'Like a Ponzi scheme': Serene Pavers customers say business closed without doing any work

NEW SMYRNA BEACH − Last month, Elsa Wittbold was looking for someone to remake part of her backyard with concrete pavers.

She asked around and heard good things about Serene Pavers & Streetscapes Inc., so she got a price quote.

"It was $8,900 or something and my partner said, 'Well, we’ve looked around a little bit, is there any chance you could lower it?’ And they said, ‘How about $8,000?’ We thought we were such good negotiators.”

Serene required a 50% deposit on the work, so Wittbold − who lives in Port Orange − wrote a check for $4,000.

She recently learned Serene closed its doors and there were dozens of other customers like her, who had paid 50% deposits − at least one shelled out more than $11,000 − and were not likely to have the work completed or their money returned.

Serene customers like Wittbold are filing police reports with various agencies around Volusia County. They are contacting the State Attorney's Office, the attorney general, the Better Business Bureau and lawyers complaining of fraud. No criminal charges have been filed. No lawsuits have been filed, and although there is talk of Serene or its principal owner, Eric Bartolozzi, seeking bankruptcy relief, there had been no filing as of Friday.

On Serene Pavers' door Thursday were two notices. One was an announcement to customers about the closing, blaming the coronavirus and challenges in finding employees. The other was a letter from property owner Samuel F. Gregory to Bartolozzi dated Oct. 24 terminating his lease and giving him 15 days to move off the property after checks to cover the September and October rent bounced.

Meanwhile, over the past couple of years, Bartolozzi has been posting on Facebook about living the good life, featuring pictures of his boats on the Indian River, riding horseback near Yellowstone National Park, and driving a high-end RV on a weeks-long vacation in New England.

In 2017, Bartolozzi bought land in Cody, Wyoming, about 50 miles east of the entrance to Yellowstone. By 2019, he had constructed a 4-bedroom, 3-bath home that sits on 11 acres.

That same year, he was granted a divorce, at least his second. He sold his New Smyrna Beach home with a dock on the Indian River for $1.7 million in early 2021. Now Bartolozzi's Wyoming home is listed as for sale on Zillow for $1.585 million.

The phone number for Serene Pavers rings without an answer. Bartolozzi did not return a Facebook message or a voicemail.

It appears some of Bartolozzi's customers in Florida are in a race to file police reports, write demand letters and have attorneys place liens on the Cody property before it sells.

Wittbold is among them.

“I’m not real optimistic," she said. "I did see his house is $1.6 million or something. I don’t know, maybe we’ll get a nickel or something.”

'Scammed by Serene Pavers and Eric Bartolozzi'

Mary Lorch of New Smyrna Beach says she is out more than $11,000, after special-ordering travertine pavers to be laid around her family's new pool.

"It feels like a Ponzi scheme," she said of her experience, which was so bad it led her to create a Facebook page not-so-subtly named "Scammed by Serene Pavers and Eric Bartolozzi."

Earlier this summer, while the pool was being built, Lorch was advised to leave the rest of the yard as dirt covered with pine straw. When that happened last July, she hired Serene Pavers.

After paying half of the $23,000+ estimate, Lorch said she noticed the contract suggested the start date might be as late as Oct. 30.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. This is not right,” she told a Serene customer service rep. Lorch expected the work to be done much sooner. So the rep crossed out Oct. 30 and wrote in Sept. 4, saying that was as good as she could do.

After hearing nothing for a few weeks, Lorch started an email chain about the progress on her order of pavers and the timing of the work. She got a variety of explanations as to why nothing, it seemed, was being done.

In August, Lorch was told about how hot temperatures were slowing down Serene's work crews, and that her order had not yet arrived. On Aug. 25, the rep wrote: "We have made some changes in our office so it has been a bit hectic."

In September, she was told the vendor delivering the pavers said they should arrive by the end of the month. Then, on Sept. 18, Lorch told the Serene rep she had heard rumors about the company going out of business.

The rep responded: "It is not true about us going out of business. We have all heard the rumors as well. ... We will pull through!"

Employees 'didn't know what Eric was cooking up'

But after another promised install date, Oct. 5, came and went, Lorch asked for her money back. She was told her deposit was nonrefundable. On Oct. 12, the rep promised Lorch another call the following week.

But on Monday, Oct. 16, at 3:30 p.m., the rep, Carly Erskine, said she and the other workers were laid off.

"Eric screwed a lot of people including his own employees," Erskine told The News-Journal in a text message. "We are owed our final paychecks for working, and other than wanting to get my final paycheck, I am done with that place. Done with the lies from Eric, done with the stress."

