One of the worst experiences I have had during 10 years in project management, and let me break it down. Don't buy their BS because I will gladly send you videos and photos if need be. First off, no English at all, so be prepared to use a translator--and even then, they still don't follow directions. Alex shows up on day one but never comes back; instead, he sends his 27-year-old son, Oleg. At first, they seemed to have a can-do attitude, and the agreement was "payment after each task" for 4 tasks: door installation, paint, shelf installation, and drywall.
The drywall was half done, only for them to screw up on an important detail--an access panel for the water shut-off valve. I said DO NOT CUT--they cut it, which screwed up the whole install, and now cabinets need to be removed to fix it. Then Oleg installs the "French doors" on a bi-fold track?! After I spelled out the install method multiple ways--FAIL. Then he starts doing other tasks and tries charging me for them (moving light switches and dumping trash in parts of the job site that he was not supposed to be working in). That's all great--except we already have an electrician and junk crew under contract.
Without asking, they reorganize the entire job site, which again is fine, but they overwhelmed themselves and did so without permission. You will see that they complained that the job site was a mess--NEWSFLASH: it's a job site, and the mess was in parts of the property they weren't contracted to work in! I thought I was hiring handymen, not a maid service? It's a job site--not St. Basil's Cathedral--and now they said they will share my address so people stay away. YES ALEX, PLEASE SHARE MY ADDRESS SO ALL OF YOUR GULAG GRUNTS CAN STAY AWAY! ANYONE WHO CAN'T FOLLOW DIRECTIONS OR LAWS--STAY FAR AWAY!
They claim they have 10+ years in construction, but not the way we do things in America. They then start demanding to be paid for these small tasks $100 here and there (mind you, if they finished the scope, they were to be paid $4,000) and tell me I'm taking too long to pay--when the office was closed on a weekend and none of the work was approved. Well, their claim would have merit, except that none of the main tasks were finished yet, and I had already shelled out over $1,000 in good faith.
They felt extremely entitled and failed to follow directions. Worst of all, when they came back to fix the door, they instead start spraying primer everywhere--when that was not part of the schedule--and so we had to send away our kitchen crew, who didn't want to inhale toxic primer dust which is now EVERYWHERE. Huge mess--and best of all--THEY USED THE WRONG PRIMER AND TRIED CHARGING ME FOR IT!
Papa Alex says his son would return after I sorted out additional payment which I sent $300 to cover the miscellaneous obscure unapproved tasks and I told them we can easily discuss more compensation at the end as a bonus if they actually just do the scope they were tasked with, only for Oleg to promise he'll show up in the morning and then change his mind in the afternoon: "I can't work like this." WHAT?! You can't handle being overpaid by someone who is being overly patient? Who are you people, Kandisky?! I even gave them a chance to fix the problems. Instead, they send me a photo of a donkey with a carrot... WTF. I said, do you not understand what an escalation clause is? He says "this is a partnership" um excuse me sir, this is not a partnership, you are a new hired independent handy person who is completely unproven. Alex says "my work" but how can it be if you never worked at the site once except you are a subcontractor subbing out the job to your son who tried subbing it out to another guy who seemed to do most of the work! The nerve!
They want to be paid for what they think they almost did--not what they do. I told them the photo is missing Putin's face on it, and then they sent me some crazy Russian insult, claiming I insulted them? They just want to DICTATE everything! Oh OK. Oleg says he was going to come back ONLY after being paid 50% CASH upfront. HILARIOUS! And then they wonder why money is withheld.
They don't understand what a due diligence period is, and they are more interested in nickels and dimes rather than completing the scope. Work turned out awful, and now I have to spend more to fix their mistakes--after the wasted time has already cost me. Please study CSLB laws no matter the size of your project, ALWAYS use contracts but understand these unlicensed illegals can leave you high and dry anytime no matter how experienced you are! read more