Arkansas Land and Ranch Services

I informed Anthony that I had just bought a house and needed some work done on a budget. I gave him a list of all repairs that I had wanted and after his 3rd visit to the house we came up with a statement of work contract. All work performed (stated above) would be completed in 6-7 days with his "team" of workers that he had worked with for years, stressing quality and professionalism. He also made it a point to say that my project was his only project and all his time would be invested here in the house to work and watch the workers. This was not the case. The project actually ended up lasting over 2 weeks with multiple phone calls to me complaining that he had underbid this job, and that he doesn't know how he's going to recoup from this project. As the calls became more frequent and desperate I would get confused due to the lack of professionalism, and inform him that he was the one who quoted the price after he viewed the statement of work and approved it himself. Call it a gut feeling, but after all the phone calls I started to get suspicious of the actual time and quality of work that was taking place. Anthony stated that he was paying his workers $8 an hour for 8-9 hour days, and I tested that. On 3 occasions, I purposely left late for work. No worker even showed up to my house until 9:45am! I left early as well and when I arrived at 4pm there was no one present! Apparently, my project wasn't the main focus anymore. I confronted him of my concern, and it was met with resistance. Anthony stated that since he underbid this project he has to "survive" by doing other projects simultaneously. What he was basically saying is that he was trying to cut costs and save money by not paying workers a full day anymore. I let this go in hopes I wouldn't aggravate him to leave the job that he had only half way completed. Throughout the course of the project, I was extremely disappointed in the class of workers that he had hired. Before the project started I was told he had a "team" that he had worked with in the past. This also was not the case. For the next 2 weeks, I saw 5 painters each being fired by Anthony in which case 2 were extreme incidents. Anthony told me that they were not "listening" to his direction and thus had to remove them. In fact Anthony made one so mad that the worker actually punched a hole in my drywall! After Anthony called the police he informed me the worker told the police that he punched the wall because Anthony failed to pay his wife for painting work. Anthony did a lack luster job of fixing the wall (one of the few places that actually didn't need repairs). The paint is not smooth and can be seen clearly in the light that there was a hole in the wall at one time. After he told me this story, I told him that I would appreciate it if he could fix his workers destruction of my house. Anthony's response was that "he cannot control his workers actions". This is the professionalism I paid for? Not paying your workers, disturbing the peace with my neighbors seeing police at my house, and now a disgruntled employee who knows where I live? Besides the fact of violence going on at my house, I have random people that Anthony is paying $8 an hour for that are upset. I asked 3 painters where they had met Anthony, and they all informed me they saw an ad off Craigslist..This was not the business model of quality, respect and customer happiness that he had initially promoted. Here's a breakdown of my experience of the actual work performed: 1. All cracks repaired and fixed- Anthony did a good job on fixing the cracks. (Grade B) 2. Paint all upstairs 2 tones. - This job was performed ok. I was upset that parts of the ceiling actually have 2 different whites when it was previously discussed one color. I believe the confusion came when there were 5 different painters working caustically on the same project. (Grade C) 3. Add trim and paint around fireplace (dover white), paint 4 doors (dover white), tile foyer (70 sq ft) - The trim looks good along with the paint. (Grade A). - The 4 painted doors are chipping and were supposed to have 2 coats (Obviously only 1 coast applied). I believe part of it was the fact that he left the doors in the garage uncovered while it rained.... (Grade D) - Tile foyer - The tile in the foyer looks great! Ironically, Anthony had no part in this and he contracted another to do this (Grade A) 4. Add wood plank to kitchen area - Looks great! But again, Anthony contracted out another to do this work. (Grade A) 5. Fill in downstairs exterior wall with sealant and acid wash the brick walls - This had to be the worst sealant job I've ever seen. Foam sealant was sprayed like a 5 year old had the can. Ironically, most of the sealant was strewn all over my yard and not in the actual crack. 