Want your paint job done by Dumb and Dumber? Want repeated delays and excuses? Then Fowler Professional Painting of Cartersville, Georgia, is your kind of company.
I hired them to paint the outside of my house, and from the street, the job looked pretty good. It's when you get up close and personal that things begin to look a little on the unprofessional side. My first hint was when they painted my doorbell. Yes, my DOORBELL. WHO PAINTS A DOORBELL???! They meticulously painted the ceiling of my tiny porch as if it were the Sistine Chapel to be viewed by millions (it isn't, and it won't be), then spray-painted my doorbell, the lock to my shed and other things that were too trivial for them to cover and paint around. When I complained to Mr. Fowler about it, he did replace my doorbell, but when I mentioned that my lawn furniture (and other things) had been carefully removed from my deck, then received a random shower of paint dots matching the new deck color, he replied cavalierly, "Well, you can paint those chairs." Why should I have to? They are the cheap molded plastic chairs you find stacked in lawn sections at department stores, and instead of telling me that I could paint them, he neither volunteered to paint them himself nor offered to replace them, either of which would have been very low cost to him. Storm door handles got the Dumb and Dumber spray shower treatment as well, and when I called Mr. Fowler on it, he told me to tell them to fix it. Why didn't he tell them? They just blew me off. When my neighbor asked me about hiring them to do a paint job for her, I admit I didn't hesitate to tell her she would do better to look elsewhere.
More recently, when I contracted him to paint a piece of furniture for me, he quoted me a price and told me he could have it for me the next week (his set deadline, not mine). When the next weekend came and I called to find out what time he would be bringing back the finished product, he went into his aw-shucks southern good-old-boy song and dance, "Oh, Miss Susan! Oh, Miss Susan! I've been soooo busy, I didn't get to it. I'm going to be off next week to take care of my wife, who is having surgery, and I can do it then." This was by no means the first time I had been on the receiving end of his delays and excuses, but I grudgingly agreed to give him until the next week.
The following weekend, I called to find out what time he would be bringing back my desk, and right away he started the "Oh, Miss Susan! Oh, Miss Susan! My wife's been so sick, and I've been so busy, you wouldn't believe..." I interrupted and said, "Yeah, here we go with the excuses." He immediately threw it back on me, saying I should be more sympathetic because his wife's been soooo sick, and I'm not a good Christian to go off on him this way. He is always going on and on about what a good Christian he is, but he turned this whole episode into what a rotten person I was for not being more understanding about why he couldn't get done in two weeks what he said he'd do in one week. When I told him just to bring the desk back to me, he became hostile and intimidating, and the way he carried on, you would have thought it was my fault his wife was sick. I found myself apologizing for having the unmitigated gall for not being more patient and understanding and for expecting him to have the job done in the time he'd committed to having it done, let alone twice the time.
In two days' time, I decided I didn't want to deal with him anymore and decided to have him bring the desk back unpainted and I would just find someone else to paint it. He brought it back later that week, and when I answered the door, the desk was sitting on my front porch and he was getting ready to drive away, secure in the knowledge that I have severe arthritis and would find it challenging (at best) to get the desk into my house. When he realized that I had seen him, he came back and brought it into the house, all the while bragging that he had secured two new paint jobs, and I felt like asking him how he dares securing new paint jobs when he clearly can't manage and fulfill the ones he has. He is boastful about what a great job he does, but he over-obligates himself and cannot get jobs done on time and perhaps lacks the understanding of how to read a clock and/or a calendar. But other than this, he's great. read more