Erskine said she and the other employees did not know "what Eric was cooking up," and were simply trying to help clients get their jobs completed.

"He didn't have to deal with getting yelled at by clients. Us in the office did, all while he road [sic] his horses and lived his happy life in WY," Erskine wrote.

She said she hopes everyone, the employees, the clients, the subcontractors and vendors get their money back.

Customers grapple with unfinished yards, loss of thousands

After three months, Lorch is out more than $11,000 and still has dirt and pine straw lining her backyard where she expected a beautiful porch/deck of pavers.

"It looks unfinished. The dog is bringing dirt in every day," she said. "This is a first-world problem, I realize, but it's like the pool is unusable since the paving isn't done."

One of the things that still bothers her is that she was told repeatedly her pavers had been ordered but were not available. The paver supply company, Baystone Tile Orlando, said what the Serene Pavers staff told her wasn't accurate.

Lorch said Baystone informed her that her pavers had been in stock at least twice since July, but they weren't shipped to Serene Pavers for the job because Serene Pavers never paid for them.

Garrett Durham of New Smyrna Beach said in an email Serene Pavers took his $10,000 deposit in April and has strung him along since.

"The job was supposed to start in May 2023. I was told over and over lies about delays," he wrote.

After learning Serene's doors had closed, Durham said he spoke with former employees who told him Bartolozzi took more than $400,000 in deposits from customers like himself and other businesses.

Lou Scott, of Wilbur-by-the-Sea, said she has never before felt scammed as she does now, having paid Serene Pavers $8,114 on July 11.

She said she wanted to make her yard more maintenance-free and replace an aging wooden deck, so she selected a paver with flecks of shells and expected the job to start by Oct. 31, as promised in the contract.

Scott said she has considered pursuing a civil action against Bartolozzi, but it might not make sense.

"I can't imagine that an attorney would be cheaper than the $8,000 I lost already," she said.

Rather than press charges, Scott said she simply would be happy to get her refund back. "Seems it would be easier and a lot cheaper for him to make it right," she said.

Kathy Moore, who bought a home in New Smyrna Beach in July, said Serene Pavers took $4,144 that month to purchase and install product and never placed the order.

"I called the supplier and they told me that Serene had been a customer for years, but that they hadn't placed a single order in 2023," she said via message.

Moore said she's filed a complaint with the Attorney General's Office and plans to send a demand letter soon.

"They just ripped us off," she said.

What should Serene Pavers customers do?

Serene customers seeking to file complaints are being met with inconsistent responses from some local police agencies. Durham wrote in a Facebook message that his understanding is that residents must first write the company a demand letter, wait 30 days, and then make their police reports.

Meanwhile, officials with at least three local police departments say they are investigating complaints about Serene Pavers: New Smyrna Beach, Port Orange and Ponce Inlet.

Yet Andrew Gant, a spokesman for the Volusia County Sheriff's Office, said Friday his agency is not investigating Serene Pavers.

Scott, whose Wilbur-by-the Sea home is in unincorporated Volusia County, said she contacted the Sheriff's Office and was told the agency would not be taking complaints about Serene Pavers "since Serene filed bankruptcy."

Gant did not respond to an inquiry to explain the process further.

Jeff Glazier, chief of the Ponce Inlet Police Department, said his agency was contacted by the State Attorney's Office notifying them of complaints about Serene Pavers.

"We inquired with our Planning Department and learned there were three current work permits on file with Serene Pavers and Stonescapes. The work permits were issued in June and July, 2023," Glazier wrote in an email. "Of the three work permits, we have only been able to contact one of the owners and learned that they gave Serene Pavers and Stonescapes a $4,000 deposit and no work was done."

The following day, a Ponce Inlet resident contacted the police department complaining that after writing a check for $15,000 to Serene Pavers for a $30,000 paving job, no work was done and the business had been closed, Glazier said.

Ponce Inlet Investigator Scott Gaston is working with other agencies to "gather information and present a case for prosecution," Glazier said. Additionally, the town emailed all its residents about the investigation asking them to notify the police if they have current dealings with Serene Pavers.

Michael Wallace, public information officer with the Port Orange police said Friday in an email that the city had "one confirmed report containing allegations of possible fraud involving Serene Pavers, however, those allegations are not yet confirmed. The matter is being investigated and we will issue updates at a later time."

Wallace advised customers who would like to make a police report regarding Serene Pavers to contact Volusia County non-emergency dispatch at 386-248-1777.

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This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Customers: Serene Pavers of New Smyrna closes doors without doing jobs