Lion King Construction

Prior to the work being performed everything went well, showed up for the estimate on time, crews showed up to paint on time. But when the owner left to go bid another job (said he'd be back at noon) everything went bad. I agreed to pay 1/2 upfront (no big deal), the owner showed up with 3 people to paint, and they put down drop cloths and started taping trim. I even offered extra drop cloths that I owned if they needed them, but they refused saying they had their own. The owner left and took 1 guy with him underestimating the work involved leaving only 2 guys. These 2 guys went about they're job throughout the home, only forgetting 3 details, drop cloths, how to paint and painting the trim. I was working on a project in another part of the house and so there was no supervision for the 2 painters. Around 5pm, I emerged from my own project to find paint on the carpet, no drop cloths in use and a terrible job. About 80% of the rooms looked great, with a few places needing touch up, but there were "spots" on the carpet, these spots were huge. About 4 or 5 "areas" some 2 ft long had a massive amount of paint on them, enough that I felt the carpet squish under foot. I immeadiately called the owner who finnaly came back at 6pm (not noon as promised). He noticed the problem and apologized and went to go get a carpet cleaner. He came back with a rental unit from a hardware store and attempted to remove it. After 1 1/2 hours spent trying to clean the carpet he said he couldn't get it out but wanted to be paid the rest of his money. My wife and I obviously quite upset, said that he would not get paid until the carpet was either cleaned or replaced. He said he could not afford to replace it. We told him we would have a professional carpet cleaner come out and if the stain was removed, we would pay him the rest minus the carpet cleaner charges. he agreed and then left. The next day the carpet cleaners came and were unable to remove the paint and I called and informed the owner that he would not be recieving any more money from us. At this point he said that he wanted his money and threatend to file a lien against our home. Now, after contactin an attorney who advised he couldn't legally do that because he didn't have my wifes signature, we went to a big box store and found a product that has worked fairly well, but has required alot of work and time on our part to remove the paint. 4 days later we had most of the paint out and as a sign of goodwill called the owner and offered him the remaining balance minus carpet cleaning and "cleaning product" expense which he accepted. When he came to get his money, he expressed that he hadn't set out to do a bad job, but denied responsibility for it. How can you remain in business when your crew does a poor job and you feel you can dodge responsibility? During this 4 days, we noticed that the crew only painted some of the trim, requiring us to go back and paint it ourselves. For example, they painted the top of a window sill, but not the trim under the ledge, or an art niche where the ledge is only 1/2 painted. I cannot express my displeasure with this contractor enough. Great price, poor job and no feeling of culpability or desire to make it right. F-. Do not use this guy even if the price is great, because you'll pay for it in the long run.