James 360 Repair

Every day for the past two years I have regretted hiring James for our bath remodel and finishing our attic. A plumber is at my house right now looking at his work and said, "This is not a good situation." The very expensive fixtures James installed "should not be failing already." James completed the work in a way that there is no access panel for maintenance. I am hoping that we do not shatter the glass partition he installed in attempting to re-create access to the plumbing. He "leveled" our bathroom floor, but the hex-tiled floor has hills and valleys. He replaced a floor tile he accidentally knocked loose with the same chipped tile rather than an undamaged one. He resurfaced a bathroom wall, but the surface is so uneven that there is a 1/4" gap filled with caulk between the wall and the vanity (which he knew he'd be installing). He didn't tent the doors or give us warning before he started sanding the drywall, so my entire house was filled with fine dust. Visiting friends who have worked in the trades have been appalled at the sloppiness of his work: There are cracks in my walls in the places James--or his subcontractor--didn't tape drywall seams; the seams are horribly sloppy, as is his paint work; there are no reveals on the window trim, most of which he installed with a staple gun and all of which shows poorly matched wood putty where he filled the nail and staple holes. My next door neighbor assumed I'd been working with someone competent, so she hired him to replace a window. He removed wide trim that was brown and replaced it with narrow trim which is white. And I was floored when she told me how freely James talked to her about my conversations with him. This is what I'm left with after I asked him to correct many of his first attempts, which were even worse. He acknowledged the issues and was courteous in his efforts to remedy his work, but the process was made more uncomfortable by his repeated remarks about money; I had to explain to him that it was unprofessional to share his worries with the customer when the job was not underbid in the first place. After it was too late to turn back, he proudly admitted that he learned most of what he was trying to do by watching YouTube videos. The irony is that--at least at the time I hired him--his slogan was "Done Right the First Time"; he didn't even do things right the second time. I finally gave up on having the work done satisfactorily because I wanted him out of my house.