CLEVELAND — A local couple with big dreams for their bakery now has a big problem with an out-of-state contracting company. News 5 Investigators dug into the case and found there are many others having issues with the same general contractor.
When you take a look around the Nothing Bundt Cakes store in Stow, it’s all about bagging up happiness. What isn’t on the menu board is frustration.
“I feel so angry,” said Nicole Rey, who owns the store with her husband, Javier. They started out with an empty space in a strip mall.
“It was totally empty space. So, we had to do everything,” said Nicole.
They had specs from the franchise and even got a suggested general contractor called Jeta, LLC — also known as Jeta Builders. It has offices in Georgia, Florida, and Massachusetts. Jeta started hiring subcontractors, but then the Reys said there were red flags.
RED FLAGS POP UP RIGHT AWAY
“There had been some folks in here that we would see on a regular basis,” said Javier. “Then, all of sudden there would be a whole new crew doing the exact same thing that the crew was doing before.”
They told us there were issues with the work itself. “There was a hole here. He would sort of cover it, but it would unhide another hole and we were like, 'wait a minute—there’s two holes here,'” said Javier. “‘No, there’s only one,’” he added about the worker’s response.
The Reys showed us pictures of flooring that was coming up and a flood that had ceiling tiles coming down. “The sign’s got to go up but the electrical is not ready for him yet,” said Nicole. “Or… the health inspector wants to come but the sink’s not working yet.”
The Reys confronted Jeta about the issues over and over again through many emails they showed us as well. Jeta threatened to put a lien on the project if they didn’t pay off nearly the entire contract.
“We got scared,” said Javier.
“We don’t know,” said Nicole.
“We didn’t want it to go sideways so we paid the 90%. And then within hours, they disappeared,” said Javier.
LOCAL SUBCONTRACTORS SAY JETA OWES THEM
Not only that, but subcontractors told us they were not paid by Jeta. “They’d forward you to a voicemail that was not set up,” said Ryan Neal from SBR Concrete Polishing about working with Jeta. “They kept wanting us to sign a final conditional lien waiver saying we were paid in full by them… We were not paid in full.”
Subcontractor Dave Ede from Glazing Systems, Inc. said the losses are real. “It comes out of profit. It comes out employee bonuses. It comes out of buying new trucks, expanding the business,” Ede told us.
MORE DELINQUENT CLAIMS ACROSS COUNTRY
The claims from local companies mirror those of comments from around the country that we found online about Jeta. “Horrible company” wrote one. “Never received a dime” wrote another. “These guys are the worst,” said an additional commenter.
The Better Business Bureau gives Jeta a D-minus rating with commenters giving their own warnings, too.
“Literally, the exact same thing that the Google reviews post, is exactly what happened here,” said Javier.
After all the problems, headaches and frustrations, the Reys finally took their case to arbitration as outlined in their contract with Jeta. They won their case, or so they thought.
“There isn’t any teeth on that award,” said Javier. “We could potentially put a collections company on it, but that’s going to cost more money.”
Jeta's website claims the company does work on big name restaurants, retail space and malls. Despite numerous phone calls we made and several emails to Jeta’s President Mike Burdick and other employees, Jeta never responded to our interview requests.
Meanwhile, we found a complaint filed with the Georgia Attorney General’s Office against Jeta claiming 50-60 subcontractors were not paid by Jeta for work done in 2021. That’s the same year as the Rey’s store project in Stow.
They are ready for Jeta to pay the $120,000+ arbitration award and for a taste of justice after Jeta’s recipe of aggravation.
“You’d call back again…and they’d say we lost your paperwork,” said Neal.
“I’ll never do business with them again,” Ede told us.
“I just want to sell cake,” said Nicole. “I just want to be a part of people’s celebrations and make people happy. And I didn’t want to have to deal with all of this.”
A current Jeta employee told News 5 the company is working on active projects.
The Reys, and the subcontractors, said they spoke out to warn you and others about Jeta.
