I am a repeat customer of Axcell Painting; my first experience with them was excellent, but this latest experience was very disappointing. My review is long, but I want to make sure customers know what they are signing up for. In the end, I am satisfied with the final painting job, but it came at the expense of a lot of stress and tears, and an increase in overall cost.
TL;DR: Axcell initially sent a painter to paint our house. We were very unhappy with the quality and it took quite a long time for Axcell to respond to our concerns, resulting in unnecessary stress and anxiety. Eventually, Axcell sent in another team of two painters to fix the work, and they did an excellent job.
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We hired Axcell to repaint a house we had just bought. One of the conditions was to have the job completed before we moved in and they had a two week timeframe to do it; they were confident they could complete the job in that timeframe. Delays happened that were outside of their control, and we understood that would mean the project would have to continue after our move-in. But, clarifying what these delays would mean for project completion was not well-managed, and this brings me to the first reason why I removed a point in my score: communication.
Communication: Initial communications were great Rob immediately responded with an estimate, and was prompt and showed up on time for a walk-through of our home to confirm his estimate. However, once the job was booked and the painter was onsite, communication started lacking. From the start we had difficulties with the painter; we felt he wasnt responsive to concerns we brought to his attention, and he thought we were pressuring him. Rob asked that any communications go through him, which I understood. However, calls and texts to Rob often went unanswered. Additionally, on several occasions, Rob would tell us he was going to show up to verify our concerns and the painters work, and would not show up nor answer our follow-up calls asking where he was. This left us in the position of having many concerns that were not being addressed and left us frustrated and unhappy. In the end, he did end up addressing our concerns and sending a different team to fix the work, which Im sure ended up costing him time and money. Had this been addressed earlier when we brought it up, it would have saved everyone a headache.
Quality of Work: We went with a high quality paint Benjamin Moore Aura. The colour we selected (Simply White one of Benjamin Moores most popular colours), though, seemed to cover very poorly and required additional coats. This was the main reason for project delays and also significantly increased the price of the work due to the additional paint and labour required, but I cant fault Axcell for this. The reason for deducting a second point for Axcells score is due to the quality of the painting job which I believe did not meet industry standard for quality for the reasons detailed below:
1) Prep The painter did not adequately prep the walls (patching, sanding, etc.), nor vacuum/wipe down baseboards before painting them, resulting in bumpy texture and bad patch jobs.
2) Tools Im not sure what was going on, but the roller left a lot of lint on the walls. Very visible and the #1 concern regarding the quality of the work. The painter didnt sand in between coats and the lint kept piling on as coats were added. Running your hand along the walls felt the same as running it along a textured ceiling. And from my communications point above, concerns raised about this were not being addressed initially. The painter also didnt bring a shop vac to vacuum particles (and didnt feel comfortable using ours when I offered), and simply painted over the dust on the baseboards. However, the team that came to fix issues and finish the job did sand and repaint the particularly bumpy baseboard areasand yes, they brought a shop vac.
3) Cleanup The painter did not adequately protect surfaces, so there ended up being splatters everywhere, as well as paint on hinges, light switches, hardware and on the hardwood/tile. To his credit, he did try to clean up, but missed half of it. I didnt have the energy to micro-manage the cleanup, so I just took this one and spent a few hours to do it myself. The team of painters that came to fix his work covered and protected all surfaces well, and properly cleaned up any messes they made.
Promptness: Notwithstanding the two week delay on finishing the project, there were several no-shows on both the painter and Robs part. The latter was especially frustrating because we would arrange our schedules to be present at agreed upon times, and Rob would not show up. Sometimes he would let us know that he couldnt make the appointment (always after the passed appointment time), but most of the time he would be a no-show (and wouldnt answer the phone when we called to inquire whether he was coming). Third point taken off.
In the end, Axcell sent a team to correct all the issues, and James and Devon did amazing work. They were nice to deal with, attentive and responsive, and paid attention to detail. However, if you want a painting service with good customer service, and peace of mind that you can be hands-off and the work will be done on-time, on-budget, and a quality result, Axcell Painting may not be the company for you.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $13,000.00