VIRTUAL PAINTING LLC

They are a company out of Portland. The service has been ongoing over the last two years and I would not recommend them. At this point I am just trying to get some work out of them because they still owe me quite a bit of money. The company is run by Robert Othell. He basically took my money and ran. I did my homework and contacted the boards of labor in both Washington and Oregon and he had no complaints, no liens or anything. He was currently licensed and bonded. He did one project for us and did an awesome job; that's why we hired him to do more. He got half the money, asked for another check and then I never saw him again. I have a bathroom that is only half done and I have been living with that for almost two years. The trim around the French doors and window in my dining room were never caulked or painted. The window did not fit right and only half of the wall paper was put up and it was not put up correctly. The owner told me the guy who did the wallpaper had the flu and that is what he has been telling me the last month so the dining room still is not done. I hired them after getting quotes from three companies and his bid was fair. They literally came in here and did a great job of plastering and painting my kitchen earlier. He even swept and mopped the floor every day. They did an awesome job so we talked about it, I took money out of my retirement fund, he came back and gave us a bid, started off really well and then disappeared. I have not seen him since before Thanksgiving. After a year-and-a-half I just about fired him. He agreed he owed us another $5,000 and he would start sending money. I gave him until September 1 and I have not gotten the money back.

Do not let this firm do your painting or restoration . Robert did not even have a t-square! He called me at work ( I am a nurse) and told me this needed to be fixed right away (it was going to rain). As a woman, I feel TOTALLY TAKEN ADVANTAGE of.

I am a single woman, 60 years old. I hired Robert Ofelt to update my kitchen. The contract price was about $8000. The first 2 weeks he was at the house working as scheduled. I paid him $6000 up front. After he got the money and tore up my kitchen he disappeared. Day after day he would leave a message that he would be over the next day but never show up. Weeks went by and he never purchased the material for the floor or countertops which I had given him money to do. He eventually admitted that he no longer had the money. He had my cabinet doors at his shop and I felt he was holding them hostage so I couldn't do anything until he brought them back. He eventually did bring them back, passing off several of the drawers as having been painted when after examining them closer I found that he had not painted them. After he brought the cabinet doors and drawers back I fired him and got a reputable company to install countertops and floor. I filed a complaint through the Better Business Bureau asking for $2000 back but he refused. He never returned the key to my house and kept a loose cabinet that I paid him to paint. Don't let this man in your house!

I gave him a $2400 deposit and it took a year to get that back. In the beginning, he kept telling me he would come back to start. After a year had gone by and the service was not completed, he said I would be the first on the list for the spring. He started the same behavior the next year. I asked for my money back and almost had to sue him since it took so long. It was a very stressful, terrible experience. He did eventually pay me back in weekly installments.

I signed a contract with him in August of 2007, the contract was to paint the interior and exterior for $10,425. On the day of I paid him $5,212 for him to get started and buy materials for int & ext and repair jobs. I went to the bank to see if the Credit Card loan was ready and he had beaten me to the bank and cashed out the money. (I later found out the bank he went to, his wife works at) When the day came for him to work, he sent 1 guy to replace some shingles and 2 guys 2 scrape for 2 days scraping paint. Then no one ever came back after that. I called him constantly over and over and emailed him and he would send me offensive emails that said that I would have to wait "my turn in line" because "I do quality work." After several months he started the interior and he did partial work and didn't return requesting for more $$. When I checked on his license, I found it had been revoked 8 months before I hired him. He was STILL promoting his license.

The house looks great and you can tell he took the time and effort to do it right.

A contract was signed the end of April 2006 for an exterior paint job on my home. The work description included prepping (including burning off the paint on the south side of the home)the house for paint with a complete exterior paint job. A minor porch leveling job was also included in the quoted price. The agreement was to begin the job the last half of July 2006. I am still trying to get the company to come out and begin the job in earnest. In late fall they came out to pressure wash the house. Robert Ofelt, the guy who wrote the contract, has played "cat and mouse" with me for 9 months now. Initially, his excuses for not starting the project included: a job he was currently on went bad with much more dry rot than expected and so his crew was trying to finish it up, but we would be the next in line. Then it was a number of his people quit on him and went back to Mexcio. Once the fall and winter set in, it was the weather holding things up.

This job went extremely well from start to finish. Bob Ofelt, the owner came out to do the bid. He was knowledgeable, courteous and informative. He offered pointers on colors and brought out samples painted on boards for us to look at. His price was very competitive, but we chose him based attitude more than on price. He began and completed the job the following week and, as my wife and I were out of town, he did the job virtually unsupervised. My son lives with us, but only gave us occasional progress reports. When we saw the finished job we were thrilled. The work was excellent and they had done even more than we expected. Everything was cleaned up and the furniture was back where it belonged. Bob asked for a letter of reference when he finished. I'm normally hesitant to do these, but in Bob's case I didn't hesitate. We are now planning to paint the exterior and will definitely have Virtual Painting give us a quote.

On Aug. 24, 2005, I signed a contract with Virtual Painting's owner, Robert Ofelt, to paint our house. We gave him half the bid, which was $4575. He was to start work the 3rd week in September. To make a long story short, they NEVER showed up to do the work. It was one excuse after another and went on over the winter and they kept it up week after week and month after month until I finally cancelled the contract in August, 2006. They did not return our deposit until the very last day before the start of the formal complaint with the CCB. It was clear to me that they have been through this before, and were pushing me as far as possible to see if I might just give up and let them keep the money. This is a PATTERN OF BEHAVIOR with Mr. and Mrs. Ofelt, as one can verify by checking Angie's List, the BBB, the CCB and the Oregon Office of Consumer Complaints. I don't believe he ever intended to paint our house, he just saw an opportunity to grab $4575 and hang on as long as possible.

Robert was very professional when bidding for the job. He has a detailed contract that outlines exactly what will be done, including a color consultation,priming, hand painting of trim, cleanup. Once signed however, the contract seemed only to limit the house owner. They had to repaint one side of the house they forgot to prime, trim work was sprayed instead of hand painted. We had to ask them to return and fix drips on trim. Robert asked for full payment when the house was finished but touch up not completed and we gave it to him. At that point, getting him to return was very difficult. Calls not returned. After 6 months his team returned to do touch up, but didn't have the right paint to complete. Now a year later the porch is peeling because it wasn't primed properly, the doors still not completed. I cleaned up myself because I was sick of looking at it. The extra paint sat rusting in cans, we took it to toxic dump. I see court in Virtual paintings future.

I have never dealt with such unprofessional people. We were always polite, reasonable and respectful and were treated terribly by this company, the owner and his wife. Rather than take responsibility for their lack of action, they outright lied about work that had not been done. We learned too late about the CCB and Angie's List, but they have horrible reports on both. Do not use this company!

They took a deposit for $6,500, no work has been done. I did try to renegotiate the work to be done this summer but they refuse to return my deposit. I have not been able to renegotiate anything with them. I made a complaint to the Contractors Board and they have made the decision that the company needs to return my deposit. It is still not refunded yet.

PAINT JOB FAIR. SHAKE REPLACEMENT BAD. GUARANTEE HAS NOT BEEN FULFILLED. I HAD A HORRIBLE LEAK OVER WINDOW WHERE AWNING REMOVED THIS YEAR, DUE TO POOR WORKMANSHIP. PAINT PEELING ON SOME PARTS OF HOUSE & GARAGE. I HAVE PAPERS STATING WORK GUARANTEED.

OBVIOUSLY, WE ARE DISPLEASED AND DISGUSTED WITH VERY LITTLE RECOURSE.