Best Plant in Phoenix AZ
Painter
Based on the good reviews here I expected a professional company and while the work was adequate there are a few issues on the business end of things that dropped my rating to 2 stars:
1. Changing the price after the quote was accepted.
2. Very pushy and borderline harassing payment requests.
3. Accounting errors.
4. Online payment problems.
After I submitted a request for a quote Jack got back to me very quickly and provided a bid. It was a reasonable quote so I decided to move forward. He said they had availability for the following week (which was a big plus), and it would be 25% to lock in the day, 25% deposit, and then the final 50% upon completion.
Jack told me that they would accept Zelle (also known as QuickPay/SurePay, depending on who you bank with), or personal check, or credit (which would involve a surcharge.) I replied that Zelle would work for me and promptly set up a payment for the first 25%. I had to do this in two installments however, since my bank caps the amount for transactions to Zelle recipients without established payment history. Jack gave me a bit of a hard time about this which should not have been an issue on their end - at this point no work had yet been performed.
Here is where we had the first issue. It took a few more back and forth text messages with Jack to get payment details worked out. Apparently the owner, Joe, did not have his phone number registered in the Zelle system (only email), so the payments were not being automatically deposited. I remained patient as we sorted through the payment issues.
After this was all sorted out, Jack gave me a call and told me that he had made an error in calculating how much paint would be required due to the finish on my house, and would I mind very much in splitting the difference. This kind of put me on the spot. I didn't want them to try to stretch the paint too thin in order to keep costs down. And based on our previous payment SNAFU above, I also worried about getting my 25% back promptly if I didn't agree to the adjustment. In hindsight, I probably should have cancelled the job here. No honest business should call their customer back and ask them to revise the quote based on an error on their part, especially after the customer has paid the good faith deposit. You eat the extra cost, end of story.
After the work was done, Jack was back on the phone with me to collect the remaining 50% (plus the extra paint add-on). He incorrectly provided me with a balance that did not include credit for all payments that had been made and accepted. After correcting him, once again I promptly set up payment. Once again as well I received multiple follow up texts and phone calls from both Jack and Joe asking me to check things on my end. Again, I felt this was pretty unprofessional. Make sure you have things set up on your end before you harass your customer.
Joe, your business needs to get up to speed on modern payment methods. If online banking is too complex for you then get a bookkeeper who can handle it or insist on paper checks (and accept the loss of business that entails). Your customers have busy lives and they are paying your company for a seamless experience.
1. Changing the price after the quote was accepted.
2. Very pushy and borderline harassing payment requests.
3. Accounting errors.
4. Online payment problems.
After I submitted a request for a quote Jack got back to me very quickly and provided a bid. It was a reasonable quote so I decided to move forward. He said they had availability for the following week (which was a big plus), and it would be 25% to lock in the day, 25% deposit, and then the final 50% upon completion.
Jack told me that they would accept Zelle (also known as QuickPay/SurePay, depending on who you bank with), or personal check, or credit (which would involve a surcharge.) I replied that Zelle would work for me and promptly set up a payment for the first 25%. I had to do this in two installments however, since my bank caps the amount for transactions to Zelle recipients without established payment history. Jack gave me a bit of a hard time about this which should not have been an issue on their end - at this point no work had yet been performed.
Here is where we had the first issue. It took a few more back and forth text messages with Jack to get payment details worked out. Apparently the owner, Joe, did not have his phone number registered in the Zelle system (only email), so the payments were not being automatically deposited. I remained patient as we sorted through the payment issues.
After this was all sorted out, Jack gave me a call and told me that he had made an error in calculating how much paint would be required due to the finish on my house, and would I mind very much in splitting the difference. This kind of put me on the spot. I didn't want them to try to stretch the paint too thin in order to keep costs down. And based on our previous payment SNAFU above, I also worried about getting my 25% back promptly if I didn't agree to the adjustment. In hindsight, I probably should have cancelled the job here. No honest business should call their customer back and ask them to revise the quote based on an error on their part, especially after the customer has paid the good faith deposit. You eat the extra cost, end of story.
After the work was done, Jack was back on the phone with me to collect the remaining 50% (plus the extra paint add-on). He incorrectly provided me with a balance that did not include credit for all payments that had been made and accepted. After correcting him, once again I promptly set up payment. Once again as well I received multiple follow up texts and phone calls from both Jack and Joe asking me to check things on my end. Again, I felt this was pretty unprofessional. Make sure you have things set up on your end before you harass your customer.
Joe, your business needs to get up to speed on modern payment methods. If online banking is too complex for you then get a bookkeeper who can handle it or insist on paper checks (and accept the loss of business that entails). Your customers have busy lives and they are paying your company for a seamless experience.
Phoenix, AZ