We had a professional painter come into our house and paint about 60% of a 2700 sqft house. The guy owns the business and his wife handles scheduling and customer communication. My wife had been communicating about color choices with her thru text before the job started (scheduled to begin on a Monday).
The Friday morning on the week prior my wife received a text requesting the final color choices, we provided them. That same night the contractors asked to send everything by email to formalize the colors and finishes. My wife typed up the email and sent that same night. She had a change of mind on the master bdrm color relative to what they had texted earlier but since the contractors asked for a formal email, she wrote it down, sent it and moved on. That was the last piece of communication we had with them.
Fast fwd a few days and they painted the master bdrm on the wrong color. It seems they bought paint based on the text conversations and never looked at the email they asked for. I pointed it out before the job was done and tried to meet the halfway in the cost of paint and labor to repaint on the correct color. They denied any accountability and agressively pressed us to cover it because we shouldve told them we changed the color. They claim since we didn't tell them the email was different from texts, it's our fault.
We communicated with them in the manner they asked for and followed their instructions. They asked for formal email communication and never looked at it (they admitted they didn't look at the email before starting). I don't feel responsible for double-checking their work. Yes, we could've been more proactive and emphasized the color changed but they should've followed their own instructions and go of email if that's what they consider formal coms.
When I received the final invoice, the total cost to paint the master bed was $600. I paid for everything in full except the master, of which I only covered half ($300). I told them I felt reasonable and fair by paying for half of a room painted the wrong color but they are getting angrier by the minute. Claim we're 100% at fault and we're stealing $300 from them. They're talking about small claims court...
Am i in the wrong here?