The Trusty Painters

Love it. Would definitely hire them again.

The Trusty painting workers showed politeness and professionalism though out the entire job. Will differently recommend Trusty Painters to all my family and friends.

They were fast courteous and neat. You can't ask for better service. Fair price, flexible pay options.

Phenomenal customer service and attention to detail. Would highly recommend and will be using again

We hired Trusty Painters to paint our big, old, worn stucco house. From the moment we paid our 50% deposit of over $6,800 on August 11, our experience was terrible. First, the salesman and project manager, Emmanuel, told us that the work would start one week after we paid the deposit. It didn’t. Instead, the first day of the first work week was no call/no show. The owner John (who now says he’s not the owner) showed up Wednesday, August 26th, the second week, with someone who spent about two hours filling cracks. The worker did not return the next day. My wife contacted John to find out why workers didn’t show. He told her that he had already told me that the workers would come back Monday. With the backdrop of two weeks of no call/no shows, we reluctantly chalked this up to a miscommunication. Either way, a total of two hours of work by the end of the second work week is unacceptable. Second, Emmanuel said that our project would take 10 days, seven of which would be preparation and repairs. Because we experienced so many no call/no shows, we often asked Emmanuel about the crew’s whereabouts and what we could expect regarding their daily schedule. He repeatedly pacified us or kicked the can to John. We asked Emmanuel about rainy days, and he said they could work, power washing, etc. Monday of work week three came and went. More no call/no shows. On Thursday, a new crew showed up unexpectedly. One stayed, power washed the lower third of our home, packed up for the day, and left. Friday was a no call/no show. At that point, completion of our project was a week overdue. On Friday, we sent a note, explaining that this arrangement wasn’t working. The owner promised to take over management of the project. He promised to call in the morning. We told him that we would keep the morning flexible to receive his call. No call Saturday. No call Sunday. Monday, a crew showed up with no explanation. We sent them away. Before they left, one of the crew members explained that management told them not to come the previous week, because they didn’t want to pay if the crew couldn’t work due to rain. (The previous week’s weather had been perfect after a hot Chicago summer—overcast, slightly cooler, drizzle one day only.) Immediately after they left, Emmanuel called, Is everything ok? We asked if he had received our note from Friday. He gave his standard reply—that he forwarded it to John. Nope, we said, John was on the thread. He said you’re off the project. Don’t call again. Immediately, John called. He apologized and asked what he could do to regain our trust. We asked him to do his job, improve his communication, set his weather notifications to our address, complete the project, and fulfil his end of the contract. He said that he would communicate frequently and place the highly regarded Ruben as the lead on the project. We told him that it was in our best interest for him to succeed. We would not prefer to go back onto Angie’s List to search out another service provider. We followed our discussion with a recap email. He agreed to comply. The next three and a half days of week four went well. The lead worker, Ruben, did impeccable work, repairing cracks, scraping the paint, and replacing wood boards. Rightfully, this work took time. One and a half days were spent removing enormous metal awnings. This was all in our contract. We gave John glowing reports about Ruben and his crew. Strangely, the last few hours of the week were spent hastily priming areas that were not yet scraped or repaired. I asked why they were doing that. One worker mumbled a strange answer—something about protecting the house from the elements. The entirety of this week—week four—was focused on the front of the house. This approach matched the contract, which delineated the charge for the front at over $4,800. After a successful week, on Sunday, John texted to ask about paint colors. He wanted to buy paint Monday morning of week five. My wife sent him our inspiration picture to show him the color scheme. He used generic terms like “white” and “off white.” She told him that she needed help with paint colors. He said they didn’t do that and that he couldn’t take paint back once it was tinted. Not only did Emmanuel tell us that Trusty Painters would help us with color selection when we got to that point of the process, [*** Link removed ***] testimonials say, “I loved my color consultation” and “Choosing a house color is a huge decision – one I was putting off. Mary made it so much easier with her great decorating expertise.” John asked if he could call. Once on the phone, my wife told him that we were nowhere near ready to begin painting. He countered that 90% of the repairs had been completed. That was not correct. The crew only worked on one side of our house (there are four sides and a garage, all of which need some repair and all of which, including those repairs, are in our contract). Then, switching subjects, he announced to my wife that he didn’t want her to be scared, but that he had to let Ruben go. He said that he had made an error on a previous project, nothing major, but that he had been warned. He said he was sending a new crew in the morning. Early Monday morning, we sent a text message to John to express that we were disappointed that he chose to dismiss Ruben while he was on our project. Ruben was the only consistent worker, after weeks of no call/no shows from John, Emmanuel and his crew. However, we stated, we understood that he had to make internal decisions for his company. We said we were looking forward to ending strong. We spent the rest of the morning looking for John’s new crew. He changed their arrival time three times, requiring my wife to rearrange her schedule from 9:00 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m. They never came. At 2:00 p.m., we called John to terminate services. We asked for an accounting to determine how much work we would be paying for. He said he would provide it. He did not. Later in the day, he repeatedly asked us to confirm if we needed the crew to arrive the next morning. He said he needed to tell “the office.” That’s when he started claiming that he wasn’t the owner, didn’t know who the owner was, and wouldn’t tell us who his boss was. We asked. He texted that he would be charging us $5,792 for five days of labor on the front of the house. I reminded him that the contract says the charge for the front of the house was contracted to cost $4,800 and that they were not finished with the repairs, let along priming or painting the house. John responded that he was not going to “fight us on this.” He said he would put the balance in the mail. We asked if we could pick up the check instead. He responded that he would ask the office how it worked, since they almost never gave refunds. We asked for a tracking number. He did not give us one. It has been a just over a week, and we have not received any refund. We will never work with this company again, and we are considering filing a lawsuit.

I hired Trusty Painters for an Exterior painting job and the Quality of work was very unprofessional to say the least! I hire them July 1st and the work is still not complete. The Previous paint color is still showing through, several windows and sreens still have paint on them, Paint chips are still All over my patio as well as spilled paint. I contacted the owner Jon and he did come out and inspect but as soon as he left, so did the painters! The Owner and the Workers were very nice but the work was not professional. I would not recommend this company

Very professional. They did a great job and were reasonably priced. Everyone loves the outcome, and it feels like a new house. I would definitely recommend them to everyone.

They did an amazing job! Very professional and prompt with completing my project on time.

Its been very good. The workers were very detailed and they have a good eye for detail and the manager communicates very well, very accommodating and very dependable.

We were really happy. They were very accommodating, prompt, and the price was fair.

It went well. They were neat and professional.