This is a response to the complaint in which you have received from Ms. (Member). She purposefully directs the complaint toward a company of mine named Surface Designs which is a company that is used for concrete work and flooring products. It has nothing to do whatsoever concerning my working for her as doing some part-time painting working by the hour. She didn’t even know the name of that co. when I first went to work for her. To begin with I got involved with her through her meeting my wife at Andrea’s furniture store where my wife works. She purchased furniture from my wife, Chevelle that was to be delivered to her new condo after redecorating. She had a painter not satisfactorily finish painting a staircase and railing with balusters. My wife told her to have me look at it to see if I could re-do it for her, which I did. She asked me to give her a bill for the staircase separately as she wanted to send it to the (previous) painter that she was unhappy with. I said I would do that, but she then asked me to make it higher than what I had told her it would be, her words were to the effect: “make it high.” I said no, that wouldn’t be honest. She obviously wanted to go after this painter as she is now doing with me. She also wanted me to paint her fireplace surround and mantle which had some new wood added for embellishment. I went ahead and did this for her. She then wanted to know if I would be interested in painting the whole condo. I said yea, we needed the work. She liked the idea of re-painting all of the woodwork in oil base paint as is what we did with the staircase and mantle earlier. All woodwork means all casework, baseboards, railings, window frames, and doors with louvers-we are talking at least eleven doors. All woodwork had to be sanded-painted-sanded again-painted a 2nd coat All walls had to be trimmed out twice and walls painted twice. Now also, she wanted me to paint the outside porch area, repair a damaged door with (epoxy wood filler-re-sand and prime) the exterior wood needed much patching and primed first before finish painting. She asked me to do the garage door frame personally, which now she is telling you that she intended her handy-man do that work. She asked me to do it-I did it. Now it was the last week of October and the first week of November when I was doing the outside work-because she told that she wasn’t moving Unfortunately Ms (Member) has been influenced by others that perhaps were envious of my working relationship with her. I was being paid more (according to her) than another worker who I really thought was a nice guy. He may be, although she has led me to believe that he has felt that I was taking advantage of her. Not so at all. She in the matter of a couple days completely demonstrated a 180 degree turn of her opinion of me. I went from the “best thing since “sliced bread” to a horrible con-man. My wife and I have very credible reputations and most anyone that has heard Ms (Member)’s accusations towards us find if ridiculous. She is trying to make an issue about money, which she was not really that concerned about when I was working for her. She even told me that she was ok with “going over” her initial budget. She has made accusations that are false and I’m sure she can probably find someone to corroborate her claims. She also is trying to deflect all of her complaints to a part-time small concrete co that I own (Surface Designs) that has never been involved with the paint business. All of my pay checks were made out to Ed Swartz, not Surface Designs. I was being paid by the hour--there were no bids, no estimates no contracts. She was hiring her new “friend’s” husband to do some part-time painting. The job grew as she continued to want me to paint more o f her condo in till spring. How could she expect me working part-time to have the interior done in October when I didn’t even start working on the rest of the woodwork till October? Her dates make no sense. If she was unhappy with the progress she should have fired me then and gotten someone else or a paint contractor with a full crew that could work there full time to do the job. I even told her before I started the rest of the woodwork that she could have a professional paint crew that could come in and knock the job out in a couple weeks and probably SAVE her money. “She replied that she liked my work and that she liked helping my family as we did need the income, and we were very appreciative. She also told me that she had lived her whole life with her mother and saved every paycheck that she had made and money wasn’t an issue. I thought it was strange that she divulged such personal information. I knew that I couldn’t work as quickly as a paint crew that paints every week of the year. She was continually buying my wife and me lunch with gift cards from Pan Era’s bread restaurant. She gave me gift cards to buy paint from Sherwin Williams and specifically told me that I could get things for myself and I quote: “that I could use them later”. She’s complaining that I abused her gift cards; I didn’t. I did run the gift cards through my concrete co, Surface Designs, but that was so that I could get her a “contractor’s discount” thereby saving her some money. As far as her accusations of extra paint, I only bought what I needed for the job, that’s not to say there isn’t any left over, there always usually is. There were several gallons of good paint on the jobsite already there from the previous painter as well. Some of that could have been used but she wanted to buy new colors from the Sherwin Williams decorator, which was fine with me. She wasn’t worried about the cost of that paint. She like my work and thought I was fair at my cost per hour. She also suggested paying me for my auto expense since I was 1 ½ hours driving one way. I told her $10.00 each way which was $20.00 per trip would be fair, she agreed. I also told her that I could only work “part time” some weeks two days, others three days as I have an independent sales position selling other type products. She said that was fine because she wasn’t moving in till March or April anyway –she said “spring”. Now as we are going into the holidays, she was still sometimes still buying lunch for my wife and me. My wife would come up about two days a month on her days off and help some. (Member) loved it when Chevelle would come. She was constantly praising my wife and me for helping her out so much that it was embarrassing, especially in front of some other workers. She was calling both Sherwin Williams stores and praising us; she was calling Andrea’s furniture’s owners and telling them how great my wife Chevelle was. She even told me that