Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:02/01/2023

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  **** Blankenship took advantage of my widowed grandmother. He was hired in late Dec. 2022 to paint a few rooms and do a small drywall job in a downstairs closet in her newly purchased home, before she moved in. He said he was starting his own company. He primarily did concrete but would take any side job.
  While giving the quote he said (due to the time constraint) that he would need to have at least one other person assist him so he included that in the price of the quote of around $5,000.00. During his time working at her house we never saw any other people there helping. It appeared he was staying overnight at her house to complete the work in time. The several times I came over to bring boxes for the move, he had his personal items on the kitchen counters. He did not have his own equipment, he went to **** ***** and called her to have her pay for everything (paint, brushes, tape, etc.) over the phone as he said his cards wouldn’t work and he couldn’t put it on a work account. Both of her credit card numbers were stolen the same day. He bought EIGHT gallons too many of paint that were never even opened. Each gallon costing $50-$60 that were never used. He does not know how to estimate paint amounts. He used painters tape on some of the edges, but painted over it and let it dry. When it was removed, there were large amounts of tape dried into the paint that we had to later remove. Also by letting the paint dry over the tape, it caused the edge paint to pull off the wall and he never went back to paint the edges. There was wall paint all over the ceilings, there were spots on the walls that were not gone over and the old paint was showing through. Paint splashed on the floors, and entire corners in the laundry room that hadn’t even seen a paintbrush.
  In the kitchen he used PACKING TAPE to edge the cabinets instead of painters tape. When he pulled it off it took off the finish on all of the cabinets down to the base. He tried to cover it by using a stain but that did not work. He just left the can of stain and told her it should fix it. I don’t think it’s necessary to comment on the drywall, it was terrible. He has been contacted numerous times about refunding even part of the labor money since we will now have to pay someone else to fix it. He finally agreed a few weeks ago that there would be a check in the mail for around $1600 for half of the labor. As of 01-31-23 no check has been received, although it was promised several times previously that it was on its way. He offered to come fix the damage but I feared him attempting to “fix” anything would make it worse. He also at one point had a post on this ******** page of the work he was doing at her house, but they were photos of rooms he wasn’t even hired to do and hadn’t touched, and most were from before he even started. He has now blocked me on ******** because I posted bad reviews and disabled my comments. He also told my boyfriend he would now not be paying my grandmother any restitution for the damage done to her cabinets and that we have to take him to court to get any money back.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 02/02/2023

  Here is written authorization from my grandmother, ******* *****, to proceed with this complaint on her behalf. Please let me know if any additional information is needed. Thank you. 

  Business Response

  Date: 02/10/2023

  Dear Better Business Bureau,
  
  This is **** Blankenship, On Allegations ID ********. I did the job for Ms. *****. I completed the job and I was sent pictures of mistakes that were pointed out. I offered same day to come and fix everything pointed out, and I also offered to hire someone else no cost to them if they did not want my services and they refused. They wanted a full refund instead.
  
  
  Please contact me back on the next action I need to take. I did not do this job through Blankenship Concrete and Construction, LLC
  This was done on the side to help her get in the house sooner. And all checks were wrote out to my personal account and no contract was signed. I would be happy to help Ms. ***** out still.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 02/10/2023

  She said he never gave her a written contract, everything was done verbally. She said he had her write the checks out to him personally. Not his business. But when he posted pictures of her house he put them on his business ******** page to promote his business. He also said he would reimburse her for half of the amount of the labor he charged her. He wrote her a check on one of his business checks, but filled it out the amount areas improperly and she wasn’t able to deposit it. Now he won’t respond to her messages. I am attaching photos for reference. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 02/14/2023

  Complaint: ********
  
  
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  He has ignored our attempts to contact him for reimbursement; we don't want him back as resolution due to the poor quality of work; the only acceptable resolution would be a refund for the labor.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  
  
  *** ******

  Customer Answer

  Date: 02/15/2023

  This company has not made a "good faith effort."  He did such a bad job and didn't offer to fix it until we contacted him and told him how bad the job was and that we wanted a refund for the labor and didn't want him coming back to the house.  We don't want him back at our house given the quality of work he did.  I'll provide the picture of the damaged cabinets that we are getting bids from other companies to redo; this is going to cost more than the rooms that he painted.  The tape he used on the cabinets (which he wasn't supposed to touch) damaged the cabinets.  He left a can of stain and said this should fix it and left.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 02/15/2023

  Here is one photo that highlights the damage **** Blankenship did to the kitchen cabinets while painting the kitchen walls. All of the cabinets that have wall edges have this damage from tape that he used to edge when painting the walls. I have more photos of the other cabinets if needed.