Business ProfileforDesmon's Demo Drywall and Painting

We hired Desmon in July, 2022 to paint the interior and exterior of our home. We paid on time towards the invoice as stated in the contract. We have paid in full, but the painting job is not complete. He partially finished the first week of 11/2022, and said he was coming back out the week before thanksgiving to wrap everything up. He didn't call or show to finish. We touched base with him shortly thereafter, and he let us know he would come out to finish. By January 23, 2023, he still hadn't been out to finish the inside. I also let him know that the exterior of the home wasn't complete, and he acknowledged that it still needed a second coat because he only did a "thin coat with the paint sprayer". He said he would return 1/27/23 to start the exterior, weather permitting. He let me know that morning he couldnt make it and would come out tomorrow, 1/28/23. We didn't hear from him until 2/6/23, when he asked for a list of interior areas that still need to be painted. We sent him the list. On 2/9/23 I told him there would be a break in the weather next week, he replied "Ill let you know what day". On 2/12/23, we asked him which day he was coming so we could get more paint. He said "Friday and saturday". I told him these two days were 90% chance of rain, he said "ill get back with you". On 2/14/23, he texted "Weather will be good monday, can I come then?". Told him yes. On monday (2/20/23), at 10:30am we asked what time he was coming. He replied, "im a terrible communicator. I need two days before and after rain to paint. Its gonna be raining the remainder of the week". He then asked if we would rent him a 40 ft boom lift at $389 day or $1155 per week, so he could paint the second story (he did his first coat of the second story without this lift in october, 2022). We told him no, and reminded him that when we hired him, he assured us he had necessary equipment to reach the second story. On this same day he said he'd come out "tomorrow to thursday to do interior work", which he has yet to do. He texted on 4/7/23 in the morning and said "good morning, thurs, fri, sat of next week I will be out there". We replied "ok, thank you". Thursday 4/13/23 came, and he said "something came up. tomorrow morning I will come". We replied, "ok". Tomorrow came (4/14/23), and we texted him at 9 "what time u guys coming?". He replied "itll just be me. thinking around noon. just got home, taking a nap". At 4:00pm, he still wasn't here andn we texted him "okay whats the plan?". He replied, "my apologies im tired. 10am tomorrow." He showed up the next day. We asked him via text at 5:30pm when his next day back was and he didn't respond. On 4/17/23 we texted him, "need to plan out the week. When are you coming back out?". He replied, "looking at friday (4/21) as of now". We replied, "ok". Friday 4/21/23 came, we texted him at 9:30am for his ETA, no response. We texted him again at 12:30pm, no response. We texted him again at 2:30pm "this is getting ridiculous. We want our house done.", no response. We texted at 3:40, "please respond with your plans on completing our job so we know how to proceed". He replied at 5:15pm, "my apologies, phone has been on airplane mode. Landed at ***. Will return late wednesday. Hoping for friday and saturday weather permitting". We replied, "So now we have to wait another week bc you flew to *** and couldn’t give us a courtesy notice that you had no intention of coming today? I know its not important for you to finish since we paid you in full already, but you haven’t finished what we hired you to do. Perhaps you can send one of your guys to finish on the days you cant?”. He didn’t reply. He came out Thursday 4/27/23 at 11:00am. Before he left, he told me he planned to have the exterior completely done by next week and would take two days. On 5/9/23, we texted him “when are you coming out next? Tomorrow and Thursday are both warm and sunny”. He replied, “it wont be those days. I was eyeing Tuesday and Wednesday of next week”. We replied, “ok sounds good, thank you”. On 5/17/23 we texted him “so its Wednesday, u coming?”. He replied, “can I do Saturday and Sunday?”. We replied, “no desmon, you need to get this done. Please stop taking advantage of us”. We asked for reimbursement for the exterior. He said he didn’t and that’s why he wanted to get it done and blamed it on not having money to rent the lift. We told him there was still a lot of work that could be done that didn’t require a lift. We also reminded him it was almost a year since we hired him, and were still begging him to finish. He didn’t reply. On 5/20/23 he said he was coming the next day at 1pm. He came,did the bottom half of one side of the house. On 5/30/23, we asked him when he was coming to finish. He said “should be there Friday and Saturday (6/2/23 and 6/3/23)”. He didn’t show up and we haven’t heard from him since. So two bottom halves of the exterior of my house is done. The second story is not. The interior of my house needs second coats in many rooms because the original color is showing through. The trim/cutting in on almost all the rooms still needs to be done. The laundry room has a wall that is still the original color. Two baseboards/window frame needs to be replaced (he was hired to do that also). He used high gloss paint on satin paint by accident in several areas, and has yet to fix it. Many outlet covers were never put back on. There is white paint sprayed on my windows and window screens that he hasn’t removed completely. There’s blue painters tape all around the exterior of the house still. The exterior front door frame is already peeling because he didn’t sand or prime it before painting. Hope nobody else has had this same issue with him. 9/14/2023-I found out from several other painting contractors that Desmon did not paint the exterior properly. We have vinyl siding, and Desmon should have sanded, primed, pressure washed (he did pressure wash at least), and then painted with a vinyl safe paint. I asked him before he started last year if he needed a primer and he said no. Today, I informed him of what I learned so he said we’d discuss it when he arrived. He showed up in the morning and tried to start painting the house white. We told him we can’t keep painting it white because the original blue was just going to keep coming through because of his lack of proper preparation. He agreed to finish the house in a darker color. He waited at my house (because his ride wasn’t coming until 2pm) while I got paint samples. I spent $210 in paint samples because I had to get a vinyl safe paint, and their samples only came in quart sizes at $30 each. We picked a color and I told him I would paint the lower half of the house while he did the top. I also said I rent a boom so he couldn’t use the excuse of not being able to get to the second floor safely. He agreed and said he’d come back tomorrow. 