I AM AN EX EMPLOYEE of CWP. They are essentially hiring college kids to do $5000 paint jobs when they have never painted before. Avoid them at all costs. They train you how to sell really high and reward people who make sales. Kids are encouraged to over charge things and still make sales using their social skills. If you dont do well, they fire you and take your sales.
On top of all of the disastrous paint jobs, they treat their employees poorly. They dont pay you fully and I had to threaten a lawsuit to get paid for the work I did.
Oh yeah they also recently got sued by another former employee and there was a settlement, I wish someone would take them to court rather than settle because they are a SHADY business.
Posted on 5/29/2011
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We had our deck done by College Works Painting in the fall of 2010 and we had them come back this spring and give us a quote on the rest of the house. My wife and I were very happy with the manager and his crew last year, and even though he was no longer a manager this year we were happy to have one of their new managers out to work with us. Jeremiah called us in March this year to see how everything went with the project last year even though he was not the manager that did the deck. After explaining that Tom, our manager from last year, had since graduated and moved on we were happy to work with him. He came out and gave us an estimate in more detail then any other contractor has ever done. After looking at his prices I initially thought they were a little higher than they should be, I got three other estimates and found his to be right in the middle just like he told me they would be. I called the other contractors to see exactly what they would be doing on the job, after finding that none of them would go into the detail that he did with our estimate I knew that he was the right person for the job. Jeremiah and his crew just finished our home last week and we could not be happier with the experience. Everything went great, the initial color we picked out did not look like we thought it would when he came out before the job started to do the test patch, so we picked out a new color and he did another test patch before starting. The new color turned out wonderful, and their prep work was above and beyond what I anticipated. They spent 3 days scrubbing, scraping, and using a bonding primer before they started to paint. They kept our yard very clean and my wife was exceptionally happy that they were able to maneuver around the flowers without hurting a single one. I would recommend College Works Painting to anyone, the time they spent and quality of work they did I see as a bargain, while we could have found someone else slightly cheaper we never could have found the same quality for the price they gave us. I really wish more customers would post their experiences, its a shame that the only people that will take the time to post a review are the very few that were not happy with their experience.
Posted on 5/24/2011
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Hired College Works Painting of Irvine CA to paint the outside of my house. What a mistake. I now have more damage and work to do to fix what they messed up. Paint applied over dirt, paint bubbled up, some of house not painted, windows not caulked, paint colors run into each other, paint and overspray on my brick porch, walkway, all outside plants, lawnmower, bar, grille, porch rails damaged, many "no shows" or late arrivals with no phone calls. Paint brushed/tools cleaned in flower bed and not washed down. Paint chips, trash and paint cans left in my yard.
I am still waiting for a manager to contact me regarding my complaints.
NEVER, NEVER let them paint your (or someone you know) house.
Posted on 8/9/2010
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Items that were not fulfilled per contract and damages incurred by College Works Painting. We signed a contract with a 5 year warranty for more money. Most of the items below were contained in their contract we signed. The items below is a summary of the extremely poor job and damages caused by this company. The house probably looks worse today then before they painted....A lot of chipping and peeling of paint all over and damages incurred.
Wood Siding Fascia and trim – little or no sanding, some scraping drop cloth hardly used. Paint chips all around the house.
Power wash of the house – just happened without any notification found paint chips all around the house.
No daily clean up of paint chips.
NO masking off of any area – around windows or fixtures
Oil Based Primer spilled – almost a third of a can of paint on one spot of the lawn. Then three other areas of lawn had the primer spilled.
Paint all over the deck – spills, foot prints, - both the on the deck and the steps.
Paint on the front porch and steps.
Paint all over our storage bin and our hose.
Drain pipes not reconnected properly and one fell onto the driveway where it could have fallen on someone or new 2009 Saturn Vue if it had been parked in the driveway at the time. Also one day a drain pipe was left lying on our lawn.
In the back paint has already chipped off where it had been painted – this area is now bare wood…..All over the house there are chipped off paint.
Our one requirement was: Once the painting has been completed the house would look refreshed and THERE WOULD NOT BE ANY PAINT PEELING….Yet there are many areas that require sanding because they are chipping off.
There are additional areas that need sanding because you can see two levels of paint…
There are several areas of dead grass where the paints and painting material was stored and ladders.
FINAL DAMAGE – FOUND PAINT ON daughter’S NEW 2009 SATURN VUE. Do not know if it is the oil base primer or the paint. Also spray paint on the rear of the car and window.
Spray on our grill, deck chairs, deck tables and our air/heating unit.
Due to the spray painting of the house windows were covered with paint.
Also the windows, light fixtures and doors were covered with spray paint.
Last week the one of the drain pipes that was not reconnected correctly it fell and I had to hire someone for reconnect it correctly.
Bottom line I am probably go to file a claim with Small Claims Court. Not only did my house not get the paint job promised via their contract. My house has damage all over and now I have a lot of work that must be completed due to their incompetence.
This month a young man representing College Works Painting knocked at my door attempting to sell their services again because obviously my house does need painting.
Posted on 3/26/2010
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Beware; this company waaaay overcharges. I received a quote from them that was FIVE times what a local, experienced company is charging me.
Posted on 9/11/2009
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They talk the talk and don't walk to walk. Inexperience….period. I agreed to use College Works when a young man came to my door selling house painting services. This man had exceptional communication skills and was an eagle scout. We decided to go ahead with College Works because he was going to manage the project. He explained that they do an exceptional job and that their prep time is most of their work and their “crews” spend a lot of time on prep work. I agreed to paint my one story house for $4,052 which included a 5% discount for signing a contract that day. I typically would get a few more quotes but I was confident that they were going to do a lot of wood prep and sanding and make the wood look "almost new", not just a tape and paint job. I was confident that I could have a competent person managing our project.
So when it came time to begin painting, I got a call from a different college student stating that he was going to take over as project manager. (I think the eagle scout quit because he was enlightened and saw that this company is a joke.) This is when things went down hill. He went against almost everything that the first person said. Bottom line is this. Hire a professional painter with skills. College work is extremely over priced and does poor work. They just take their money off the top and then leave the responsibility up to the student who manages the job to get the project done at whatever price they agreed to piece it out for. And to top everything off, while I was at work, the manager asked my wife for a check before we had a walk around as we had agreed to. He even charged her the full price without my 5% discount shown on the contract. When I came home and called him he said he could come out and do the walk around tomorrow. He said that they would refund our 5% discount too. At this point I was over the whole project. He “finished” and there comes a point when I just wanted him to leave. I don't blame the manager; he was just young and inexperienced. I wasn't going to get any more out of him than what I got. I chalked it up as a lesson learned. To top it off, he left three trash bags of paint supplies and two empty 5 gallon buckets on the side of my house. It has been 2 weeks and I have called him twice to ask about my 5% that discount and my phone calls have not been returned. I still have trash bags on the side of my house and a blow and go paint job that was performed by a one man crew.
Posted on 9/7/2007
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