Student Works Painting

We booked with Michael on March 20, 2021. He informed us they were booking around June but he would contact us in April for further clarification and a set date.
On Wednesday April 21, 2021, I contacted him as I had a cheque for partial payment. He picked it up April 22, 2021. I asked him if he had an idea of when they would be booking us in as we had not heard from him. He said they were ahead of schedule and would be coming near the end of May 2021.
On May 17, 2021, in the afternoon, he contacted us to say he’d be coming on Wednesday May 19, 2021, in the morning. Later that day he called to say they were running behind schedule and it may be Wednesday afternoon he’d be coming, or Thursday morning at the latest.
They ended up starting the job Thursday May 20, 2021. I asked the crew (of 3 guys, not including Michael), approximately how long they thought the job would take as we were not given a set idea. He said it would be the following Wednesday at the latest. They were not working on the weekend and the Monday was the holiday. At that point, I counted it as 4 days for the whole project. Later that day, I realized the crew thought it was Friday, so in their counting, it would be 3 days for the job. They would be starting the job in the basement.
Near the end of the day Thursday, we decided we would have to add the doors and ceilings as that was not originally discussed in the quote. I asked Michael to give us a cost. On Friday, this quote was provided and we gave the go ahead to add this to the project.
By the time they left on Friday, they had barely started the main floor, let alone finished all the touch ups we found that were needed in the basement.
They returned on Tuesday, but there were only 2 of them. They told me one of the guys was not feeling well. By the end of the day, they had informed me it was because he had to be tested for covid and would probably not be returning for the remainder of the project unless he receive negative test results. Not once did Michael contact us to inform us of this.
By Wednesday, it was clear this project would not be completed. Each day, we showed the crew touch ups that were needed, or certain areas that were not finished to our satisfaction. By Friday, they still were not finished. I asked them to do the window frames on the top floor in all the rooms as we were having shutters installed that weekend.
They returned the following Monday, with the 3rd guy. Later that morning, Michael came to talk to me about the progress of the work. He said they would be finished that day and he would come back at the end of that day for final walk through and payment. I told him that both home owners needed to approve the work before providing the final cheque. I told him he could pick it up tomorrow if we were satisfied. He then proceeded to tell me that since the project took longer than what was quoted, if we would be willing to provide half of the cost of labour that would be paid for the workers to be here. I was beyond surprised he would ask such a thing as it was not us that delayed or underestimated the time of the project. I told him I would get back to him. At the end of the day, the crew leader informed me they were not done and that he and Michael would be returning Tuesday morning for final touch ups and a walkthrough.
Tuesday morning came and they arrived. There were more than a few touch ups to be completed and I imagined it would be another full day of work. After 1 hour, Michael informed me they were almost done, the crew leader was just finishing up and we could do our walkthrough. Needless to say, the work was still not complete. Items that were marked to be fixed were not and the notes were just removed. He said they would finish it and then I could give him the final payment. Again, I informed him he would not receive final payment until both home owners approved the work. I told him the other home owner would be home after 6pm, we would review everything and then I would call or text him what the next step would be. He was very upset by this and told me “for future reference, if you say you are going to pay after final touch ups and a walk through, the payment should be provided”. I reminded him the job was not done and that we were not paying for it until we were both satisfied. This is stated in the customer expectations fact sheet we were provided in the beginning.
At 5:59 that evening, while we were having dinner, Michael just showed up at our home. Not once did I indicate to him to just stop by. My partner let him in as I was too upset to speak with him. He said I told him he could come by for payment. That was not the case, as there were quite a few things we were still unhappy about. They did a walk through and my partner showed him some of the things. As he had just gotten home from work, and we barely had time to finish our meal, there were still some things I hadn’t had time to discuss with him. As Michael was leaving, with the promise to return the next day to complete those issues, he again asked for the extra money to pay half the labour for the workers going overtime! When my partner told him no, that’s not something we could pay for, he asked again for even just a portion! I am beyond appalled at his unprofessionalism to continue to ask for money when this was not our issue.
We then sent him an email with the itemized list of things that were not up to standard and he informed us he would have to wait until Thursday to bring the full crew back as it was an extensive list. My partner had to take the day off work as we did not trust them to complete the list of issues without supervision. They arrived Thursday and completed some of the items. We informed him that the bathroom ceilings at the edges were done poorly. He informed us that only one coat of paint was quoted for the ceilings, baseboards, doors and trim. One coat is clearly not enough and we ended up having to pay extra to make it look sufficient. He also informed us that they do not remove the doors to paint them and only paint the side of the door that is part of the room they are painting, they also do not paint door jams and door edges. This means any closet doors or the garage door was not fully painted. He also informed us that the runners on the stairs are not included in the initial costs provided. The crew did paint part of the runners, but it was not the best quality. So to make them look better, we had to pay for them to paint all the runners properly. However, he never explained any of this when we booked the job. As well, no light fixtures were removed when painting the ceilings or walls, they just painted around them. They also did not clean many baseboards and just painted over the dust.
We removed all items from the walls and moved all the furniture out of their way (with the exception of a bookcase) to help ease their job. All curtain rods, nails, hooks and screws were also removed for them. There were a few plugs that we were unable to take out, but they said that was no problem, they would. However, they just left them in there, put some putty on them and painted over them. Needless to say, this does not look good. Upon mentioning to Michael that this was an obvious error he told us that they would not correct it because they don’t remove wall plugs.
Another note to add is that the customer expectation sheet we were given at the beginning indicated they would clean up accordingly and would remove their shoes before entering the home. Not once did they take their shoes off and we needed to do a daily clean up after they left. On the final day after the crew had left, we discovered a small area missing paint on a baseboard once all the dust was removed from the baseboard. An area in which Michael had say “oh that’s just dust don’t worry about that.” We had Michael return to fix the issue and he gave us a paint brush to fix any other issues.
We have since spoken with quite a few business owners, painters and contractors included and they all agree that it was not his place to ask for the extra money as it was poor planning on his part, not ours. As well, we were informed that normally painters do remove the doors and light fixtures to properly paint on or around these items. They have also quoted us about half the cost that Michael has charged us for the project.
There are still some items that we are not happy with, however, Michael advised us that was as good as it was going to get.
We can provide pictures, the site would not allow me to upload them. This is the 3rd review/email we've submitted, but we have not received even an acknowledgment.