John T. Cole

My friend was telling John Cole about trouble I was having with fixing up a foreclosure. John encouraged them to get me to "let him come out there and fix everything for me." I had stair treads to be put down. quarter round to be put down, and 2 areas of popcorn ceiling that needed repaired, and about 5 feet total of sheetrock to be replaced. He looked at it, and said he billed $125 an hour; his wife was with him and she said it could probably be a 1 day job---he said "that would be a very long day." So I assumed a 2 day job. Gave him access to the house, stair treads were already stained and finished; quarter round was primed and just needed to be spray painted and I said I wanted them to be spray painted; and bad sheetrock had already been removed. He didn't tell when whey they started or finished the work. I went out there on Saturday Feb 3 and was surprised to see it was finished and my initial response was happy that it was done and sent him a text saying that. My first look at the sheetrock wasn't great, but I thought maybe I could touch it up and paint the walls and may it look somewhat OK. I was so tired of having people out there, that I didn't want to complaint. Our agreement was $125 an hour for 5 workers; his wife spoke up and thought it was a 1 day job, he said "it would be a very long 1 day job, so probably 2." I went back to the house to do some cleanup work (we are not living there) and started really looking at the things I was going to clean up--There was spackle over the top of some "gouges" in the sheetrock beside stairs; some gouges were not even attempted to be fixed; the quarter round was put down unpainted, and I specifically said to pain it; they didn't call to ask me if that was ok-they just did it. I initially asked about the skirt to go down the stairs and was told the stairs would have to come out if I wanted to use that--and I said no I did not want to take the stairs out. But now, John tells me they had to take the stairs out (skirt wasn't use) and again I wasn't asked about this, they made the decision and did the work and didn't get my approval. The sheetrock was 2 popcorn ceilings and part of the inside of a closet. John said the popcorn wouldn't match exactly, and I had said fine because I've had sheetrock repaired before and I know it doesn't match exactly--but it look a whole lot closer than what I was left with. There are several places in corners where the sheetrock is knocked down to the metal frame and they just left it. I had just had the whole house painted and all this work was perfect before John Cole came out and did work. He denied all damages, when I sent him pictures he said he didn't know what they were. He said he wasn't a sheetrock person and had told me that--and that was not how the discussion went at ALL. I asked for a discount to cover some of the damages and he refused and got aggressive and said I just didn't want to pay my bills. and that he was coming to get his check. He showed up uninvited at my place of business and all staff felt unsafe due to his actions and attitude. I have never seen such sloppy work and all I was expecting was an apology and a reduction on the bill, But instead he starts attacking my character and making me feel unsafe. It was bad all the way around. I feel like I need a restraining order to make sure he can't come around me again. I don't feel safe having any other interaction with him. Very aggressive, demanding, demeaning, unprofessional.