College Pro Painters, Matt Fitzgerald

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So, we were thinking of painting our interior walls and called collegepro. Matt arrived on time, looked around for the scope of the job, which was around 5 rooms and 12 doors. He gave an estimate of $3500 (very low which shocked me, but never realized then what was coming ahead), and I decided to go with him. On the first day his business partner, Patrick arrives with his crew and then it all went downhill from there: 1. Patrick and his crew surveyed the house and realized that the work should be more than estimated. He said that he will only do it for $5500. I could not believe what he said and told him that I went with you guys because of the low price. After much arguing we settled on $4500. 2. I had clearly told Matt when he arrived for his estimate that apart from the painting I expect things to be put back in their place if any thing is removed by them. If that is something that they cannot do they should tell me beforehand because that was my "must have" criteria. I have done interiors before and worked with contractors who put things back in place. Matt agrees and tells me they are professional and all the usual stuff. After the painting is done, and when I asked them to put stuff back in the place they refused saying that it's not their job. After 30 minutes of arguing I eventually made them do it. 3. On the last day, Patrick didn't show up at all. His crew had no idea how to put back the TV unit which was installed on the wall. Poor guys figured it out eventually but it was a nightmare. 4. While painting my doors, they damaged 3 doors. Now I have to pay to get them replaced. 5. They left all their stuff in my garage, which I had to throw it out myself. Overall, a very shoddy job with no professionalism at all. I am not sure how they are still in business. I guess they are good for exterior work where you don't have to be that intricate or move things around.

Met with owner, Matt, for approx. 1.5 hours. Discussed expectations and time frame. Provided references, certification, liability insurance, and warranty. Initial price came in approx. $1800 above competitor, but renegotiated to a comparable price. Final cost included lead paint protection (which was discussed prior to beginning job). Due to presence of lead paint, extra precautions were put in place (hand sanding and washing). Patrick, overseer, was professional and attended to every concern (I'm extremely picky). My house is approx. 45 years old, and some of the shingles were very worn. He re-sanded many areas to try and give it as smooth a finish as possible. Patrick and I did 2 walk-throughs to ensure my satisfaction. Left work area clean. Provided suggestions for other house maintenance issues. Entire process took approx. 10 days.

Here is the list of the items they delivered poorly: 1) The work for surface preparation was not perfect. We found some areas that needed more work. They may or may not have planned to work on it the next day, but we made sure that they did a better job preparing the surfaces. 2) The color match was not right. The house is snow-white and they painted the house off-white. At first, we thought it was the primer color, but they told us that the color was the final finish. We thought the color was ok and accepted it, except that the foundation of the house was still snow-white. When we discussed the problem, the offered to paint the foundation if we paid for it. We did not accept the offer. Finally, they left some paint for us to do that job. If we wanted to paint the house ourselves, why did we hire them? 3) They left their supplies on our lawn for more than one week for a three day job. We had to call them and ask that they move their supplies as the grass was dying. 4) After asking them to remove their supply from our lawn, they transferred it to our driveway! Their supply stayed in our drive way for 10 days after finishing the job. After two phone calls, they removed most of their supplies. 5) They left some supplies in our driveway that we had to put in the trash. They did not even inform us that they will leave their trash for us! 6) The painters used our garden hose to clean their equipment (without asking) and left paint on the garden hose. We think that they washed some paint into our garden with flowers which can eventually hurt the garden. Overall, they did a mediocre job. They could have done a much better job regarding matching the paint and cleaning after themselves.