Victoria and Steve Gore Real Estate Experts Victoria And Steve Gore refused to pay painting contractor for services, forced contractor to file lien Escondido California

Quote from Gore’s report :

***It is our opinion that this man is unstable, probably misogynistic and he should be avoided **

definition: Misogyny/mɪˈsÉ’dʒɪni/ is the hatred or dislike of womenor girls. Misogyny can be manifested in numerous ways, including sexual discrimination, denigration of women,violence against women, and sexual objectification of women.

 This comment really hit me hard, I have a wife and daughter hurt by these words! I sked both Gores via email to retract this libelous statement and after 3 days it is still up, so Here’s my rebuttal.

 All respectable companies have a rebuttal to a complaint made, There are two sides to every story so it's hard to judge who is being truthful with their complaint about the other. I dare Mrs Gore to find one untruthful or exaggerated claim that I make and prove it!. This rebuttal will expose Mrs Gore as what she is but want's no one to know. I will bite my tongue because I don’t want her lawyers claiming defamation, but you can put together your own words to describe someone of this ilk.

 During My short tenure working for the Gores, Mrs Gore had several "episodes" of complete breakdowns. She would become very frustrated for the slightest things, leaving everyone to walk on eggshells. The next time you would see Mrs Gore she would be fine, rational and everything was great. Then you would wake up to a 3am email of rambling and changes of previous agreed work (i have proof with the emails). Mrs Gore would yell and try to humiliate Mr. Gore in front of others for offering an opinion or the slightest gaff (like answering his cell phone). Mrs Gore started crying (with tears)and yelling at her husband when a sample door had been painted over as protocol called for. Her tension was wearing on everyone involved during this phase and at a climax she was screaming at the top of her lungs staring at the floor, she refused to let me get a word in but screamed let me speak during her fit. She is a very emotional person that is on the brink of something catastrophic in my opinion. Mr Gore would try to interject and would be shot down with a "shut up Steven, I AM TALKING" Mrs Gore will alter comments, scenarios, facts, and believe them!. Mrs Gore emails and writes reviews under her husbands name, that’s the scariest part. Some clinical terms come to mind but I will leave that alone.

Lets start with her actual RipOff Report:

 Mrs Gores claim: It is unfortunate that we went with a general contractor’s recommendation for a painter to do our cabinetry as opposed to working with one of the tried and true general house painters we have used through the years in our business.

 Kenkote fact : Mrs Gore had no tried and true contractors, the general contractor (Tom B.) was a guy working in her previous residence which was a rental. She had never used him before, in fact after Mrs Gore got my estimate and wanted to set up a meeting and  with another estimate she had gotten to do the paint. This estimate was from J-W Construction services, a general contractor that specializes in landscape, gardener type stuff. I learned this days later after I started the job when I recognized the company letterhead to the landscapers trailer. Mr. Gore was unaware of any of this when I brought it up. I used this to challenge Mrs Gore's Integrity when things went really sour between us.

 Mrs Gore claim:  We noticed that he got easily confused about what color and type of paint would go where, as we had directed him.

 If this is true, this would not be hard to do. Mrs Gore hired a decorator, a general contractor, and a painter all under separate contracts through her. She was the ring master of the three but would get completely irate when this person didn't communicate with the other. The decorator was busy doing other things, the contractor had no say because Mrs Gore and I had the contract, but yet were all supposed to huddle every morning with a gameplan? This being said the only issue that arrised (keep in mind every room was a different color) was a bathroom vanity was painted the wrong color, which I immediately  painted the correct color. The fracture in the working relationship was when I followed her instructions and painted the (very large) kitchen cabinets in semi-gloss, just like the signed contract states. Mrs Gore demanded I repaint these cabinets in a lower sheen, claiming I didn't speak to the decorator. The Fact was that Mrs Gore walked by these cabinets for three days but came home, saw them installed and thought they were too shiny. I have emails proving Mrs gore knew I was using semi-gloss in the sprayer, she was asking for me to spray the inside of the kitchen cabinets for free since the "sprayer already has semi-gloss in it" . I refused to repaint the entire kitchen cabinets but tried to appease her by spraying a lower sheen polyurethane over the top of the paint. Mrs Gore refused this as a resolution, claiming that it would not adhere. After I sent her the product information proving it would, she sent Mr Gore on a paint store road trip to verify if it would. All along Mrs Gore made up her mind, she wanted the cabinets repainted in an eggshell.

 To Mrs Gores credit she was very detailed in her emails, she wrote what color went where, the sheen, the brand of paint. I followed her exact instructions! After Mrs Gore had me remove the price of the island ($540) from the already low price of $2980 for complete kitchen cabinet repaint, that left me with ($2440) Mrs Gore later offered me $1220 in a resolution that was not even worth replying to. Mrs Gore waited till the kitchen island was completely primed and painted before informing me that the contractor was  supposed to tell me not to paint it. This is when I refused to work for her without a signed contract. This was a sign of things to come.

