Your Neighborhood Painter

"The project was 80% finished and we needed 5 more gallons of paint in a purple-gray. Sherwin Williams couldn't tint paint to the same exact color. I negotiated on behalf of the client and secured a full refund on the material (approximately $1,000 in material) and refunded my labor cost. Sherwin continued to tint paint at no additional cost to the client and I continued to provide labor at no cost. Almost 30 gallons of paint and 3 months later Client has yet to be satisfied with any shade of purple-gray that Sherwin attempted to match against a cabinet door. I shifted the burden onto the client to manage the color matching process for obvious reasons and suggestions."

"We at Your Neighborhood Painter take every client's project very seriously and we regretted how the last few days developed that led to this escalating to a 1-star review. The work was 80% finished when a 1 in 500,000 events occurred that set us back and I never got a chance to finish because the client was so upset that I chose to protect $8K in equipment from being ruined over finishing hanging her cabinets on a Friday at 9ish PM that she told me that I was fired. The details are below for a more complete response. Background Context Unfortunately, this project really started to fall apart when I was 1 day late on my 2-week timeline. As a side note to any viewing prospective client, I am not a general painter; I am a finishing painter that specializes in applying specialty coatings that deliver a glass-like finish. The client describes the material as toxic, but it is a Sherwin William lacquer derivative material engineered specifically for gorgeous wood finishes. It does smell terrible but all lacquer materials smell terrible. The client kept highlighting how other painters quoted her a 3-day completion date compared to my 2-week completion date. If I am a client and I am paying $3K+ for a perfect finish on my cabinets and another $3K on all other stuff, I do not want someone rushing through my project. I am not the right service provider for those that want rushed work. Background Context Continued... I did not want to bring cabinet doors back on site until all painting was finished, but the client understandably wanted her kitchen back so we started the reassembly process during a painting production run, which meant I had two operations set up in her garage given her request that we change plans at the last second: paint finishing operations for all of her regular doors, trim and baseboards and cabinet assembly. The Event. We had all of her cabinet doors staged in her garage for hanging when the pressure line in my equipment burst and paint splatter ruined the finish on about 80% of her doors and paint splatter happened to hit small sections of her garage and driveway. I have filed an insurance claim and that is currently being addressed through insurance. The Escalation Point. We worked through that setback with the client giving me 1-day extensions, which meant working 12+ hours per day, which is fine but my equipment needs regular maintenance and cleaning given the material I use. By Friday my equipment (I have 2 finishing air-assisted sprayers valued at $8K in total) was clogged with paint and needed emergency maintenance. At 9 PM I was attempting to leave the client's house with my second rig, so I could go to my shop and perform maintenance on my equipment when she took the truck keys out of my truck and told me she did not care about my equipment being messed up and that I was not going anywhere until I finished hanging her cabinet doors. Obviously this is very illegal but I believe in letting God fight my battles so I grabbed the spare set out of the middle console and went home and explained I would be back on the next day to finish. The client decided she did not want me to finish her project despite me insisting that she allow me to finish, even at no cost to the client. I concede to the fact that I should have project managed things differently so the kitchen was more accessible sooner in the process, but I do operate from the perspective that I try to protect the refinished doors from any and all risks."