CHRIS BURKE PAINTING AND CARPENTRY

Very disappointed. I had hired Mr. Burke to replace boards in my deck in July, 2016. His company did a great job. So I trusted him to do a bathroom renovation in April, 2017. I hired Mr. Burke and gave him a deposit of $2,225.00, as he required, for 1/2 up front for the bathroom renovation he was hired to do. He cashed the check the same day, and went on vacation. I became uneasy about the situation, when I was unable to get contact information for his project manager, since Mr. Burke was out-of-state, and an itemized list of what my money was being spent on, despite two requests. I terminated Mr. Burke's employment five days after signing the contract. No work has been done. No items delivered. He has not returned my deposit and told me he does not intend to do so. He has $2,225.00 of my money for doing nothing. There is no non-refundable clause in the hand-written contract I signed. My attorney has sent him a letter requesting the refund of my deposit. He has not responded. I emailed him requesting the refund of my deposit. He has not responded. I have heard nothing from him. I have filed a claim in Small Claims Court.

I am a first time home owner and felt I was taken advantage of. The shelving went ok. But the communication was bad from the beginning. The carpenter showed up with lumber to build the structure, without any design or measurements, said he could do i t by the photo I gave him for an example. I gave him a boot to measure how high I wanted the bench, and it was still too low. They also still have not finished it, it needs to be painted and bench stained. The same carpenter measured wrong for the door installation, so Chris sent another guy, his foreman, I was told he would handle scheduling everything and oversee the project. The foreman told me I didn't need a permit for the door or the steps. I researched and chose the door and was going to order it from home depot myself. His foreman thought he could get it cheaper at Harveys for me. I wrote him a personal check for the door (very bad idea)) as they didnt have an account there at the time, so he could order the door. I got a very detailed receipt for this. It took at least 3 weeks to come in. Once the door came in trying to schedule a time was to install was a nightmare. As the foreman would say he could come and at the last minute chris would tell him he had to go somewhere else. Twice it was scheduled, with me taking time off from work to be here and they didnt show up. Chris and his foreman clearly didn't communicate with each other. I finally got fed up and told him I was done. I wanted my money back. I was trying to work this out because he had alot of my money. He asked to please let him do the work, assured me I would be happy. I agree, afraid of losing money. The final straw is when a friend tells me I should check with town about permitting, I find out the job does need a permit. They cannot pull a permit because they are not licensed in Massachusetts. I tell Chris the job needs a permit and they can't do the work. I want my deposit of 1700$ back. This is where he becomes a very fast talker, all over the place. He is extremely defensive, doesn't listen. Then starts to tell me it was a simple replacement door, doesn't need a permit, not his problem. His foreman still had my 1800 door at this point. He tells me he knows nothing about me ordering a door, not his responsibility. He tells me he has never seen a receipt for the door. He tells me he makes 25k a week and I am costing him money, because this was a winter quote. He needs to be in and out of my house in 1 day, because he has bigger projects to do. Tells me he didn't know his worker wasn't licensed in massachusetts...I am on my own with getting my door back. It was terrible, I was completely horrified at his response. I had to wait 2 weeks praying the foreman would do the right thing, which he did. I met him at Harveys and picked the door up myself. Where we stand now. After a horrible conversation with him, I sent several emails requesting my money. I tried to get him to just give me back my money without having to take him to court. He finally sent a text, Again repeating the story about the replacement door and how it didn't need a permit and lots of language around me costing him money, his workers billing him for the design of the project (zero design)....he would send me some portion of the deposit. He won't tell me how much and they only cut checks twice a month. So I guess I just sit here and wait until when? There was a few hundred dollars owed by me on the mudroom structure, but we had agreed before things fell apart I wouldn't pay for this until it was finished, which it is not. instead of admitting he didn't realize there was a permit needed and just letting me go on my way. He is making up things to try and keep my money.

After weeks (yes weeks) of my emailing (through angie's list), I finally got a call from Chris Burke. We talked about replacing the door with the offer I purchased. In addition, I asked for an estimate on installing 2 doors where no door existed. He says "I don't give estimates, I give quotes. That way you know exactly how much it is." That was great however when the job was done I was charged an additional $85 over the "quote" because "studs had to be removed"!?! This wasn't mentioned during the job, just the surprise at the end when given the bill. To make matters worse, my wood floors were scratched, nail holes left unfilled, dust and particles left on floor. This bothered me especially because the doors were installed in my children's bedrooms and because I have pets. When I mentioned my displeasure of the $85 upcharge, Chris Burke's response was a lengthy text message about "uncle sams cut", the home improvement store's cut, etc. I never did get the "quote" for fence repair. Overall, I wasn't happy with this experience at all.

The work was great. But I didn't like the fact that it wasn't clear that their would be TWO PAINTERS for TWO HOURS instead of one painter for 4 hours. I was charged an extra $100 because after 2 hours you're paying for each painter at an hourly rate. I wish someone would have told me before the work was started.

Great job, in and out quickly, no issues!