9/15/2023- Desmon texted me around 8:30am and said “Morning! Gonna need about 4 rolls of tape and a roll of paper or plastic.”. At 10:30 he wrote back “ok got a slight change of plans. Had to pull kevin to help me finish a job today. I did this so I can guarantee you mon-fri of next week. I wasn’t really prepared to repaint the whole house. Can you have the lift ready by Tuesday?’. My response “We’ve been in line for over a year and you were repainting the whole house anyways, its just not white now. Can’t you put whatever job you have behind ours to get ours done? That’s part of the reason its taking this long, because you keep “taking jobs” on the days you say you’re coming and then cancel us. So here we are over a year later”. No further response from Desmon until 9/18/2023. 9/18/2023- Desmon texted me at 9:00, “im in route now, be there about 10”. He asked if the paper and tape was here. I told him where to look, but if it wasn’t there it means it was in my truck that my husband took for repairs. I said “I’ll get more real quick”. No response from Desmon. When I arrived there was a car parked in the driveway. It was running and a man was in the driver seat. Desmon was waiting out front of my house. Per his request, I bought various supplies to complete the job which totaled $90 worth of supplies and almost $1000 worth of paint. When I handed him the supplies, he said “we need to talk about compensation since I keep coming back out here”. He said he needed $2500 for gas and labor. I explained he was already paid in full $20,000 and we were out over $3000 in paint and supplies because he keeps messing up. He doesn’t have a car so he’s been getting rides from friends. He said the guy in the car was his help for today and he was also his ride here. Then he changed that story to the guy was leaving in an hour, which meant Desmon needed gas money to get home with an Uber. He said “how about you give me gas money so I can give to this guy. I’ll go with him real quick to get gas and then he can drop me back off”. That’s when I sensed he was only there to collect more money from us and had no intention of doing any work. That also explains why the guy he “hired” as his help for the day was waiting in the car. He was simply his ride to try and con honest people out of money. When I told him I wasn’t stupid and I saw right through what he was trying to pull, he requested we paid for his uber/lift to/from our house for the next five days. We refused and told him we paid him $500 in gas allowance in our contract and I told him it wasn’t my problem that he doesn’t have a car or money. I told him we hired him assuming, as layperson would, he had sufficient transportation and he can’t just ask clients for more money because he needs it. I told him we had a contract, and we paid him per the contract. He had the nerve to say “you wanted white, so I painted it white. Its painted. I painted your house like I said I would”. He painted the house worse than my six year old son would have. I couldn’t believe this man was pretty much saying “I never said it would look nice, I just said I would paint it”. I told him we’d have to resolve this with a police incident report and civil court. Then his cost went down to $100/day said “all I’m asking for is $100 a day to get me to and from here. I’ll come by myself’”. I said “how does $100 a day add up to $2500 like you originally wanted? I told him, “let me see how much its gonna cost me to get a lift/uber driver and ill send one to pick you up and bring you home.” He said, “I told you, $100/day”. I realized he just wanted cash and was coming up with any excuse for me to hand over physical cash. He didn’t want me to coordinate an uber because that meant no money would be exchanged between him and I. He basically wanted me to give him money, from $2500 down to $500 and wouldn’t take anything other than that. I felt like I was talking to a drunk, drug or gambling addict who was desperate for money and told a friend he knew where to collect. I reminded him that we agree that I would help HIM finish by painting the bottom half of the house while he does the top. He still had the top half of the house to repaint anyways, but when we had to change the color he tried strong-arming us into paying him more. I told him to at least paint today since he was out here but he said if I wasn’t going to give him gas money he was leaving. I asked him “why are you wasting a full day of work? You had someone drive 30 min from his house to pick you up, to turn around and drive another 30 minutes to “paint”, but you suddenly can’t paint because I won’t hand over gas money? Did you even come here with the intention of painting”. This man stole his services from us because he didn’t complete the job. Nobody hires a painter to paint “one thin coat” even if it means the original color comes through. You hire a painter to paint so it covers up the existing color. The contract doesn’t state “one coat”. It states he’ll paint the exterior. I never thought I’d have to clarify if “painting the exterior” meant “you get what you get, and if I do a terrible job you still have to pay me more to fix it”. He represented himself as if he knew how to paint, which one would assume also meant knowing when your work needs fixing. He doesn’t guarantee his work. He has no transportation. He will take your money and you’ll be lucky if he shows up as scheduled. He also told me I can file a suit in court but it doesn’t mean I’d get anything because he doesn’t have any money to give. He has no business license. No insurance. Nothing like he says he does when you hire him. Had we done better research we would’ve found out he was just a guy who calls himself a painter. He may try to say this isn’t what happened, but I have over a year’s worth of texts and security camera video footage saved. I want him to repay me for the work that isn’t finish, which is 50% of the exterior and 50% of the interior.