I was a friend of the owners and was looking to help them grow their business. I was skeptical after reading some of their reviews from subcontractors claiming that they had never been paid, but when I asked the Johns about it they convinced me that those were anomalies. I should have followed my instincts.
After introducing them to friends of mine, they collected deposits for work that was to be done, and DISAPPEARED with the money. They have no explanation for where it went...sounds ridiculous right? That is what they told me and the people I introduced them to: They put the check in the bank, and then it was gone. 20 thousand dollars. Gone.
If you do 5 minutes worth of digging, you will see that these guys have long list of pissed of clients and pissed of subcontractors. They originally tried scamming the State of Massachusetts by "rehabilitating" te town where they grew up. When that plan failed, they switched to ripping off home owners and su contractors. This is a very dangerous company. They will be shut down. Stay far away.
I was affiliated with Cobalt Construction (dba, GoFixxIt) in trying to expand their business into CT, starting around October of 2018. They had previously provided home repair, maintenance and improvement services in the greater Warwick, RI area.
Things went reasonable well up until the end of July, 2019, when GoFixxIt (“GFI”) started slipping on paying their bills, which were supposed to be cut every Thursday. Several bills went weeks without being paid. Around the same time, the first week of August, both of the partners, John Laquale and Jon Daskam, stopped replying to my text messages and failed to answer phone calls and voicemail messages.
I was forced to drive an hour-and-a-half to Lincoln, RI on August 19th, to get answers to simple questions about payments, which invoices were paid, which were not. Within 2 minutes of walking into the office and being greeted by the receptionist, I received two phones calls, the first from Jon Daskam, followed by John Laquale (who was already tipped-off on my arrival at the office).
It was during this impromptu meeting that Jon Daskam, the CEO of GoFixxIt, informed me that he “did not have the money”. John Laquale quickly interjected that “they had some invoices coming in” and WOULD have it.
I was also told by Jon that he was able to identify approximately $21,000 of revenue from CT clients that went into a Cobalt account, rather than the TDBank account that was setup last year specifically for all CT business.
In other words, they had SPENT our mutual (my) client’s money on other GFI and/or Cobalt business and did not have money to cover the expenses of the ongoing CT jobs. I had been paying subcontractors and putting materials on my personal Home Depot credit card to keep jobs moving along and prevent issues with non-payment to contractors for finished work.
The last thing I wanted while trying to build a business in a new market was to alienate contractors and risk having mechanic’s liens against my client’s homes. In addition to thousands of dollars in unpaid bills and expenses, I have not taken ANY of my profits out of the company.
We had an arrangement to split gross profit on jobs on a 70/30 basis, 70% to me and 30% to GFI. I kept accurate records of each job on a spreadsheet. I am told they are now attempting to assign fixed costs to reduce their liability to me, above-and-beyond their profit %.
Here are the FACTS as of the writing of this complaint:
GoFixxIt has received $14,456.50 in revenue from the last two CT jobs alone (Job#’s 2019-17-CT & 2019-21-CT) and has paid ZERO invoices to-date (They claim to have paid my painter $1,700, but the first check bounced and he has since redeposited at the direction of Jon and John)
Since receiving a blank check on August 19th during my visit (which was cashed for $9,000, the bulk of what was in the TDBank account), I have not been paid a penny since, despite having sent an accurate accounting of all expenses and expected profits
The $21,000 that was erroneously deposited into a Cobalt account has NOT been transferred over to the TDBank account to-date.
Jon and John refuse to talk to me or respond to text messages, even to answer critical questions about bills that need to be paid. I have been forced to wait for Jon to decide to email me at his convenience.
Shortly after our meeting in RI, and after continued stone-walling on bill payment, I called Jon and told him my relationship with GFI was done and I would cease all business dealings with them after the last jobs were complete.
Since indicating my departure, Jon & Co. have been holding my expense reimbursement hostage while he tries to reconcile profit for all of the jobs we’ve worked on, retroactively. He has used the excuse of attempting to capture ALL of his costs as a reason to delay week-after-week.
After some basic research and phone calls to various state agencies, I am told this isn’t the first time this company has done this. I encourage anyone considering doing business with GoFixxIt or Cobalt Construction of Lincoln/Warwick, RI area to do their research BEFORE hand (there’s another Google review where someone claims that in addition to poor craftsmanship, there was an issue with payment to subcontractors.
