ComplaintsforCertaPro Painters of Southern NH

• Initial Complaint

  05/24/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Hi,As a Combat Veteran of the U.S. Army, it takes a lot to make me upset as I am with ************* and Certapro. For ones to claim to be the prime go to for interior and exterior painting, I am completely baffled. I DO NOT recommend using this franchisee of Certapro Painters, *********************** and his team have done nothing but stone wall the hack job you would call painting of our house. Our house looks good from 50ft way, any closer and you can see the terrible workmanship. they continue to just ask for pictures of their terrible work after they have been out themselves and seen it and taken the pictures too. I paid $8,000 to have my house painted and my house looks terrible. Timeline:June 2023 -Painted from Yellow to Red with 1 coat of primer and 2 coats of red.-Had 1" plug holes Bondo over the holes to make siding smooth. September 2023:-Paint is already flaking off in multiple areas -Plug holes begin to completely expose -Notified **** and sent pics on September 7th 2023 -September 11th 2023, **** comes and takes pics himself and tells me he will get this taken care of.October 2023:October 2nd I text **** and he calls tells me he's working on it, never ends up calling or scheduling anything February 2024:Feb 12, I directly contact the owner ************* and let him know I have not been talked to or put on any schedule to address my house.-**** says **** is on vacation and will follow up once he returns, this will become a common theme.May 2024:-May 1st I call and speak to **** and tell him I want this issue fixed and that I would like to talk to Will the Owner, who so happens to be on vacation and will return the follow week.-May 10th I follow up since I had still not heard back and he's unavailable but somehow he emails directly stating a 3rd individual will be coming out to take more pictures.

  Business response

  05/24/2024

  To Whom it may concern,
  
  I am writing to respond to the BBB complaint made by *********;***************;on 5/24/24. 
  
  To Nicks first complaint, we have not stone walled Nicks outreach. In fact, his text messages and our email correspondences prove that we have been communicating with him over the past eight months to address his issue with our painting project. Our ability to paint the exteriors of homes is drastically compromised throughout the winter months and this also impacted our response time.
  
  Taking photos and reviewing as a team is part of our process for resolving customers complaints. We aim to resolve these as quickly as possible, but we are not contractually tied to a timeline nor had we promised a specific timeframe for resolution.
  
  I can understand that **** would like this issue resolved as soon as possible and prior to his BBB complaint, we spoke over the phone where I explicitly told him that we would be returning to his home to attempt to reach his satisfaction for the project. I told him I would send an email on Friday 5/24 (the day of his complaint) with a plan of action. At no time have I walked away from our contractual agreement.
  
  I would like to emphasize our warranty terms within the contract that **** uploaded. We are responsible for the performance of the paint and I have repeatedly told **** that we would address the peeling paint that we documented this past Tuesday when our Quality Control manager met with ****. His concern regarding the performance of the plug holes are not owned by my company. Our warranty lists that our warranty does not cover any work where the Contractor did not supply the paint or other materials and we did not supply the plug holes. The plug holes were pre-existing on the home and the result of a damaging and invasive process conducted by Nicks insulation contractor. We also list that our warranty doesnt cover horizontal surfaces by virtue of its design permits moisture to collect which includes the plug holes in the clapboard siding he is referring to. Lastly, our level of standard level of preparation in the contract explicitly outlines that fixing imperfections that require feather sanding and bondo application not be included in the warranty.
  
  With all of that outlined, we have agreed to return to Nicks home and attempt to reinstall the plug holes out of good faith because of our lack of timeliness in addressing his concern in the Fall. This isnt the first time we have resolved an issue at Nicks residence out of good faith. After we completed the project, **** called to tell us that our crew dented his air conditioning unit. While our crew was adamant that they had not touched the unit, we still hired a mechanical services company to straighten the dented wires. On our next visit, we will address the peeling while we are out there as part of our warranty. I had told **** this on the phone prior to his complaint, as well.
  
  Lastly, I think its invaluable for the BBB to understand the nature of Nicks behavior throughout this process. Over the past few ******************** has been aggressive, harassing and derogatory to my office staff and myself. Screaming at our office manager when he called on 5/10, calling us 5 year olds in his emails, screaming at me over the phone on 5/23 during our conversation and when I asked him not to use derogatory language he responded with Why? Did that hurt your feelings. We cherish the consumer and our track record has proven that with our public accreditation over the past 25 years and 1000+ painting projects, but we do not believe we deserve to be a subject of abuse when trying to reconcile with a customer.

