Girl Painters Rock

A month ago I hired this firm. The reason I chose it to paint my apartment was that the painters are women. Haven’t used the services of a painter in a long time, I liked what I read on this outfit. When I brought up the other review, I was assured that it was just a bad experience. However, i should have seen the first flag: Benny, the gentleman who sets up the appointments, assured me that it was not his crew’s fault, rather that it was the client and that she was rather difficult and used the «race» card. I didn’t give much thought to it, and felt confident that they would do a good job. My place was empty. I exchanged some emails with Benny regarding what needed to be done, such as clean the kitchen ceiling before you paint, finish applying compound on some nail holes and ceiling irregularities, paint the inside of the closets, wall inside the kitchen cabinets, make sure the hardwood floors are covered & protected. The usual stuff one would be concerned about.
The highlights:
1. they have painted over the faces of the light switches and sockets… I pulled a screw driver and removed them. Took less than five minutes. I emailed Benny and Eva, the project leader, that the paint they needed to finish the job was in the apartment and that, please, they should touch up the wall under the faces and even sand a bit the line left by the play of the paint and the cover. Eva said she did not have a screw driver and that was the reason for her not to remove them. That sounded unprofessional. Would have been a minor issue had the job been finished properly.
2.The floor had paint foot prints-​herring bone pattern soles. Splattered paint all over. Those floors were not covered at all.
3.One of the closets was painted half way.
4. The tiny piece of ceiling on the hallway leading to the bathroom, was not painted.
5.The bathroom: there was paint everywhere splattered on the floor. They failed to paint around the full perimeter of the medicine cabinet. There was a scratch on the hamper. The sink was used to dispose of paint and spirits, which was extremely hard to clean.
6. The box that covers the radiator was not even touched. I cleaned it, sanded it and painted it. Being a studio, that box becomes sort of focal point in an empty apartment.
7 I had done most of the work on the walls with compound and sanding before they even walked in. The two or three spots that I didn’t do, the ladies didn’t care to finish. More so, they painted on top of pieces of paint that were hanging from the ceiling.
8. There is a part of the ceiling that should have been treated with more compound, sanded and finished, it was not done.
9. There were holes in the kitchen walls that were not fixed. That type of repair was specified in the quote Benny sent me. One of the holes, behind the refrigerator, was not even touched. A nail was left on the wall and I pricked my finger with it, by the way. They failed to do fix the holes and fix the walls. They had compound and sand blocks, which I had left for them to use.
10. More on the kitchen: the walls behind the stove, they were painted in half. Yes, the ladies didn’t even bother to move the stove and paint the wall in full.
11. The exposed wall inside the top kitchen cabinets was not painted, and that was requested on my email and confirmed by their boss.
12. Eva has been abusive in the language she used in her texts and won’t stop harassing me. She says she is a performer first. Which, I totally understand, however, if she has a second job to make ends meet and finance her career in the performing arts, she might want to show a bit more of interest and work ethics. We have all been at a point in time involved in jobs that were not the ones we dreamed of or were trained for, yet, we did them to the best of our ability and put our hearts in them. I cannot accept that on top of a bad and unfinished job, she be abusive and disrespectful.
13. One of the door locks stop working after they left.
Think more than twice before you hire them. They are unable to work unsupervised. Benny fails to manage them because he does not forward the «to do lists» discussed with the client to his crew.
They showed up without the correct tools or equipment: no screw drivers, no paper, cloth or enough plastic to cover the floors. Benny claims that they use public transportation and that anything over 9feet is out of the question. They used a three step stool I had in the apartment. They left food garbage in the kitchen when the compactor shaft was steps away. The little and the big things compounded on a negative outcome: a bad job and a mess left behind. An unsatisfied customer that has been verbally abused over text messages that won’t stop.
A dispute was initiated on PayPal. They got paid in full before they were done. They claimed to have finished the job, when it was not even close. They do not deliver what they promise. And they also ask for tips. Tips are earned, not required.