GoFixxIt Reviews
I was a friend of the owners and was looking to help them grow their business. I was skeptical after reading some of their reviews from subcontractors claiming that they had never been paid, but when I asked the Johns about it they convinced me that those were anomalies. I should have followed my instincts.
After introducing them to friends of mine, they collected deposits for work that was to be done, and DISAPPEARED with the money. They have no explanation for where it went...sounds ridiculous right? That is what they told me and the people I introduced them to: They put the check in the bank, and then it was gone. 20 thousand dollars. Gone.
If you do 5 minutes worth of digging, you will see that these guys have long list of pissed of clients and pissed of subcontractors. They originally tried scamming the State of Massachusetts by "rehabilitating" te town where they grew up. When that plan failed, they switched to ripping off home owners and su contractors. This is a very dangerous company. They will be shut down. Stay far away.
I was affiliated with Cobalt Construction (dba, GoFixxIt) in trying to expand their business into CT, starting around October of 2018. They had previously provided home repair, maintenance and improvement services in the greater Warwick, RI area.
Things went reasonable well up until the end of July, 2019, when GoFixxIt (“GFI”) started slipping on paying their bills, which were supposed to be cut every Thursday. Several bills went weeks without being paid. Around the same time, the first week of August, both of the partners, John Laquale and Jon Daskam, stopped replying to my text messages and failed to answer phone calls and voicemail messages.
I was forced to drive an hour-and-a-half to Lincoln, RI on August 19th, to get answers to simple questions about payments, which invoices were paid, which were not. Within 2 minutes of walking into the office and being greeted by the receptionist, I received two phones calls, the first from Jon Daskam, followed by John Laquale (who was already tipped-off on my arrival at the office).
It was during this impromptu meeting that Jon Daskam, the CEO of GoFixxIt, informed me that he “did not have the money”. John Laquale quickly interjected that “they had some invoices coming in” and WOULD have it.
I was also told by Jon that he was able to identify approximately $21,000 of revenue from CT clients that went into a Cobalt account, rather than the TDBank account that was setup last year specifically for all CT business.
In other words, they had SPENT our mutual (my) client’s money on other GFI and/or Cobalt business and did not have money to cover the expenses of the ongoing CT jobs. I had been paying subcontractors and putting materials on my personal Home Depot credit card to keep jobs moving along and prevent issues with non-payment to contractors for finished work.
The last thing I wanted while trying to build a business in a new market was to alienate contractors and risk having mechanic’s liens against my client’s homes. In addition to thousands of dollars in unpaid bills and expenses, I have not taken ANY of my profits out of the company.
We had an arrangement to split gross profit on jobs on a 70/30 basis, 70% to me and 30% to GFI. I kept accurate records of each job on a spreadsheet. I am told they are now attempting to assign fixed costs to reduce their liability to me, above-and-beyond their profit %.
Here are the FACTS as of the writing of this complaint:
GoFixxIt has received $14,456.50 in revenue from the last two CT jobs alone (Job#’s 2019-17-CT & 2019-21-CT) and has paid ZERO invoices to-date (They claim to have paid my painter $1,700, but the first check bounced and he has since redeposited at the direction of Jon and John)
Since receiving a blank check on August 19th during my visit (which was cashed for $9,000, the bulk of what was in the TDBank account), I have not been paid a penny since, despite having sent an accurate accounting of all expenses and expected profits
The $21,000 that was erroneously deposited into a Cobalt account has NOT been transferred over to the TDBank account to-date.
Jon and John refuse to talk to me or respond to text messages, even to answer critical questions about bills that need to be paid. I have been forced to wait for Jon to decide to email me at his convenience.
Shortly after our meeting in RI, and after continued stone-walling on bill payment, I called Jon and told him my relationship with GFI was done and I would cease all business dealings with them after the last jobs were complete.
Since indicating my departure, Jon & Co. have been holding my expense reimbursement hostage while he tries to reconcile profit for all of the jobs we’ve worked on, retroactively. He has used the excuse of attempting to capture ALL of his costs as a reason to delay week-after-week.
After some basic research and phone calls to various state agencies, I am told this isn’t the first time this company has done this. I encourage anyone considering doing business with GoFixxIt or Cobalt Construction of Lincoln/Warwick, RI area to do their research BEFORE hand (there’s another Google review where someone claims that in addition to poor craftsmanship, there was an issue with payment to subcontractors.