Query: "College Pro" painters

[Ruth Kline]

My sister is about to sign a contract to have her house painted
by "College Pro" painters, supposedly a franchise operation. Their
price is about half as much as the other bids and they said they'll use
top-grade oil-base paint. Guess I'm a skeptic, but it almost seems too
good... Anybody have any information or advice about this company?
Thanks in advance.
-- Ruth Kline, Carnegie Mellon University

[Peter Sheriff]

We had a show called Market Place up here which did a report on
College Pro. Apparently there were some complaints about the quality of
the work and when College Pro were approached to fix the problems (peeling
paint, wrong colors etc.) they refused.
They did determine that all franchises were not bad. Some did fix
their problems. The main beef however, was that they use fairly inexperienced
workers and unless they are supervised closely, they tend to make stupid
mistakes.
I guess that the bottom line is that in some things, you get what you
pay for. I do all this stuff myself so I only have one person to blame if
it gets screwed up.

Pete

[Mike Dyre]

I heard of an outfit in my area that is called Student Painters and that they
are just that, but that the paint used was recycled, accounting for the low
price.

[Sir Andy Oakland]

So it was used paint? Was it already in the shape of a house? :^)
(Apologies to Steven Wright...)

:Andy Oakland
s...@athena.mit.edu