CertaPro Painters Twin Cities East

CertaPro was contracted to stain and seal seven of our windows in July. The first day they were on-site one of our windows was dented by a worker dropping a stain can on it. We had to argue with them that the dent was not pre-existing as the windows were newly installed and had to put their can in the dent to prove it had come from them. Their project manager came out to the site to assess the damage and failed to check the quality of their work while he was out. We then discovered one of the workers had put their boxes down on our dining table without a drop cloth and paint stripped it. We had to call him out again to point out that his workers had failed to open the windows to stain and seal any of the outer frame and exposed portions. We paid ~$920 as the deposit and they have done ~$960 of damage to our items. We have not seen any of our deposit returned nor the full amount of damages refunded despite being in communication with their consultants and project manager for nearly two months. I can only assume they intend to keep the deposit and are functionally scamming customers at this point.

Junior and his team were very professional and courteous and did a great job. Dan and Christine were great to work with also.

Before you even think about hiring this company please do your research! You can find negative reviews on the BBB, this page on a famous review aggregator site, another site similar to HomeAdvisor. When I filed a complaint with the BBB back in Dec. 2018 Certa Pro Painters Twin Cities East had a **F** rating. As of tonight 8/20/19 it has been changed to a C- If you read the complaints, or review that I just left you will find the same issues... poor work from subcontractors, lies, and just poor customer service. We had a very bad experience with the franchised company. We called the main company to report the issues, when nothing was done we took them to small claims court. Although we provided the judge pictures, talked about our broken items, cigarette butts in the yard, and numerous times the painters (sub-contracted) had to come back out to our home... us taking off work on several occasions, and one time to have one of the painters call and say he cannot make it that day, etc. We lost the case. A job that was supposed to be done in a week while we were on vacation actually ened up taking an extra 6 weeks. Our neighbors told us they saw the trucks at our home two days before we came home. What does a consumer (you/me) expect when you hire a professional company to paint your interior for 4,000 + dollars? Not what we got! They had 1 week to paint our whole interior, but did not come out to our home until 2 days before we came home. Bubbles, runs, paint on floors, broken items, cracked light switches, and many other issues evident of a poor paint job. This company put a lien on our home, they threaten to report us to the credit bureau. We honestly tried to work with this company. We emailed the owner John Swartz to report our issues. Come to find out... his wife is the manager of the company and goes by her maiden name Christine Long. John would not listen and never came out to our home to see the work... he just shut me down and did not care about my concerns. Christine only came out once after we complained that we were going to take them to court. The onsite manager who is supposed to be onsite and go through a walk through before and after was never onsite, and only did a walk through after we came back from vacation to find this mess. We called him he did not call us. Feel free to contact us, or we can provide you with others who have had similar experiences with the same company. We have the pictures and documentation showing everything. When you are selling your house and your realtor comes in and ask if you are planning on painting... you know things went bad. Brian K. and Jamie K.

Their work quality was truly awful, they defaulted on the contract, they did not finish, and they still demand to be paid. I remain shocked by their dishonesty. Their local Better Business Bureau rating it turns out is an *F*... Which was a real surprise, because they seemed professional. I can only characterize my experience with them as disastrous. You should see the pictures. Since they quit I have had 7 (paint store recommended) pros come to the house and every single person was justifiably disgusted by the quality of the work. One said the woodwork is so bad that I might want to consider removing and replacing it. Most used the term *damage* to describe what certapro left. The cost to fix has vastly exceeded Certapros original bid. That they have such a high rating on home advisor is a real surprise. There are so many problems with quality, that the documentation alone has been burdensome. They originally proposed their Level 2 quality. I said I wanted a high level 3, and perfection including sheetrock skim coating and finish to *drywall standard level 5 on several walls that get *critical light*... There is no wall, window, doorway, or surface that does not need sanding and paint. The painting subcontract said that the trim needs to be repainted before he left. They said that they would bring in another crew, but 5 days later the said they would not come back to finish the job because I wanted a Ferrari but I only wanted to pay for a Cadillac. I got a paint job that looks like it was done by someone in a great hurry or did not care. I can show you the pictures, I have at least 500 and it seems like I notice more problems every sunny day. Why did this happen? Well, the painter says it was because the project manager and sales person underbid the job, and refused to give him more to finish. The project manager says it was because I was somehow inappropriate in my communications with the painting crew (which is untrue, and (surprise) never came up until a week after the painter walked off the job. This is a total fabrication.) I will say one thing, James Benton, the PM was not afraid to lie directly to my face and on the phone. He seems like he has a lot of experience dealing with disappointed customers who are easily intimidated. Anyhow, I would hate to see someone get burned like we were by Certapro Twin Cities East.

Couldn't have gone better. The painting crew was wonderful. Did a good job. Very polite. Worked very well together. Hardly knew they were there. Worked very hard and quickly.

Due to cold weather they have not been able to paint yet. Understandable. Great customer service and a professional estimate.

I highly recommend CertaPro Painters Twin Cities East for Exterior painting. They were prompt to schedule estimator (5/2017) and prompt in scheduling paint job (6/2017). Marcello, the paint crew supervisor powerwashed my house the day before painting was to begin and discussed the paint job that they would be doing the next day. A lot of scraping of the wood trim had to be done and Marcello & crew did a fantastic job of scraping and painting my stucco house with black trim. They even applied caulk to gaps around my back screen door and the stucco of my house. For my 1-1/2 story home, it took them only one day! I wouldn't hesitate to hire them again if needed.

They had to reschedule several times for some reason and I was forced to have them come on a Saturday because I wanted it done. They got there late, didn't have the paint, went to get the paint and got paint on the ceiling, get paint on my bathroom vanity, a rug, and there were areas that the old paint showed through and one area near the floor that they missed entirely. I called and complained and got a call about a week and a half later and the painter wanted to come out in a half hour. I was at the pharmacy and had to wait for a prescription and the painter was very put out that I couldn't drop everything and let them come back. They then wanted to come back that evening and I had plans AND I DIDN'T WANT THEM PAINTING AT NIGHT BECAUSE THAT WAS THE PROBLEM IN THE FIRST PLACE--they painted when it was dark, my rooms don't have overhead light fixtures and they couldn't see. The salesman didn't even call to see if we were satisfied or not. I wish I had done it myself!

Had the home exterior painted. The estimate was done quickly. The project started on time and was delayed only by weather. The crew was accommodating to some last minute changes and were quick to fix problems.