ComplaintsforFresh Look Painting, LLC

• Initial Complaint

  09/21/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I had hired Fresh Look Painting based off of the referral from the men who did our floors. There are too many issues to mention here - but namely, they removed my staircase railing and then put it back to an unsafe level, and they did not actually start painting the walls of my home until day 5. This was after I had to be out of my house for a week, and move my two kids and two dogs into a rental on their second week back to school. They then blamed their rushed job on me, by saying they had to hurry so I could be back in my house after the 6th day (because I was sick).

  Business response

  10/30/2023

  Dear ********* thanks for sharing your feedback. Were sorry your experience fell short of your expectations. 
  
  I would like to address the complaints you mentioned in your review. 
  
  
  
  We have been in business for more than 10 years and I, as the owner, take great pleasure in running my business and make sure our customers are well taken care of. 
  
  I am involved in business on a daily basis and I know what's going on every day in our company. Our painting crews always have a lead painter who's in charge of a project and knows what and how the job needs to be done.
  
  
  
  We have competitive prices that match our competitors for the quality and work we provide. We provide a detailed work description and price breakdown on our estimates so our customers are aware what the project will cost to complete before they sign the estimate. 
  
  
  
  Your estimate included painting all the interior of your house: all baseboards, door jams, doors, window casings, ceilings, and walls. 
  
  Usually a project for the size of your house takes us a week and a half to complete. After hearing your request (to complete in 1 week), I told you that we might be able to meet that timeline, but may need to finish up on Saturday. 
  
  At that point you secured a stay at a hotel Monday through Friday. I assumed that we would have up to a full day Saturday to perform the final touch **** I apologize for estimating short on our timeline, and not communicating clearly about Saturday. 
  
  
  
  1. First we masked and protected all the floors and furniture in the house to protect from overspray.
  
  
  
  2. Then REMOVE and RESET all the doors. Prep and paint all doors, door jams, baseboards, and window trims. (This took us 3 days to complete.)
  
  
  
  4. As soon as we finished with the trim package we painted all the ceilings through the house.
  
  
  
  5. Then we masked and protected all the newly painted baseboards and door jams.
  
  
  
  6. Then paint all the walls through the house.
  
  
  
  7. We DID NOT take the staircase railings and spindles apart to paint them. We masked and protected the floor and painted the rails and spindles in place, just like it stated in our estimate.
  
  
  
  Because of our full house painting process, we couldn't just come in the house and start painting walls on the first day.
  
  
  
  On Friday you mentioned to us that you need to come back to the house on Saturday morning, declining our offer to pay for another night at the hotel.
  
  
  
  I asked our guys to work overtime Friday night to finish painting the walls. They were understanding of your circumstances and agreed to work late on Friday to finish as much painting as possible so you could come back to the house in the morning. Our work was NOT COMPLETE, but we tried our best to accommodate your request.
  
  
  
  By Friday night, we had completed 95% of the work so you can go back to the house. I mentioned to you that we will come back at your convenience to take care of all the final painting touch ****
  
  
  
  We're still committed to completing your project and would like to discuss a plan of action to meet your final expectations. 
  
  
  
  We've reached out to you, in the hopes of remedying your concerns and performing the final touch *** needed. 
  
  
  
  Please get back to us at your earliest convenience, so we can help! 
  
  Thank you for your trust and business!
  
  *******************
  Fresh Look Painting
  ************
  freshlook-painting.com

  Customer response

  10/30/2023

   
  Complaint: 20636709
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  
  This is simply a copy and paste of ***** response to my review online.

  We have had multiple emails going back and forth since **** wrote this response on ******.

  **** did respond to all of my other emails, except for the last one - which was a very detailed response to his other emails, as well as a clear outline of everything that would need to be done in order to reach an agreement. **** did not responded to that email.

  At this point, I would prefer to discuss arbitration with BBB, considering **** have not responded to my most recent email outlining my concerns in further detail, and BBB did reach out to me regarding arbitration.

