Home Shield LLC

This project began on August 11th at 9am when "Chip" and his crew from HomeShield showed up at my house. "Chip" had no supplies (no tape, no plastic, and barely any tarps). Chip spent the next two hours travelling to the hardware store while employee?s Gerry and Mike sat and waited. At 11am when Chip returned they attached some plastic to barely cover the house. They laid a few tarps to cover the surface and began spraying on paint. Prior to applying paint there was NO preparation work done on the Pergola at all. None. No wiping down the wood or columns to remove dust. No removal of spider webs or dead insects. Knots were not sanded or treated with Kiltz. No holes were filled. As they began to spray on paint I asking if they were applying the primer coat. Chip indicated that this project did not include a primer coat. This is directly contrary to the contract. I asked him to stop and contact Ben Richey. At this time I also expressed my concern about the over-spray getting on my house and in my pool. I was told that it would not be an issue and that everything would be fine. Chip began using a tarp on the top of the pergola to help minimize the effect of the over-spraying. I expressed my concern about the knots not being treated and was assured that the knots would be taken care of. Never once did I see any kiltz applied to any knots. At roughly 2pm they left for the day. Chip explained that 2 coats had been applied to one half of the pergola and a single coat had been applied to the other half. I am not satisfied that 2 coats of paint can be applied within 30 minutes of each other and still attain the desired effect. After the workers left I inspected the site and discovered paint spills, over-spray and careless workmanship. I also noted significant "white powder" on my pool solar cover and in my pool filter. The place was a mess. On Thursday August 12th HomeShield arrived at 9am. Prior to any work beginning I expressed my concerns to Chip about the lack of primer, the lack of treatment on the knots, the non-existent preparation to the wood, the paint spills, over-spray and the overall careless workmanship. I asked to speak with Ben Richey. Chip told me that he could handle the situation himself and that we didn't need to involve Ben. He explained that he would make the situation right. They were unable to spray that day for unknown reasons. They spent time rolling a first coat of paint on the 5 columns and doing some touch-up. Gerry applied caulking to 'some' of the small holes throughout the pergola. Many holes were left un filled. They left around 12pm. I again inspected the site and noticed more careless workmanship exactly similar to the day before. On Friday August 13th HomeShield arrived at 9am. Again, prior to any work being done, I expressed the same concerns from the prior days work. I was again assured that the job was not complete yet and that everything would be taken care of to my complete satisfaction. After completing a second coat on the second half of the pergola and rolling a second coat on the columns, they proceeded to touch-up areas that had been missed during the initial spray. I again spent my time observing their work. I continued to notice sloppy workmanship, more and more paint marks on my deck and decorative concrete, and two large white paint footprints on the top of my cement wall. My porch light was removed by Gerry (an unlicenced electrician) because it had been partially sprayed white during the painting process. (note: Bare electrical wires from the light were left exposed for more than a week). At 12pm they began cleaning up their equipment and at 1pm Chip indicated that the job was complete and they left. I was unwilling to pursue my complaints anymore with Chip. I had spent the last three days trying to express my concerns. At this point I began trying to contact Ben Richey. I spent the next 4 days calling and emailing HomeShield. I received no call back or email until Tuesday August 17th. I spoke with Chip on Tuesday; I expressed my concerns to him, and again requested that Ben contact me. Upon speaking with Ben he expressed his apology and concern for the situation. Ben offered to rectify the situation to my full satisfaction. I appreciated Ben's offer to make it right however, I was not confident that this could be resolved completely to satisfy the contracted agreement. I made a good faith offer to terminate the contract. This is where the nastiness began. I immediately received a threatening email from a representative at HomeShield. They threatened to lien my house and sue me. They were extremely sacastic and unprofessional in their emails and employed bullying and threatening tactics. I forwarded some pictures along with my email and upon receiving these pictures HomeShield agreed that there was a problem and made arrangements to come to my house to ?take a look?. HomeShield (Ben Richey and Ron) came to my house on August 24th and immediately agreed that they were 100% wrong. They noted that the jobsite was a mess and that the pergola was not painted correctly. Ben and Ron stood in my backyard and made an offer to my wife and I to finish the paint job and to do their best to clean up the spilled paint from my cement, wood decking and my house (we did not mention my pool cover). In addition they would leave it to me to determine ?How much I wanted to pay on the balance due?. Their offer was honorable and left my wife and I with a positive feeling for the integrity of their business and their desire to make it right for us. Their statement was; ?that when all was complete if I didn?t want to pay you anything, they would obviously not be happy, but they would accept it and understand based on the circumstances that took place?. In good faith we all shook hands and I truly expected a positive outcome for both of us. On Friday August 27th they sent a painter to my house with no paint, no brush, and some ?mystery? liquid to clean up the mess. I had specifically asked if their painter would arrive with paint, tarps, ladders, and all the necessities to complete the job. They had said ?yes?, 100%. HomeShield arrived with NO paint. To show up here with no paint after I specifically addressed that particular issue on Monday was not what we had agreed to. There was approximately ? gallon that was left behind from their prior work which I made available to the painter. The painter agreed that ? a gallon was in no way enough to complete the job. The painter spent time in contact with Chip and explained that he needed more paint. For reasons that I do not know, he was denied any more paint. This infuriated me. He was then instructed to clean what he could and leave. I asked the painter what he was going to use to clean the cement and he said that he didn?t know what it was. I explained that I was concerned because (as I had already explained to Ben and Ron) I did not want any further damage done. I was simply concerned that an unknown product would do further damage. However, I was getting agitated because there was no paint. The painter again contacted Chip and requested some paint, Chip again said ?Leave, and tell Norman we?ll see him in court!?. The painter left after spending a total of approximately 1.5 hours at my house today. Within an hour I had another letter threatening me and demanding full payment. They continued to use sarcasm and threatening legal measures. They told me that if I didn?t negotiate payment by 1pm that day then I would hear from their lawyer. After receiving threatening and unprofessional emails, my wife and I decided to pay half the amount due in hopes that they would leave us alone. We did not want the stress or expense of a legal fight. I sent them a check for $753 (exactly half the remaining amount due) with ?PAID IN FULL? noted on the check. They have cashed my check. I can forward ?samplings? of pictures of the issues that I am faced with. The smatterings of paint on my decorative stamped concrete are widespread and I tried to capture a few pictures to represent the scope. There are also dozens of paint spills on the wood decking. The over-spray on the house siding, and on my light are also an example of carelessness. In some areas there are maybe two coats of paint and in other areas there is clearly just one coat at best. The pictures show the poor coverage and inconsistencies in coverage. Some of these specific issues could possibly be remedied over a period of time with more paint and possibly some cleaning agents. However, the lack of proper preparation of the wood surface, no primer used, and nothing used to treat the knots is irreversible and is contradictory to our agreed contract. The contract was for $3,765. I paid $3,015. I am left with a mess to clean and an unfinished paint job. Additionally, HomeShield has notified me that they refuse to honor their warranty. Outside of the careless workmanship, the deceitful and bullying business tactics are outright criminal.