Hi-Quality Painting

After meeting with Jeff and him giving me many references that I contacted and had nothing but great things to say about him I decided he was the painter for me. He was very assuring that things were going to be done properly. His crew, on the other hand, were not the best at all. They were sloppy, didn't take direction from me too pleasantly, and were late from time to time. After all was said and done I went over the job with Jeff and pointed out some issues that he assured me would be corrected. He did send someone back to make some corrections and I paid him in full. He assured me that if I ever had an issue that all I had to do was call him and he would be there to take care of it. Anytime I had an issue he would remedy it. Any time. At all. His words. The day after I paid Jeff my neighbor's dog came and scratched my freshly painted side door. Jeff was contacted directly by my neighbor to correct it and said it would cost an additional $50 to repair it (it was about three four to five inch scratches). Now it's the end of October and I contact him to get it done and he says he'll be by. He doesn't show up nor call. Now it's November and I call him. It's now too cold to do the work. I told him I would contact him in the spring. As you can imagine, I am anxious to have this be a fait accompli since it was damaged the day after the job was complete!!!!! March comes and I call him to do the work only now there's other issues that need to be addressed - some shoddy work that came to light after the fact (single coats where there should have been multiple) and some other issues that I noticed as I went around the house on my own in the several months since he did the job. Anyway, I contact him in March, 3/17, and left him a v/m. No reply. 3/21 - spoke with him - I'm on the schedule, must be 60 degrees out to do the work. 4/29, contact him again. Left message on v/m. No reply. 5/4, contact him again. " " 5/7, spoke with him - he to call back when he has the time. 5/15, l/m on v/m. No reply. I have lost my patience with his excuses, etc. I am furious that he does not return my calls, that he makes promises and obviously he's not coming to finish. It's not a huge job. I tell him there's other issues. He flips out on me, saying that I was thrilled with the job when he walked around my house with me the final day. Let's face it: the prior color was two shades of green paint and I totally changed it to deep gray stain with brand new red shutters. Who wouldn't be ecstatic over the change initially??? He is very hostile and nasty. I calm him down since I want him to come and do the work. He asks me if the neighbor is still there to pay him. I say yes, they are. He says he will call me next week, that he is just about to finish up with this client and that he will be in touch with me on Monday or Tuesday. NO CALL. NOTHING. Time goes on... 8/18, I speak to Jeff. He says due to rain he couldn't come (understandably so) and that he will be there the next nice day. He does come to go over all the issues with me, bringing along one of his workers, who has a lot to say when I'm not asking him any questions. He finally had to tell him to get away from us, that he was annoying both him and I. He goes over things with me and we don't agree that the front door has to be redone as it is not smooth. He keeps telling me it's the door. I insist it's the paint job. He insists it's not. He obviously is not going to fix this door for me. I give up on this aspect and figure let's just focus on the other door and things. He assures me he will be there tomorrow. HE DOESN'T SHOW UP. When I call him at 10 to see if perhaps he was running late or forgot, he says it's too hot, that he didn't want to paint in the heat. NO CALL TO LET ME KNOW. NOTHING. Just doesn't show up. 8/20 - l/m on v/m. No return call. I finally call him in early September. He again flips out on me since in my v/m I state I want to complete the job and he takes it that he didn't complete the job initially, that these new issues were not there beforehand, that I LOVED the job when I walked around with him the day he finished and collected his final payment. Again, the change, who wouldn't be thrilled? Again, he's flipping out, screaming at me, saying that he doesn't want to come back the way I speak to him (???), that he has not been busy, he's feeling the economy and work has been horrible, the rains have really wreaked havoc on his business...yes, I understand. yes, my business has gone down drastically this year, too. Oh, and by the way, I'm not going to do the work for free. You need to pay me for the work I'm going to do. Now I'm a little stunned since it was work that wasn't done properly initially, but w.e. I just want this stuff done and over with. I tell him I want to move on to other things, that I want to put this folder off my desk and finalize the paint issue in my life. He understands and calms down, says he's going to go smoke something and relax. Okay. Sure. You do that, I say. Please, relax. I just want this to be finalized. He says, Okay, I will be there Wednesday. That was two weeks ago. NO CALL, NO SHOW. I wound up having someone else do the work. He really ought to change his business name to LOW QUALITY AND PATHETIC SERVICE PAINTING.