This is a difficult review for me to write because the company really bent over backwards to address issues we experienced with our painting. I want to be clear that the majority of the painting was excellent and looks beautiful. It was a pleasure dealing with Brian the owner, Rick the manager, Terry the second painter, and Tina, the office manager. They deserve a special shout out.
Our job was a hard one because it involved both painting blank rooms and touching up a poor paint job in other rooms that had previously been done by a friend. The painter who did most of the work challenged me on almost every part of the job:
- Tried to convince me only one coat of paint was needed which was bizarre given that the brush/roller strokes were obvious and two coats is standard (as confirmed by the manager and the second painter) and was part of the quote.
- Complained endlessly after getting a parking ticket to the point where he made me feel like it was my fault. I felt guilty and ended up offering cash for the ticket which he took (the company righted this immediately).
- Refused to take home his supplies (including upright ladders and large bins) over a weekend even though I specifically asked the owner during my quote for the supplies to be removed over the weekend because I was hosting an event. My condo is small and the supplies took up a large area in the hallway in front of the door. The painter was adamant that he did not want to have to pack up and move things again because getting from parking to my condo took some effort. Rather than argue with him, I caved because again he made me feel lousy about it. He put a tarp over the supplies and equipment.
- Lost one of the screws to a light switch plate in my hallway and shrugged it off when I pointed it out. It was never replaced. A minor thing, but small details like that matter. I mean, where did it go when they removed it?
- Complained about my water not getting hot enough when cleaning his supplies and made comments about how expensive my paint was (i.e., that I could get the same colours for a quarter of the price).
- Pushed back quite a bit on the touch ups and frankly didn't do a great job on those. I get it. Redoing someone else's work is awful and I'm sure he wanted to only do a modicum of effort on those. But complaining to the homeowner wasn't the way to do it.
- Generally made me feel like a huge annoyance throughout the whole project.
This was the first time I've ever addressed concerns with management and I debated whether to do so because, as I mentioned, most of the painting was great. They sent a supervisor out to review my concerns and he fixed up some spots in short order. I was very pleased with their immediate response and professionalism.
In particular, Rick the manager was fabulous to deal with as was Terry, the painter sent to fix the issues from the first painter.
