You say lazy, I say reasonable and customary. Painters make money by accurately bidding a job. If your expectations are perfection, you can get it but be fair to the painters and describe the standard of work you wish done before they bid the job. Or, find a meticulous painter and go T&M (time and material). I don't know if these painters were sloppy or did poor quality work without seeing the job, but since that isn't a visible problem, I wouldn't be upset. As a homeowner you have every right to be picky, just state your expectations clearly up front. Don't ask for a bronze level quote and then expect a gold level result.

As an example of what I consider inappropriate nitpicking, consider the customer who just wanted a bid for ordinary painting and didn't want to pay for anything more than a single round of wall prep. Well, after the painting was done, she fussed about seeing brushmarks around a light switch. Those brushmarks were preexisting and she had specifically not wanted to pay for extensive prep work but then got upset because we hadn't eliminated those marks. What she requested and what we quoted was basic wall prep, prime as needed and two finish coats of product. We did not promise to redo the walls, we promised to paint the existing walls.

This particular customer was also upset because she could see shadows in her two story foyer when the sun shone at exactly the right angle. There again, that is basic construction quality and existed from the original drywalling and taping many years before. At the time of the quote, we always talk about issues we see and ask how far the customer wishes to take the project. This person could have had three coats of mud and floated that wall out two feet and that shadow would disappear. But that type of fixing is expensive, especially when it is 12 to 16 feet above the floor and has to be done from extension ladders, planks or scaffolds. That was at least a $400 problem to fix correctly and she didn't want to pay and we aren't just going to throw that in on a basic repaint job.

A different customer wanted her old double hung kitchen window repainted. She understood that the work would be expensive but she wanted it done right. We did it right and we had more than 12 hours in a 24x40 window and the trimwork to restore that historic window to original condition. Neither of us felt like we had been taken since the expectations were set before work ever started.