Local victims of “Decks R Us” report $162K in losses

A total of five southern Colorado families report a combined total of $162,000 in losses following a contractor scam involving Kevin McGee and his colleagues at Decks R Us.

“We feel violated, how dare you?” said Frank Keating. He and his wife say they paid McGee more than $6,000 for the first quarter payment, but they have yet to have any work done over the past six months.

“It’s aggravating, very frustrating,” said Michael Clabough, who said he paid McGee more than $31,000 for a new deck eight months ago. “It’s been delay after delay, nothing has been done.”

“They just straight up lied to me,” said Mia Jennings, who tells us she paid McGee more than $35,000 for a deck that was promised to be finished in early August of last year.

“They need to be stopped,” said Charles and JoAnn Lawson, who paid McGee more than $90,000 for a new deck expected to be completed last year.

“I don’t want anyone else to be ripped off,” said Tom Clarke, who paid McGee more than $21,000 for a deck that was originally removed after Thanksgiving last year.

In each case, the families paid McGee a quarter of the cost upfront — in some cases, more than that — to construct a new deck, yet they’re all left with work uncompleted or in some cases not done at all.

In two of the cases, McGee failed to pay his supplier, Timbers Diversified Wood Products. Now, Timbers has liens on two of the families’ homes, which means the victims in those cases are in debt to Timbers.

“They have no empathy, nothing,” said JoAnn Lawson, who is having to deal with the lien.

“They need to be stopped,” said Mia Jennings, also dealing with a lien.

Our team has reached out to McGee and his colleagues several times over the past couple weeks, on the phone, at work, and even at his home.

We even had a scheduled interview with McGee at 10:30 a.m. on July 22 at his office in Colorado Springs, but he didn’t show up. Instead, we spoke with his colleague, Ken Peterson, who made it clear they don’t admit any fault.

“Do you feel you are treating these people fairly?” Stephanie asked.

“I think they’re getting treated the best we can treat them, yes,” Peterson said.

“So the best you can treat them is waiting 10 months to get anything done with no response?” we asked.

“That’s not true,” Peterson said.

“Do you have proof?”

“Yes,” he said.

We asked, “Can I see it?”

“No, thank you,” Peterson said.

In the past week, KRDO reached out to McGee three other times and have yet to hear back.

Editor’s note: In addition to calling us, these five families are looking at the potential of filing a class-action lawsuit.

KRDO will update this story with any developing updates.