John Forte

When John came to do the estimate he was charming, engaging, professional, detail oriented to the point of obsessiveness. He described what they would do and how they would fix things as they painted. I had the utmost trust in him at that point. When the painters came I should have been suspicious. They didn't cover the floors or block us from entering the rooms while they worked as other painters had done. When I asked John about not covering the floors he said that what they do is have someone come afterward and clean the floors until they are spotless. Another red flag, but I was a new homeowner. He had said when they finished we would go over any punch sheet I had before he would collect the balance. He came in a rush on a Friday and went over the punch sheet and said he would be back on Monday to finish that. I paid him thinking he was telling the truth, but when he didn't show up on Monday I tried calling him and eventually he never got back to me or came back and I think he was either on a drinking binge or in jail. In retrospect, he was kind of a sociopath and John Forte may not even have been his real name, he may not have had 3 boys or been married. It was probably all a lie. He left one of our walls completely botched. I probably could have painted the rooms better myself. He did take out a cabinet and finish the wall. That he did fine.