Have you paid this painter? If not, I would mention that doing the job properly is a big enticement for equal pay.

Have you paid this painter? If not, I would mention that doing the job properly is a big enticement for equal pay. I have actually gone through a similar situation and my husband paid the painter when I was not home, although I had mentioned not only to the painter, but to my husband a number of times that the color was not right and he kept saying he would get it right, he would keep trying, when actually I told him upfront that I would like to provide the paint and cut the price. I think he had paint he wanted to unload and that was the bottom line. I never used this painter again although he was a very good painter as far as quality of work, but if you deceive me I will let it be known throughout the community and I did, and he regretted it.

If you choose to live with it, I wouldn't pay for the paint or the labor. Kind of brutal but putting a second coat of the wrong color on when she knew it was wrong? Not sure what she's expecting to happen after that.

That's outrageous, I would tell the contractor and tell him I have no intent to pay for a job that didn't deliver what I wanted. I'd tell him I want it done now or I will speak to an attorney. He or she is your under your employ, don't enable. I don't tolerate mistakes on a contractor job site. If they soil anything, they're responsible, put it in writing.

Don't settle

If you've already paid, tell them you want a refund or credit for the paint and painting and that you are going to hire someone else to do it. That way, if you decide you can live with it, you will at least not have paid for it. If you decide, now or on down the line that you want to change it, you have the $$ to do so.

My inclination would be you get a do over free of charge....but then you have to make sure they aren't just slapping the paint on (since they aren't getting paid) and that they do 2 coats.

If you've already paid in full...it may be really difficult to get them back to correct the mistake....but do go on Angie's List, Yelp, etc and give them a scathing review.

We have only hired painters one time due to a time constraint but here are my lessons learned:

1. Do NOT get a bid on the whole job if more than 1 room is involved. If they screw up one aspect, how do you know how much to deduct or the basis to negotiate a lower price?

2. Get a detailed estimate by room....i.e. how much for wallpaper removal, how much for prep, how much for primer, how much for 2 coats, etc...again with a detailed estimate you have a starting point to negotiate if they screw up any one item.

3. Calculate how much paint is needed and buy it yourself. Our painters used cheap ceiling (I'm sure leftover) paint when I specifically requested BM. I saw the empty can. I made them do it over. Buying the paint yourself will also tell you how many coats they did. Our contract specified 2 coats but they only did one---pretty hard to miss the same area twice! I was able to negotiate the price down because of this....but in hindsight it should have been more $ off...or I should have made them come back for the 2nd coat...but I didnt want them in my house anymore. We touched it up ourselves.

And we hired a company with great reviews on AL and recommended by the BM store!

They just want to get in and out as fast as possible and on to the next job and do it as cheaply as possible. It's just too expensive to not have it done correctly and there is no excuse on their end. I will never hire painters again unless and until I become too incapacitated to do it myself.

Hm, it depends. Can you live with the Nomadic Desert? It's on the same strip as KB, just a little darker, isn't it? If yes, ask them for a refund.
Is the rest of the house ND, and they just didn't want to buy a different paint?

OMG, the same thing happened to me on the finish on my cabinets and it never was corrected! Grrrrrrr! We've since moved, but if I had it to do again, i would hold their feet to the fire. It seems that so many contractors don't take pride in customer satisfaction anymore. We all should make use of Angies List more!

It's about listening and paying attention.

I swear it's getting worse - listening seems to be a lost art. And if it doesn't fit within a 30 second attention span, you're screwed.

My experience was similar to Joaniepoanie, good reputation, good painting company, recommended by BM and yet screwed me over. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER pay a painter upfront and NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER give the DH the opportunity to deal with the painter when you are not present.

The painter that messed up my color painted the homes of the most affluent monetarily and socially aligned family in our county and the painting for them was expert, master's, but mine was the wrong color and they knew it, although the painting looked professional.

I really don't know what suggestion to offer but just wanted to sympathize with you. My level of aggravation (my level of redness as in a cartoon) started increasing reading this. I just experienced the same as joaniepoanie above with her scenario #3 plus more with our first set of painters. It's hard to decide what to do in these situations b/c sometimes no matter the cost you just want them out of your house! Though it basically rewards them for stupidity and poor workmanship. So aggravating. Again, I have no solution to offer but just some encouragement to keep marching on through the torture of home improvement/remodeling.