Student Painters

They quoted the job! We gave them $550 deposit They Came out one day and started the job. The next day I had to call three times before anyone show up. When they did they packed up their equipment and left. They told me they misquoted by $9000 bringing the total to $12,000. This was an outright lie. I subsequently got two quotes for less and one for $400 more. They claim I intentionally ran over a ladder that they had laying in the street. Another Lie. Then the manager Noah Ellinger and employee Jacob Brauer posted fake reviews about our business on Google My Business website! They have refused to send back my deposit. A real no class company! BEWARE,

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!! We had the worst, most stressful experience and our house is permanently messed up. I have never in my life dealt with such an unprofessional company. The initial sales pitch is fantastic, but is unfortunately a bunch of lies. The group that shows up is a group of kids who do not have a clue on how to paint. The manager, Daniel Bretz, promised us he would be there the whole day to supervise and to make sure the job was done correctly. He lied. He left the painters the whole day to themselves while he went to go drum up more business. The painters admitted this to us. Daniel was also over an hour late on our assigned day. Daniel also took with him what was left of the black paint. How were we suppose to match up the paint in the future for touch-ups? The painters spilled paint all over the brick, the driveway, and the roof. We had huge streaks of paint that spilled from the second floor all the way down to the first floor. They covered our outdoor lights with paint. They covered our inside window sills with paint, which became a huge job for us to fix. The excuse was that they always paint the windows shut. Huh? Why didn't they wipe up the paint before it dried? Why would I want our windows painted shut? Why do we have to spend hours fixing the messes of the painters? These guys didn't even know that you should paint in one long stroke. We have short brush marks all over the outside window sills. We have paint left on the glass that was another project for us to work on. The shutters have short brush marks going up & down, sideways, and all sort of angles. The excuse from Daniel? The excuse was " Some people like texture so that is how we do it". Huh? Daniel had an excuse for everything. It has been six months and our paint is already cracking because no one bothered to scrape and properly prep the surface. Daniel showed us a piece of paper with an A rating from the BBB. This was a lie. An individual group in Ohio had the good rating but the company as a whole has a D. I left approximately 20 phone calls with corporate and with Daniel. When you call corporate you always talk to a secretary who will not put you through to a manager. Of course, the manager never calls back. I was ignored for the rest of the summer and no one called me back from corporate. I even saw Daniel at the grocery store who promised to call me but never did. Daniel then shut down his branch since it was the end of the summer. I filed a formal complaint with BBB. Well, this got the attention of corporate and corporate contacted Daniel. He came back and scrubbed off a lot of the paint that was on the brick and on the roof shingles. But he didn't clean all of it. We still have to this day spilled paint on the brick. Of course, when he worked on the spilled paint that was on the flood lights he knocked them loose so we had to go back up on the ladder & tighten them so they would work again. It goes on and on.

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AWFUL.  The first day they were suppose to power wash the entire house.  My guess is that they cleaned less than 30% of my home.  I had areas that still had dirt after the power washing was finished.

Day 2 - Paint the trim.  They painted the trim, my yard, my siding, my table on the patio, my concrete porch, my screens, my concrete basement walls and my brick chimney.

Day 3 they thought they were finished.  They did no sanding, little to no chalking and painted things i didn't want painted better than the areas that I wanted painted.

Day 4 - Fix the paint on the siding, screen, table, patio, porch, concrete blocks and brick chimney.  AND paint the trim.

Day 5 fix the paint on the siding, screen, table, patio, porch, concrete blocks and chimney. And paint the trim.

I went through the above steps for one day short of two weeks and in the end I kept locating paint on the siding, porch, patio, steps etc...  Finally I gave up.  They power washed the house a second time but even then did not do a complete job.  I still have areas of my trim that need painted and sloppy work throughout my home.  Honestly these guys are not qualified to paint homes.  The manager is Logan Bryant and he is not detailed oriented, lacks skills necessary to lead a team and I'm not sure that he cares about the finished product.  

I have probably about 100 pictures as proof.  My advice to you find another company to paint your home.

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Sloppy paint was left on Windows and inside Windows still have a hard time opening windows. Paint still on my drive that won't come off. We had a hard time getting trouble right and when we finally did they started putting the wrong color on . Very unprofessional even though the working college students were polite and trying to please but their head wasn't really in the game.. They are college kids who are probably told they can make x amount of money .. All you have to do is a lot of houses.. I would suggest highering a professional .. I learned my lesson. That being said the house looks pretty good if you don't examine it to close

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I saw the company's sign in my neighborhood. I called Student Painters for details. The company hires college students that are then trained by Sherwin Williams. I suspect the main lesson they learn is how to prepare an estimate. I assumed that with the supposed training they would then be able to do the work. I was wrong. In the end I had to hold the check to get them to fix some of the work, correctly. Basically I paid $4000 for a $2500. job. These students are going to be accountants not laborers. The head of the group working on my house didn't even understand the contract that he had written and kept quoting to me when I refused to replace the final check that I had stopped payment on. I finally contacted their supervisor to get the job done.
There are a few small problems left that need to be resolved.

