Owner Jeff Mullen arrived with a trainee on the appointed day to provide an estimate. Throughout the estimate he stressed his company's prep work and really sold me on that. I pointed out our stairway banister and the numerous chips in the old paint. I asked what he would be able to do with it. He said it would be absolutely no problem, he had seen much worse, and again stressed that the job was "90% prep, 10% paint." Although his estimate was higher than the other 2 companies we looked at, we hired Action Painting because we had confidence they would do the job right. <br /> The work was done by 2 painters over the course of 2 days. One painter, Cesar, spoke excellent english while the other spoke none at all. We talked to Cesar about the work to be done, minor repairs to be made to walls, and the need to sand the chips in the banister to blend them in. He assured us all would be done to our satisfaction. <br /> Ultimately, we are happy with most of the work performed, but dissatisfied with the banister. Cesar did an excellent job with the minor wall repairs, and he and his partner did a nice job with all walls and ceilings. We are especially impressed with the nice clean lines in the transition from one color to the next on adjacent walls. They left very little mess, except for some drips on the carpeted stairs that must have gotten past the covering. <br /> The banister is a different story. The numerous chips were never sanded, blended, primed, or prepped in any way. They are clearly visible through the new paint. The railing itself has a rough feel to it because it was rolled on instead of brushed. I made these complaints known to the owner, Jeff, and for the first time since the estimate he came out to the house to see for himself. Jeff then proceeded to argue with me about the banister and accused me of having unrealistic expectations. He kept referring to the visible chips as "wood imperfections" and said there was nothing that could be done, save for removing the banister and "floating" it in new paint. From the attached representative photos you can clearly see they are old chips, not imperfections. I was not expecting the banister to look like new, but I was expecting it to look better than new paint slopped on unprepared wood. Jeff even argued that he only charged me $50 for the banister, intimating that I shouldn't expect better, even though the charges were never broken down separately in this $1500+ job. I was very disappointed in his response to our complaints. Ultimately he offered to have one of his painters stay for 30 minutes to "try and make it look better." A real professional would fix it right, instead of placing an arbitrary time limit on repair work. I declined his inadequate offer and will fix it myself. <br /> Although most of the work was done well, our disappointment with the banister overrides our satisfaction with the rest of the job. I was especially disappointed with owner Jeff Mullen's response to our complaints. After being sold on his "90% prep, 10% paint" sales job, I feel like we were taken by a company that does not stand behind their promises. I will not hire Action Painting again, nor will I recommend them to friends and neighbors. <br />