Services, Deck Cleaning - JCA Painting, Northern Virginia poor quality work

Complaints.com received the following e-message on September 10, 2001:

From:

RE: Shoddy Deck cleaning/sealing

To Whom It May Concern:

I am in Northern Virginia and have a complaint about: JCA Painting / Carlos Daniel Salas

September 10, 2001

On September 6, 2001, JCA Painting completed work on our deck. Long story short the work was unsupervised (with assurances the crew knew what they were doing); and the deck was damaged by inept power washing which raised the grain, and splinters; and the finish was inadequate which does not protect the deck and is unsightly.

The owner Carlos Daniel Salas agreed to take $200 off the price agreed upon, for a total of $800. The check was written and we told him we needed a receipt and he said to write it out. The receipt specified that this was a total (including the $200 allowance for inept workmanship. He refused to fix the problem.) When Mr. Salas read the receipt he was angry and stormed out forgetting the check and saying we would hear from his attorney. We agreed to talk to his attorney, as we just needed a receipt.)

After having not heard from Mr. Salas we sent the check with a request that he send a receipt. He picked up the certified letter on September 26.

Shortly after we sent the check and request for receipt, with no more contact or warning we were served lawsuit papers for $1850. As we agreed to $1000 originally and $800 for the total taking the damage into account, we were and are shocked with this devilish fabrication.

We became more and more concerned with his devious behavior and began research on him and his firm. We found from the State Board of Contractors (804) 367-8511 that he is an unlicensed contractor with an incomplete pending license #2705-020970P from 1993.

Further through calls to the local counties (703) 222-8234 , (703) 792-6710 administrative and tax authorities we were told he has no assets (property) in his name. (He was driving a new truck). Further the address we were told he has his business listed at, we were told are residential addresses, with no Home Office Occupancy Permits on file (703) 792-6924. The addresses given to us by various agencies include: 3452 Terrace Court #1142, Alexandria, VA 22302 and 14832 Hoxton Square, Centreville, VA 20120.

There are no telephone or advertising listings that we could find for JCA Painting or Carlos Daniel Salas but his filings we were told listed (703) 898-7953 as business and (703) 422-6837 as pager.

We discovered a number of lawsuits in various jurisdictions in which Mr. Salas/JCA Painting were both plaintiff and defendant.

We were very concerned at this point at to what kind of person we were dealing.

We called a number of deck cleaning/sealing companies to have the damage assessed. So far we have gotten and are still getting estimates 250% to over 300% more than the original $1000 figure to repair and restore our damaged deck.

On September 29 we stopped payment on the check and when we get the estimates together we will file suit for our damaged deck.

Mr. Salas is personal able and we want to warn anyone and everyone that his behavior is duplicitous and questionable. Be for warned.

Email User