Excited at the prospect of a new job and additional income, Joseph Reihle says he quickly got work after applying for a position at Chief Building Services.
"They offered me an incentive if I could start that night," he explains.
But Reihle and a group of former employees are now speaking up. They say their excitement for work quickly turned sour when it came time to get paid.
"[I] was supposed to get that first check, then nothing came," Reihle said.
Another former employee says checks from Chief Building Services "always bounced."
A third says when he went to the bank, he was told the account didn't have the money and they "can't cash our checks, because there's no funds on it."
The group says they all showed up, putting in hours and hours of hard work, but couldn't get their invoices paid. They say the loss of funds put their livelihood at risk.
"I've been close to eviction for my house, my car has been repossessed," one employee said when asked about the missing funds.
When we looked up Chief Building Services on the job site, Indeed, we found people with similar complaints about "never get[ting] paid on time" and "bounced checks."
The group of employees says, when they asked about payment, instead of getting answers, they were given the runaround.
Chief Building Services is registered with the Arizona Corporation Commission to Albert Hawkins. A man who introduces himself by that name is also featured prominently on the company's website in their "About Us" video.
We reached out to Chief Building Services to ask the company about potential payment issues.
In an email response, they write: "We are currently resolving matter(s) within the Phoenix Branch."
We asked specifically what matters they were resolving and how — and we did not get a response.
To get answers, we went to the company's headquarters in Phoenix during weekday business hours, but no one was there.
According to the Industrial Commission of Arizona, their Labor Department received 24 complaints against Chief Building Services in 2023. They state that 21 complaints are wage claims and three are payment compliance complaints. The Labor Department is investigating.
As for Reihle, he's encouraging all job seekers to do more research.
"Had I just done that small step of just looking online and looking at the reviews, I would have seen that multiple people have experienced this issue," he lamented.
If you have a problem with wage, minimum wage, earned pay sick time, or youth labor complaints, file with the labor department online.
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