Ron Janis of Private Sewer and Water Admits to Stealing Money. Offers to Return Some of it.

So I had an interesting exchange with Ron on Facebook today.  He posted one of his ads which included a fairly large BBB logo.   I pointed out that he might not want to advertise that seeing as he has an F rating and more complaints than anyone else in the industry.

His response was rather amusing.

Me: You might want to take the BBB logo off your flyer. Unless you actually want to publisize your F rating. Hey, did you know you have more than twice as many BBB complaints as any one else in your industry? Why do you think that is? Is it the theft? I bet its the theft. Or maybe the lying? The theft and the lying that's probably it right? Oh and then there's the no-shows. So theft, lying and no-shows. Final answer. That's why you have the worst rating of anyone in your industry.

February 26 at 11:52pm

The Private Sewer and Water Corporation Lol stalker!!!!!

 February 27 at 12:18am

The Private Sewer and Water Corporation 9 complaints out of 2736 jobs in 3 years = 99+ % satisfaction baby!!!!!!

 February 27 at 12:23am · Edited

The Private Sewer and Water Corporation F = fantastic!!!!!!

 February 27 at 12:22am

 Feels like he's trying too hard to pretend it doesn't bother him that I know how bad his reputation is.

Me lol. I'm sure you did 2.5 jobs per day 365 days a year for three years. And counting people as satisfied just because they didn't complain to the BBB is a bit of a stretch, but if that's what it takes for you to feel better about yourself so be it.

 February 27 at 12:51pm

The Private Sewer and Water Corporation 3-5 service calls a day, Monday thru Friday, add up! lol! Do the math. Not every job is a major excavation. We always offered to rectify your situation and try to make you happy, unfortunately you have yet to give a response other than social media posts. We want you to be happy, so let us know what it will take.

 February 27 at 1:22pm

The math still doesn't add up. He posts pictures of major excavations just about every day.  And counting everyone who doesn't complain to the BBB as a satisfied customer is ridiculous.  Its not  worth the effort to complain over small items.  And I think he only rips people off for big multi-day jobs since he can collect money and go home for the day never to return.

Its also funny that he claims that he has tried to make me happy. All I've gotten in over a year of dealing with Ron is lip service.  He's full of promises and as far as I can tell has made no effort to remedy the situation.

Me We've been over this before. You rarely respond to phone calls or texts, thus social media is my only option. You certainly offer to rectify my situation, you just never actually follow through. How many times did we adjust our schedule to accommodat...See More

 February 27 at 5:15pm

The Private Sewer and Water Corporation The 700.00 is accurate, the 1100.00 however is not correct. The pit, pipe, pump etc.are in. The only thing to do is run approximately 15 lf. conduit. I'd go 800.00 all day

 February 27 at 5:55pm

Me Its closer to 50 feet of conduit, the pit was already there, the pump is refurbished, there is no cover, and you laid about 10 feet of pipe. You want half credit for that portion of the job then fine. 1200 all day, and my offer stands, I'll tell the...See More

 February 27 at 8:23pm

The Private Sewer and Water Corporation The pit was not there, we excavated that out and installed it. The pump is brand new. Fact. Now you're just playing games.

 February 27 at 10:27pm

The Private Sewer and Water Corporation 800.00 is EXTREMELY fair.

 February 27 at 10:28pm

So the pit was there.  They dug it out as part of the sewer line replacement.  The conduit that needs to be put in is about 50 feet and goes through multiple walls through the cellar. I doubt the pump is new.  The fact that he said "fact" makes me doubt even more that it is new.  Fact is one of Ron's tells that means he just lied to you.

So he agreed he owes $700 for the catch basin, and somehow only thinks that he owes $100 for finishing up the ejector pump install.  Pretty sure there is more than 10% of that part of the project left.

Me You already admitted that you owed us $700 for the catch basin. You're telling me that of the $1100 I paid you for the ejector pump that you did all but $100 of the work? Its going to cost me more than that to finish the project. I think $1200 is extrememly fair. If you want to stick to $800 then fine, I want to be done with this.

 February 28 at 8:40am

The Private Sewer and Water Corporation What's left to do except run electric?

 February 28 at 9:00am

The Private Sewer and Water Corporation Any competent electrician can run that line for 100.00-150.00 all day long. Throw in another fifty for pipe/wire. That said, I'd go 900.00. Total transparency in this deal. That's more than fair.

 February 28 at 9:06am

Me Fine

February 28 at 9:12am

His deal is hardly fair but $900 is more than the zero that I would have gotten and it saves me the time and hassle of having to sue him so whatever.  I'll take it.  We'll see if he actually follows through.

Another Negative Review for Private Sewer and Water

I'm not even sure how I found this since Ron took down the reviews on his site a while ago but I accidentally stumbled upon another negative review.  The story is remarkably familiar.

New Reviewer:  Almost nine months since this firm was paid for a job at my home . . . and guess what? They just didn't bother to finish it. Dozens of blown-off appointments, unreturned phone calls, no offer to make it right (let alone pay us back); vanished into thin air. Nope, can't say I recommend them.

Its the same thing over and over again.  Someone pays Ron Janis and the Private Sewer and Water Corp in full for a job.  Suddenly they stop showing up for that job never to be seen again.

Private Sewer and Water Does Not Respond to Attorney General

I received a letter from the Illinois Attorney General's office today.  I had submitted a complaint about the Private Sewer and Water Corp's shady business practices back in November I think.  The letter was to inform me that the Private Sewer and Water Corp had not responded to the complaint.   The attorney general would try again and the Private Sewer and Water Corp had 10 days to reply.

I'm not surprised that they didn't respond.  I mean, what is Ron going to say?  "Yeah, I stole that guy's money, sorry"?

Ron Janis is a crook and he knows it and there is nothing for him to gain by attempting to work something out.  He already has my money so he has no incentive to actually do anything that he was paid to do.

I don't know what it will take for the attorney general to look into pursuing criminal action.  I'm sure I'm not the first to complain about the Private Sewer and Water Corporation's fraudulent activities and I doubt I'll be the last.  How many people have to be scammed before justice is served? As far as I'm concerned Ron Janis belongs in jail.

Ron Janis and the Private Sewer and Water Corp Earn Another Negative Review

Ron is at it again,  earning himself another negative review on City Search.com  See the screenshot below.  I'm not going to copy the text itself because its in all caps.  (Insert joke about old people an technology here...)

This one is especially egregious  He starts with the customary take money for a job and then don't show up to finish the job bit.  Then the customer actually gets Ron to show up to finish the job.  Normally you would think this is a good thing.  But Ron somehow manages to convince him that he needs even more money to finish the job.  The poor guy is so desperate to put this behind him that he agrees.

Later he finds out that Ron has paid for the concrete that he used with an NSF check and the concrete company threatened a lien on the customers house if he didn't make up the difference.

Liza Madigan is the Illinois Attorney General for those of you not from Illinois.

Now on the one hand I'm not sure this story is accurate.  The review mentions that Ron had a secretary which I doubt. He would have to pay her and we all know Ron isn't good at that.  Also I would think that she would have answered the phone at least once out of the hundreds of times I called.  But maybe she is new or Ron shares space with a company that has a secretary.

Also, I don't think the concrete company would come after the customer rather than the Private Sewer and Water Corp, unless they were either in on the scam, or they knew that Ron was a deadbeat and they would never get their money back from him.

That being said, the rest of the story sounds like it is right out of the Ron Janis playbook so I'm inclined to believe that it is mostly true.

I'll be checking the BBB site for this guy's complaint. It might be hard to find among the rest of the complaints, but I'm sure I can figure it out.