A Crawford County woman says a contractor scammed her out of hundreds of thousands of dollars and left her dream home unlivable.


In just two years, Debbie Dell went from living in a comfortable home that she had owned for 30 years to now living in an efficiency apartment in Erie, working two jobs to pay her bills. She's furious, heartbroken and she said it's all because she was scammed by a contractor.  "Its affected me more than financially, it’s affected me personally, and emotionally. I have nightmares of this particular person coming into my home and I trusted him", said Dell.


At 57 years old, Dell was ready for a new chapter in her life. She had raised her children and wanted to renovate her thirty-year home, "I've owned the home for almost 30 years. My children, one of them is Robert, started to have children, so I thought that, you know what, my goal was to have a lot of Thanksgivings and Christmases, because we were growing larger as a family", explained Dell.


After spending six months interviewing ten contractors, Dell and her husband thought they landed on the best one. "Him and his wife came in and they started measuring little things, like our radiator, or our refrigerator, and then the other eight to nine just basically looked at the house and gave us a quote, so we just felt personal with these ones when we first had hired them", explained Dell.


The contractor, Chad Eckenrode, showed Dell a license, a contract, and three references. The Dells felt comfortable with their choice and made the first of many cash down payments, with work set to begin in January 2022.

"Our contract was, I was to live upstairs when they renovate the downstairs and then we would reverse it, where I would live downstairs and then I would move upstairs. But as time went on, there was a little small things. Because we do have cameras at the house, you know, I had seen where they had opened up all the windows in the home, and it was probably about 20° out it’s like March and when I would get home at 7:00 p.m., I would notice the windows were still open, so when I would call the contractor and ask him about windows open. He became very upset and angry at that time and stated, 'I’m sorry we were sandblasting',  once again and I asked him to be a little bit more careful, you know closing the windows, which we agreed at that time and then a couple weeks later came home and water was running and he said he hit a pipe and the water had ran for two hours", described Dell.


More red flags appeared, but the final straw came seven months after the project began. "They asked us the last and final of July to shut down our electric, that we would have to go to electric company. It wasn’t just us shutting down it from the electric box, we called electric company we shut down everything they told us that they needed to rewire the whole house after that they shut down. The very next day, I came to the home and they abandoned the whole place", said Dell.


Dell reached out to State Police, City Police, and the township looking for answers. She got them, but not the ones she was hoping for. "The woman from the township said, 'hold on just one second.' I had seen her make a couple calls. And I heard her and she said 'Can you fax that over' and faxing over, she pulled the fax machine, she brought up to the window and she goes 'Is this your contractor?' and I said, 'Oh my gosh. That is my contractor.' He used the different name, and we found out that he was actually in prison and then he was still on parole", explained Dell.


Dell soon learned she wasn't the first person to fall victim to Eckendrode's scam. "He has been in prison for the same thing for the past fifteen years off and on for contract of fraud and that when he was in prison in 2020. What we were told that he got out of prison because of Covid and they were the lowest so they let him out and he was still on parole, and that he did apply for a new contractor license and he was initiated another contractor license, but he had used his wife's maiden name for his license", said Dell.


Dell was left with a house, its bare bones and her bank account drained. Over 100 thousand dollars, now gone. Future plans on hold, while she tries to recover. "You go on Facebook with people showing their Christmas tree and their home or them sitting around for Thanksgiving dinner because I don’t have anywhere to live. I have no home", said Dell.


Robert Oliver, Dell's son, described the situation, "It's concerning, it’s very easy for this to happen to people, as we found out from the other people that have reached out about the same thing."


Dell thought she found the best contractor for her home renovation. It all checked out, until it didn't. "There was no background on him because he had a references. We took his references, and he had contractor license that was issued to him by the state, and he also had insurance, and it was all legit insurance from Cochranton that we had called to make sure that they had insurance on her home which I did", said Dell.


After an unfinished home renovation and losing over 100,000 dollars, Dell quickly realized she had been taken advantage of. "You know, we are smart people, I’m a college educated person, but doesn’t mean anything", said Dell.


Could Dell have done anything differently? We took that question to the Better Business Bureau. Caitlin Driscoll, a spokesperson with the Better Business Bureau explained, "A great first step is to make sure anyone that who you’re considering hiring is legally registered to do work in the state of Pennsylvania and this can be done by going to the attorney general's website."


Driscoll said contractor scams are more common than people realize,  "Home improvement scams are the fourth riskiest for people to be aware of. About 11% of complaints that are processed through our office, so by Western Pennsylvanians, last year were involving the home improvement industry. But typical complaints due tend to alledge people hiring businesses to perform work perhaps after paying a deposit but then the work is either never performed or never completed and then certain things tend to involve issues contacting the business after the fact and not being able to obtain a refund."


Driscoll recommends taking your time when picking out a contractor and making sure their skills fits your needs. "Don’t accept the first bid you receive, get at least three bids estimates from prospective companies and make sure they’re on the same building specifications", said Driscoll.


Dell did a lot of these practices, but it still wasn't enough. "So you know, there was no ability to really suss that out from the community. The references that she had and my stepfather had checked out the contract checked out, so there was really no way for anybody to warn us", explained Oliver.


Even though Dell took legal action against Eckenrode, it could be months until they see results. "I feel like this case has been on hold, and that there is a list of other cases from what we’ve been told to come before this which extent is understandable, but this is been over a year we’ve gotten very little information", said Oliver.


Eckenrode is currently at SCI Albion for other instances of contracting scams. Erie News Now reached out for an interview but he declined one. "According to the District Attorney's office, he is currently back in prison because he was on parole, but he did have an associate which was his wife. She was the one that was contacting us through text messages and she was the one that would meet us, accept our money, and she's still the one that's still out there and not in prison at this time", said Dell.


Dell's life is drastically different since she first met with Eckenrode. She has to work two jobs, her home is in shambles and she is living in an efficiency apartment in Erie as she works to pay off the house and other bills. The Dells hope their story helps others avoid situations like theirs. "I hope that people see this and perhaps even if you save one person that’s better than nothing at all", said Oliver.

The Dell family has launched a GoFundMe for their home renovation, more information can be found here.


A few other pieces of advice to keep in mind from the Better Business Bureau. 
1. Never pay upfront for a job in full.
2. Always pay with a credit card to have a paper trail.
3. Be careful of door to door solicitation especially if contractors are offering discounted prices and using leftover materials.
4. If you think you have been taken advantage of, file a complaint with the BBB or file a police report.