PYRAMID PAINTING

Our hiring Frank Esparza was an education for us in how workmen sometimes do not live up to their reputations. At the time we agreed that he would do the work, one thing he promised he would do was to be on site- to supervise and finish the job. That turned out not to be true. Only later in the experience were we able to piece together what had happened. We concluded that Frank passed the job off to his brother Manny. A crew arrived to paint, although Manny spent most of his time away, sometimes going up and down the street to drum up more business. We saw Frank only a couple of times, one of which was when he and Manny had a shouting match--the neighbors asked about the fight--in our front yard over who had whose tools. I should have known then that something was amiss and fired them, but it was the first time we were having our house painted, and I had very little experience at the time. However, I certainly knew that was not professional. It also turned out that Manny told Frank that we were the cause of delays that were due to his lack of attention to the work. Manny was definitely a double dealer--and another lesson for me to not pay a workman before the work is done. They may have done good work for other people, but this experience was very unpleasant. As I said, an education. I hold Frank responsible for allowing the job to be done in this way. Frank seemed like he would do a good job, but he abdicated completely, and I would never recommend him. In addition to the behavior, we were not pleased with the power washing job that scored our clapboard deeply. The paint held up all right, but it was not careful or considerate work.