Definition Painting Services, Inc.

It was an Angie's List Big Deal that I purchased. It was fine. It wasn’t anything special, I just needed the painting done. My only complaint was that it took a while to schedule the work. But once they came out, I was happy. I had to buy my own paint and other supplies. I would use them only if there’s a deal, I wouldn’t go back to them for a full price job.

Joel (the owner) is very professional and easy to work with. Even gave us an estimate for future work that we would like to have done. His painter arrived on time, was very neat and efficient. He completed his work in one day. We are very happy and the price was right.

A little sloppy on the clean up but otherwise very good work - very professional.

The initial consult was done by the owner of the company whose name is Joel. Joel was a pleasure to work with during our estimate, but that's been the end of the great experience. The crew arrived at 8:30 as they were scheduled to, set up quickly, moved furniture away from the walls as promised, and covered floor & furniture fairly thoroughly. The actual painting is ok, there are no wall drips and the walls, which were previously painted a dark color, were completely covered by the new, light gray. However in the upstairs hall we have several closely placed doors with narrow spaces in between the door trim. These areas were left entirely unpainted and are very obvious as the color was off white before. This is incredibly unprofessional, but what's worse is that this was not brought to our attention as a problem. They just left it, apparently hoping we wouldn't notice. There were also several paint spots/drips on the carpets and the mantle even after we expressed concern that they weren't taping and they assured us that they didn't need to. Additionally, we were assured that they would do any patch work /nail pops needed but they didn't, even when we spoke to them about it they only corrected the specific pop we pointed out as we spoke and neglected to do anything else. More problems arose when they moved onto the white trim. There is white paint on the walls about a 1/4 inch away from the actual trim in many areas, and where the trim on the staircase into the foyer turns to a flat ledge there is an area which was painted gray, even though it's surrounded by white trim. We also noticed that we're now missing a mini-blind. We were told not to worry about removing those as they could just move them and work around them. This too was not brought to our attention after the work was completed, but instead we noticed when it got dark and went to put the blind down. When we contacted Joel he initially said he'd get back to us with in 24 hours after he'd talked to his crew, but that never happened. I stopped payment on the check I wrote, and when emailed to tell him to tell him he said that "since you've stopped payment, I'd like to come out and take a look at things and see what we can do about it". He wasn't planning to do that before? It was only because I've stopped payment on the check. The level of unprofessionalism is ridiculous and we will not be working with Definition Painting again and I would not recommend them.

I was unable to use the big deal due to the company not showing up for the appointment we set up for today. I had to wait 2 months just to get them scheduled. They are also very hard to get ahold of. Everytime I call and try to leave a message, the voicemail is full. Also it takes them 2-3 to call back whenever I am actually able to leave a voicemail.

It went well. I had no complaints.

Since this was my first purchase on Angie's List I didn't know what to expect. When the owner came out to look at the job, I immediately felt this was going to work out. He was very professional, answered all of our questions, told us where to get the paint using his discount. He went above and beyond when I called him for another consult. He took the time to come out again and assured me everything would be fine. He told me the number of men to expect, the time they would arrive and the name of the person in charge. Everything he said was accurate. They arrived on time and proceeded to go to work with step by step details. They first fixed all the nail pops, cracks and inconsistencies on the walls. Everything was covered and the mess was kept to a minimum. They outlined and painted with great detail, correcting any concerns I had. When the finished they cleaned up, asked me and my husband to check everything. It was beautiful. All of my anxieties were calmed. I will definitely use them again.

We purchased Angie's List Big Deal. Joel came over and explained that it would only cover the kitchen. We paid addition to get the kitchen done too. His worker arrived on time and cleaned up afterwards. There were some damages on the wood floor from moving the refrigerator. When I emailed Joel, he arranged for a floor person to come fix the damages, which was great and painless.

Definition Painting did a great job! Joel was very helpful in our initial meeting. He gave me a detailed estimate and even helped me with paint colors. The painters arrived on time and were very professional and courteous. They completely covered the floors and the furniture but still left the house livable for us when they were done for the day. The entire job took 4 days and was very well done. Besides finding a few missed touch up spots on some trim, the job was perfect. I would definitely recommend them.

The manager came out to my house and did an in-person estimate as the Big Deal only covered a limited number of square feet, so was only part of the cost. The Discount was pro-rated for the remaining areas to be done. The rooms involved were: dining room, living room, and bathroom--all walls and ceilings. Because the rooms had not been painted for more than 10 years, there was extra prep work involved. The work was scheduled for two painters and two days. The staff were efficient and polite, and worked well as a team. Toward the end additional painters showed up to finish the job in two days. Quality of work was excellent. I was very impressed. I got a good deal.

