Streamline Home Improvements

I hired Ron to build us a fence. We began our relationship as professional. He came to my office, discussed plans with us, measured the yard, and sent proposals. The work was to commence on June 16, and finish «no later than June 30.» We signed a contract, paid for 100% of the materials up front (no labor up front), and within a few days, this is where delays began.
Ron made mentions of issues with getting the permit and drawings approved, issues with the utilities being marked, etc. After a week of delays, he began on June 23. He said he would be finished in 7 working days.
After several unanswered phone calls and text messages asking why Ron had only worked 1.5 days the week of June 23^rd (His claims were of severe weather, and flash floods, but we only had moderate rain one day, and never any flash floods) on Saturday June 28^th I finally had a call with Ron and informed him that unless he arrived to the jobsite on Monday morning to meet with us and work the entire day, we would have to end our relationship.
Monday morning, June 30, Ron said he was running late. After not arriving by noon, I contacted Ron by phone and ended the relationship that day. He claims he was at Home Depot, but I’d already informed him he would need to be at our home, not at the hardware store.
Ron verbally promised to provide a settlement statement that same day, but today is August 21 and Ron has yet to refund any of the $ 5,500 we paid for fence materials, and has not provided any written communication since. We never received any fence materials whatsoever.
He disappeared off the grid completely from July 1 to July 23 and I was certain he had stolen our money. He has since replied as of August 14^th that he will not have our money for 6 – 8 weeks.
Given his previous history of not keeping commitments, not responding at all to the Better Business Bureau (
) and not showing up to complete the job several days in a row, I find no reason to believe any of his claims. Consumer beware.