CertaPro Painters of Broward County, FL

This is E. Ippoliti, owner of CertaPro Painters of Broward, and for the benefit of Houzz members I want to set the record straight about this case by providing proper perspective and facts.

The customer is referring to the exterior side of their front doors, we never touched the interior side. The door has also a transom, which we left in perfect conditions. This house was built in the mid-90s and these are the original doors, so they are at least 25 years old and don’t meet any of the new codes and standards. When we were hired, the doors were peeling badly, and we were asked to repaint them. Our painters removed all the peeling paint by lightly sanding the doors and then primed and painted them. At this point the customer complained that the finish wasn’t perfectly even, so our painter decided to fully strip the whole door by using an electric sander. Unfortunately, he applied too much pressure and created a profile in some areas that are still visible after painting. Those are the facts. We never “ruined” the doors; they just have cosmetic imperfections but work perfectly and have been working perfectly since we left in August 2020.

I decided to get personally involved on this issue as soon as I was made aware of it. I met the customers at their house, checked the doors and acknowledged the problem right away. I promised I would work on a solution.

To make a very long story short, after considering multiple options, in October 2020 I decided to offer the customer, at our own expense, replacing their old doors with impact-resistant doors which are vastly superior to the ones they currently have. Not only the doors, but the whole front opening including frame, transom, hinges, door slabs and other minor items would have been replaced. All of these items we didn't damage! I asked a very a well-known vendor, with ample experience and credibility, to prepare a proposal which included all the materials, labor and City permits. The doors had a lifetime warranty, were energy efficient, and would help the customer save money in their home insurance. The customer met their sales rep and they even called him afterwards asking as many questions as they wanted. These new doors were valued at several thousand dollars and were many times more expensive than the old ones they had. Net, the customer would be getting the completed paint job as agreed, and a major upgrade on their (current) doors to hurricane doors for just the price of the paint project. I could upload here copy of the hurricane door proposal that I sent to the customer on 10/14/2020, which by the way was ratified in writing by the franchise on 10/23/2020. I could also upload copy of his painting contract and of all the written communication we exchanged. But I will not do that because we respect our customers’ privacy.

The above shows CertaPro’s commitment to go above and beyond the typical service in the painting industry. I don’t know of any other contractor (painters or any other trade) that would compensate a customer with brand new hurricane doors because of a cosmetic issue in their 25 years old doors. How can this be called “poor customer service”?

To make things harder to understand, and to our surprise, the customer REFUSED to accept this deal. And since 08/2020, which is 7 months ago, they have not paid a cent of the balance of their painting job. In fact, they could have perfectly REPLACED their doors with the money they owe us. The readers will reach their own conclusion.

We pride ourselves on great quality work and exemplary customer service. We have thousands of satisfied previous customers for whom we have done repeated work and we plan to keep it that way.