College Works Painting Reviews, Complaints & Contacts

Contacts & Payment

PhoneEmailAddress

• Official websitecollegeworks.com ↗

Customer service & general contact

• Customer care email[email protected]

Cancel, billing & returns

• Online payment portalpayments.collegeworks.com ↗

Corporate & press

• Corporate office, warranty and payments by phone(888) 450-9675 3 complaints mention this number

Other contacts

• Warranty registration formcollegeworks.com/homeowners/warranty-form ↗
• Request an estimatecollegeworks.com/homeowners/estimate ↗

Locations

• Headquarters1682 Langley Ave Irvine CA 92614

Is College Works Painting Legitimate?

BBB, Trustpilot

Legal name

College Works Painting, LLC

Founded

1993

Business type

Residential painting company operating through a student internship program

Website

collegeworks.comSource: College Works website, checked 2026-11-02

Headquarters

Irvine, CASource: College Works website, Contact, checked 2026-11-02

Owned by

National Services GroupSource: College Works leadership page, checked 2026-11-02

Independent Sources

Shown for context — not merged with USAComplaints' own numbers.

Complaint Themes

Themes summarize what people write about most often. One complaint can touch several themes, and some complaints (a positive report, or one later retracted by its author) fit none, so themes are not a count of complaints.

Reviews & Complaints on USAComplaints

USAComplaints currently maintains 10 historical complaints about College Works Painting, published between 2007 and 2012. No approved complaints have been published on this site during the last three years. For a current reputation snapshot, see the independent sources on this page.

• Internship Call and Campus Food Court Pitch Look Like BaitPublished Feb 8, 2012 · Historical consumer allegation
• Painters Skipped Scraping and Left Paint Buckets on LawnPublished Jan 29, 2012 · Historical consumer allegation
• Summer Workers Paid Weeks Late and Bonuses WithheldPublished Nov 21, 2011 · Historical consumer allegation
• Franchise Owner Gave No ROE or T4 and Owed WagesPublished Jul 15, 2011 · Historical consumer allegation
• Constant Phone Calls Continued After 19 Requests to StopPublished Jul 24, 2010 · Historical consumer allegation

Complaint Record

10 published complaint reports are linked to this profile.

Reports posted on this site between 2007 and 2012 describe, in the posters' words, missed or rescheduled appointments and a refused refund after a deposit (homeowners), unfinished or uneven painting and slow responses to complaints (homeowners), repeated sales calls after a request to stop (a homeowner), and late pay or bonuses and a recruiting presentation (current or former student workers). These are individual accounts and allegations, not findings.

BBB. The BBB profile for College Works Painting in Irvine shows an A+ rating and BBB accreditation since February 2015. It lists 11 complaints in the last 3 years, 4 of them in the last 12 months, and 142 customer reviews with an average of 4.54 out of 5. BBB does not use customer reviews in its rating. These figures are for the Irvine headquarters listing; BBB shows 17 College Works Painting locations in all.

Trustpilot. The claimed Trustpilot page for collegeworks.com shows a TrustScore of 4.7 from 88 reviews.

BBB and Trustpilot figures come from those sites and are not added to the reports posted here.

If You Hired College Works Painting: Steps and Contacts

• Start with your student manager. College Works says that if you have concerns you should "contact your student manager or our corporate office" (homeowner FAQ, "What if I'm not satisfied with the work?"). Put the problem in writing and keep photos, the signed estimate and any payment receipts.
• Corporate office. (888) 450-9675 is the corporate office number on the company's FAQ and warranty pages; the warranty page gives regular hours as Monday to Friday, 7am to 5pm (PST). The Terms page lists [email protected]. Written complaints and notices can be mailed to College Works Painting, LLC, 1682 Langley Avenue, Irvine, CA 92614; keep a copy and use certified mail.
• Warranty claim. The company's FAQ says to "contact a warranty specialist at our corporate headquarters at (888) 450-9675 or ask your College Works student manager" to activate a warranty, and the site has a warranty registration form. Register soon after the job is finished and keep the confirmation.
• Paying or disputing a payment. Payments can be made at payments.collegeworks.com or by phone. If you paid by credit card and the work was not delivered as agreed, write to the card issuer: under the Fair Credit Billing Act the dispute must reach the issuer within 60 days after the first statement showing the charge was sent.
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  A home-improvement loan is a separate contract with its own terms, so contact the lender named in your loan papers as well.

• Cancelling a new contract. Under the FTC Cooling-Off Rule, many sales made at your home can be cancelled for a full refund until midnight of the third business day after the sale (Saturday counts, Sunday and federal holidays do not). The rule does not cover sales under $25 made at your home, sales made entirely online, by mail or by phone, sales completed at the seller's permanent place of business, or emergency work. Sign and date the cancellation form the seller must give you, or send a letter, to the address on that form, postmarked before the deadline; certified mail gives proof.
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  Also read the cancellation notice in your contract: many states have their own home-solicitation or home-improvement contract rules, and the consumer protection office of your state (listed at usa.gov/state-consumer) can tell you which apply.

