Contractor provided power washing services for our vinyl siding.
The experience initially was very good. Mario was timely and very professional with his proposal, which was detailed and reasonably priced but toward the higher end of proposals received. His proposal had sufficient detail to better evaluate the quality of his work. We were out of town when the work was performed, but a contractor friend was to oversee the work for me. The reports back were very good, and when we came home, we were pleased with the basic project. When I walked around the house, I noticed some damage to the window trim and a gap in the siding for soffit ventilation. This was communicated to Mario, and he met with my representative to sort out what could be done. Mario would not discuss the issue and stormed out. I then communicated with Mario to explain my position, but he continued to defend his crew although he was not there. I was not trying to be unreasonable, knowing that the cost to correct the window trim problem would cost more than it was worth, but the contractor continued to defend his position. It was not worth going to court, so I suggested a slight compromise where he could rewash my front porch, which he did. If he had been willing to discuss and come to a satisfactory resolution of the problem, I was considering his firm for additional work he had quoted, but it was made clear to me that he was not interested in any additional work. If you hire this firm, just hope that there is no damage to your property.
Service Provider Response
Initially I was surprised that (member name removed) requested a copy of my business liability insurance for both himself and his "contractor friend". You would think one copy of my insurance would acceptable? When we finished cleaning his exterior siding I carefully examined the job with his representative (name removed). We both agreed the results were excellent. My company removed 34 years of dirt & discoloration from his old siding making his house look new again. I was told that I would be paid in full once (member name removed) returned from his vacation. Work was finished on 5-8-13. However when he returned from vacation on 5-11-13 he did not report any damage. I made numerous calls to his representative (name removed) requesting payment. On 6-3-13 nearly a month later I was upset I had not been paid. (member name removed) wrote in an email that he "deduced that damage had occurred accidentally, while cleaning the house". In the same email he wrote "Apparently neither you or (name removed) noticed the damage at the time of your inspection". (member name removed), the homeowner was not present at the time of work. I assured him that we did not cause a dent in his window trim because no ladders were used during the cleaning of his siding & I had examined the work with my own eyes on the day it was finished. His response was "There is no way you can verify that the damage was not caused by your men, other than to show me a picture of the damage BEFORE you proceeded with the work, I can't prove that your crew caused the damage any more than you can prove they didn't". At this point I realized why it was so important that he & his representative needed 2 copies of my business liability insurance. His thanks for a great job was a false damage claim that I was positive I did not cause. He had instructed his representative negotiate with me for a discount on his job which I was totally unwilling to do. He claimed that I was the only contractor that could have caused this damage. He insisted on a $150.00 credit be deducted from his bill for the damage. As an alternative he told me I could re-wash his concrete front porch which was ruined when the brick paver contractor he hired left a layer of brick dust from saw cutting the brick all over his porch. He told me if I would agree to do additional work for free, then he would pay me what he owed. So I decided to re-wash his porch because I wanted to move on & never work for him again. I had 2 other jobs pending at his residence. I made it clear I was unwilling to do any further work for him because he breached the contract he signed & then accused me of damage I did not cause. After 2 months had passed he decided to write a negative review on Angie's List saying "If you hire this firm, just hope that there is no damage to your property". This defamation of my company was his idea of a "satisfactory resolution of the problem." I guess this proves there are just some people who are dishonest & wish to take advantage a hard working contractor like myself. He probably back charged the brick contractor $150.00 for the work he had me do free of charge. Bottom line if you hire a contractor to do work & they do a great job, pay your bill as you agreed to do, don't play games & make false allegations.
