Complaint Review: Kevin Blacksher (Elite Painting LLC St. Louis MO))

I've hired Kevin Blacksher along with Curtis Loe for 2,200 sq. ft. interior painting job. Kevin was very persistent and stayed in touch through text and email with me daily. He insisted on an upfront payment of 50% to start on the project. Unfortunately, I gave it to him. It was agreed that the job will take two to three weeks to complete. For about a week everything seemed to go well and progress was steady. However, Kevin left town right around Memorial day to visit his family in Texas and inexplicably took his personal tools along with painting supplies I've paid for with him. In the weeks following Memorial Day, Kevin made numerous attempts to extort more money from me always promising to show up next day or the day after to finish the job but never did so. After six weeks of this charade, I've ended up firing Kevin and hired different company to finish the job. Only recently I've found out that while Kevin was stalling for time, and used every trick in the book to extort more money for the job he had no intention on following through with, he was busy working on numerous smaller painting projects in the area. As to the famed Kevin's "Elite" work quality, I've never actually had a chance to find out because the project was abandoned at wall-sanding and primer stage . All I have to show for largely wasted $2K is a huge waste of time, trash and dirt he left behind along with primer splattered hardwood floors. Last but not least, during Kevin's brief tenure the construction site suffered major theft of power tools. While I cannot prove it one way or the other the timing of theft was very suspicious. The bottom line is - hire Kevin Blacksher at your own risk!