Fillo Painting

Initial experience was excellent & after a few walk-throughs & going over details(interior & exterior), we felt confident the company would live up to the quality & attention to detail they advertise. 1st day the owner & crew showed & our hopes of a good job started to diminish. No idea of what was to be painted, alarming as we been over the details more than once. Did another walk through pointed out some particulars, one being a Poplar Shiplap wall DO NOT PAINT. Also said needed 2 coats of paint on the ceilings, salesman said only 1. Which added an additional $682.50 to our $8,625 quote. The communication was challenging during the whole project as they spoke little to no English. They covered our 2 air units outside with plastic while running 4 hrs we received alerts stating a problem with cooling systems. PM said have HVAC Co look at them & they will reimburse us cost $89.95. While doing the interior, we found they had patched & primed all the knots & natural details on the shiplap & were ready to paint it! They insisted no one told them NOT to paint that wall. They used some solution to scrub the filler & primer off, this made it 10x worse. Got an invoice from Fillo asking for a prompt payment when the job was not even completed. Called the office & asked why we were getting the invoice before the completion of the job & were told “the crew is SUPPOSED to finish today so we want to make sure you pay today. Told them we’ll do a walk through with the PM as there was much to be discussed notably the shiplap wall they ruined. After the crew left, did a walk around & found multiple discrepancies including exterior facia, soffit & Corine boards were not prepped correctly & paint was bubbling, interior trim, crown molding & baseboard was only spot painted uneven lines where the wall meets the ceiling & baseboards, paint drippings on the roof in areas where they had to paint facial board, etc. Numerous spots on the patio where it looks like they had walked over the patio with a dripping brush. Their van leaked oil on our driveway when told not to park there! Apparently 3 of the painters were inexperienced for interior work & were told by the owners to get the job done quick. Met with the PM he agreed that this was not the quality of work Fillo accepts & will have everything corrected. PM looked at the wall & said he would have a professional wood craftsman come out to repair it. Instead, they requested to try painting the shiplap wall with the same type of paint/stain/technique that the builder had used (information was provided to them). They weren’t understanding due to the language barrier & they started to roll the paint on the shiplap & going around the knots creating square imprints. We told them to stop & leave it. The other discrepancies were corrected by the two head painters. Met again with PM & asked how this could possibly have happened with multiple walk-throughs & even on the day they started we told the owner “Do Not Paint that Wall”! He apologized & said he would discuss replacing the wall with his boss. He got with his boss, a second owner (the son) & he called us trying to smooth things over & come to some conclusion. The conversation became heated, & after several minutes of getting nowhere, we asked to have the wall replaced. The son said he would get back to us but asked that we pay our invoice. We insisted nothing would be paid until the job was completed & we were 100% satisfied. He said he really needed the money so he could pay his workers! We could not believe such a notion would come out of his mouth! Why were we suddenly responsible for ensuring their crew got paid? We were told they were not contracted out & worked directly for Fillo we became skeptical about this. After back & forth, the son came back & said don’t think he could meet our expectations & not going replace the wall. But he would take $1000 off of the invoice. We reluctantly agree to $1,500 discount (original cost of wall was $2500). Sent us a revised invoice which credited $1500 but removed the $89.95 credit for the HVAC they agreed to pay. We requested the $89.95 be credited back thinking it was removed in error. The son called & became rude & even combative saying we were taking money from their workers & we should not be asking for anything & they will not be doing any further business with us including honoring their warranty. He also stated he was in his rights to file a lien on our home because we were way past due on payment even though the job was not 100% completed. He said he would revise the invoice & will be sending his painter to pick up payment & to note that we do not want him to be the one to come to our house, I asked if he was threatening me & he hung up. No one showed to pick up payment & the next day we mailed a check & they held for 2 weeks before depositing it. We are still finding discrepancies. 2 neighbors used them & had their own issues-agreements signed before our work was completed.

Fillo painting did a horrible job on out home in May. We had to get a licensed inspector to check their work because of some issues we were having with the paint from Sherwin-Williams. The report shows that their caulking was sub standard on every window and could lead to water damage. Fidel Blanco used personal attacks to deflect from owning their inferior work on our home. They have been advised of the problems and they refuse to fix them. The caulking on hardy plank, the caulking on all windows is terrible. It looks like the paint job is years old. Fidel also said Sherwin Williams paint even when you use duration doesn’t last five years.