I was given a painting quote by Kelly Morgan at EK Painting. His quote was competitive, but still pricey. It was nearly $2000. To me, that is a lot of money and when I'm spending that kind of cash I like to take my time, shop around, and feel confident about the contractor I am hiring. I don't think a 72 hour response time is unreasonable. Less than 48 hours after my last contact, Kelly sent me a very pushy email. He was angry with me because the contractor matching service I used costs him money. When I responded that his pushy ways sealed his company's fate and that I would be going with another painter he responded with a series of rude, critical, obnoxious emails. All of this because I wouldn't commit to giving him a big pay day with out first shopping around. Kelly is rude, inconsiderate, and obnoxious. He very well may be a fine painter - however, having a skill and running a successful business are two very different things. A successful business owner should treat potential clents with respect. In the end, my approach was the right one. I found a painter for $400 less than EK Painting - and they did a terrific job. Do not allow a contractor to push you around. You are the one spending the money. You are the project manager. Update after seeing Kelly's response: In my opinion, Kelly's response to my review only reinforces my beliefs about his professionalism. Keep in mind it had been less than 48 hours since I had last spoke with him. I was evaluating other bids. Which is what you SHOULD do when making an important decision in your home. The painter I chose was terrific and did the work for $600 less than EK Painting. Below are the email exchanges between myself and Kelly. Start at the bottom and work your way up. His last message was just plain rude. He was mad that I told him I would not hire him due to his attitude. From: "EK Painting" kellymorgan@ekpainting.net To: xxxxx@yahoo.com you sure did respond to this email pretty quick but can't respond when someone is asking a simple question of when would you like to meet. From: "EK Painting" kellymorgan@ekpainting.net To: xxxxx@yahoo.com You send emails and fill out forms saying you need to have the work done. I have been trying to work with you but you cannot even respond to a simple email about doing a estimate. You asked if I could come Tue and I told you no then I heard nothing from you. Everytime I try to call you you never answer. Put yourself in my shoes trying to deal with someone who says they want work done but then they cannot even respond to anything. I wish you luck I don't need your business, I enjoy working with people who can actually communicate about their plans and what they want. A email Monday asking me if I can come on Tue and when I say no here we are on Thur with no response. The normal customer would have emailed back and tried to arrange a time to meet. Which is why I say your wasting everyone's time and you don't even know for sure if you even want work done. On May 3, 2012, xxxxxx@yahoo.com xxxxxx@yahoo.com wrote: This is a big investment. Forgive me for taking my time as I decide on whom to trust with my home and money. Twice you have sent me rushed, somewhat rude emails. Forget it, I will just go with someone who will treat me like a customer who is spending a lot of money...not just dollar signs. After reading this I have opted to go with someone else. Sent from my mobile device. ----- Reply message ----- From: "EK Painting" kellymorgan@ekpainting.net Date: Thu, May 3, 2012 4:20 pm Subject: Painting To: xxxxx@yahoo.com Brian, This service does cost us contractors money so a response either way would be appreciated. That way we can try to get our money back if your just wasting our time. read more

We got Kelly's name from a friend who told us he painted their house and was inexpensive. They told us he did a "pretty good" job. Our job entailed painting the interior of our house some new addition which had never been painted before and repainting other areas.. I am going to try to be fair with this review and point out what he did do well. He returned our calls, showed up on time for the estimate and during the time he painted our home. For the most part he was polite and he and his workers are nice guys. The problem is they lack the knowledge and skill. My first inkling was when the arrived and began to tape everywhere. I have had many other painters and they never used tape. As a result there was bled through on many of the taped areas and the result is not attractive.. They did not drape areas they were painting properly either. They would carelessly drape right under the area they were painting when they did use drapes. As a result we found lots of paint drips, swipes and spatter on our floors and railings. They use cheap throw away brushes which shed bristles and do not lay paint smoothly, accurately or evenly. We have very visible brush marks and many areas where paint did not get into grooves and also very poorly " cut" walls trim as a result of the cheap brushes. They do not use work lights to brighten areas which are dim and thus some areas were missed and they could not clearly see where they had missed or dripped. They missed several spots such as edges of doors, pieces of trim on our staircase and trim in our closets. My contractor pointed out one of these areas to Kelly and his response was " well she did not see it". They did not do ANY prep work. They did not fill nail holes, sand areas where there were rough spots, caulk cracks or fix peeling paint or chips.... They just painted right over it! After seeing this and realizing my mistake in hiring the "cheap" painter I spent the next two days trying to stay ahead of them by sanding, caulking, and repairing areas myself. Kelly has more talent than the other people he put on the job and if he spent more money on quality brushes, draped, took his time cutting and stopped relying on tape he might actually do a decent job. His other "workers". Are NOT painters they are just buddies from the firehouse that want some extra money. They may have been nice but they did not have any painting skill whatsoever and that made me mad. I also found out after inquiry as to why our paint on the new trim was so rough and transparent that he DID NOT prime the bare wood. He just went ahead and painted it without saying anything because he said he thought I had said it would be primed. Well guess what , if something is not as you think ask the owner. Painting 101 - always prime new wood!! The last straw was when I responded to his email. ( he said he wanted final payment the las t day he was due to paint my home.) I said I would give him his payment when all was painted and he cleaned off all the drips and swipes on the floors and railings. He sent an email denying that he made these drips and said " he had a chemical that would prove if they were new spots or old spots of paint". I replied that since the brick floor in my mudroom was new the drops certainly were his and that the other spots were also his and I welcomed him to use his chemical. He then requested pictures of the spots. I send about 40 pictures of spots all over the house. He then replied - yeah they were new. His denial and attempt to bully me was very unwelcome and that was when I decided I had it and no longer wished to be nice or charitable. The last day he worked at my house was very tense. They rushed through the job, the doors were sloppily painted and I even went upstairs while they were on lunch break to wipe some of the drips of paint on the doors. I had them remove all the paint drips I could locate but found MANY more after they were gone. I paid them because I got a cheap painter and got a cheap job. My mistake. I will never go for the cheap painter again and I hope this review will caution you to think twice about hiring them to paint your home. read more