GLASTONBURY, Conn. -- The number of homeowners who say they're upset with Custom Basements of Connecticut is getting bigger.

Some of them said they gave the company as much as $32,000 to do work that was never done.

Company owner Nicole Kiesman told the Channel 3 I-Team that the economy is to blame for the business' abrupt closing, but carpenter Jim Buckingham said the problem was bigger than that.

"They told me they were growing by leaps and bounds, jobs were coming out well," he said.

Buckingham said that there was plenty of work when he started working as a subcontractor doing carpentry work for Custom Basements. But after a few months, he said, he had a hard time getting paid.

"I can't get money," he said. "You have to find Nicole, Shelly or Bryan and hound them down for money."

Buckingham said he's out about $4,000. He said he noticed problems last summer.

"They were going under," Buckingham said. "They pretended they weren't, but they knew. They kept stringing people along."

In February, after he'd finished a job, he said he "went back to the office and they were gone, wiped out."

When Custom Basements cleared out of its Glastonbury office, dozens of homeowners said they were left stuck with basements that were nowhere near finished, even though they had paid tens of thousands of dollars.

When the homeowners called the offices, they said the phones were disconnected.

Kiesman blamed tough economic times are to blame for the sudden closing.

"The economy got worse and worse, and people got more scared," she said.

But Buckingham said the owners were spending too much money.

"They all had brand new cars, company cars, six or seven," he said. "A lot of money went into the office. They must have spent ten thousand dollars on an office. There were never any customers there."

Buckingham said he's tried to get his money, but that Kiesman told him, "Don't worry. You're on the short list of people,' and then I never heard from her again."