A&E Painting LLC

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I scheduled the service in November for January. The day before my appointment I was called and told they were unavailable to come on the day that was scheduled.  And had to reschedule the appointment for a later date.

Elisha had done some painting work for my neighbor and she recommend him to me.  When his $99 wall paper removal special was posted I jumped on it.  Elisha arrived on time but did not have the supplies need to start the job.  He asked that I pay the trip fee and the fee for materials up front. Over a cup of coffee we discussed the job and I told Elisha that I just wanted the wall paper removed and that I did not plan to paint the bathroom until spring or summer as money was tight.   I gave Elisha a check and he left to deposit it immediately and buy a gallon of DIF gel wall paper stripper. Upon his return he got right to work.  I found  it odd that it would take him 4 hours to strip a small bathroom of wall paper.  He finished in about 3 hours.  He did clean up but the walls still had paste on them and were not ready to be painted.  I got the feeling that Elisha was using the $99 wallpaper removal special to drum up business for his painting side of the business.  Having see the job he did for my neighbor I would not hesitate to hire him for a painting job but it seems his heart is not in wallpaper removal.

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Elisha did fair work in our three bedrooms during one day. The colors were dark red and blue against white trim work, which is why I hired the work given the difficulty. The paint work was clean for the most part. There were a few small areas in the corners that could have been cleaner, but the white trim work looked great when he was done. I did have to ask him to return to touch up one of the rooms as the old paint color was showing through. (Which was strange because he used a primer and two coats of paint over light tan paint.) My biggest complaint with my interaction with Elisha was his timeliness and punctuality. We had to reschedule his work day three times before he actually showed up to do the work. He did say that his lack of a vehicle contributed to his scheduling and rescheduling. However, it would have been nice to have a heads up call when he was unable to make it as I lost time waiting for him to show up. Overall, he did nice work when the work was finally finished

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OK on large-scale efforts, not so well on details. Elisha recognized the wall needed taping and did a generally good job of smoothing them. I did spend time afterward sanding and repainting some lumps, cleaning paint off wood and carpet, and touching up missed spots.

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We responded to a coupon offer on Angie's List which was for four hours of wallpaper removal for $99.  I have removed wall paper from several rooms here, and I thought the current job would not take a professional contractor more than about four hours.  It sounded like a good deal.
I paid $99 by credit card to Angie's List, and Mr. Elisha Davidson came to assess the job.  He said that it would be better to cover the wallpaper with a thin layer (skim) of lightweight joint compound.  He said the walls were not flat, although I could see no evidence of that here or in the other rooms where I had removed wallpaper.  The price for his method was $503.  Having never tried skimming myself, I agreed even though it was against my better judgement.  However, I wondered if the $99 offer was just a come-on.
The job took three days.  In the end, a lot of sanding was required on our part after the job was done.  This was due to rough spots left by his trowel.  We didn't notice this until after he had gone.  For $500 I thought that the walls should be ready to paint.
I paid half the price up front.  I paid the remainder when he was done.  I asked for the senior discount of 10% and Davidson took 10% off ? off the second check (the remainder) only, that is.  Only later did I realize that, in effect, I got only a 5% discount because of that mistake.  Additionally, when I got my credit card statement, I also realized that the $99 I had paid originally had not been subtracted from the $503 price that was quoted.
Mr. Davidson is a pleasant enough fellow who will spend more time talking than working if you are inclined to listen.  I don't believe he is very good with numbers.  He said that the contents of his truck had been stolen recently.  Because of that, we had to lend him a basic tool which he didn't have.
Since the $99 for the coupon was paid to Angie's List, I am requesting that they reimburse me for that amount.

It was okay.  First of all, he said he couldn't take off the wallpaper because my filling was too high and it was about eight feet.  What he could do is paint it.  After trimming the wallpaper, he painted it.  He did a pretty good job.  It wasn't a great job but he was a nice man.  He got the job done. 

Overall it was a negative experience.

Scheduling: I bought the offer on 11/8/2013. They reached out via Angie?s list email and scheduled me for 2/11/2014. When the date came there was no communication, no reminder etc.. I called them a few days before and asked if we were still on and they said yes. I asked if there was anything I needed to prep, and the woman told me something about having wallpaper remover chemical ready but she didn?t recall the name. I took the day (2/11/14) off from work, went to the store and bought the recommended chemical and waited for Elijah to show up.

Day of service:  
Consultation: Elijah showed up around 9:15 looked at the kitchen told me it would take approximately 12 hours to finish. He quoted a price of $355.00 I was hesitant and reluctantly agreed. He said I would have to pay half upfront and the rest when he finished. Again I was hesitant and reluctantly agreed and wrote him a check for $167.50. So next he went off to the hardware store to get the wall paper remover, as I had purchased the wrong one. (Remember: they never mentioned what chemical I was required to purchase prior to the day of service)  Elijah then was gone for about two hours, I was sitting around the house just waiting and waiting. No phone call or other communication. I started wondering if he was even coming back.
Actual work performed: Elijah showed up around 11:45AM and got to work. He started on one end of the kitchen and kept stopping to complain how this wasn?t what he expected, and how my wall paper was put up wrong. I agreed it was difficult but kept encouraging him to keep going. He then would stop again and try to convince me that I should just paint over the wall paper and the he could do a great job. I was getting so frustrated I tried to help him, so it could get done faster. While doing so I realized that he wasn?t scoring the wall paper and the chemical wasn?t getting thru the paper to loosen the glue. He said that wasn?t a good method and kept going. After about two hours of working he stopped again and said he would have to re-evaluate his estimate and that it would take approximately 18-20 hours to do. At this point I suggested he stop, give me back my check for half and the cost of the material. He then told me that he had already cashed the check and that wasn?t usually done in the industry. To his credit he gave me the value of the check, minus the material he bought in cash. Overall, other than the time wasted waiting for him, he was professional and was personable. I have since scored the wall paper and removed about 90% of it in about 6 hours.

Suggestions for improvement: 1.       As part of his consultation, he needs to evaluate the wallpaper and give an accurate and realistic estimate of what it would take to do the job. 2.       Tell the customer that 4 hours is just a teaser rate, and most work will take longer. They had scheduled me for two days, but they didn?t mention it to me. 3.       Tell the customer what chemicals are required so he can show up and get to work. 4.       When he starts, start on a hidden corner (i.e. behind fridge) so that if job doesn?t go well you don?t have a half done kitchen like mine.

The service was fine but he never gave me a breakdown of the work that was invovled and what my $99 credit was for.  He could not tell me where the credit came in so I was not satisfied with that. He had me make the check out to him personally and not his business name as well. However, the results of the work he did were fine.

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Work was just fine. Two months ago (when I paid) he offered 2 dates. I picked one. Didn't hear back. Two weeks before first date I called. He said he had to check. Didn't call back. 3 days later I called again. Said he lost my number. Showed up w/o product he needed. I went to get it to save time. Other than all that inconvenience, the work was just fine.

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Removed wallpaper from kitchen and painted the kitchen walls where the wallpaper had been

Very punctual and professional. Worked around my schedule. Could not properly inspect work at completion. When inspected, found bits of wallpaper here and there and found spray over from the ceiling in a few spots. Called, promptly returned to correct.

Removed wallpaper and filled holes.  Painted bathroom and 2 walls.

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