Mueller Painting

Review of Marc Mueller, Church Deacon, Painting contractor, Can’t get ripped off by a church deacon, right? That’s exactly what he wants you to believe. In case you don’t know when you hire him how strongly devoted he is to his church, he will hum or sing gospel music while he paints and repeatedly invite you to his church (even having his teen-age helpers invite you) even after you have repeatedly expressed that you prefer to worship in solitude. I hired him in April of 2020 to mostly do house painting inside and out. I first contracted with him to paint several interior rooms. He is actually a VERY good painter, but just not as good as he believes himself to be. He is so arrogant that he doesn’t use tape or drop cloths, insisting that he NEVER drips. And if you should happen to point out a flaw or a drip, he will debate with you that he didn’t cause it. And make sure you check VERY carefully for drips and mistakes because once you’ve paid him, you’re out of luck. But he completed the inside rooms fairly quickly except that the master bath (besides painting) also needed a bathtub faucet replaced (requiring resetting of some tile where leakage had loosened it, entire tub grout replaced, and a tub drain opened because it was extremely slow). Marc told me that he had lots of experience with tub faucets and drains having worked as maintenance for apartments. So we made a new contract to also refurbish the master bath. Immediately after signing he decided that he would hire a sub-contractor to replace the faucet. This made me wonder, but as long as he hired him and the pay was covered in the agreed upon cost, I didn’t care. However, immediately after the bathtub faucet was installed I noted to Marc that the handle was upside down. He told me that the new ones come that way. (LIE). But a larger problem with the faucet was that the handle did not allow enough travel to access the hottest water. Therefore the water would only get very slightly warm, not NEARLY warm enough for a comfortable shower, (I didn’t use the tub for several weeks after the installation because I had to re-grout the entire tub myself and pay $93 to have the drain opened since Marc couldn’t figure out the problem and said neither of these jobs was part of the contract). Funny, I’ll bet the price included these jobs. Once I tried to use the shower, I discovered the problem with no hot water. Then Marc said that I would have to call the sub-contactor since I HIRED HIM TO DO THE FAUCET!!! TOTAL LIE!! But at least I have it in writing in a text message that he admits the faucet isn’t working right and I also have its installation covered by a contract from Marc Mueller, not HIS sub-contractor. But he doesn’t care what I have in writing or how much hassle I’ve gone through, HE REFUSES TO ACCEPT ANY RESPONSIBILITY. I told him I would see him in court. I was broke after paying for all the painting work and afraid to call a plumber to get the tub faucet fixed correctly, not having any idea how much MORE it would cost. SO I took cool showers throughout the summer months. I paid $93 to have the drain opened only to learn that the only problem was that the plug was stuck half closed. Any plumber knows that to access a stopped up drain you enter through the drain plug mechanism. Had Marc done that, he would have found the problem. Instead he kept trying to poke a snake around the 90 degree turn in the tub drainpipe, then put in ACID, then gave up. When I explained to him about how drains have a 90 degree turn in them, he actually interpreted that as my absolving him of inability to fix it saying that it wasn’t his fault since my drainpipe was bent 90 degrees. WHAT?? Is he really this clueless or just pretending?? All during this ordeal I have offered Marc opportunities to take responsibility for these problems and he has TOTALLY REFUSED to accept any blame. He offered to come out and look at my faucet to “see what he could do”, but I told him I already doubted he could do ANYTHING and didn’t want him to mess with things further unless he agreed to take responsibility. (The only thing wrong with the faucet besides the handle being upside down (which Marc denies I even mentioned at the time) was that new faucets have a temperature adjustment valve that needs attention after installation. This would have been completely addressed in the instructions within the faucet box which Marc kindly left in my garage WITHOUT THE INSTRUCTIONS. So I spent an extra $93 to open my drain, and $59 to have my faucet adjusted (since these morons didn’t know to adjust it and didn’t look at the instructions BEFORE they threw them away.) I also took about seven months of uncomfortably cool showers, spent hours re-grouting my own bathtub, spent hours cleaning up paint drips in my driveway, spent hours painting parts of the exterior paint job that he totally missed (and there is STILL one I can’t reach), spent hours painting over the paint slung on my shed and gate while Marc and/or his crew were cleaning their brushes in my back yard (and leaving the hose on multiple times), And I still have white paint or grout speckles all over my car (after two washes) from Marc splattering it while mixing it in my garage. Oh, and I should include that this honorable disciple of God actually called ME a liar, not in so many words. But he said I was lying and he didn’t know why. I know why he THINKS SO. Because he is so arrogant, he believes he can do no wrong. With all the time this guy spends trying to convince you of his devotion to God, I’d certainly like to see a bit more devotion to responsibility for his actions and facing the truth. Would I hire him again? ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!!!