ComplaintsforFive Star Painting- Raleigh Durham/Wake Forest

• Initial Complaint

  10/27/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  We hired Five Star Painting two times for interior painting at our house. Both jobs were not completed, unprofessional, poor quality, and we've been alarmed by the outwardly aggressive managers and owner. They are intimidating and bullying, trying to collect final payment on a job that hasn't been completed. Under the first contract, we hired Five Star right after buying our house to do a lead paint encapsulation. We had Five Star do the work immediately after closing and after the work was completed, we sealed off the old part of the house because we were doing renovations to the new part of the house and didn't want construction dust getting into the old part of the house. We agreed with Five Star that they would come back and do the punch list "touch ups" after the renovations were complete in the newer part of the house. We planned on having the newer part of the house painted as well, so they were already coming back. The second contract had Five Star back to do the newer part of the house. After they completed the work, I did a walk though and was completely blown away by the poor quality of work. A large portion of the job was cabinetry and trim and the paint on them was uneven, dripping, and sloppy done. The walls were done haphazardly and the overall house looked unprofessional and bad. The managers came to rhe house to inspect and agreed they never should have left the bathrooms and large pantry in the condition it was in and spent a day trying to fix it. They said to move into the house and see how it looked. They said they wanted to come back for punch list. After moving in, we noticed more deficiencies and poor quality. The job was done so poorly, even after managers agave the crew an additional day, we don't have confidence the company can finish the job. The owner called for final payment. He yelled and was bullying, threatening to put a lien on our property. We want to find a resolution. We don't trust them on our property.

  Business response

  12/01/2021

  Business Response /* (1000, 7, 2021/11/08) */ This customer was one we had work for in the past with no problems. The second time she hired us it was about 1 week before they wanted to move in. We were concerned and shared with her the time line to complete was going to be difficult . We provided a quote and she told us we were to high by $4,000 t $5,000. After about a week she called back and wanted to move forward on the quoted amount but indicated she was unhappy with the quoted amount. Wev start the next day and 2 days before she was to move in we did a walk around and completed a number of touch ups. She wanted us to repaint a portion of the cabinets and to address any additional touch up she once she moved in which we agreed to do at her requested after she moved in. She paid all but $5,000 and said she would contact us in about a week to come back. 3 week when by and when we call her to schedule the additional work she told us she was not going to have us back and would not be paying the balance. I do not consider asking for an opportunity to come back to finish the job she told us would happen in a week and requested final payment a case of bulling We have reached out since through e mail and she refuses to respond Consumer Response /* (3000, 9, 2021/11/15) */ As stated in our original complaint to the Better Business Bureau, we have two problems with Five Star painting. The first problem is the aggressive and intimidating behavior of the owner toward me. He has made me feel unsafe in my own home because what he has said to me and how he said it. I see in his response to my complaint that he has tried to justify his behavior by saying "I do not consider asking for an opportunity to come back and finish the job she told us would happen in a week and requested final payment a case of bullying." I disagree. Yelling, screaming, and hostile text messaging me as he did about his finishing the job and money collection was very intimidating, and I felt l bullied. His company used intimidation tactics before, "strong arming" for payment when the job wasn't complete and raising their voice to me in my bedroom. I have dealt with many contractors and vendors over the past 15 years around the country and never felt as bullied or as unsafe. Not have I ever had a company do such a bad job, not take responsibility, and use tactics of force and bullying to collect money on the bad job. The combination is unique in that it leaves the customer feeling trapped and stuck with the bad work, the bad contractor, and the unfinished job. The second issue is the seemingly complete lack of any quality control of the work by Five Star Painting. Five Star's approach is to "paint" but not take responsibility for their workmanship and quality of their job. Their painters appear to paint without attention to detail, knowing their boss, the owner, will ask the client inspect their work and identify defects. After they were hired, they shared that it is not all that uncommon for the client to identify 200-300 defects in their work. The saddest part was, there were 200 defects in each room alone. On several site visits in which we pointed out numerous defects, their management agreed that there were problems and that the work should not have been left that way. The mangers said it shouldn't have been considered "done" and that it wasn't punch list items. Five Star spent another day at our house painting, trying to correct huge flaws, but were ultimately unsuccessful. They not only didn't complete the job, the added to the mess. Since taking occupancy of the house, as directed by Five Star, we found that the list of problems just continues to grow. For example, they painted windows shut and despite notifying Five Star of the problem and having it corrected, they didn't. They painted around wall switches and outlets, making it difficult to replace them without damaging the paint. They also painted over light switches so they have a grainy texture. We have found drips and smears on historic floors and hardware. Foot prints on the historic stairs. We have found whole sections of walls and ceiling and doors that were never painted. We have found a ridiculous number of drips and runs on doors, trim and cabinetry. We found their workers had broken a window pane, and neither the workers or the job supervisor fixed it or even brought to our attention;apparently, they assumed we should find and fix it when we inspected their work. They emptied paint cans in washed brushes around our property and paint is all over our courtyard where they spray painted. We had Five Star come to our house under two separate contracts. The first contract is paid in full, however they never completed the job. It was agreed they would do punch list for the first contract at the same time as they would do punch list for the second contract. Now, the second contact is not complete. From the list of rooms to be painted, they didn't even paint one room and four rooms (fancy butler pantry, boys bathroom, kitchen pantry and hall pantry) will be repainted entirely but another company. Three rooms (boys bathroom, master bathroom, and the master bedroom) will need significant touch up paint, more than what can be reasonably considered "punch list" by another company. Lastly, all the operable windows and the fixed doors leading to the courtyard will have to redone to achieve a professional appearance and to be made operable. As a result of the way we have been treated and the quality of the work performed, we have completely lost confidence in Five Star to identify and correct the defects in their work and to treat us in a civil manner. We seek bill settlement. Business Response /* (4000, 11, 2021/11/15) */ This customer was suppose to call us back within a week to come out to do touch up and finish the project. Her house was a complete contraction site while we were painting, which we told her was not ideal for us to be painting but because she had a deadline date to move in we moved our schedule all around to help her out. I want to mention that we had done the first half of the same house about 6 weeks earlier and she was happy and asked us to come back to do the second half of the house. We told her it was a 10 day to 2 week project. She wanted all contracts out by the middle of the week so they could move in and clearly told her we were not done. After almost 3 weeks we call to set up a time to finish and do touch up and she told us we could not come back. We always remove switch plate covers other than cable outlets. When painting widow, as stated in our contract, we always need to let the paint dry properly before we come back to unstick the windows which always need to be done We have never walked away from this customer and have tried a number of time to come back to completed the project. Again asking to be paid for the work we did in not bullying We are just going to move on . We will not be responding to any future posts she makes to the BBB

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