Eric’s Painting Services

I wish I went with my instincts from the beginning if it’s too good to be true then it is — I have read all the reviews and you all are lucky that you did not use him. I was referred to Eric because his wife and I are in the same organization so I decided to go with Eric. Eric showed up and seemed very professional and sent me a quote that same night (too good to be true) When I came home after the first day of painting I found a complete disaster but I was sure he would make it right so when Eric showed up the next day I pointed out the problems and he agreed to fix them. Well by the end of the second day it was a disaster his work was horrible — I gave a check to his wife for 1192.80 (which he ran to the bank to cash) and then tried to put a stop on the check but too late. I invited his wife to look at it and she was apologetic and said he would fix it or refund my money, I reluctantly agreed to let him fix it — he was very combative, rude and obviously doesn’t know how to paint. I had other Realtors come through and contacted Benjamin Moore paint — Eric uses cheap paint that is meant to be put through a sprayer– my rooms were full of drip marks, missed paint, roller marks, old color bleeding through, craters and lumps from lack of filling and properly sanding the walls. I am taking Eric to small claims court and reporting him to the BBB. He charged me for paint he never used I am sick to my stomach you all should count your blessings that he did not show up. I ended up spending an additional $ 900 to have the three bedrooms and small bath patched sanded and repainted with the proper paint so you bet I am reporting. DO NOT HIRE THIS COMPANY!!!

I– like many of the other filtered and unfiltered reviewers– purchased a groupon for Eric’s Painting Services. After 3 months of countless phone calls, voice mails, and emails, I never heard ONE WORD from Eric’s Painting Services. I even threatened to report them to the BBB– but that did nothing! To this day I still have never heard from Eric’s Painting Services. Beware future Groupon buyers– this company never has any intention of carrying our the service you prepaid for.
I am in the process of requesting a refund from Groupon. I hope no one else falls into the same trap I did!

If I could rate them a 0, I would have!
We made an appointment on 11-​17-​2011 for 1-​30-​2012 between 8:30 and 9:30am. Not only did they pull a NO-​SHOW, they did not return any of our calls or emails. I did some research and noticed this company have a 1.5 out of 5 stars rating on
, and I wish I had known this before I contact them. My wife and I both lost a day of work and ended up painting the room ourselves.
DO NOT HIRE ERIC’S PAINTING SERVICES (the word service is used loosely).

We learned about Eric’s Painting through a friend and on Groupon. Our friend had used the service through a similar Groupon offer and indicated they did a «decent» job. The offer was $ 89 for a 10×10×8 (or smaller). We assumed that this would include both walls and trim — what I would consider a standard paint job, and the offer did not indicate there were any exclusions.
After obtaining the Groupon, I contacted Eric’s painting both by phone (left voicemail) and by email. In both messages I indicated we had a Groupon certificate and wanted to set up a date for painting. To date I have never received a response to either message. A week after not hearing from them, I suggested my fiancé call and not mention the Groupon certificate until he actually got someone on the phone. I do not know whether it’s coincidental, but they did return my fiancé’s message (possibly they thought this could be a job they could charge their full fee for?).
My fiancé asked about what was included in the job and that was when we learned the Groupon offer is for the walls only. When my fiancé pointed out this was not disclosed in the ad Eric didn’t seem to feel that was a problem. He indicated they would paint the trim if we wanted, but for an additional fee (I later confirmed with my friend that she was not aware that the offer did not include painting the trim — she had not asked for her trim to be painted as she was happy with her trim color).
We were not thrilled but went ahead and set up a date for painting — we called them in October I believe, and were told the earliest date available was the end of January. As the date got closer we tried checking in with them (in part based on our early experience with the non-​responsiveness of the company) via voicemail twice to confirm that they were coming on the scheduled date at the scheduled time. We never received a response. My fiancé finally emailed Eric and told him we really needed to confirm the date as one of us would be taking time off from work, and he did receive a short response that «we were on the schedule» however it did not confirm the time.
During the time between the unanswered voicemails and the email we received, I had begun to get uncomfortable/​nervous about the company and started looking at reviews on this site and on Angie’s List and was very disturbed (the Angie’s List review shows pictures of the work done). Though we did heard back (after 2 phone calls and an email), we had already decided that we did not feel comfortable having Eric’s painting perform the service. We had spent a weekend ourselves prepping, sanding and painting the trim in the room (that was not included in the service Eric’s was to perform), and I was not going to chance a sloppy paint job on the walls that could also ruin the painting we did.
I was able to call Groupon, who were EXTREMELY accommodating and told me if I didn’t want to have the work performed at all I could cancel the offer and they would credit my Groupon account. I will be able to use the credit toward another offer.
I took the refund and will be cancelling our appointment with this service (the Groupon credit appeared immediately on my account page, as promised).
It’s possible that Eric’s painting is fine (my friend said he did a decent job), however for me it was a combination of the lack of responsiveness to our attempts to contact them, the failure to disclose exactly what the service includes/​excludes, and some poor reviews of their work that makes me believe I am making the right choice in not contracting with them.

