RUSELL KAYE PAINTING

Description of Work: I contacted Russell Kaye from Kaye's painting back in September of 2011. He was referred to me by my computer repair tech from the business that I manage. I was in need of a qualified painter to paint my entire house, incuding strip wallpaper in 2 seperate rooms. In September of 2011, my father passed away suddenly and I inheirited my family home. This was only 4 months after I completed chemotherapy due to beast cancer. The entire house needed painted due to my parents smoking in the house. Mr. Kaye came over at the end of September and gave me a verbal estimate. The amount he quoted me was $1270.00. I found this odd that it was verbal but because he was referred to me, I felt he could be trusted. His quote was quite cheap for all the work that needed done so we decided to hire him. He also mentioned several prominent businesses he had painted so we felt his work could be trusted. I asked Mr. Kaye if he would be able to complete the job in a timely manner because my family and I wanted to move in by Thanksgiving. This gave him about 2 months to complete the job. He promised me that it would be completed. On 10/5/2011, I gave Mr. Kaye a deposit of $600.00. He stated he needed to buy "supplies". It took Mr. Kaye almost 2 weeks to start the work once I paid him. Several times he said he would be at the house working but when we came to the house, he was never here. We had to keep contacting him to see when he would be starting. Once he did start, he would work for maybe 2-3 hours and then leave. Then, we wouldn't hear from Mr. Kaye for weeks. He rarely returns phone calls, and that is even if his cell phone was working and you could leave a message. At the beginning of November, Mr. Kaye called me and stated he felt he could get back to work on our house and try to complete it for us by Thanksgiving, however, he begged me to give him "some more money". I questioned this because I had already given him $600.00 and he certainly did not do 600.00 worth of work yet. I am a very trustworthy person and had just been through a horrific bout with cancer and then the death of my father so my mind was not completely as sharp as it should have been. Mr. Kaye said that he really needed to "pay his cell phone bill and could really use some more money so he could come back and work." Because we were in the process of trying to move and pressed for time because we needed to get out of our old house, I wrote Mr. Kaye an additional check for $400.00. This left us with a balance of 270.00 which I stated I would pay once all the work was completed. Mr. Kaye NEVER came back to my house after he cashed my check. He did not bother to contact me either. After 2 weeks of trying to get ahold of him and leaving constant messages, we were forced to hire a seperate company to complete the work that he had started. This company that helped us was called PaintCo and the man's name was Dave Cook. He brought a crew of men and completed my entire house in less than 2 weeks. His work was top quality and he didn't even collect a deposit from my husband or I because he felt Mr. Kaye really took advantage of my situation. He also pointed out numerous spots on furniture and countertops in rooms that Russell had started that had paint splatter all over them. Several times I tried to contact Mr. Kaye and get to the bottom of things but either his phone was not working or if I left a message, he never returned my calls. I was willing to let Mr. Kaye keep the 600.00 for the work that he started but felt he should refund the extra 400.00 I gave him. I was forced to contact the Better Business Bureau. They contacted Mr. Kaye. Mr. Kaye finally contacted me and said "he felt bad" but took on more work than he could handle. This contact from Mr. kaye was in February of this year and he said he would agree to send me 500.00 back for my troubles. He said he spent all his money over Christmas and had no money right now to send to me. He said once his income taxes come in, he would refund me the 500.00. I waited until March 8th and because I hadn't heard from Mr. Kaye, I contacted him. He stated his income tax money was not in yet but he would pay me in 1-2 weeks. Again, I was very patient and agreed but was persistent in letting him know that he needed to refund me. I never heard from Mr. Kaye after that. He neglected to refund me the money and neglected to contact me. I felt that Mr. Kaye took advantage of the situation I was in and actually did in fact, rob me. He took money from me that he had no business taking and skipped town and never contacted us. Finally, on April 20th, by a stroke of luck, I was able to reach Mr. Kaye by phone. He stated he "had been thinking of me but did not have any money to give me." He stated he needed to make his house payment. He stated that he had some work coming up that he "should" be able to pay me eventually. After 6 months of being the nice guy and being as patient as I could, I exploded. I really feel that he is a thief. His work was very poor and I would be happy to provide photo's of the quality of his work and also his handwritten receipts showing the money that I paid him. He is a poor businessman who does poor quality work and takes advantage of people. I wouldn't recommend him to my worst enemy. I just hope he doesn't do this again to someone else.

Description of Work: They were suppose to come and paint my kitchen for me, but didn't come.