High Rollas Painting Service Of New York

Review: In June of this year(2013)[redacted] was recommended by a local realestate offic ( [redacted]). He was to come in and paint. He came in gave me an estimate, collected a 200 Dollar deposit and never returned. I now cant get the agent or painter to return my calls or money.Desired Settlement: I would like [redacted] to return the money because he never provided the service.I dont know if I can go after the agent from [redacted] who recommeded High Rolla's Painting Services of New York.

Consumer

Response:

At this time, I have not been contacted by HighRolla'sPainting Services of New York regarding complaint ID [redacted].

Sincerely,

Review: We contacted [redacted] of High Rollas to give an estimate of how long it would take to paint several rooms and how much he would charge. He was one of 3 or 4 painters we got estimates from. The job had some urgency and we made that clear to him and the other painters who came through.[redacted] was the cheapest estimate we received and we went with him, given our limited resources. What a mistake. You know the old adage, you get what you pay for.In order to facilitate a quick job, we provided [redacted] with all of the money for the work up front: that way he could buy paint and supplies and be ready to finish our job ASAP. Mistake number 2. He took our check for $5,000 and then didn't respond to our calls or emails for at least a week.After barraging him with emails each day, he finally responded that he had a family emergency, but that he would start the job tomorrow. Then tomorrow came and he said he couldn't start the job because our check didn't clear yet. Another week went by -- with little or no communication from him -- and I emailed him that he should either give us our money back or I would go to the police.That got his attention and he said he would get his crew together and be right over. Several days later, he finally showed up. The crew he assembled was a motley group of people he likely put together from [redacted]. I say this, because it was clear that they did not know what they were doing.How hard can it be to paint, you may wonder? Well, unless you put down a coat of primer, dark colors are going to show through a wall that we wanted painted white. Unless you put down drop cloths, your painters will track paint all over the floors. Unless you use a paint spray gun carefully, the particles will fly all over the room landing on surfaces that you don't want painted.After one day of painting, it became clear that these guys were just making a huge mess and that we were better off doing it ourselves. Having given him a check for $5000, we weren't in a position to pay anyone else to do the job. Many late nights and weekends later we have just about finished the job and cleaning up the mess that [redacted] and his crew made.My guess is that this guy is either (a) a crook, knowingly taking money from people like us who were too trusting, or (b) is incompetent, and can't manage his work load, already having spent our money on another job that he needed to finish.Desired Settlement: Refund the money we paid in full.