Since I have a cedar house and Dave's Custom Painting's ad says they specializes in cedar homes and received several good reviews, I was excited to get his estimate and talk to him about cleaning up our badly neglected siding. His receptionist/wife was pleasant and helpful on the phone, and promised he'd call before coming out that afternoon. Mr. Foster did not call; he just showed up a couple of hours later.
Despite that lack of courtesy, I went out with a smile to meet him. He walked up the steps, thrust a business card with his estimate written on the back into my hand without meeting my eye or returning my greeting. He literally refused my outstretched hand. The price he quoted was $2K higher than the previous three estimates I'd received. I invited him to sit down and talk to me. I wanted to learn how he would approach the job and had a list of questions I'd asked of each contractor. How would he clean our very black/moldy siding? What brand of stain would he recommend and why? How long did he estimate the job would take? What was his period of availability? My husband and I wished to avoid environmentally harmful chemicals, but also understand that to avoid using high pressure when power washing, something must loosen the dirt. My research suggested oxygen bleach (OxyClean, basically) has proven a very effective and safe alternative to the TSP and chlorine bleach the contractors in our area still favor. Mr. Foster refused to even have a conversation with me; he gave short, barked responses while standing. He was intensely rude and unpleasant; it was not worth a conversation to him to explain his methods. He basically told me to take it or leave it. He did not once look directly at me and refused to even sit down for five minutes to talk to me. Clearly he was not my guy. I even told him there were higher stakes: our neighbor, with an even larger house, was depending on me to research products and find the contractors for our house and deck renovation, and was prepared to hire whomever I liked. l guess Foster doesn't need the work, because even that didn't make him willing to talk to me.
I am a recently retired, 30 year customer service professional. Communication is the single most important factor in establishing client satisfaction. I'm not hard to get along with and always try to be the kind of good customer I'd want to help. I don't hold with the philosophy that 'the customer is always right', but I believe they ALWAYS deserve to be heard and be respected. To say I was disappointed and dissatisfied with Mr. Foster's unprofessional treatment of me as a potential client is an understatement.
Fortunately, I am very happy with the far more minded and communicative firm I subsequently hired, J&J Painting/John Bradshaw. Our siding was cleaned with Simple Green mixed with OxyClean to boost the cleaning power, and it looks wonderful. John is happy and I'm happy. We negotiated a compromise approach by talking it out, and he continued to be delightful to work with throughout the weeks of the job.
I would not recommend Dave's Custom Painting to anyone. If there was a zero star rating, I'd give it. I don't know if he was insulted to be asked to explain his methods or he just doesn't like to talk to women. It doesn't matter. I dodged a bullet. His wife was very pleasant on the telephone, however. read more