Tuition Painters reviews and complaints

I worked as a District Supervisor in 2009. If you have been selected to work for them in 2010 it is not to early to stop. I made the mistake of reading these complaints, asking my "regional supervisor" about these complaints. I was fed lies that every single one of these people was basically either full of it, or they were not hard workers and couldn't do the job. I, sadly, was gullible enough to buy these lies. After attending the first training weekend, which I spent about 200 dollars on, I started to realize something wasn't right. I had a good feeling that all these complaints were the same situations I was going to be in, but instead of stopping I was hooked feeling like I already had to much time and effort into it. Believe me, stopping now will save you a lot of money and heartache, plus the embarresment of being taken advantage of to this degree. I had a crew of three hard workers, who I tried to take good care of and treat fairly, but it is nearly impossible to do that when all of their checks and my checks bounced. After booking and completeling 18, 000 dollars in contract (I didn't finish the summer because I wasn't receiving good checks nor were my painters) I received a grand total of 1, 200 dollars. That is a little of 6%. I had right around 2, 000 dollars in checks which bounced and I was fed reasons all summer on why this was happening. It is January now and I have been working with the police to get my money out of Paul Flick. I was just informed they were closing the case. I was not offered a reason. Issuing bad checks is unlawful at a criminal level. Yet, somehow my criminal case against him got no where. I worked 10-16 hour days all summer long including weekends. There is nothing that tuition painters gives you that you can't do for yourself. I never once actually used my regional supervisor. He wasn' t helpful to me at all. All he did was hound me about sending them the checks that I would never see again. One of my painters won a case and received all the money he had worked for all summer. My two other painters at this point are still missing around a thousand dollars. Looking back on my summer I learned a lot, but nothing that I thought I would learn. I've learned our criminal justice system and civil court system is worthless. A man who blatently takes advantage of college kid and has absolutley no remorse his able to get away with this year after year. Help put him out of business and keep him from doing this to anyone else. You can help by stopping now if you are selected to be a DS. I was in your possition this time last year and I was blinded by the lies they fed me. The best decision you could make would be to stop. Why else would there be so many complaints about him and this company? You will be no exception he will do the same things to you he does to everyone else. There is another kid from my college who went to training with me and the same thing happened to him. You have the option now to stop, but everything you do for them will make it harder and harder to stop and you will wind up like I did this summer. Please listen to this and do not believe their lies. I just don't want anyone to have to go through and feel the way I feel about this.

I've had an overwhelming response from all of the 08 Ds's as well as some from 07. I've been told that I'm going to be sued by the company if I continue to send out surveys and complaints such as these. The reason I was doing this was because Friday was the last straw for me. Paul has refused to pay me, my sub-contractor who is diabetic and needs insulin, has written me and/ or my sub contractors three bad checks, has ruined my reputation with all of my customers and painters, lied to me and everyone else about the S.W accounts and about training my inadequate painters and has refused to give me a copy of my contract and financial statements after several requests.

It appears that many of us are in the same boat. I deal with Paul on a frequent basis seeing that I live 5 minutes from the corporate office. I've produced $16000 for the company in the one month I was producing. I never told Paul I was going to quit but hes already terminated my access to the TP database and sent me a letter saying he intended to sue if I continue reaching out to others. I have no doubt in my mind that Paul is planning on screwing over a lot of DS's at the end of the summer just like he did last year. He has close to 40 Better Business Bureau complaints against him and many many lawsuits including an astronomical debts. I've also been informed by my attorney that Paul's Contractors license for the state of VA has expired and therefore I've been at great legal risk. IF YOU ARE A CURRENT DS THEN YOU BETTER CHECK FOR YOUR STATES LICENSING BECAUSE PAUL MAY NOT HAVE IT.

I've told Paul that he just needs to pay my sub-contractor the FULL amount owed and I will go away but Paul insists on doing things his way and possibly even taking legal action against ME! so I'm forced to protect myself. After talking to my lawyer a class action lawsuit would be VERY EASY to put together and we would be able to put that together by September. My advice to any current DS's is to shut down production and ban together with everyone. He can screw over one of us at a time but he can't screw us all over together. YOU CAN CONTACT ME IF YOU'RE A FORMER 2007 OR A FORMER 2008 DS. IF YOUR CURRENTLY STILL WORKING WITH TUITION PAINTERS, PLEASE DON'T EMAIL ME OR CALL ME. I CAN'T HELP YOU.

Anyone thinking about becoming a future DS? Please do yourself and your family a favor and STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY!

Thanks for reading,
Garrett.

PLEASE EMAIL ME IF YOU HAVE WORKED WITH TUITION PAINTERS IN 2007 OR 2008 AND EITHER QUIT OR WERE TERMINATED. THIS COMPANY IS A SCAM. DON'T FALL FOR BEING A DS AND IF YOU ALREADY ARE - DON'T FALL FOR COMING BACK NEXT YEAR AS AN RS. YOU MIGHT BE PULLED INTO ALL THIS MESS. THE SITUATION IS GOING TO EXPLODE. THERE ARE MANY JUDGMENTS AGAINST THIS COMPANY INCLUDING SOME FROM DEBTORS, AND DSs NOT PAID THEIR ACCOUNT AT THE END OF THE SEASON.

They present a polished program where you gain experience running your own business. You definitely get experience - but trust me - it isn't the kind you want. Paul does not provide you a copy of your contract which has many questionable practices that will be looked at by the authorities. Have you wondered why he didn't give ANY of the DSs a copy. We have not received a written financial statement as promised.

Our painters were not trained and our jobs were underbid using their system. The customers were not happy with the substandard work and many times didn't pay or didn't pay in full. The painters were inefficient and most times two times over labor hours because of repaints and redos so there efficiently provided them with a paycheck that was about 70% LESS than what they were told at the beginning of the season. Yet tuition painters still got 35% off the top - leaving very little profit or none at all.

Our Sherwin Williams line of credit accounts were never set up as promised so we are all in deep debt because we had to pay for materials from our own pockets when Pauls credit cards decline and you can't get a hold of him by phone.

You better check to see if TP has a valid business license in your state because we were told in training that the company is licensed and insured. However, Tuition Painters is not licensed to do business in VA. Tuition Painters license #[protected] expired on April 30, 2008 leaving the DSs operating in VA at risk.

Understand that Ian the VP of the company is also liable as he was fully informed of all of these issues.

I could go on and on, but the legal system will take care of these issues as soon as all the facts are out.

Tution Painters had a judgment ruled against them in the amount of $8,046 in unpaid wages to a former employee on February 11, 2008 in the Fairfax County General District Court. Case No. GV07029250-00. No payment has been remitted. Paul Flick, President of Tuition Painters, has indicated he has chosen to disobey the court’s order and not pay - seemingly showing no remorse for failing to pay wages to an employee and clearly no regard for the rule of law.