I scheduled Omar to replace drywall in parts of my ceiling and tops of certain walls due to water damage. He came out, we looked at it and discussed what was to be done. He sent a quote by email with exact measurements of what was to be replaced and where. So far so good. I arranged to take off of work a couple of days so that the work could be done. However he sent me a text stating that he was running behind and that they'd need to start two days later. I managed to change the days off at work at the last minute and thankfully they were understanding. Not so good, but things happen, so ok. Omar shows up and gets to work. I work from home, then take the family out to lunch and to run an errand while they work. Brought Omar and his assistant back lunch from the restaurant. The first day of a two day job finishes. Then that night I noticed a chalk line on my ceiling. "What's that?" I wondered. Then I realized that they didn't replace all of the kitchen ceiling that we had agreed to and that was specified in writing in the quote. And what they left out was a full sheet of drywall, not some small patch. So I asked Omar about it on the morning of the second day. He was defensive, and gave me every excuse under the sun, such as I "was here all day" and "you didn't say anything", and "you didn't need it replaced", etc. I was in disbelief. Omar, I shouldn't have to tell you how to do your job and you shouldn't make decisions about what gets done in my project without talking with me first. I make the decisions because I am writing the check. I can replace the entire drywall in all of my house even though it doesn't need replacement if I want to, if I am willing to write the check. But whatever, I am not the tyrannical type, so I just let them get on with the second day's work. That finished ok but like hell if I was gonna leave Omar to work alone again. Instead I stayed home all day and watched their work, asking questions as they went along, which I never wanted to do. I would have preferred to have been hands-off and just look at the result. That second day's work was as we agreed upon and as written in the quote. Imagine that. I requested a small deduction for the lack of drywall installation, but he refused, only offering to take $10 off because "the work is the same, it's only $10 for one more sheet of drywall." To which I asked him "well if the work is the same and it's only a $10 difference, then why didn't you install it like we agreed on?" He didn't have an answer for that, saying something about making "a mistake." Sheesh.
So in the end I can't really recommend Omar, though he was friendly overall ('cept when he became defensive about his "mistake"). He has a lot to learn about customer service to say the least. I mean, when you make a "mistake" like this, you don't rigorously defend yourself, use feeble, lame excuses that are beyond ridiculous and then insist on full payment when you didn't live up to your end of the deal. No, you simply apologize and do something to make it right. I mean mistakes happen; I would have understood that, I think we all would understand that. The difference is what you do when they happen. And Omar hasn't learned this yet. Maybe he has received one too many frivolous complaints in the past and has lost his way a bit, who knows. But there's a difference between a frivolous complaint and a legitimate one. Anyway. One thing is for absolute certain: the work he performed did NOT match our written agreement. He did not do the work that he promised. And that is a failure on any scale, in any business.
Hopefully he gets his act together. His reviews on Yelp would suggest that he's a solid drywall contractor. However you must live up to those reviews and in this case he didn't. So if you're in a pinch and can't find anyone else and decide to use Omar, I'd say to do these three things:
1) Be sure to get the quote for the work in writing, review it for accuracy and print it out.
2) Have it in-hand when he shows up on the first day and do a thorough walk-through of the work to be done BEFORE he begins
3) Stay at home all day and watch him like a hawk, checking in on the progress as he goes along. If you babysit him in this way and keep him online, his actual work is ok.
Good luck.
ps-A couple of other points of interest:
1) Omar only accepts checks, no credit cards. That was ok with me, but just so you know...
2) Omar doesn't paint. So if you want full service for your drywall project, look elsewhere, which I'd suggest that you do anyway... read more