More Activism Against the Private Sewer and Water Corp.

Ron Janis has made a lot of people angry.  You can tell by the vast number of complaints on the BBB site, the negative reviews on Yelp and other review sites, the complaints on the Private Sewer and Water Corp Facebook page (before he took down the reviews section that is).

Different people have reacted to his scams in different ways. Once they realize he's a scumbag and not going to do right by them they resort to one of the few avenues they have left.  Things like the review sites mentioned above and the courts.  I'll get into the legal side of it some other time.  Personally,  I started this blog as a result of his scams.   I had already started writing down all of the lies that he spewed so I figured why not just publish them.   I hoped that if his tactics were publicly exposed in a forum that he had no control over that it would persuade him to be a better citizen.  Alas he has no shame and continues with his behavior.

Another fellow victim has taken a rather creative route.  Here's a post from James at Yelp.  James has contacted me a few times with stories of his adventures in dealing with Ron.  I applaud his effort.

The grammar isn't the best but you get the point:

now it is end of Oct and this company still has not reimbursed me what they owe.it has now been over a year to get the money owed me
A few weeks ago I put a sign in back window of my car saying before you call The Private Sewer & Water Co  to call me(I put my home phone) and I have a long story of lies and excuses, then I put  .COM address to check "THE PRIVATE SEWER & WATER CO SCAMMED ME" also "YELP", so far I have had eleven calls. One person called me back and thanking me for the info, he also said he called a plumber who knew all about Ron Janis and the crooked things he has been pulling  this looks like he will be losing jobs
Wallmart parking lots are the best place to park to solicit phone calls

Kudos to you James for being willing enough to  give out your home number.  And I if I read that correctly, thanks for helping promote the site.  If you want to send me an email with any of the stories or lies or excuses that you've heard I'd be happy to publish them here.

Back to His Old Tricks

I guess I jumped the gun when I suggested that the lack of recent BBB complaints for the Private Sewer and Water Corp. meant that Ron Janis may have turned over a new leaf.  I found that there is a second Yelp page dedicated to the Private Sewer and Water corp with a slightly different address.  I suspect this is intentional to split and dilute negative feedback.  Regardless on this other page I found the following.

The review reads:

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!  THEY STEAL FROM YOU. None of their addresses listed are current either, they probably do not pay their rent. Addison, Elmhurst, and Villa Park are all abandoned.  Unfortunately my husband had given Ron money upfront, before I was able to look at anything. We looked him up after Ron cashed our check FIVE MINUTES after he left our house.  He is a liar, cheat, thief and all around terrible excuse of a human being. My husband called him 40 times and sent 20 messages before Ron answered.   For MONTHS (since May) he has been saying "tomorrow". We are in jeopardy of losing our house because of our septic tank leaking into the storm sewers. And Ron stole from us.  A family of 4, with 2 small kids, making less than 100k a year with a 40k septic problem.  This man should be rotting in jail.

This kind of makes you sick doesn't it?  Sure Ron ripped me off for a couple thousand dollars, and while I don't have thousands of dollars to waste it wasn't the of the world.  I'll survive.  It looks like he took these poor people for 40K?  Or left them in a 40K hole.  40K is a lot.  Most people don't have that kind of cash laying around to piss away on scumbag contractors.

It seems as though he's gone beyond just petty theft now.   Maybe he's getting desperate for money and is upping the stakes.  Its somewhat ironic I guess.  If he hadn't ripped me off I would have referred him to at least 4 large jobs in my neighborhood.  He could have earned 40K from that by actually doing work.  Then maybe Ron wouldn't have had to resort to this.

Four Months with no BBB Complaints

Its been four whole months since the last time the Private Sewer and Water Corp got a complaint at the BBB.  I think that's a new record. So to what do we attribute this new found professionalism? There's a few options.

1. Ron Janis has turned over a new leaf.  Maybe just maybe Ron Janis has decided to be an upstanding citizen and an honest professional and start actually doing the work he's been paid for.  I doubt it but stranger things have happened.
2. Ron Janis is laying low hoping to repair his image so that he start scamming again.  - More likely but still doubtful
3. People have wised up and stopped paying the Private Sewer and Water corp for work that they haven't yet completed.  With all the bad publicity out there it wouldn't surprise me if Ron has a hard time getting money out of people up front.  If this is the case, and if option niumber 1 above is not the reason, then  I hope this is then Ron's almost forced to behave.  
4. People have wised up and just stopped hiring the Private Sewer and Water Corp.   This is possibility too judging by how infrequently Ron's been updating the Private Sewer and Water Facebook page lately. This would be the most ironic option.   Ron rips off a bunch of his customers and then ends up hurting his input stream.  So in the end he has less money than he would have had if he wasn't such a scumbag.

We'll see how long it lasts.  As the weather turns cold people's pipes are bound to burst and someone is going to get desperate.  That's when Ron is at his worst.  I predict at least one more BBB complaint by the end of the year.