• Outside help. The BBB, the contractor licensing board or consumer-protection office and attorney general of the state where the work was done, and the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. For a deposit or unfinished-work dispute, small claims court is another route.
• Unwanted calls or texts. The company's messaging terms say you can opt out by texting STOP or using the unsubscribe link in a message. Numbers can also be added to the National Do Not Call Registry at donotcall.gov.
• Painting a house built before 1978? Federal lead-paint rules apply to paid painting and renovation in pre-1978 homes. Before work starts, ask for proof that the firm is EPA- or state-certified and the name of the certified renovator on your job.

EPA Lead-Paint Settlements (2011 and 2014)

2014: Boise, Idaho. On November 13, 2014 EPA announced a settlement with College Works Painting (named in the consent agreement as Student Works Painting, Inc., doing business as College Works Painting) over a July 2011 exterior painting job at a house in Boise built around 1940. The consent agreement, docket TSCA-10-2014-0181, alleges violations of the Repair, Renovation and Painting (RRP) rule, including failing to post warning signs, to cover the ground and to erect containment, and says the firm used one certified renovator and three non-certified renovators. The penalty was $39,532. In the agreement the respondent admitted the jurisdictional allegations and neither admitted nor denied the specific factual allegations.

Court Record

Court records

Carbajal v. CWPSC, Inc. (California Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division Three, No. G050438, decided February 26, 2016). A former intern sued in Orange County Superior Court on behalf of interns, alleging unpaid wages, meal and rest period violations, illegal wage deductions and related claims. The company, which the opinion calls "CW Painting," asked the court to send the claims to individual arbitration under the arbitration clause in the 2012 intern employment agreement. The trial court refused, and the Court of Appeal affirmed, holding the arbitration provision procedurally and substantively unconscionable and that the trial court was not required to sever the unfair terms and enforce the remainder. The court also rejected the company's argument that the Federal Arbitration Act governed, because it had not timely presented evidence. The ruling decided only whether the claims had to be arbitrated, so the wage claims stayed in the trial court undecided and remain allegations; this section covers the 2016 appellate ruling only. BBB lists CWPSC Inc as an alternate name of College Works Painting.

Court & Public Records

Who Runs College Works Painting

College Works describes itself as a residential painting company that operates through a student internship, the Student Professional Program. According to its homeowner FAQ, it hires and trains undergraduate students to run their own painting businesses: each student manages a painting crew and is responsible for the business with the oversight of a full-time district manager, and students spend the spring semester estimating and selling and the summer managing production. The internship FAQ says interns do not paint homes themselves but "hire and manage crews of workers that paint homes." Homeowners therefore deal with a student manager for the estimate and the job, and with the corporate office in Irvine for warranty and payment questions.

The website footer names College Works Painting, LLC, 1682 Langley Ave, Irvine, CA 92614. The company says it was founded in 1993 in California. The location menu on its website lists Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin. Its FAQ pages put the number at 12 or 13 states, so confirm with the company that your area is served. BBB records the business as incorporated in September 1993. The leadership page names Matthew Stewart as chief executive officer and chairman and describes National Services Group as the parent company of College Works.

Company Relationships

• Owned byNational Services Group

Estimates, Financing and Warranty: What the Company Says

Estimates. The homeowner FAQ says estimates are free and no-obligation, include labor, paint, materials and necessary surface preparation, and that pricing is based on the size of the home, the scope, the paint chosen and the preparation required.

Warranty. The FAQ says "three distinct warranty protection options" and lists two: a 1-year warranty for projects needing one coat, covering "defects in workmanship and materials for one year after the job is complete," and a 3-year warranty for projects needing two coats, covering such defects "for up to three years after the job is complete."

Financing. The financing page says customers can finance "directly through College Works" with "100% unsecured financing from $1,500 to $30,000 on approved credit," no application fees, "No payment required until work is completed to your satisfaction," and monthly payments of "up to 2% of the amount financed."

Website terms. The Terms and Conditions page on collegeworks.com governs use of the website and its text-message program; it is not the homeowner's painting contract. Read the contract you sign for cancellation, payment schedule, warranty and any dispute-resolution clause.

If You Work or Applied for College Works

College Works' FAQ says interns in the Student Professional Program are "part-time, seasonal W-2 employees," not independent contractors, and that it has "a minimum compensation guarantee of $6,000 for participants who work consistently through the entire program," with commissions not capped.

Posts on this site from 2008 to 2012 by people who say they were interns or recruits describe sales-oriented recruiting presentations, long hours, late pay and bonuses, and doubts about the program's earnings claims.

For unpaid wages, you can call the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division at 1-866-487-9243 (complaints are confidential and retaliation is prohibited, per the agency's page), or contact your state labor department.

Frequently Asked Questions