Thomas Fiore 3 Kings Painting LLC Think of the TV commercial where everything in the house is painted yellow ... Peoria, Arizona

Not quite two years ago, I purchased a home that my mother insisted should be painted inside prior to moving in. Although I had not intended to have the home painted because I could not be in two places at once, packing, cleaning, etc., at my former home while supervising the painting at the new house, my mother said she would help.

Having quite a bit of experience painting in the past, including as a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, I knew that the interior of an empty home would be much easier to paint when empty.

With this in mind, I postponed my move for one week, and set out to find a painting contractor.

I had obtained several estimates from at least 12 painting contractors and had intended to go with another company but chose 3 Kings Painting because there were no complaints against the company listed on the Registrar of Contractors site, on the Better Business Bureaus site, because of the perceived stellar reputation of the owner, Tom, who claimed to be a firefighter and a prominent member of the community, and because Tom offered me a deal he would charge me only $100 more than the others to do two paint colors rather than one.

Later that day, he came by my then-home so that I could choose the colors, which he said I could go online and select since he planned to use Behr paint. He also told me he was going to have his two teenage sons work with him. I expressed concerns, knowing that I would be unable to supervise their work while I was at the home from which I was moving. I still had much to do, including pack, make minor repairs, clean, and meet and interview potential moving companies and potential handymen.

I told Tom about the conditions from which I suffer, conditions recognized by the Americans with Disabilities Act, including fibromyalgia, herniated and desiccated discs in my cervical spine that have led to spondylosis and chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome, among others, and explained that the symptoms of these conditions, when worsened by stress, overwork, etc., can cause me to be bedbound for days. I also explained to him that because my income is solely from disability, I had a limited budget for painting.

Tom assured me he would be at the house to supervise his sons and insisted that he had a better understanding of my chronic conditions than most because of his job as a firefighter. Because of my health, he stressed, he would take good care of me. Initially, I had noticed only a few mistakes and Tom assured me via phone that he would correct them, and told me to contact him again when I had a complete list of all the items in need of correction.

However, due to his schedule and mine, (which included becoming extremely ill with symptoms of vomiting blood and incapacitating pain, as well as having to travel back and forth to Mesa for appointments necessary for the approval of my long-term disability, arranging for many unexpected repairs through the home warranty company, etc.) we were unable to meet. We spoke on and off; he said he understood my need for flexibility due to my often-incapacitating illness and medical appointments and vice versa. During this time, I continued finding more mistakes and/or omissions with regard to the paint job.

In August 2008, I spoke with Tom and he said he would be on vacation for two weeks and that I should call him thereafter, in late August or early September 2008. I did. He scheduled an appointment to meet with me at my home at 4 p.m. on a specific date in September, but after I advised him that the list I had was long he never showed up.

I called and left him a message stating that I was open to rescheduling if something had come up and looked forward to hearing from him. He never returned my call. I left two to three messages for him thereafter, seeking to reschedule our appointment but he never replied. The following day, I left him a message stating that if I did not hear from him within 72 hours, I would file a complaint against his company with the Registrar of Contractors office. To this day, I have not heard from him.

I would not have hired 3 Kings Painting had Tom not consistently assured me that he and his sons one who Tom claimed was planning to be a firefighter would exceed my expectations and do the job better than all the painters I had interviewed. Tom insisted that he and his sons were experienced and skilled in painting. They were not.

To this day, I am still finding paint where one would never expect to find it. In addition to removing the stain from the bottom of all the cabinets in the house by using masking tape rather than painter's tape, Tom's sons also left a huge ball of masking tape stuck so well to the side of one of the cabinets that when I removed it, a portion of the cabinet went with it. In addition, no prep work was done, including removing nails in the wall, as Tom had specified in the contract, and things were saturated with paint that never should have been including the entire hood over the oven and everything beneath it, including the lightbulb and all the wiring, etc. beneath the hood. My water heater is still covered with paint, as is my garage ceiling, including electrical outlets and the garage door remote control mechanism box.

The list of damage done that has to be repaired and things that were painted that should not have been is so long, I can't even begin to include it all here. What's odd is that in spite of painting many things that should not have been painted, inside an empty house, many areas of the house, including all of the closets, the pantry and the laundry room, weren't painted at all!

If you ever run into anyone in this area with the last name Fiore who claims they are a house painter, run! I don't think they could even fingerpaint. They were incompetent at painting the interior of an empty home. And again, here it is nearly two years later and I am still finding and having to clean up paint where it never should have been. On top of that, of course I eventually still must have the interior properly prepped and painted (Painting 101), which is going to be more difficult and likely more expensive now because the house is no longer empty.