I contacted Juan to ask him for an estimate to paint a few rooms in a house that was empty, ready for a move-in. After settling on a very competitive price we accepted to proceed. Sometimes, a low price tag can be indeed very expensive ...
Juan started working immediately on the project, he seemed very enthusiastic and assured me he was going to finish the project in just two days of work. I assumed that was very optimistic so after being in contact he called me to tell me it was indeed not going to be done in the projected time.
I did not give it much importance to the fact and decided to keep in contact with him. Two days after the initial deadline he assured me he was going to be done that day. When I went visiting the house at the end of that day, it was indeed not done. The project was only half done. Although it looked sort of good.
He assured me he would be done the following day ... when I went to check, it was indeed not done. Then, he assured me he would be done the following day when I went there it was ... not done. He did that a couple more times. 5 days past his initial deadline, he was indeed "done". Each trip was 1 hour and 30 minutes of my life wasted on the road.
While I was checking the progress, I started noticing that when he was done with one room, he would remove the protections and then go to another room for then later noticing missing details in the unprotected room and paint again without protection. The result was as I was fearing a HUGE MESS!
The floors of the house were dirty and stained in multiple places. He tore apart the rug in a section of the house. He left stains of paint on bathroom cabinets and the few furniture pieces that were in the house. Broke a wall-mount and did not put back correctly many of the existing ones. Did not put back together towel hangers. Forgot to remove the paper to protect lights and door hinges but also stained multiple doorknobs. These are only a few samples ...
I do not understand his insistence on telling me every day, that he was going to be done and that it was gonna be quick for later not being done without any apology or reasonable explanation. If you are not going to be done that day that's fine just don't give false hopes to your client.
Juan tried to make me happy by doing "extras" around the house like painting a shower curtain rod or certain surfaces. Things that even though seem nice are things I never asked him to do and honestly did not want him to do. I asked him to do a very specific set of surfaces which he did not do properly nor on time. I never asked for those extras and I am furious he did not even warn me about the things he decided to do. He painted the house door and I was livid to think that he could break the HOA rules by doing that. He did without even asking me for permission and it could have costed me dearly.
On the last day, he was sort of done. Nothing was clean of course and I was noticing all the mistakes he did and went with him through them but honestly, it was so late already, he was slow at fixing things, and at some point, I realized it was better to pay him the agreed amount, ask him back for the keys and tell him to leave. Otherwise, he would have overstayed for 3 more days I guess ...
I documented a list with all the defects there were in the house and let him know each one of them and gave him the chance to redeem himself and come at a later time to fix them up. He never replied.
Cheap things are indeed expensive sometimes. read more