B.W. Painting

After a few years, I have decided to finally comment on this particular negative review about us, since we've had a couple happy customers say we should reply. Dave gave his opinion. Now, here’s ours. We at B.W. Painting--my son and I--have been in the business for 21 years now and we value our customers. A good 80% of our jobs are either referrals or repeats.

First off, after agreeing to our quote way back when, Dave refused to give us the customary 1/3 deposit that we asked for. We thought that odd. He said that was his policy. We’ve never had trouble before or since from a customer not wanting to give us such a deposit. We should have walked away at that point. Unfortunately for us, we pressed on. As it turned out, Dave was the worst, most miserable customer we’ve ever worked for. And he was sneaky.

Example, while having his master bedroom furniture moved in after we painted the walls, someone, either the movers or a family member put a gouge on a wall opposite a furniture piece. Dave blamed us, saying that we had missed patching it when we had painted the room! Also, those pictures he used in our review weren't from his house, he must have got them from a google search.

The job was split into two phases, separated by us leaving in-between because contractors were doing major work inside and we thought it best that we stay out of their way. Plus, the dust was an issue. Along the way, we had managed to collect some money from him. After our first phase was done, we’d had enough of Dave--for a number of reasons--and advised him to get another painter, this when he still owed us for the remainder of the first phase. Dave had agreed to pay us a portion--about half--of the amount left. We settled on $800 and he agreed to send us a check.

Then, he got very sneaky. He registered our business on this site by using our own email--we didn’t register ourselves--for the sole purpose of giving us a bad report, and then since he created our profile, he had full control of our account, so we couldn’t sign in and reply on site.

I phoned the Halton Police fraud unit and asked if what he did was illegal. The female officer said it wasn’t, as yet, but bordered on it. It was certainly unethical, she added. She then suggested that I could take the matter to small claims court, especially since Dave hadn’t finished paying us. But I knew that wouldn’t be worth the trouble. I just wanted us to get away.

Furthermore, I found out that Dave also gave his movers--whom he used about the same time we had painted there--an equally bad review, using his same method by registering them on this site without their permission. I know because I talked with the owner, and, like us, he said they weren’t registered either. I wonder if they too weren’t paid their full amount.

By the way, we’re still waiting for the $800 check from Dave. And we’re the bad guys?

Bernie Wyatt

B.W. Painting