 Mrs Gore claims : splattered paint on our hardwood floors, damaged drawer fronts, among other things and then quit half way through the job because we objected to his work.

 Kenkote fact: Mrs Gore insisted on refinishing her wood floors prior to the demo contractor, drywaller, electrician, and painter. When I arrived all these floors were covered in construction paper by the general contractor Tom B. It would be impossible for me to “splatter” paint on any flooring. This is a perfect example how Mrs Gore will distort facts. What she must be referring to where the baseboard meets the floor some slight paint bleed through the tape. This was very minor because i painted this myself with extra care not to bleed through the tape, but it happens sometimes. A rag with some warm water will get it right up. Any other “damages” were never brought to my attention until after our relationship eroded, so I had no chance to rectify those issues.

 Mrs Gore’s claim :   said that instead he was going to “get her”, referring to my wife.  This is when he proceeded with his campaign of harassment and threats to get paid for work he didn’t complete

 Kenkote fact : “get her” when stated like this can be taken many ways, another way Mrs Gore distorts the truth. If you finish the sentence correctly I was stating that I will make a review online of her to make people aware of her tactics. It was not a threat, it was a promise as they say. She screamed looking at the floor that it was “blackmail” if I did such a thing. You see, Mrs Gore offered to pay me for the rest of the work in the house but not unless I excepted zero for the kitchen cabinets. I felt this was extortion, people try to pull this stuff when they have the upper hand on you (your money in their account). I would not and will never agree to less than what I would make if I was allowed to finish the job, Mrs Gore breached the contract by not letting me continue .Mrs Gore needs to let professionals do their job unabated and harassed. She obviously knows more than any tradesman and has little respect for painters in general.

  So now I am forced endure the cost of a lawyer ($$$), mechanics lien ($275), court case ($300), my wifes ruined mothers day, my time and resources, threats of “restraining orders” for trying to contact them. Was this all worth it ? Should I have just accepted the $3250 they offered as a settlement? Mrs gore deducted entire amounts from rooms partially  finished. So if I painted everything in a large living room ($1152) including baseboards and ceilings (but two walls that she still needed to chose a color for accent) her resolution offered me zero. Hall bath vanity I prepped, and primed, zero. Removing wallpaper border in kitchen - zero.

Mrs Gore has me drive up to pick up progress payment on May 10th for $2500, as discussed on the 9th, 45 minute drive, get there and no check or return phone calls. Complete lack of respect of my time.

  Instead I received threats that she would countersue me for  $400 per day x 5 days as job dragged on, and another $400 per day x 5 days ($2000) for lost work. Mrs Gore claims I caused them to live in a home that is being painted over a much longer period, exacerbating both of their asthma and affecting quality of life and ability to work. This is funny because the contract was signed on a friday morning, By monday they moved in half the house, furniture and all. That was the deal, work all weekend to get the Gores moved in by Monday. Guess what, I worked two 10 hour days over the weekend and got them moved in. The large livingroom was the staging area for the kitchen cabinets to be painted, and that was done and put back up by Thursday. Contract signed Friday May 3rd,Moved in Monday May 6th, falling out was Friday May 10th. These threats were another take it or leave it form of extortion I feel.

Did it burn me up when I heard from Tom B. (he will make a great witness) that the cabinets 6 months later were still as I left them, and she had an unlicensed handyman finish what I started, yeah it did… But did not surprize me one bit..

I offered to settle then for $5009  balance being $6411, today I will settle this for $6000 plus interest .period .  The only one that will come ahead of all this madness is Mrs Gore’s Lawyers….

We find the use of this site by a business to further abuse a consumer to be very perplexing.  The following comments will be in line with the intended purpose of the site, CONSUMER protection:

We would strongly recommend against working with Ken Saul of Kenkote Paint at this time.  It is unfortunate that we went with a general contractor’s recommendation for a painter to do our cabinetry as opposed to working with one of the tried and true general house painters we have used through the years in our business.  We noticed that he got easily confused about what color and type of paint would go where, as we had directed him.  He painted the wrong colors and sheen throughout our home, splattered paint on our hardwood floors, damaged drawer fronts, among other things and then quit half way through the job because we objected to his work. 

We offered to mediate with him through his friend the general contractor to get him paid for the portion of work he completed and deal with the damages.  He refused and said that instead he was going to “get her”, referring to my wife.  This is when he proceeded with his campaign of harassment and threats to get paid for work he didn’t complete.  It is our opinion that this man is unstable, probably misogynistic and he should be avoided if you are considering putting yourself through the already stressful situation of remodeling.

Attached is a copy of a letter from our attorney detailing the issues we have experienced with Mr. Saul.  He has also advised us to obtain a restraining order.  (Another reason you may want to reconsider using Mr. Saul.)   We can provide a very long list of contractors we have worked with in over a decade of real estate, all of whom will testify that we have paid our bills on time and in full.    We hope we can save you some of the grief that we have experienced from this wrong turn by making you aware of what it can be like to work with Mr. Saul.