Crystal Clear Painting Co Inc

Don and his painters were nice and helpful at first, but the job was done very badly.  Brand new outlets and switches were painted over, a few areas still had the old paint showing through, overspray on many surfaces, etc.  They even used a lower grade flat paint on the bedroom walls that washed off when I tried to clean a smudge - contract said satin latex throughout, and painted a linoleum floor in a closet. He sent a guy (his son) back to touch it up, but he did another terrible job and didn't fix most of the issues.  When I let Don know, he was incredibly rude, called me a liar, and told me I was just "a woman who likes to talk a lot" and asked why my husband wasn't speaking up (I'm the one who hired you Don). He tried to tell me I should pay him $50 to come back and do the job I had already paid to have done.  In the end, to be fair, he did grudgingly offer to come back and fix it himself, but at that point my tenants had already moved in and I didn't want Don on my property.  I would not recommend them to anyone and their motto of "getting it done right the first time" is completely inaccurate in my experience.

Poor customer service, lying, fails to return calls, poor quality control, did not finish work.

I hired Crystal Clear painting through owner Mr. Don Darling to paint my house on 17 July 15.  He said that all the surfaces would be power washed to assure proper adhesion and then painted.  His contract has a scope of work with check boxes and two that he picked that were not completed were for fascia and gutter.  I wanted all the dark brown fascia and gutter painted. This was made clear from the beginning. Leaving one area of the side house with the old paint, just doesn?t make sense for a total house new colors.   His contract further states:  Paint home ALL in two tone and 3 tone in flat and satin -implying to paint everything.  All painted surfaces were to receive power washing prior to painting.  His first crew power washed the front of my house and had move around back.  I asked the guy in charge had they washed the concrete base out front and he assured me he did.  I went out front and notice the siding was wet but not the concrete.  So I told the guy that and he said ?Oh, we?re going to do that when we finish out back?.  The next time I checked on them they had just left and the concrete out front was not wet and the painters were gone.  Before they left they told me they?d be back at 8am the next day.  The next day no one showed up and I didn?t get a call.  I called Don and left a message that they hadn?t shown and I didn?t from a customer service standpoint appreciate the guy lying to me about power washing the concrete.  He did call me back.  On the 3rd day a different crew showed up and I said what happened to the other guys.  They said oh that main guy was the boss?s son and no one knows where he is today.  Great, so I ratted to Don that his son was a liar.  These guys did a good job of painting what they did.  I had to watch them and often interject that they weren?t painting things they were supposed to.  One place they never painted.  There is a roof over my stairs to the basement.  It has a fascia and 6 ft. gutter.  I told the crew chief that was in the contract as it was the dark brown that was all getting painted.  He stared at me and didn?t really respond.  I assumed he was going to do it.  They finished and left and I had to go on a trip.  During the trip I recalled I didn?t check that basement roof and determined I?d do it when I returned.  I found it wasn?t painted.  I called Don 2 weeks after the job and left a msg.  We eventually connected and I told him about the unpainted area, how it was supposed to be in the contract, and that I told his crew chief on the day he was painting about it but it?s not painted.  He said his man called him and he told him not to paint it as it wasn?t in the contract.  I told him you should have talked to me and maybe we could have cleared this all up but it was to be painted.   He asked did you inspect before my guys left ? as if I didn?t its? my fault they didn?t paint it!  I said no but I?ve checked now and if you provide good customer service you would have to spend maybe 1 hour finishing the job.  He said he could come by and do a work order.  I said, does that mean you?re going to charge me, and he said yes.  I said that this was part of the work and I expected you?d want to finish it. He finally said after my continuing to say for good customer service you?d paint it, I was always nice but insistent, that he would come by and see.  Well, he never contacted me?ever.  As I said the fascia and gutter are noted in his contract.  He comes across sincere and honest, but certainly isn?t for not completing this job properly.  I cannot recommend him to anyone.  BTW, when we put our trust in professional painters we expect them to do the work professionally based on the expertise.  Not power washing the concrete may cause premature failure due to poor adhesion.  If you paint over dirt it?s just not going to adhere properly.  Additionally after painting, I checked out the limited wood I have on the house.  To do a proper painting, they should have properly prepared the wood.  Some of the wood has cracking and wood puddy should have been applied.  Don said that the paint job included some caulking, but when I talked to the crew chief he said he didn?t use any because he didn?t see where to use it.  Ok, here?s my synopsis.  The 2nd paint crew was good; however, Don controls the operations and gave them bad directions.  Don doesn?t convey to his crew very good instructions on what to do and this forces the home owner to be his quality control (when you hire a profession you want them to take over so you don?t have to do anything), he does not do all the work he says he?ll do, he does not comply with the terms of his contract, his folks lie and he is elusive on calling you back on informing you of his changes.  I would not recommend his company to anyone.  There are too many good painters out there to take a risk with him.