  My last email to **** clearly outlined all of the ways in which his crew did not following the terms of the contract, including:

  -  they simply painted over nails and did not fill all the holes in the wall, and left multiple brackets on the wall that I specifically asked them to remove before painting

  - they did not properly cover the floors, resulting in paint on both the floors AND the carpet in multiple rooms. They were told explicitly that these floors were brand new (entire flooring had been replaced 3 weeks prior)

  - his crew broke my washing machine. They first lied about even moving it at all, then **** started to try to blame the flooring people by asking if they had ever moved it, and **** still claims they never turned my water valve off (which is not true, and I had to ****** how to do it myself. Once I turned it back on it worked, but then that is when we found out the hard way that it was broken entirely. The repairman said that the motor was broken and likely due to being jostled too hard).

  - Neither **** or the project manager ever came to our site once during the project. I let the crew in every morning, because I did not feel comfortable giving them a key once I saw how little work they did the first day, and when I realized that possibly no one would be supervising the crew. We found out later that **** actually lives in ******* (we had zero idea he was out of state until that point). Im not sure why the project manager never came by (******* might have come after I complained Friday - see next concern)

  - When I arrived Friday morning, none of the walls has even BEGUN to be painted. I was told they were prepping the house and that paint would be bought on Wednesday. **** and the crew knew we had a rental until Saturday morning, and that myself and my two children and my two dogs would need to be back by Saturday. When I arrived Friday morning to see that NONE of the walls had even BEGIN to be painted, that is when I freaked out and asked **** what was going on and reiterated the timeline we had agreed on. Neither him nor ******* (the project manager) could give me an appropriate explanation for why they hadnt even started painting the walls - especially considering how poorly the walls were apparently prepped (see concerns above).

  To make matters worse, trust was further broken when I came home to find that the box containing a backpack full of my intimate wear (lingerie) had been moved from under a very thick pile of clothing on my bed (it was all of my clothes/shirts/coats/everything that had been moved out of my closet) and was left out in the open on one of my nightstands. Yet all the clothes that had previously been piled high on top of that box were back on the bed in the position they were in before. So, the box had been moved and was out in the open - untaped, when it did not need to be moved at all, and the clothes that has been n to f it wee in their previous position. This made me feel very violated, and then I felt even more uncomfortable knowing that no one had been here the entire week to supervise the crew.

  - I was told that a 5 man crew was hired to do the job, yet I only saw 2 men in the first day I was there (I was at the house until 1-2 pm due to a 3 pm check in at the rental), and our neighbors told my mother and I later that they saw less than 5 men at any given time during the 5 days they worked. Again, **** or ******* were NEVER there, so they cannot even speak to the work that was done or who was there. I was there every morning, so I was there far more than the owner or the project manager. Apparently **** was literally across the country during the job (we had zero idea this was the case, and would not have hired his company if we knew that).

  Again - I sent all of my concerns in an email to ****, and he only responded by saying he would put $700 towards a rental to finish the job. I then responded to his offer, on a VERY detailed email similar to what I am outlining here, and he has yet to respond to that. However, he did respond to all other emails. 
  

  These emails also came AFTER I got an email from the BBB that my case was closed due to **** never responding to them, which prompted me to let **** know that he never responded to BBB after he threatened to court so he could pay his workers (that neither he or ******* ever supervised once during the duration of the project by the time I complained on the 5th day of the job).

  **** also claims that he has never had these issues, but I saw a similar complaint by another person on ******, of no oversight/supervision of the crew, and poor work quality resulting in **** returning 3 times, with the customer still be unsatisfied and eventually just giving up. 

  I did respond to ***** last email, outlining my concerns and what would be needed to finish the job, and he did not respond. It appears he did finally respond to the BBB, though, after all of what I mentioned above, and after he threatened court before ever discussing arbitration/mediation. 

  
  - *****************************

*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. ↩