CertaPro Painters

Back in 2010 I hired CertaPro Painters to pressure wash and re-stain the exterior of my home and the surrounding decking. I obtained quotes from several different companies, but selected CertaPro because they were recommended by a plumber that I thought seemed honest, Mike Mackin of Mackin & Sons. Tracy Schlitzer was the CertaPro salesperson that came to my home to do an estimate. She went to great lengths to tell me she "understood" what it's like as a single woman to find the right contractor and "assured" me that CertaPro only used their own employees who were qualified and underwent background checks. She specifically told me they DO NOT use subcontractors. Two guys came out to do the job, the project manager "Joe" who oversaw the job but didn't actually do any work, and "Jason" who also happened to have a side business as a locksmith. They used only hot water to wash the house and burned up my hot water tank the first day. Which resulted in me having to pay $300 to the plumber, Mike Mackin, who recommended CertaPro to me. Then they spray painted over all of the landscaping surrounding the deck, including the mature azaleas, and gigantic oak trees--not schrubs that you could easily overlook. Almost seemed intentional. They disappeared for a day, saying they had trouble finding the replacement boards for the wood deck. Carter Lumber is 2 miles from my house. They tried to hand me the final bill without actually painting under the eaves or other areas along the roofline, and left trash under the back deck. They tried to tell me the final bill was $200 more than the contract b/c they needed to buy extra materials. But when I looked closer at the paperwork, they had stapled the 2nd page of someone else's contract to mine. I couldn't believe how unprofessional this company was and didn't think more about it until this spring. That's when I noticed that they didn't actually replace the rotted boards or fill in bee holes and damaged wood at the higher part of the house. I used my digital camera to zoom in and confirmed that they barely painted in some locations. The contract required 2 coats and backrolling of expensive Sherwin Williams stain. Parts of the house are green even though they supposedly used mold/mildew resistant brand. I called Rich Toriello, the owner of CertaPro this spring. He told me at that time that these guys were not even CertaPro workers, but subcontractors and that he no longer uses Jason because of some "problem" that he wouldn't disclose. I have reason to believe that Jason was involved in criminal activity and told Mr. Toriello that I've had break-ins/trespassing since using CertaPro. Despite my obvious concerns, Mr. Toriello refuses to give me the names of the two men who were on my property. IF YOU ARE A SINGLE FEMALE, ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE CHILDREN, I STRONGLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. While I could live with a paint company lying about the quality of the work they do, I am utterly shocked that they would lie and conceal information about their workers. My contract includes information about workers comp liability and had no reason to think that Jason and Joe were not actually employees. I filed a complaint with the corporate office and the local BBB, and decided to post my experience on this site because of the number of people who've also been duped by CertaPro. This was not an inexpensive job, and CertaPro was not the lowest bid. I picked them because of what turned out to be blatant misrepresentations.