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The Supervisor pressure washed the house.  2 days later, the painting crew showed up.  BUT the Supervisor did not stay on the job even 5 minutes.  That is when the nightmare began.
They did not sand or scrape one single surface.  Consequently, paint began peeling off within weeks.
When painting the dentil trim along the eaves, they unbelievably PAINTED THE BRICK IN BETWEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!  They made no effort whatsoever to use the proper size brush or to avoid getting paint on the brick.
Without waiting for the first coat to dry, they applied th second coat because they DIDN'T WANT TO HAVE TO MOVE THE LADDERS BACK TO THAT SIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!  Consequently, the first coat was pulled away by the second coat in many areas, leaving  heavily textured finish.
THEY PAINTED OUR 2 SLIDING PATIO DOORS SHUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I literally had to cut thick paint and use excessive force to open our sliding doors.  And I had even informedthe painters that the doors were unlocked so they could open them and get the complete dor painted.  They never opened either door.  Evidently painting them shut was a better idea.
And then THEY PAINTED UP INSIDE THE TRACK FOR THE SCREENs ON OUR 2 SLIDING PATIO DOORS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I had removed the sliding screen door to make it easier for the painters.  But these guys had no idea what they were doing.  And they put such a thick coat of paint up inside the track that I cannot fit the screens back in the track.  We have NO SCREEN DOORS thanks to these people.
They slopped paint on the door handles and locking hardware.  No effort was made to mask the door hardware at all.
While painting the headers & wood trim above the sliding patio doors, THEY ACTUALLY PAINTED AGAINST THE GRAIN OF THE WOOD!!!!!!!!!!!
When painting the downspouts, absolutely NO EFFORT was made to mask or keep paint off the brick.  Such a mess.
After they left the first day, I felt uneasy, but intended to speak with the Supervisor and give them the benefit of the doubt.  The 2nd day, the Supervisor never showed.  Halfway through the scond day, I told the crew to stand daow, I called the Supervisor, and I had no choice but to fire them.  I could not afford to allow them to do any more damage to our home.
After walking around the house with the Supervisor, who finally came AFTER I fired this crew, he asked for an opportunity to come back and clean some of the paint off the brick.  I agreed and they came back the next day and cleaned off as most of the paint along the downspouts.  They left after 4 hours.  The Supervisor actually had the gall to tell me they wouldn't charge me any more for the project, but that he had to keep my deposit so he could pay his cre something!
Now I am left with inoperable sliding patio doors and an amateurish partial paint job.  I contacted local proffessional painting contractors and it is costing me $3200,00 additional just for the pros to fix everywhere Student Painters painted before they can paint correctly.  That does not include the probem with the painted-shut sliding doors.
I have contacted Student Painters corporate headquarters and have sent them dozens of pictures of the poor work,damage, and the additional $$ their mess is costing me (not counting repairing or replacing the 2 patio doors) but the only response they offer is they want to send another crew here to sand & paint until I am happy with the finishd project.  
Why would anyone in their right mind, after this experience, allow them to ever touch our home again?? ( Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.)  
TERRIBLE ORGANIZATION!!!!!!!!!!!!
AVOID THIS COMPANY!!!!!!!!!!!!1

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First, these are very nice, hard working, well intentioned, polite young people who work for this provider.  Second, shame on me as an experienced home owner for hiring inexperienced help.  In a word, the experience was chaotic.  What could have been done in one working day ended up taking two evenings and one and a half days.  On the the first evening, one worker showed up around 7:00 to power wash.  The next  morning I noticed that part of the house and the deck wasn't power washed, when I called the response I got was that the house didn't seem to need it in the back and that they didn't know the deck was to be power washed.  Then the painting crew came the next day and did a so-so job.   A crew of two came back at 8:00 PM to correct the painting and finish power washing.  That was way too late in the day.  The next day, two came back to finishing painting the sills on a few more windows and touch up the door.  The work is OK, but not great.  There was far too much focus on the sale and collecting the payment.  I know there are better ways to teach entrepreneurism in America than the way this organization teaches it.  If one wants to be an entrepreneur one must know something about the business he/she is promoting.  I don't think these young people have a clue about the painting and home care business.  Not sure what they are trained in by the parent organization besides getting a signed contract.  These young people would be better served working for an experienced contractor and learning the business from those who already know and understand it.  I fear that Student Painters is taking advantage of these young people.  Here's what they need to work on:
1.  Communication - listening, speaking, and writing - problem with the deck was that the young man didn't "hear" what I  
     needed or wanted
2.  Estimating costs - the price was fair, but I think it was a bit high for the time it took and the quality
3.  Scheduling - show up when expected or call immediately, don't wait several hours; perhaps they get too many contracts
     signed for the amount of workers they have (it's nice to be busy, but being over taxed time and energy wise is not good for
     business.
4.  Customer service - be considerate of the customer when scheduling, be on time
5.  Contract should include more detailed itemization than it does (as I said earlier, shame on me)

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They were quick to give a quote and take a deposit. They were slow in actually doing the job! I had to phone and find out when are they going to do the job!

Matt was very courteous.  Good communication all the way through.  Would use again.

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They did a pretty good job.

They missed a lot of spots. They said they were done so I went out and look and I saw a bunch of spots that were missed. They said they were going to use primer and then paint but they used primered paint which I didn't care for. The paint didn't cover real well. They were supposed to do one coat but I made them go back and covered it real well. After they said they were done one guy had to come back for a whole week and touch up stuff to get it to where I was satisfied. Once it was done, it was good quality.

STUDENT PAINTERS WAS SO EASY AND FRIENDLY TO US. FROM START TO FINISH, THEY HAD EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE. THEY REALLY CARED ABOUT MY HOME AND MET MY NEEDS 100%. BEST CONTRACTOR EXPERIENCE EVER.

I would use them in the future.