• Initial Complaint

  01/03/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On June 8, 2022, I reached out to CertaPro Painters of Southern NH (CertaPro) regarding a quote for painting the exterior of my home. We selected CertaPro based on their contract and warranty. We felt this option would give us the most protection for the investment. After completing all the paperwork and paying the deposit ($1,511.22) that CertaPro required us to submit Chad T**** contacted me to schedule the job. The crew came out and performed the paintwork to the home over the course of two days, finishing the second day after 8pm in the dark.A complete inspection was not possible. It took a couple of days for the paint to completely dry. Due to our contractual obligations to make payment in full after the job was completed or face additional fees and collections I made final payment ($4,533.65).For a total cost of $6,044.87.In the days ensuing I began to notice several areas of paint peeling all around the house, even falling off completely in spots. After more than a week, and email to him asking the status, Chad got back to me and said they would schedule the crew to come out and make repairs. This included re-scraping the loose paint, re-nailing clapboards the failed to the first time, sanding down the rough edges left by scraping, applying proper primer. After this work they caused damage to the foundation, deck, exterior lights and doors with paint, dripped caulking and paint down the house and left it looking worse than before. I reached out to Will (franchise owner) requesting warranty work for the new issues. He determined he would not fulfill the warranty work. I spoke with their corporate offices that agreed this was handled poorly by Will but because it was a franchise they could not enforce he fulfill his contractual obligations or issue compensation.

  Business response

  01/13/2023

  Here at CertaPro, we pride ourselves on meeting our customers expectations and satisfying their painting needs.

  After spending two days completing the exterior painting project for ******, he notified us that it didn't meet his expectations. Per our standard operating procedure, a member of our office team visited his home to assess the project and felt there were a few minor parts that could use improvement. We had our crew return to his home to fix a few peeling areas on the exterior of his home, which they did in earnest. ****** had told us he would be there after this return trip to review the project, but was never present. The next day, we received further complaints from ****** regarding the project that didn't align with our crew's assessment. Regardless, we had our crew return to the house to complete the outlying issues. Again, we were of the understanding that ****** would be there to review the project but he was not. Him repeatedly not being present at the project after saying he would, made it impossible to get his approval or have him identify to our crew what outlying issues he felt still existed.

  Upon their departure, ****** called our office verbally berating our employees and team. Demanding that we paint other parts of his house for free or refunding him the contract in its entirety. The pictures he provided to our team were of three paint drips that he claimed our painters had produced. It became clear that his behavior was an attempt at extorting our business and employees. Due to his erratic behavior and the minimality of his complaints, we began feeling uncomfortable having a crew return to his home. He continually called our office in an aggressive nature, in addition to our corporate office. Our team came to the conclusion, by committee, that ****** no longer provided a safe envrionment for our team to return and complete the project.

  Customer response

  01/17/2023

  
  Complaint: ********

  I do not accept the business's response as a resolution to my complaint because: 

  This is not accurate and at no time did anyone call and speak in a derogatory manner, aggressive or abrasive.  All communication was cordial.  Additionally, I or the other homeowner was home at every encounter with CertaPro.  This is a completely different reasoning Will Gray or his corporate team has ever expressed and does not address the underlying contract breech.  All communication both written and verbal have been memorialized in this matter.  A refund for all or a substantial portion of the work or correcting the damage would satisfy the contractual obligations.  

  
  Sincerely,
  
  ****** **********

  Business response

  01/23/2023

  We're sorry that Mr. ********** can't seem to remember the manner in which he approached this situation and his lack of accessibility when trying to address his complaints at the time of the project. Our team completed his project, made multiple attempts to achieve his satisfaction with the work and will not resolve this by returning to the house or by providing a complete refund.

  Customer response

  01/24/2023

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  I do not accept the business's response as a resolution to my complaint because: It appears CertaPro prefers dishonesty, fortunately all communication with this business has been retained from first communication with their franchise including the dozens of photos sent to them, their management staff relating their disappointment with the job their paint crew. I am sure review of employee emails, text messages and voicemails may be shed light on the true focus of any communication.  The franchise owner reports a “quality” job that required crews to come out multiple times to address maul items problems, he never came out to look at the job.  He reports berating his crew.  Communication with the crew was difficult due to a language barrier, I spoke to them at each visit.  Unfortunately, they left without letting me or the other homeowner know on all except the first occasion when they left between 8 and 9 pm so inspection was impossible with no daylight.  The crew returned many times along with the crew coordinator despite allegedly feeling unsafe.  Every attempt is being made to allow Mr. G*** the opportunity to correct a botched job.  He is always welcome to inspect the job his team did, the drips, smeared caulking, peeling paint, painted foundation, painting light fixture are all still very visible.  The areas with one coat of paint and visible primer can still be seen on the front of the house.  They will appear the same as they do in the many photos sent to CertaPro through Chad T**** and William G***.  

  
  Sincerely,
  
  ****** **********

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