Update: Apparently if you are critical and review CPC you will be called out as a coward, a…read moreschemer, and accused of racial bias by the owner. All because I was following the condo associations rules, especially since my wife is the president of the board, as mentioned. It's a bold strategy cotton, let's see if it pays off for him! He also fails to mention that his conversation with Crystal (a black woman since we're mentioning race) took place 3 days before the job was to be done (and almost 3 weeks after he told me he'd send over the COI). I also paid the deposit for the job and secured the date on May 4th (not the 19th as insinuated). All I have to say is that if you do business with Willie...good luck!
I had hired Cabarello Painters twice before for my rental property, so they were my go-to hire to paint my condo before new tenants were moving in. I called up Willie (the owner) and scheduled about a month ahead of time as we had a tight timeframe between move out and move in. I paid the deposit to secure the slot.
At the time of booking, I informed Willie that per my condo building's rules he had to sign a Certificate of Insurance (COI). This is required for all venders (plumbers, movers, contractors) that do work in the building as it is a high rise. No other contractors/vendors I have used had any issues providing the signed COI per the building's instructions. Willie initially pushed back on this, but after I confirmed the requirements with my Building Manager, he told me that he would "send it to me tomorrow."
About two weeks later I had still not received the COI from Cabarello painters, so I followed up again with Willie, who told me he had sent it, and to ask the Building Manager to "check her spam folder." After confirming that the manager didn't receive anything, I asked Willie a 3rd time if he could provide the required COI. Instead of sending it over, he asked to speak directly to my Building Manager, so I provided the required contact information. After their conversation he called me back angrily stating, "They want me to cover everything to the left, right and above and below - F&%K that, man!" I later found out that he took a similar tone with my Building Manager as well. Three weeks after accepting the job, he told me that he would not be able to do it and he would refund the deposit.
I now was left with only a few days to schedule new painters in the tight timeframe between move out and move in. If Willie had simply been honest up front and told me that he could not or did not want to do the job because of the insurance requirements for vendors, I would have understood and simply found another painter, which I ultimately had to do under extreme time pressure. Instead, I was lied to multiple times and treated very poorly, especially for a repeat customer. I was very disappointed that this happened because I had used Cabarello painters before at my rental property and was satisfied.
Finally, to add insult to injury, my deposit was paid back to me after a month, instead of the 15 days that Willie had promised me on the phone and I was not refunded a "materials" fee, which he had never mentioned. Unfortunately, it seems to be Willie's MO - telling you one thing and then doing another. After hiring Cabarello Painters for multiple jobs in the past I will not hire them again.