We had scheduled something in July 2011 but I had to cancel because my grandfather died. I have tried to contact them no less than 5 times to reschedule but they haven’t responded to me in two months. I purchased two rooms for painting and have already pre-​paid. I am expecting another baby in July and all I want to do is for them to come through on what I have already paid them, but alas, they do not respond to me.

I really don’t like posting negative reviews but the experience with Eric’s Painting was not a good one. We recently used Eric’s Painting as part of a Living Social deal. Between the bait-​and-​switch tactics, cancellations, unfinished work, spotty communications and personal insults, the experience with Eric’s Painting Services was extremely disappointing.
To summarize our experience, we paid Eric’s Painting for work that was never finished without using the Living Social vouchers. The whole reason we brought Eric’s Painting in was to utilize the Living Social vouchers we purchased – and then pay for additional work. Instead, Eric’s Painting partially performed the additional work first and we paid him for that after day one – against our better judgment since the work was not finished and we hadn’t yet applied the vouchers.
Eric’s Painting Services could not return on several occasions to finish the entire job cancelling last minute. After the second cancellation, the owner emailed us saying he would be contacting Living Social to request a refund for our vouchers. This request did not make sense to us as we wanted to utilize the vouchers, not get a refund on them – especially after we paid for unfinished work.
When we asked the company instead to credit our credit card and apply the vouchers FIRST, the company refused and sent me an email calling my wife and I «by far the most arrogant people i have ever met.» If arrogant means asking for someone to finish a job and do quality work, we are guilty as charged. Even after the insult, I gave the company a last chance to make things right before posting this. There was no response.
Maybe we caught Eric’s Painting Service on a bad day or maybe the stress from the onslaught of Living Social requests hurt the company’s delivery. If you decide to move forward with Eric’s Painting, you should consider:
* The length of time it takes for Eric’s Painting to return calls/​emails. For us, it was at least several days on several occasions. This wasn’t a deal breaker for us but it was one of several issues.
* Ask about prep and taping. Does Eric Painting tape all trim and adjacent walls? For us, the answer was no. The result was paint bled onto adjacent walls and trim. Eric’s Painting seemed perplexed when we asked them to touch up trim that paint got on it. This is something a painter should fix on his own – not something an owner should have to point out.
* Ask about how long Eric’s Painting waits between coats. For us, it was immediately after the first coat was finished in a room (1 – 2 hours). This can partially be attributed to one of the rooms being extremely streaky and requiring another coat.
* Ask about final payment. Based on our experience, I would recommend holding out final payments until the job is complete to ensure the company returns in a time manner.
* If you agree to use Living Social Vouchers and pay for additional work, ensure the vouchers are applied first.
The only reason for two stars is Eric brought his mom to paint on the day that the company painted. Eric’s mom was extremely nice.
Hope your experience is better than ours.
One final note: Living Social did refund the voucher component of the deal so we are happy with Living Social.