Mr. Abel Garcia, doing business variously as Garcia's Painting, Best Painting, New Generation Painting, and possibly others in or near San Antonio, TX was recommended to me by Service Magic, which claims to closely scrutinize their contractors and recommend only the very best. Mr. Garcia agreed to paint three bathrooms, asked for advance of $575 to purchase materials (three bathrooms, primer and paint). I offered $300, which seemed reasonable if in fact they needed to buy the materials. I started writing a check and Mr. Garcia insisted on cash. There were red flags here, but I was stressing over another issue at the time and missed them.
For example, he forgot to bring along invoice forms for the estimate as well as for the job; forgot to bring along business cards; showed up late for the estimate as well as for the taping job. That night we found negative information regarding his business practices (at least two on-line complaints about his business practices being shoddy or dishonest) and so postponed the job. Have asked Mr. Garcia repeatedly for return of purchased materials and cash less cost for his gas. Numerous promises to deliver but does not. The day before the painting was to begin Mr. Garcia and his crew of two did some taping and covering of surfaces not to be painted. They missed some surfaces while slopping tape over some portions of the wall to be painted. To my awe, they did not even bring their own tape; asked me for some. I had a roll of masking tape and a roll of painter's tape. They used the masking tape to tape plastic to vertical surfaces (masking tape bleeds, so that would have made a mess), while using painter's tape in some places to tape plastic to the floor—should have been the other way around. Of note, plastic was placed over a bank of lights that were on and melted the plastic, creating a hazardous odor and fire hazard, not to mention ruining four light bulbs. The next morning when we postponed, one of the crew members had brought along his 12 year-old-son whom he assured me was an experienced painter. I asked Mr. Garcia for a refund at that time but he said he'd bring it Monday. A promise unfulfilled as were all of his other promises. At one of our numerous phone calls he said he was just half an hour away and would be here soon. Mr. Garcia did not call us even once—we did all the calling. Mr. Garcia's behavior is indicative of scamming, fraud, and possibly outright theft. He is most definitely a liar. He still has my money, my materials, or some combination of both. I checked on addresses of three of the businesses associated with Mr. Garciatwo of them on Palm Leaf in San Antonioand all three were small homes in residential areas with no signage or other indication (such as paint truck or materials storage) that any business was conducted at any of the residences. Not sure where Mr. Garcia actually operates from.
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