Crew got paint on my newly laid stones - Nightmare experience
I had many projects completed this year (roof, furnace, windows, walkway/stone work) and this job was the only job that I had issues with throughout. I was surprised at the erratic scheduling in the beginning, but didn't think anything of it as this was outdoor painting and understood that they can only work when weather permits. That said, I would get calls/txt msgs that they were going to start the next day (less than 24 hours notice), but they did accommodate when I needed to postpone due to my stonework not yet being completed.
When we finally confirmed the job, the crew showed up, went to get the paint and started. I expressed my concern as no drop cloths or tarp was laid and I have stone all around my house. After the first day, I noticed 2 small drops of paint. Giving the crew the benefit of the doubt, when they showed up the following day, I pointed this out and they did cover my walkway when they started on the front of the house. There was also paint globs that I removed from my pool skimmer. It seems that the crew were washing their hands in my pool, but did not raise this as I had no proof. The second day, we had reconnected the hose as they were finished painting in that area and from then there was no more paint in my pool.
On the 3rd day, I noticed shoe marks on the stone slabs on the side of my house. I followed the foot prints to find that paint had been spilled on the grass. Someone had stepped in the paint and walked along the stones on the side of my house. When I addressed this with the crew, they immediately blamed my mother. I checked all of my family member's shoed and all were clean. It was very unprofessional to have blamed my family for this. At this point they should have taken responsibility and agreed to clean it. Needless to say, I was very upset and raised this with the crew manager and owner of the company. The crew rang my front bell after finishing the job and removing the floor coverings, but had again stepped in the paint and walked up my new front walkway. In total there were roughly 20 paint spots between the front and side walkways.
Sohail came the next day and agreed to clean the paint. He presented a product backed by his paint supplier and I agreed to let him try it. He said multiple times the reason he has liability insurance is specifically for cases like these. He agreed to put a claim on his insurance if this product didn't work. After the cleaning, only about 50% of the paint was removed. At this point, I asked to just sever our relationship and part ways and that I only thought half of the remaining balance should be due as the paint was not removed and this had not taken a lot of extra time out of my busy schedule and caused a huge aggravation. He did not accept this nor was there any mention of putting a claim on his insurance. He engaged in bullying tactics to get me to pay saying he would put a lien on my property and send me a new bill with past due charges and fees amounting to $9000. In the end, I just paid the balance I owed to close the job so here I am hoping sharing my experience so that others do not go through the same.
They also got paint on my daughter's window and pool equipment. Pictures enclosed and snips of his text messages also included.
My contract was with five star painting, not with their subcontractors. He should not threaten me to say the subcontractors have the right to collect their payment from me. If they are such an experienced crew, why not cover the paint they spilled so that no one walks in it or put tarp down to cover my property. This was all just very sloppy and a horrible experience.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $6,000.00
- Company Response
Any customer we deal with we provide the utmost respect and service. This was a case where i can say with certainty that the customer was not entirely honest towards her obligations.
The job was completed as per the contract requirements. There were a few faint paint marks on the stone - the source of which is controversial - our painters are way too experienced to make a mistake like this.
The paint is latex based and does not have any primer for stone; therefore, it cannot stay on stone permanently. Upon job completion we applied an environment friendly zero voc paint remover and power washed any paint imprints on the stone. No paint residue was left at all. This was mutually inspected with the client.
The customer was given a $500 off the job regardless of the fact that the job was completed to satisfaction.
She did not wish to pay the balance at all. We did not think
that it was fair to take off any amount further than what we had already done in good faith.We let her know that if she was not in agreement to pay the balance we would respect her decision and send the amount for collection.
She agreed to pay the balance less the $500 deduction upon reviewing the terms of the contract.
The pictures of the stones are from before the cleaning and the stones were completely clean after wards.
No claim can be put on insurance since the site is completely clean. I will retrieve the pictures from library of the completed job and will share here.
I am very satisfied personally with the fact that the job was completed as per the specs, and any areas of concerns were assessed, an additional more than reasonable discount was provided in good faith - this is not taking into account the fact that the contact price was honored despite a steep rise in COVID related material cost from the time of providing the quote to the time of execution