Five Star Painting of Arlington

I’m just going to copy the response we wrote to survey they asked us to complete: We spent a little under $4,000 for "Five Star" to come in and deliver very underwhelming service and results. They failed to meet their own company standards or adhere to the selling points on the website. This is a small 2 BR condo and our home has been in disarray for over 2 weeks while dealing with this, trying to get the quality they sell. "*On Time" They were about an hour or more late EVERY time. When this was brought to the owner's attention he stated the painters were low-paid, seemingly using that to justify their attendance, and also blaming traffic. We live in northern Virginia not that far from DC where it is known that you will hit traffic. As professionals it is expected that they would plan accordingly in order to get to the client's home on time. This shows a complete lack of respect for the client's time. Every time they were late, we were late for work, costing us money. "*Detailed Prep Work" This is the reason we chose to hire a professional painting company instead of hiring a individual private painter. The only prep work we got from “Five Star” was them patching some holes in the wall and covering our furniture. The only sanding done was for the holes they patched. All the other pre-existing imperfections were just painted over. Every time I pointed out an imperfection, the foreman responded with “that was already there,” which left me even more flabbergasted and only confirmed that sanding is a necessary and basic step to painting. After speaking with multiple professionals and friends who have hired private contractors and/or professional paint companies, it is known that sanding down walls is one of the first steps and common practice to help the paint stick to surfaces. Our walls have bubbles and paint is already beginning to chip off, and it's only been about 2 weeks. When I asked the foreman why no other sanding was done, he said it was not on the work order, even though the person who came to give us the estimate assured us when I asked that they would sand our walls, saying "They'll take care of everything." This made us think that sanding is not line item on a work order, but part of the service and prep as a whole. "*Clean Work Areas" We have brand new LVP floors that now have paint on them. They did a decent job of getting rid a lot of the dust and debris, yet I still found myself sweeping up multiple pieces of drywall anchors and paint chips after they left. There was also paint on the door knobs and on the outside of our front door that was not cleaned up. Instead of "Five Star" owning up to falling short of promises and expectations, they continually give excuses for the tardiness and poor workmanship. Example: after pointing out during the initial walkthrough that our bedroom closet doors were NOT to be painted because that would be out of our budget, the painters painted them anyway (not even with the right color I specified for the other doors that were actually on the work order) and they left many drip marks. When this was brought to the attention of the owner, he first laughed and then used the fact that those doors were not on the initial work order as an acceptable method of substituting monetary compensation, as if that was making up for the fact that they were late every time. The painters also missed an entire section of the bedroom wall because they had left the sliding door open. When they came back to paint the missed area, I specifically asked for the line on the wall to be sanded down so there wouldn't be a seam going down it. My request was acknowledged, but when I inspected it after they were done, there was no sanding and there was still a seam. When I asked why it wasn't done there was silence. I then asked whether they had the necessary equipment, i.e., sandpaper with them, to which he replied no. Their failure to mention that when I first brought up the seam once again set a false expectation. I even asked the supervisor after the initial walk through, “Would you pay $4,000 for this same quality of service and labor for your own home and would you find it acceptable?” He didn’t say yes.. he just sighed, looked down, and said he’d talk to the boss. In conclusion, we regret hiring "Five Star" Paint and would not recommend them to family, friends, or acquaintances because I will not have them subjected to the same disappointing and frustrating experience.