A Long Island woman says she prepaid a company to fix a fireplace at her rental home – but it still hasn't been taken care of six months later.

Charlotte Trimarchi says her husband reached out to a repair service for their Lattingtown Harbor rental home after tenants complained about the fireplace not working.

She said Blackman Fireplace in Farmingdale told him that he had to order a part and needed money up front. Trimarchi says they gave him over $1,500.

She says the owner, Raheel Imam, fed them months of excuses – until he stopped taking her calls altogether.

"We're going back to December, and here it is June...He finally started blocking us," she says. "On top of all everything that we have going on in our lives, to have this going on, it makes you feel sick to your stomach that someone could screw you around like this.”

That's when she turned to Turn To Tara.

The team dug deeper and found out she's not alone. The Better Business Bureau confirms 12 formal complaints from across the tri-state against the company in just three years – all still unanswered.

"In these complaints, people are claiming that they have lost anywhere between $1,000 to $10,000," says BBB president Claire Rosenzweig.

The Turn To Tara team also found out through public records requests that there were four court cases in Suffolk County where consumers took Imam to small claims court. They won judgments totaling $5,900.

The company's website still lists a showroom in Farmingdale, but when News 12's crew visited the address, the doors were locked.

To avoid a similar fate, the Better Business Bureau advises consumers to always get written estimates, never pay more than a one-third of the cost up front and use a credit card when possible to protect themselves if a deal goes south.

"If you're paying cash, or if you're paying by wire or peer-to-peer platform, that money is just gone," says Claire Rosenzweig.

"I just don't want anybody else screwed over," says Trimarchi. “It's a lot of money for someone to shell out and not get back." Have you had a similar experience with Blackman Fireplace? The Turn To Tara wants to hear from you.