Painting - Primer peeling on New Skim Coated walls

My wife and I recently hired a contractor to skim-coat our bedroom walls and plaster a new ceiling because of over 30 years of multiple layers of wallpaper. We let it cure for nearly 2 months (we were doing other work as well). A week ago we primed the walls and ceiling using Glidden Gripper White Primer/Sealer, a water-based acrylic multi-purpose primer. We first sanded the few rough spots on the walls (we thought the plasterers did a good job since the walls were very smooth). We then wiped down the walls with a regular dry cotton towel to wipe off any dust (we did not want to use a wet towel because we thought the moisture would not be good). Yesterday we painted the ceiling and used Scotch Brand medium adhesion Blue Painters tape for the edges of the walls. When we removed the tape from the walls after finishing painting the ceiling the primer peeled right off. We then tested other areas of all four walls by applying the tape and the primer peeled off in all the locations. We were devastated. We also tested the primer on other walls that were previously painted and did not experience any peeling. What did we do wrong? Is the problem with the plaster that was used? Any suggestions on what we do from here would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome to the forums!

It's been a long time since I painted any fresh plaster, the paint store used to have a strip that you taped on the wall to determine if it was ok to start painting/priming but I would assume after 2 months their wouldn't be a problem with painting.

Taping painted walls/ceilings can always be problematic - even with low tac tape. It's been my experience that you are almost always better off not using tape over latex paint. This is especially true of fresh uncured paint.

I'm guessing two factors:
1) The primer may not have been fully cured. A week, especially in a high-humidity area, may not be enough to hold up against tape.
2) There may have been dust left behind. A cotton towel I don't think is enough. I use a shop-vac, followed by a tack cloth. Others use a Swiffer.

SirWired

I am not totally sure what was used to skim coat the walls - drywall joint compound or plaster. Plaster has it's own set of issues to be concerned with because of the alkalinity of the material.

If drywall joint compound was used to skim coat the ceiling and walls - then what might be happening is that they joint compound is being pulled apart when you pull the tape off. Drywall compounds are not very strong and don't do well with a tape test particularly with only one coat of primer or paint over them to distribute the stress from the tape pull. When using even the blue easy release tape you still need to treat the surface as delicately as possible when pulling off the tape over fresh latex or skim coated areas.