Ellen M. from MONTREAL

I am extremely disappointed with the service provided by this company. Many of my friends warned me not to deal with them but I just wanted to try it out. On March 19, one operator and the "district manager" showed up at my door to write me a quote. The operator, Tatiana, showed to have no experience in the painting business. The manager convinced me and my husband with his business talk, and said that he would vouch for the job that we wanted done. We decided to close a deal with them. Big mistake! We signed a contract, and gave a 25% deposit ($362.00) for the job. The operator Tatiana came to get the cheque on April 2nd, but we never heard from her, even though she said she would call to give us a date to start sometime in May. In the middle of May I got worried. I called Tatiana. She gave me a starting date (June 3) for job, and said she would come before to collect our choice of colours. That never happened. Again, she never called back. One day before she was supposed to start the job, we called her again. She didn't answer, only until later to tell us that our contract had been transferred to another operator (someone named Mathew, for whom we don't know his family name). By then, I lost confidence in these people. I called Zach (the district manager who came with Tatiana, and vouched for her). I briefly discussed my disappointment in dealing with people that take money and kind of run away with it. He said he would call me back, but he never did, till this day. He had Mathew calling me back. I explained to him my case and that I have lost confidence in the company, and that I don't want to deal with them anymore. To my surprise, when I asked for my deposit back he says it's not refundable. He said he can't give it back because it would come out of his pockets. How is this possible? I called the Consumer's Protection Office, and they told me that I should write a complaint, and there are several violations in the contract that we signed. Nowhere in the contract says that the deposit is not refundable. They can’t keep my money if they haven’t provided the service, within 10 days of cashing my cheque (it has been more than two months). These people haven't painted a wall in my house, why do I have to lose my money? They couldn't have invested in materials either, because they don't even know the colours that I want. I don't understand. I called the Hotline (1-866-675-9675), and as someone has well put it here, they are just an answering service. I had Mathew calling me the next day on behalf of his manager, Zach, because of the complaint that I left at the Hotline. Mathew believes we can trust him after all that has happened. I called Student Works line (1-800-803-1100). When I said that my operator was Tatiana, they told me that she doesn't work for them. Should I think that this is a case of fraud? I haven't been able to explain my case to anyone, like in the Hotline, they just took my information, and said that someone would call me back. So far, no calls. My only consolation is that I tracked down who cashed my cheque, and it was 863650 Ontario Inc., which I believe is Student Works Painting. Please, I don’t want more headaches, I just want my money back. It’s mine I shouldn’t be begging for it!