KINGSLAND, Ga. – A disabled Navy veteran battling terminal cancer says a Jacksonville concrete company took nearly $3,000 from him and his wife, then disappeared without doing any work or issuing a refund.
Tammy Collins and her husband, Chad, a 20-year Navy veteran, say they hired Concrete Driveway Co. of Jacksonville to install a 500-square-foot concrete pad behind their home so they could park their RV while traveling to his cancer treatments out of state.
Chad, who Tammy says is 100% disabled, was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer in 2019 and was undergoing clinical trials in Houston, Texas at the time they hired the company.
“He’s been through extensive treatment to try to treat the cancer, but he’s terminal,” Tammy Collins said. “I told [the company] that. I’m like, ‘Look, you know, he’s fighting for his life. We need this money to pay for a trip back and forth.’ And it’s 16 hours to travel back and forth. You know, we need this money.”
The Collinses paid Concrete Driveway Co. a 50% deposit — $2,727.50 — on March 6 to schedule the work. The job was supposed to be completed on March 17. But just days after paying, Chad Collins was unexpectedly told that he had to stay in Houston for urgent care.
“As soon as I knew something, I reached out to them and said, Look, this is an emergency. You know, he’s in the hospital in Texas. We’re not going to make it back. We’re not going to be here by the 17th. We need to cancel.”
Tammy said she immediately called the company to cancel the job and request a refund, as their contract allowed for cancellation within a 72-hour window. Text messages reviewed by News4JAX confirm she was told a refund would be issued. Nearly three months later, the couple is still waiting.
“I reached out almost every day from March 8 until they blocked my calls,” she said. “They did nothing. The only thing they did was give us a quote.”
The company advertises itself as “Jacksonville’s #1 Concrete Contractor,” but its website does not list a local Jacksonville address. Public records show the business is registered in South Carolina, and the address on the Collinses’ receipt also traces back to that state.
News4JAX attempted to contact the company multiple times by phone, text message, and email. As of Monday evening, no one had responded.
Tammy Collins has also filed a consumer complaint with the South Carolina Secretary of State’s Office, where the company is headquartered.
“Give us our money back,” she said. “You’ve got a 100% disabled veteran fighting for his life, and you’re stealing from us.”
The Collins family said they have since hired a different contractor, someone who offered to do the same job for half the price after hearing their story.