Tim Payne Painting

In summary, terrible customer service and business policies...... To preface these comments, I am not one to usually complain, and usually am honestly too lazy to take the time to post bad (or good) reviews. However, I have used Angie's List to find some good contractors, and taken reviews, both good and bad, to heart when looking for service providers to do a job. In order for websites like Angie's List to work, members have to be willing to provide honest feedback when a job is done well, and conversely, when a job could've been done better. To that point, I felt like I need to chime in with a review of this company, as the way our job was handled left a very bad taste in my mouth for the way they do business. As background, we were in need of a whole house of approximately 4000 sq. ft. to be painted including siding, trim, and shutters, with some minor patch work of the shutters required due to woodpecker damage. This company was recommended by a general contractor who we had worked with, and who had utilized their service in the past as a sub-contractor. They were supposed to be a top notch company, and very reputable in the area. The initial meeting with the estimator occurred on May 31, and he was prompt and very professional. After taking the house measurements and looking over the details, he let me know that he would provide an estimate in the next 2-3 business days, which he did. The estimate arrived via email on June 4, and after looking over the quote, we felt the price quote was fair, and in-line with what was expected (appx. $10,500.00) as far as the job requirements. I accepted the proposal the same day (June 4), and because of upcoming budgeting constraints as well as vacation schedules, etc., I asked if we could set a start date of mid-July. After discussing this with the estimator, he said that the date of Monday, July 16th should work out just fine, and actually it helped them out because they were trying to complete a very large job at a local university. They estimated 2-3 weeks to complete the job, which worked well with our schedule as we had a conflict for early/mid-August and made this very clear. We also made it clear that we were getting new garage doors installed, and wanted the painting job done before that at the recommendation of the garage door installer. All indications were there would be no problem in completing the job before that time. All in all, both parties were happy, and we had the date scheduled for our house painting job which was set to start approximately 6 weeks from the time it was scheduled. In the interim time, the paint color codes and paint brand were settled on, and relayed to the painting company. Approximately a week before the job was set to start, I had not heard anything from the company, and had only ever spoken to the estimator. There had been no contact with the owner, foreman, etc. I reached out to the estimator, and he said he needed to set up a time for the crew foreman to come by and inspect the job site to get an idea of how many painters, ladders, equipment, etc were needed. The estimator and crew foreman came by in the afternoon 2 days (Thursday, 7/12/18) before the job was set to start, and everything seemed to be on schedule after they spoke with my wife. We were given no indication that there would be a delay, or problem. On the Sunday evening (July 15) before the scheduled start date (Monday AM July 16) at around 5 PM, I received an email from the estimator stating that they had taken on more/new work at the university on the Friday (July 13) before they were supposed to start at our place, and stated they would be delaying our job by a month or so, to give them time to finish up their previous job. Th statement was made in a way to suggest that there was no negotiation on that point. I relayed my frustration with this, made it clear that we had waited 6 weeks to get the job started, and that letting us know the evening before the job's scheduled start date, via email nonetheless, that our job was gong to be delayed as the result of new work was not fair. Furthermore, in a polite way, I notified the estimator that it was not my fault that they took on new work the Friday before our Monday start date, and thus not my problem to rectify. I asked him to please get the job scheduled for as soon as they could get it scheduled, and would ask that it be done within the original week that we had agreed upon. I also requested a courtesy call letting me now when they planned on getting going and to discuss the matter further. After 2 days, I had yet to hear from anyone from the company, and I decided to reach back out to them via phone, text, and email to cover all the bases. After another day, I had still not heard any thing back from the company offering an explanation, re-schedule date, apology....anything. At that point, I assumed my business did not matter to them, and notified them via phone, text, and email that I would not be needing their services anymore, and did not appreciate the way we were handled by them. To date, I have not heard one word from the company offering an explanation or apology. Since that time, I have heard second hand from other prospective customers and painters who have done side jobs for them, that this behavior is not uncommon towards residential customers, as Tim Payne is very active in commercial contracts with larger businesses. I fully understand that the amount of money received for doing the exterior painting job on my house amounts to a small percentage of the amount that one could obtain in painting jobs in big, commercial or academic contracts, but the way this situation was handled left a bad taste in my mouth. To be told that it would be all hands on deck for additional work taken on at the last minute for an existing customer, and in addition, letting us know the evening before the job was supposed to start, reeks of unprofessionalism and disregard for others time. Compound that by the fact that our job had been scheduled for 6 weeks, and there was plenty of time to notify us of a schedule pushback, added further frustration. The cherry on top was refusing to respond to emails, phone calls, and texts to try and accommodate a modified schedule that worked for us, and/or acknowledging the screw-up and apologizing for it. To that point, I cannot in good conscience, recommend this painting company to anyone looking for residential work. Maybe others good experiences with Tim Payne painting will serve to offset this bad review, but in my honest opinion, those considering this company should make sure they ask around for others experiences. Maybe this company was having a bad week. I don't know. To this, I say everyone is entitled to mistakes and no one is perfect. However, to refuse to acknowledge that mistake is off-putting for sure. As the old saying goes, "Caveat Emptor (Buyer Beware)"

Went well. Painter’s showed up when they were supposed to and continued on the job until it was completed.