We hired Bionic Man Painting to paint a large portion of the interior of our house and the exterior door, trim, & shutters of our house. We chose them because we were told they had a good reputation and we didn't find any negative reviews online. Additionally, we were told by Paul Dixon (the owner) that he would continue working on the project until we were satisfied. Now, he has packed up his employees without finishing the job. Other potential customers need to be warned, as we have since been told none of the problems we had are uncommon.
Paul Dixon (the owner) has been rude, completely unprofessional (entering our house without knocking or otherwise announcing himself, sitting on our toilet seat to have a conversation with us, etc.), & chronically late (by several hours - once as many as 5 hours late) every time we have needed to meet with him. He is unresponsive to email (taking over a week to respond after we agreed to hire him), & communicates through his workers rather than directly with us (the customers). And when Paul does communicate with us, we can not rely on what he says, because he doesn't do what he says he will do (one example being telling us he'd use a high-build paint to cover textured wallpaper, then ordering thin paint that made his guys have to use many cans, and finally put a thick textured faux finishing paint on top to cover what still showed through).
He originally guaranteed us that the entire painting job would be completed within 7 business days including some faux finishes and painting ceilings in the agreed-upon rooms. It is now the end of day 14, with the exterior portion not even started, and he is asking for a final walkthrough and payment without completing the job. Additionally, his men who moved furniture in our office on the first day gouged our hardwood floors, and that has not been fixed yet either.
Some of his employees (Jack Allman & Jeff Helton) have done excellent work, but another BMP employee was unprofessional, sloppy, & wrote down a full day's worth of hours, despite arriving over 20 minutes late & leaving exactly at the end of his allotted work hours (which made me glad we had a flat-rate estimate and were not paying time + materials). Paul did address this (poorly) by speaking to the employee mid-shift in front of the whole crew & not sending him back the next day, but it was an uncomfortable position to be put in as the customer, & that employee was clearly unhappy to be working in our home after Paul chastised him in the middle of the workday.
He clearly need to hire an administrative staff person, since he's slow to respond via email and his invoices are as disorganized as everything else. The first "invoice" he gave us was a random series of bullet points that were presented in a stream-of-consciousness manner, without clear headings or itemized expenses. It took several minutes to decipher and was the least professional invoice I've ever seen.
The only positive in this was that Paul didn't do any of the work. He said he was going to come in & do the faux finish, but the sample he gave us was terrible, & would've looked ridiculous on our wall. We nicely requested that his 2 employees we trusted do the faux finish, because we had no faith or trust in his abilities after seeing his sample. Jack and Jeff did an excellent job throughout the entire project, and were helped on one of the faux finishes by John, who also did a nice job. Additionally, in order to get as much done as has been, Jack and John have repeatedly had to work 9-12 hour days.
Overall this was a terrible experience, and has left us with an incomplete job 2 weeks after the original finish date & less than a week before our guests arrive.
UPDATE: The project is finished now after more hassle with the owner of Bionic Man Painting. We work from home and his presence was disruptive, so we finally had to request that he send his guys, but that he was not come to our house without a set appointment when we would be present. He didn't seem to like this and asked, "Am I not allowed on my job site while they are working?" and we reminded him that it was not HIS job site, it is OUR home. We settled the matter by asking him to email us a detailed, itemized invoice (unlike the first one) when the work was complete, and that we would mail him a check, rather than have to deal with him again in person. read more