Complaint Review: The floor guys

We recently engaged the floor guys for a minor painting work in our apartment. We were referred to this company by a trustworthy realtor and hence we placed a great deal of trust in them. The major portion of the work involved repainting kitchen cabinet doors. Since we wanted the work to be completed before move in, we gave the keys to them so that they could finish the work. We paid the initial amount (1000USD) by check so that the work could be started.

The work was done during a weekend and we were about to move in the following Friday. The work was completed as promised and we visited the apartment on Sunday evening. We were not really happy with the work done on the cabinet doors. Some of the items we had placed in the cabinet were in the same place - the possibilities are either the paint dried very quickly and they placed them in the same way we kept them OR not the entire cabinets were painted.

The next few days, we were busy packing our stuff and in the meanwhile we got a text from them that they wanted the remaining amount(600 USD) to be paid in cash. While we could smell something fishy, we still told them that we could meet in the new apartment on the Friday when we move in.

We did not get any confirmation about the meeting from him. We moved in the new apartment on the Friday. My wife was 32 weeks pregnant and we have a 20 month old. So the move was hectic. In the evening we get a call from Eli Molina, who runs the company, that he is waiting in our old apartment. We told him that we had just moved in and that we could meet him the next day and hand over the remaining amount. He started talking very rude to my wife and he wanted the money immediately. We felt good talking to him in the previous conversations. However his behavior was completely different that day and after listening to the way he spoke on the phone, we decided not to do any business with him in the future. He then came to our apartment, waiting outside in the street in a pick up truck with blaring music. He refused to come up to our apartment so we could not discuss about the quality of the work with him. We just gave him the remaining amount in cash to avoid any untoward events. He was having our apartment keys. We were lucky enough to get it from him in the following week.

Later when we spoke to some of our friends, we realized that, with a portion of the amount we spent for the work, we could have painted the entire apartment. And just a month after the work is done, the cabinet doors paint is already starting to peel off.

We wanted to share our experience with the floor guys with the rest of the world so that anyone engaging in a business with them in the future could think twice before deciding to work with them.