6. Install new door for master bedroom - Anthony (To my knowledge did this) Looks good (Grade A) 7. Paint and texture Master bathroom and guest bathroom. - The paint and texture in both rooms looks good. All though amateur, its still nice. I was upset that he failed to cover the fixtures in the kitchen and both bathrooms. After weeks since his departure I'm still scraping off texture from the porcelain fixtures. (Grade B) One last warning of financial importance. While the project was going, Anthony informed us that he had purchased $140 dollars of ancillary items, ie: door stopper, and other odds and ends to help complete his project. It was agreed that we paid all expenses for him to complete his job, but with the proof of receipt. He was quick to ask for the added money, but when prompted for the receipt, it was met with extreme resistance. His words were "I don't have time to be looking for stupid receipts". I will not accuse him of stealing, but it just begs the question. So quick to ask for the money, but a self proclaimed professional doesn't keep a copy, or any organization of receipts? After all the complaints about Anthony from his workers, the domestic disturbances, and extreme unprofessional nature of his actions and business model, we will not recommend Arkansas land and Ranch to anyone. In fact I'm partially embarrassed to write this review as I should have checked Angies list previously about this company's performance. I was surprised to find that someone had already wrote a review of Anthony's company. Ironically, their review mirrored most of the experiences that I had faced. I vaguely remember Anthony informing me that someone had put a review of his work up, but told me that they were "crazy" and "didn't know what they were talking about". I will not make the same mistake twice. In closing, the absolute lack of respect he displayed for the workers working for him (which resulted in a domestic disturbance), the constant complaining of him loosing money due to his lack of business acumen, zero accountability for any actions of mishap, and proving first hand that his professionalism is anything but abysmal, can all be summed up in one statement: "You get what you pay for".

Before hiring Anthony, my husband told him we were in a pinch trying to get our house up for sale and he said he would have the job done in "3-4 days" by "bringing out a crew" and working full time on it. Two weeks later the job still wasn't finished and Anthony blamed us, saying that if he had bid the job higher, he would be spending more time on it. He had given us a bid and we had accepted--at no point had we done anything at all to manipulate him into quoting a lower price. All attempted discussions on getting the job done in the timely fashion he had initially promised were met with excuses and a generally slippery conversational style on his part. Specifics of his work: Applying semi-transparent stain to decks and stairs: very good job. Second coat of paint to exterior windows: very good job. We only saw this particular worker one day. Sanding of the mildewed window frame: very good job. We only saw this particular worker one day. Filling two squirrel-size-entry-way exterior foundation holes: Concrete dribbles were left all over our driveway and our natural stone walkway from the concrete job. They left what seemed like a huge glob of concrete outside the holes as though they had mixed too much and wanted to use it. One of the globs is the size of a very small watermelon. The mailbox was installed well, and the numbers put on in the correct sequence on both sides of the mailbox, as requested by us. Exterior door staining: Were done by different workers--one is excellent. The other has several dribbles, as well as a long dribble on the glass that was left for us to remove. The worker who stained the front door we only saw one day. Interior wall paint job: unsatisfactory. Anthony did this job himself. One long strip of painter's tape had been applied at an angle, rather than straight, with a foot or so of it being at least 3/8 inch away from the surface to be protected, so now part of the natural wood door frame is painted. He left paint dribbles down the wall, which of course dried into lumps. At one point near the closet door frame, his brush slipped, for I saw a streak of paint going over the blue painter's tape and then onto the natural wood door frame. One can easily wipe off such paint accidents with a rag; he didn't bother. The ceiling / wall cut is probably better than I could have done, but is amateurish when compared with the quality of other rooms in our house that were painted by handymen. The dry wall cracks probably would have been repaired well, except for the fact we let Anthony go (after many talks about the time he was spending on the job as compared with his promise he made in order to get the job) so that we could hire somebody who got the job finished in a timely fashion. Each day after Anthony would work for us, we would pick up a few cigarette butts on the driveway and grounds--nobody we know smokes cigarettes. Perhaps it's nit-picking on my part, but I question his stated green principles based on two things. The first is that he dropped his butts on the ground and driveway. The second is the fact that he and / or his worker left plastic water bottles in our trash can, rather saving then for recycling, or at least asking us if we recycle before they dropped them in the trash.