On July 23 the owner came to quote the job. He was punctual and professional and personable. He quoted two men to do the job and we scheduled it for 9/1/13, starting between 7:30 and 8:00 a.m. to be finished the same day. I received a call from the owner on August 29 or 30 that he had inadvertently scheduled the work on Labor Day and would not be able to do it then. He left a number for me to call to reschedule. When I called that number the mailbox was full. I called several times, but there was no change. On Tuesday, 9/2, I had not heard from him by about 10 a.m. so I called him. He said his painter had been knocking on my door, and calling my number but got no response. Turns out I was in the garden during the time he was here. I had no reason to believe anyone was coming, so I wasn't on the lookout for him. When I asked the painter later when he was here knocking on my door, he said it was around 9 a.m. The owner called the painter. He came here and started painting. He was very quiet and professional, and got the job done efficiently. When he was finished, he asked me to check to see if I was satisfied with the job. There were several things I pointed out that I was not satisfied with. They all had to do with coverage. They were all in the area where he 'cut in' before rolling a wall. His response was, "But I did two coats. That is what the contract said to do." I was willing to let these things go as I could fix them myself fairly simply and they were all pretty minor. There was one last thing I was not satisfied with. He had not painted behind the refrigerator. He told me he could not move it, it was too heavy. So we called the owner. The owner said they did not move refrigerators. I reminded him that we had discussed this when he was here. I had not made an issue of it since he had quoted two men to do the job. When I asked him how he could quote painting a kitchen without painting behind the refrigerator, he got pretty testy with me. The owner agreed to have 2 men here to move the refrigerator and paint behind it on the following Friday between 4 and 6:30 p.m. They came as promised and finished up the job. In summary, the problems were in two areas. The most critical failing was that I could not get in touch with the owner when he called at the last minute to reschedule because his voicemail box was full. The secondary failing was that he sent only one man to do the job instead of two. These two things cascaded into what was, for me, a generally unsatisfactory experience.

They were amazing! They covered and moved all furniture and put up plastic sheeting around the work area so there literally wasn't a speck of dust when they were finished! They were on time, professional and friendly, and they did a fabulous job. I'm a picky customer and I would use them again without hesitation.

Very professional, very detail oriented. hard working painters, very careful with his painting and works.

The crew worked very hard and cleaned up when they fininshed. The amount of painting required them to stay past the original 8 hours. They were able to work over for additional money and finish the job. The rooms and ceilings looked great.

It was good. I expected more to get done, but since talking to another paint company about the rest of the job, I am led to believe that I may have expected too much.

We purchased the big deal for painting. When we had the estimate done for the painting, we were happy that we could have a lot of area painted. But doors and trim were not included. So we had to pay extra to have the doors and trim painted. We were told that the walls would be patched and we did not need primer for the walls if we bought the paint they suggested from the paint store they suggested. We asked several times how much paint we needed to buy and purchased the amount written down. The painting went well. Except there are several places where the painters accidently hit the ceiling with the colored paint. We ran out of the trim color and had to go out for paint. And the painters used A LOT less paint than we needed. When we asked about the huge difference of what we were told, we were told we could use the pain next time. We have so much leftover paint and it ended up costing us an extra $100 in paint. I like the guys. They were nice. The walls are ok. There are a few places that really look like they could have used some attention. I probably won't ask them to come back. I wish I had a better response.

I purchased a big deal from them. He was unresponsive at the start. He scheduled 2 appointments and then did not show up on them. He finally did come out and asked for extra money to get the work taken care of.

We don't really have a long history of hiring painters, but things first struck me as a bit odd when I called to make the appointment and was told that we would be required to provide all of the painting materials for this job - and I was given a list. Apparently the Angie's List deal I had purchased was for labor only, no supplies. The painters were punctual, but didn't speak English. I speak Spanish, so this was no big deal for us, but I can imagine it would be for others. The painters spent the entire day at the house and unfortunately didn't finish painting the three bedrooms that they had committed to painting in that day. We ended up having to finish the job ourselves. I completely understand that our deal was for a certain number of hours of work, but it was also pretty disappointing that, when we first called to make the appointment, we said three bedrooms, and they said no problem. The bedrooms are on the small side, and we figured things would be fine. But, in the end, they just couldn't finish in the allotted time, which they mentioned to us as they were walking out the door. Not the best experience we've had with contractors.

They painter was great. He did a really nice job and worked hard and all day. I would definitely use them again.

See above--hidden costs and no way to estimate what materials would be needed.

