Alan James Drywall/Paint

VERY BAD OVERALL EXPERIENCE - WISH WE HAD NEVER HIRED THIS MAN - LEFT US WITH AN UNFINISHED MESS Alan James returned our call promptly and came out to give an estimate and seemed friendly and knowledgeable enough. He said his work came with a 1 year guarantee, so if we saw anything that needed to be touched up within a year, he would come back and fix it for free. His pricing was competitive and he gave us a story about how another project he was working on was having problems with another contractor holding up the progress so he just happened to have availability. We verbally went over details but he didn't take any notes or provide any written estimate. (THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN A MAJOR RED FLAG). We told him we found him on Angie's List and asked if he would honor the coupon and he said that he didn't realize the coupon was still up on Angie's List, so he would only honor it for $50 off instead of $100 off. He also said we needed to go and get our own paint and have it available onsite for him to use. He said he liked to work on weekends, so we arranged to have him come out to start on a Saturday, with an understanding that they would finish up the next day (Sunday). Promptly on Day 1, he showed up with 2 assistants (Rose and Fidel) who seemed to be hardworking and seemed to do a good job with the bedroom painting. After finishing up that first day, Alan insisted that we needed to pay him $400 to cover their work for that day, adding that we could pay the rest after they came back to finish up the job. (ANOTHER MAJOR RED FLAG). At this point we were hesitant to pay him since we had paid for our own paint and he wasn't finished yet (we've never been asked by another contractor to pay in the middle of a job), but we kind of felt stuck so we went ahead and paid him. He also said that he wasn't going to be able to return the following day to finish up (as he had previously told us) since he didn't think the drywall would be dry enough to paint. (ANOTHER MAJOR RED FLAG). During the week when we were waiting for him to return, we went into the bathroom he was texturing (which was a complete mess - wallpaper scraps, tape, and texture everywhere) and noticed that it looked like he had taken a lot of shortcuts and ignored several of the specific details we had gone over. Area behind the door was a mess and also some areas next to the trim still showed bare wallpaper. He had assured us that he would remove the face plate from the hollywood vanity light fixture and drop it to a wire so we could replace the fixture (this required only unscrewing the bulbs and lifting off the face plate) - instead, he just did a messy job texturing around the face plate. Next, we had specifically asked him to remove all the old builder grade towel bars and towel ring and fill the holes and we noticed that, instead, he took one of them down but just did a messy job texturing around the other two bars, leaving exposed wallpaper underneath and even next to the bars, hidden under blue tape. Finally, he had assured us that we didn't need to take the toilet tank off because he said he could do a good job of getting behind the toilet with the texture and we wouldn't even notice it. Upon inspection, we noticed he left a huge area of wallpaper behind, under, and around the toilet that had no texture on it. We went in the bathroom ourselves and took the light fixture's face plate down, removed the towel bars, and took the tank off the toilet. When he arrived the following week, we showed him what we had done and asked (in a friendly, matter-of-fact tone) if he could touch up those areas while he was finishing up today and suddenly he became EXTREMELY UNPROFESSIONAL. His tone of voice became upset and he denied that he had previously said he would handle those details. He said he didn't plan on doing texture touch-ups and didn't have any of the materials with him to do so. He started to say something about rescheduling and then he just turned and ran out of our house, calling over his shoulder "You're on your own, good luck". We were completely shocked. We chased him out to the front lawn where he said he was just done and got in his car and left. We've dealt with a lot of contractors in the past and have never worked with with anyone so unprofessional. He could have cared less about the huge mess he left behind. Guess he figured he'd just leave us in the lurch and go do something else since it was a Saturday and nice day outside and we had already paid him for most of the work. IT WAS A HUGE MISTAKE FOR US TO EVER HIRE THIS GUY - BEWARE FELLOW ANGIE'S LISTERS.

The estimate from Alan James was very reasonable and the work was done in a very timely manor. Alan was very professional.Very happy with the result and I would definitely do business with Alan in the future. I would also highly recommend him to others

perfect.

As I said, always prompt and professional. They also do a follow up call to make sure they met all my needs. I highly recommend them and will continue to use them. Torey and Alan even helped me move some furniture into my home. (Delivery people wanted to charge me $35.00 to carry from the curb...but that's another review). These guys overheard and stepped up to the plate for me. Really honest hard workers..Thanks Jamesco

The called back within an hour of my request for a bid. Listened to me and allowed me to ask questions ( when so many I spoke with would not). We set a time to see my house and they were prompt, wrote me a bid, and we set a day to schedule the start of my work. Completion was on time and beautiful. I would recommend this company and I used them twice previously...inside painting and drywall (removed wallpaper)