the district manager of Sherwin Williams said that her painter-ME was doing an excellent job. I have no idea now whether that is really true, but Ms (Member) told us that. She made a big deal about me cashing her pay checks and not depositing them. That is arrogance; she doesn’t know what it is like to live from paycheck to paycheck. If I deposited them into my bank I would have to wait for the checks to clear. My bank wouldn’t cash a check larger than my available funds within my checking account! Her bank would cash the checks, we then had the money available to distribute to either of our accounts or cash to use for immediate spending. I claimed all of my income as well. Ironically, she asked me to fill out a profile so that she could post me on “Angie’s List” so that I could promote myself as a paint contractor. I thanked her for wanting to help me but she didn’t realize that taking on contract work is a responsibility that I did not want. I had been there and done that. I did not want to commit myself to be a painter-I just turned 60 years old! I want to develop my independent rep business, as sales will be a career that I can do when I’m 70 which is only ten years away for me. I won’t be able to retire probably ever, as we still have our share of financial stress. She seemed very disappointed that I didn’t want to participate on “Angie’s List” and expressed that to my wife. It was then that she wanted to start communicating with my wife on the paint job, which my wife couldn’t understand either. Ms. (Member)e gave us a Christmas gift card from a local grocery store so that we could buy a turkey or ham for Christmas, does that sound like someone unhappy about moving in her condo in October. We could afford to buy a ham my point is that she was not at all disappointed in our performance even through the holidays. Do you really think that she didn’t know how much money she had paid out to me by mid-January? She was writing me a check every week I worked, and even if she did go over her budget, that is not my fault--I gave her no bid, no estimate. She was paying me by the hour and fired me and did not allow me in to finish, or even touch up the work when I offered. It is my opinion that she already was determined to make life as miserable for us as she could. In January I only had to paint one more door; I called her to tell her that I was coming up on a certain day. She told me not to come that week because she had other workers working on other things in the condo. I said fine, I’ll come up the next week. Then she said that I wouldn’t need to because she had made other arrangements to have the door painted and that she was upset that I wasn’t done with the job earlier and that she wanted to move in. I knew she was upset, and I couldn’t see why she would have to hire someone else to finish the door, so I told her I’m sorry you’re upset, you had told originally that you were moving into the condo in the spring. I also said I’ll come up and paint the door at N/C. If she was worried about money, she would have jumped on that proposition then attack me. She said no. I then said ok, I’ll come up in a day or two to get my tools (valued at about $500-600. She said I couldn’t come up that week and to come the following week. I called her the following week and she again would not allow me to come up and get my tools, clean up my work area, or even touch up any of my work-which I told her that I would do. I had to call the Medina Police Dept to get my tools. They called her and ordered her to meet us on the upcoming Sunday at 6:00 PM a good neutral time. She said that she did not want to see us, and they said fine, just set the tools out by the garage before we get there. We arrived at our Police arranged appt and she was not home and had placed my belongings out by the street curb. The only thing that was there were some old tennis shoes, a sweat shirt, used paint rollers, and wet sand paper, all snow covered. It had snowed about 6-8” over night. All of the valuable tools were gone. The Police have a report on file and the neighbor saw that the tools were put out the night before. The Police specifically told her NOT to put the belongings by the street. She couldn’t resist, and did it anyway, why? We know why. I also left the police all of the receipts that I had from Sherwin Williams’s purchases and her remote garage door opener that I couldn’t return to her because she wouldn’t let me on her premises. At this point Ms. (Member) started calling my wife’s employer at Andrea’s furniture trying to actually attack her character. She as well started calling me as well, to the point that our family had to start not taking her calls. The manager of the local Sherwin Williams started not taking her calls as she was annoying him--the same guy that she praised me to several weeks earlier. She is obsessed with trying to disrupt my wife and my lives. In my opinion, Ms. (Member) has twisted the truth and lied. She says that I bought $200.00 worth of paint brushes that I didn’t use, and that I probably padded my hours--absolutely ridiculous! If you talked to anyone that I have worked hourly for they would laugh at her insinuations. It’s not hard to see that her remarks are emotional and that this is more personal with her than trying to recoup money. I actually feel sorry for anyone that can be so hateful and vindictive. I understand why the painter before me never came back now. I’m the victim here, not Ms. (Member)e. I’m not perfect by far, but I’m not a liar or a thief. It’s distressful beyond comprehension to have someone continually attack you all because their ego cannot handle what could have been a good friendship and business relationship for whatever reason gone awry. In all of my business dealings over the past forty years I have never had anyone try and defame my character as she has tried to do, along with my wife. What this is really about is Ms (Member) is hurt about losing the friendship with my wife and feeling spurned. I’m not the most religious man, I make it to church a couple times a month, my wife is at church almost every Sunday, but it’s how she treats others outside of church that makes her such a fine person. She’s a better Christian than me no doubt. That is why she initially reached out to help Ms (Member) who seemed distressed about her previous painter. We were so grateful to her as well, for our income in the winter is usually lower and we were excited about the job even though it was a long drive. I swear upon our God above that this testimonial response is as accurate as I can remember, and based on the truth to the best of my knowledge, so help me God. Cordially, Ed Swartz