Really??! This really happened??!!!

Like Okla said, shame on me for not inspecting before paying. I got excited & made a rookie mistake. It's been quite a while since I've dealt with anyone who wasn't on the up & up, I got lazy & forgot that they're still out there. The neighbor offered to pay me back out his own pocket, I let him know I wasn't interested in taking his money as all he did was bring the guy over. He didn't broker the deal, he didn't do the work, he didn't burn me. But the guy who did sometimes does work for the neighbor, so i thought it best that the neighbor knew about it. The neighbor is a stand up guy who owns his own body & paint shop. I appreciate him making the gesture to pay but i couldn't penalize a guy who didn't do anything wrong. $50 hurts right now because I'm broke for the moment, but in the grand scheme of things the lesson I was reminded of is probably worth more.

In the mean time I'll keep looking to do the next right thing & keep the bad karma out of my build. I figure fate will pay me back in spades.