The company was quick with responding. They emailed me within 48 hours of purchasing the deal with an appointment date. They scheduled me for a Saturday without me requesting which was perfect since I did not want to take off from work. I was told to provide paint roller covers and plastic tarps to cover furniture since this was not covered in the deal. I was a little taken by that since this is typically provided by the painter. I wanted them to come out to see how much could be done in 8 hours. I was told this was not included in the deal. I had to guess on how they would reasonable. On the scheduled day, I noticed they never told be an arrival time. I assumed it would be 8 or 8:30 since those are the listed work hours. I tried to call the number but could not reach anyone and the voicemail was full. Two painters did arrive a little after 9. They were professional and promptly went to work. I reviewed with them what I wanted done and what paint colors went where. 8 hours later, they had completed everything on my list. They cleaned up after themselves. The paint job was good. They applied 2 coats of paint to each wall. I definitely would consider hiring them again for the last few paint jobs I have left in my new townhouse.

Took over a week to get hold of provider by email and phone. Then provider started out by asking repeatedly why I had "waited so long" to redeem my Big Deal coupon (there was still a month left on the coupon and I was very flexible about when the work could be scheduled - I had not yet redeemed the coupon because I had to have unscheduled and necessary eye surgery and had complications after the surgery, but I felt that was irrelevant as there was still a month left on the coupon). Scheduled the day off from work. Had to provide all my own roller covers (and tape, spackle,and caulk if needed, none of which were necessary as the walls, ceiling and trim were clean, smooth and prepped), plastic furniture covers and my own ladder if my ceiling was high (it was no more than 8 feet, and I can reach it on a kitchen stool at only 5'2"). We had moved all but 4 small chairs covered in plastic out of the 2 adjacent rooms. The arrival time window I was given was very large -- 7:30 am to 9:am, which meant I had to be ready and waiting for them to show up. At 8:35 am, they had not yet arrived, so I called just to make sure they would be there that day. Mr. Alvarado said yes, they had left at 7:30 am. Traffic reports were good that morning on the road he said they were traveling, yet he claimed they were stuck in traffic.. 2 very, very young guys -- only one of which spoke English, were almost 40 minutes late after the generous arrival window-- they did not arrive until 9.38 am. I had tried to recontact Mr. Alvarado at 9:35 am, as I thought they were a no-show, but there was no answer to his phone and I could not leave a message because it said his voice mail-box was full. The 2 yound guys did work very hard, and finished just about 2 minutes short of the 8 hour time frame. They did a fairly good job, but the young man using the roller had a hard time with it (working much harder than he had to) because it squeaked loudly and seemed to need some WD-40 or other lubricant to make it flow smoothly--it was very hard to roll. As a result, he more scrubbed the walls with the paint than painted them. The paint was top of the line Behr paint plus primer, and should have covered completely with 2 coats (same color as before on the walls, ceiling, and trim) but there are a few places I will need to redo that could have been avoided had the paint rolled smoothly onto the walls. I also gave them top of the line new Purdy and Wooster roller covers. I have used other Angie's List "A" grade painters with better results, who arrived exactly at the scheduled time (no 1 1/2 hour window and still 40 minutes late), had the owner stop by to check on the painters and the work, did not expect me to have basic painting supplies or ladders, and had rollers that worked, so I probably will not use this provider again. I have another entire floor to be painted, and this was a "try-out". The young guys worked hard and are good painters, but I'm not sure of the management.

The appointment was originally on 8/10/13 but no one showed up or called. I called several contact numbers, but no one answered. On 8/11/13 the owner called and told me he had a medical emergency on 8/10 and he could send someone on Tuesday to do the job. No problem, these things happen. The painter he sent on Tuesday arrived an hour late because he had car trouble. I told him not to worry about the trim in the room because I had to paint it anyway, but it seems he did not tape off the trim in the hallway because it looked a bit sloppy. He asked at the end if I wanted him to paint the trim, but it was late and I said no. The room was originally painted lavender and I wanted it painted light yellow so I bought two cans of paint with primer in it. Later that night when the light was on in the room the paint job did not look professional. The young man's behavior was respectful and professional but the job was not. The areas near the bottom trim, ceiling and around the doors and windows did not have enough paint coverage with the brush and the lavender was slightly visible. I had to add a coat of paint to all of these areas.

GREAT experience. joel handled all of the communication, estimates, and managed the team on site, painting himself. they prep work was fantastic - floors covered with paper, furniture covered with plastic and moved away from walls. They painted all areas quickly and were very respectful of our property. After they were done, as we walked through, there were some minor problems. He immediately took care of them. They cleaned up very well. The quality of their work is FANTASTIC. Very precise. Probably the highest quality paint job we have every had. Price was competitive with other quotes - better than many. Highly professional.

I purchased an Angie's List Big Deal for this service and I think they are a great organization. In fact, I have also purchased a Living Social deal with them. I had them do extra work so there was an additional charge. The pricing was completely reasonable.