later the same invoice pops up again in my email.

Apr 30, 2025 - Invoice Inquiry Response

I cordially respond, still assuming this is all just some clerical error given the other errors I've seen so far such as automated emails claiming the work has already been done.

Apr 30, 2025 - Invoice Inquiry Reply

I get a reply saying the email has been "forwarded".

Apr 29, 2025 - Invoice Inquiry Follow-up

A week later, after getting no response I followed up on the issue, asking for the invoice to be rescinded.

At this point I still don't know what the other $989 charge is on my credit card (turns out this was unrelated to this issue - was an annual subscription that apparently was illegally billed without notice to me).

Apr 21, 2025 - Invoice Inquiry

Within hours I inquired about the invoice, having no idea why I was being billed again. For now, disregard the secondary questions about this second payment; it turns out I was paying for an annual HVAC maintenance contract. Technically that bill was apparently illegal too but I'll cover that in a different way.

Apr 21, 2025 - Another Invoice Detail

This invoice is demanding another $980, in addition to the $1000 I had already paid.

Apr 21, 2025 - Another Invoice

Here's where things get weird. A week after the work is done I get another invoice.

Apr 14, 2025 - Work is Performed

The work is done without issue. The contractors did an OK job and were done within about 3 hours as expected. Expensive at $1000 but I was happy to be done with the project. Again, with this relatively small job with moderately skilled labor. No reasonable person would have ever agreed to $2000 ($600/hr) for this relatively small amount of work - especially where all materials (stone and paint) were provided by me.

The stone work lasted about 7 days before being ruined again. I had specifically asked for solutions to avoid these things getting smashed when delivery drivers run over them (and laying down sand or concrete under them), but I knew there was no warranty because a warranty code of "1980.00" meant nothing to me... and I signed off on their work knowing they didn't bother to lay any sand, gravel, or concrete foundation under these things.

Mar 24, 2025 - Invoice Payment Confirmation

The invoice payment confirmation comes in showing the payment on 3/7, showing a balance due of $0. Again, there is no indication whatsoever that there are future payments that Michael and Son will be demanding later.

Mar 15, 2025 - Schedule Confirmed

The schedule is confirmed.

Mar 15, 2025 - Another Scheduling Attempt

A week later, I once again reached out trying to schedule the work a month out, mentioning I paid the invoice and including a screen shot of the credit card statement.

Mar 7, 2025 - Invoice Paid

Invoice was paid online, and I got a confirmation email.

Mar 3, 2025 - Invoice Details

Given that the contract said the price was $1000 and the contract said there was a "First Payment Due Upon Contract Signing", I thought it was weird to get an invoice for the full value of the contract. Note here there is again no mention whatsoever about the job being $1980 and this was just the first payment or something - this was the "Collection of payment on contract signing".

Mar 3, 2025 - Invoice Sent

Once the date was confirmed, I got an invoice for $1000. Note that the email says "your recent service", and we "trust that you are satisfied with the work performed" (despite at this point nothing has been done).

This is yet another sign of me just considering all these automated systems half-assed and inaccurate, but I didn't question the email and plugged on.

I hadn't thought much about that random number in the "warranty" field of the "contract" in the same way I didn't think about the fact that this email references me being "satisfied with the work performed". I just paid the invoice to get the work scheduled.

Mar 1, 2025 - Estimate Accepted

Contract was accepted and I reached out to Michael and Son to try and schedule the work. I got a phone call confirming the date, and asked about what materials I needed to provide since the contract specifically said I was responsible for materials. (I had the stone to install but was asking about things like mortar and sand). I was told the project manager would contact me to confirm but never received a follow-up call on the topic.

Price was not discussed on this call. And while I never "signed" the contract, I accepted it explicitly on the web site and implicitly verbally on the call, based on my knowledge that the total price was $1000.

Feb 24, 2025 (7PM) - The Contract

Contract is reviewed; while there is a number "1980.00" in the "Warranty" field, I assumed it was some sort of code but didn't worry about it because it was just paint and stone work so the warranty wasn't relevant. $1000 was a lot for the small job but I wanted to get it done. No reasonable person would have accepted the nearly $2000 if that was what the contract value said.

Feb 24, 2025 (7PM) - Estimate Delivered

Estimate is delivered via email/web link. Note that this is about 8 hours after guy was on-site, and pricing was never discussed, nor (as Michael and Son would lie later) did I verbally agree to any pricing.

Feb 24, 2025 (11AM) - Arrival for Estimate

Voicemail of estimator on his way.

Feb 23, 2025 - Appointment Confirmation

Appointment confirmed for estimator to come by on 2/24.

Feb 22, 2025 - Initial Appointment

Appointment scheduled for estimate on house work.