Complaint Review: Leoutaskos Painting Company John Leoutaskos owner - Atkinson New Hampshire

Leoutaskos Painting Contractor, owned by John Leoutakkos, of Atkinson, New Hampshire agreed to complete a Paint Job to my home.  As soon as he agreed on the price for the job, he wanted to come to my home to sign the contract and receive the 50% Deposit in advance of any work being done.  I told him that I would pay the 50% and sign the contract when they showed up, ready to go to work.  They were supposed to bring 40 ft ladders and other equipment.  Instead, he and his female additional painter showed up with nothing more than paint brushes.  

I knew that I should not sign the Contract and should not pay the deposit until they arrived with their painting equipment.  The front of the house has a peak that is 40 ft in height.  The sides have four dormers that are located on the 3rd story of the house. 

I already had my staging in front of two of the dormers.  I had one forty foot ladder and one 30 ft ladder on the premises for the painters to use. Even so, they did not even use my staging or attempt to do any work on the dormers or front peak facing the street.

Instead of arriving with their equipment to paint the peak in front and to paint the four dormers, they arrived with nothing but paint brushes.  I saw no other equpment.  They were supposed to bring a truck which was supposedly filled with painting equipment and high ladders.  They arrived in a car with no equipment.

Reluctantly, I signed the Contract and paid the $750 check to them.  They two painters painted for about 4 hours total,left at about 3 p.m. with  a great deal of painting to a  house and attached townhouse remaining to be painted.

The Contract omitted many items that had been agreed upon.  I had to extracate most of the items which needed to included from the owner who was very reluctant to make the corrections to the contract.

What they actually painted were trim to a few windows.  The scraping had already been completed beforehand by other parties.  The trim had already been primed.  In addition, John Leoutaskos painted perhaps on tall trim board.  I cannot go through the entire property to list every item that may have been painted.  Basically, a few trim on windows had been painted on the first floor windows, no ladders involved.  John Used my ladder to paint the one higher trim board that he painted.  He also painted a small section of about 2 ft wide and perhaps 30 ft high.

The company was supposed to arrive on Monday morning, sign the contract, receive the deposit and begin paintinf the four dormers and front peak facing the street.  I already stated what they did instead.

They said they would return the next day to work on the high areas. 

After painting the few windows, and other items above, John began to ask me to agree to pay 25% after he painted the four dormers.  I did not want to argue, but finally told him I would only pay after the job was completed.

The next day, very sunny day, the painter did not arrive.  The painters did not call me.  I waited about 4 hours, then finally called to complain.  the painter said it was too windy and said they would be back the next day.  The next day came and went.  Again, no show from the painters.  Again, the Painters did not even bother to call me. 

Looking at the weather forecast, the next two weeks rain is forecast nearly every day. 

Saturday, six days after they were supposed to arrive with all of their equipment and get up on the roof to work on the dormers, it is, of course, raining, so no painting can be done.

I have yet to see or to meet the parnter that John has referred to repeatedly and who has all of the equipment.

I am infuriated that they could have completed much of the high work on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday which were beautiful sunny days, ideal for exterior painting.  I even had seven gallong of paint here on hand for the painters to use.  Thursday, it was windy.  Still, they could have painted low areas without a ladder in spite of the wind.  Friday, again, it was a beautiful sunny day with no wind on the premises.

During six entire days, all that was completed were a few window trim were painted.  This did not even include the trim around the window panes.  Just about 4-5 inches of wood around the windows.  And the other trim I mentioned above.  Four hours work completed during six entire days.

I would not hire this company again and certainly not pay 50% in advance. 

If they did not want to do the job, they should not have prepared and signed a contract and certainly  should not have acepted and should not have cashed the check for 50 % which I paid them.

In addition, every contrqct who works outdoors knows the weather forcast long in advance.  These painters had to know that it will be raining for most of the next two weeks.

All of these contractors seem to think that people who hire them have nothing but time on their hands to chase them around and nothing but eons of money to provide them, whether they work or not.

I have a great deal of experience in hiring parties to perform work on premises.  These painters seem to think they can convince me with words that they are working when I can see with my own eyes what had been done and what had not been done.