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erikj
May 30, 2011
terrible quality work
We hired College Pro to paint our 20' high entry way after we painted the living room and adjoining upstairs hallway ourselves. When they looked at the job and gave us a bid, they assured us it was no problem. They came out with a folding 8' ladder and a helper who was afraid of heights! They had to borrow our paint tray and liner since they didn't have one. They were unable to reach the ceiling and left the top 1"-2" unpainted. They got paint on the ceiling, oak railng and carpet. There are places where the white paint is showing though. I had to buy an edger so they could try to make the wall/ceiling seam acceptable. They acted like they had never seen one before. They left drip marks on the walls and two areas have ladder marks on them where the ladder was leaned against wet paint. We were told these marks would disappear once the walls dried.
They missed areas on the stairs and on top of some baseboards. They did not sand the walls prior to painting like you should for better paint adhesion.
I was a remodeling contractor for almost 10 years, built his house myself and worked for a painting supplier for 6 years. I know enough about painting to see they used the wrong roller cover for latex, they rolled the walls in the wrong direction and used tan masking tape instead of blue or green painter's tape. I suggeted they get taller ladders and an aluminum plank to span the entry and reach the ceiling. They had no idea what I was talking about.
Once I saw how horrible the job was, I stopped payment on my check. They admitted they underbid the job. They want to come back, sign a new contract and fix all of the problems. Wewill not sign anything for more money and really don't want them on or property. As it is, I will need to buy more paint once I have the walls sanded.
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Upset Mrs. H
May 10, 2010
Destroyed My Mothers Home, Poor Management, Shady Workers
College Pro is AWFUL!!! Having them in to paint the interior of my Mother's home has been the worst experience EVER! I’ll give a short (keep in mind this isn’t even everything) rundown of what we’ve had to deal with.
- A supposed 4 day job is going on 2 weeks now.
- The supposed onsite manager had be absent most of the job (out getting his oil changed, etc) and even when you do try to call him he never answers his phone or says he didn’t get his message. Or, just today, he had some excuse that he couldn’t call to say he wouldn’t be working yesterday because his cell wasn’t working. Apparently his cell is the only phone of the face of the earth.
- They have pretty much destroyed my mothers home. They have spilled more than a gallon of paint on her carpet in one spot and tracked even more throughout her home (yet to be rectified), they have torn her bed skirts moving furniture (no furniture has ever been covered), they have gotten paint on ceiling fans, and now today they have ruined her brand new $3000 ivory couch by perching a ladder against it that had blue paint on it.
- They have outright lied about the painting (telling us there have been two coats put on walls where you can still see the original color underneath), and lied about everything from "I've called the carpet cleaners" (which we followed up with and he hadn't), to I've got the stipple machine here today (he did not).
- The paint job is shoddy at best (no electrical covers or light switch covers removed so covered in paint, it’s like they didn’t tape where walls met that were to be different colors so it’s crappy, they were supposed to repair a portion of wall and restipple and repair a roof and it honestly looks worse now than before).
- They have made appointments to be there to paint and chose not to show up (this happened even before the work started - red flags should have gone up).
We have tried contacting the customer service line to no avail, we try to call this little creep that's supposed to be the manager but Graham can't ever seem to answer his phone or return a voice mail. He calls to say he'll be on the job, we plan our lives around his hair brain schedule and then without a call or anything he doesn't show up. I will be contacting the Better Business Bureau about all of this and should it not be rectified, I shall be refusing them payment. I have pictures of the shoddy work, I have copies of the emails that are full of lies, and if they want to sue - have at it - I have the proof that they did not up hold their side of the contract. This has caused my mother health issues and enough is enough. If I had my way, I'd kick them on their butts and they should have to pay to have actual PRO painters come in and finish this job. They are the WORST people at painting and the worst company ever! Don't go near them with a 10 foot pole! I will most certainly be spreading the word (I work in a very close related industry) and be advising all that I know that this is not only a poorly managed company, but that the customer service to this point has been no good and the painters themselves are terrible.
To make matters even worse, throughout this ordeal, Graham does not answer his phone or return voice mail messages. Occassionally he will send a text to land line message (how professional), but today, after checking on his progress (the only progress was more paint on furniture and his lack of any business sense whatsoever) he had the nerve to leave a letter (yes, a letter, written on my Mothers paper which he would have had to snoop through drawers to find) saying that he had left early because he was distressed after I had stopped to check on the job. The fact of the matter is, if he was doing his job, there would have been no need for me to stop in anyway. This kid knows nothing about business, about painting, about customer service. He needs to be written up individually as he is incompetant and should not in any way, shape or form be dealing with the public or trying to do business. I will be there to ensure he is on time tomorrow and the job had better be complete (4 day job has been over 2 weeks now) and should it not be done, I will have inspectors out and more contact with the BBB with even more pictures of the damage this shoddy company has caused. DO NOT hire this company!! Perhaps others groups may be better but if a kid named Graham is supposed to be the one overseeing the job - Run the other direction!! At least it's very obvious the job is not being done to any type of standards and will never be complete so therefore payment shouldn't be expected. It would take this company probably another 2 months to fix any of the deficencies.
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