We recently hired Southern Painting (SP) to paint our house. The job involved painting of all interior walls, all baseboards, 3 ceilings and touch ups of crown molding. We'd later added painting of the garage floor; the garage is connected to the main house at the formal living room.
Background: the house was empty aside from white goods/appliances, due to tenants having moved out, and our furniture having not yet arrived. We were out of town during the week when the painting was scheduled, hence - in theory - painting would have been started and completed upon our return. A Monday start was scheduled, which was confirmed by SP on the prior Thursday.
Issues started from day 1, and built up through the course of the job...
- Despite confirmation of a Monday start, the painters didn't arrive until Tuesday. No explanation was given until asked later, at which time I was told that 'of course if they can't finish another job then I have to wait.' [NB; who's the customer here..?]. SP had advised the job would likely finish on Friday, but otherwise would complete on Saturday. The Friday finish wasn't accomplished, and they likewise failed to appear on Saturday. They did not reappear until the following Monday.
- New items needing attention were discovered as the job progressed. This is not unusual, but also started on day 1. We were in email communication, escalations appeared - and were approved - on a daily basis. Until the last one, where I was told bathrooms needed a 'second coat to cover marks' ( extra $400). No 'marks' had ever existed. We refused to approve these until we had a 1st-hand inspection.
Upon our return on Friday evening, not only did we find the job incomplete, but also found....
- Missing from house: a case of bottled water from refrigerator, a partially used jug of laundry liquid, a box of dryer-sheets, a bathroom towel rack, and an 8' aluminum ladder. The latter two were later found in the painter's van after SP was notified, and were returned. other items weren't acknowledged, despite painting crew being the only people in the house all week.
- Painters had used our kitchen & bathroom sinks, and the master bathtub to clean their brushes/rollers, leaving smeared paint and drippings in each. Drippings and smears, and failed attempts to clean a few, were also found on tile floors, a couple windows, stair rail, and several kitchen and bathroom counter-tops. The painters purportedly used drop-cloths, but there was little evidence of that.
- Muddy footprints around the kitchen, entry & breakfast room floor tiles (recently power-steam-cleaned at substantial cost), remnants of the crews lunch on our kitchen counter, and a couple spots on the floor where some type of glue or soft drinks had been spilled. Toilets were likewise 'soiled', and TP fully consumed, all having been spotless a week prior.
- Curtain rods and curtains, which were to be removed for painting and then replaced, were piled into an incoherent heap in the game-room. Rods were to have been replaced, but weren't, painters appeared unaware they had any responsibility for these.
- items from garage (power washer, weed-eater, sprinklers, misc. old junk, etc) found lying inside the house, in formal living room floor.
- holes in walls where curtain hooks had been removed for filling, had hooks re-inserted, and not filled.
- one ceiling crack needing repair was 'over-textured' and required significant sanding & finishing to match the rest of the ceiling. When questioned later how this happened, painters repeatedly referred to 'them' and 'they'. Was it even the same crew.?
Overall, the appearance was of a 'slap-dash rush' to spread paint and get out ASAP.
When phoned about all this on Saturday, SP's rep was defensive, until arriving to inspect the work; after seeing the house, he stated that although he was there on Thursday, he didn't come to look on Friday.
The painters ultimately completed the job, and returned some of the missing items, and left a reasonably good result. But the final result required very close supervision, and was not without stress.
Important consideration is the painters were not actually employees of SP, but were sub-contractors. I'd queried up-front whether crews were SP's, or were 'Home-Depot pick-ups'. I was led to believe that all were a part of the SP 'family'. The results I returned to, however, provided little evidence of SP's having much supervisory control over the job or the crew.
PS: just received a call from the owner-Thomas. he seemed more interested in explaining how the above was all OK (or was my fault) since all had supposedly been 'fixed' (not); also shouting, demanding payment and offering 'legal' threats. customer-care indeed.
Bottom line opinion; premium price for a less-than-premium and very painful result...never again. read more