CARLOS CASTANEDA HANDYMAN SERVICES

Wrote a contract with Carlos after he did some good exterior work on my house trim. While the cost was a little high, I gave him another job on fixing my kitchen cabinets. I approved a bid and paid him 50% of $1650. Almost a year later, he has not completed the cabinet doors, not returned the doors he took and kept the $825, Made multiple attempts to contact him and give him an opportunity to make this right before giving a bad review. Do not do business with this untrustworthy person.

Carlos was highly recommended by a friend. He had given an estimate of $180 labor for the gate and $60 to include the security doors and a second item (I did not have him do the second item). He worked hard and spent hours on the gate, which had rotted in places and needed replacement wood. I was surprised that he cracked some of the wood when he screwed in the hardware, because I had seen his work at my friend's house. When the bill came I also was very surprised. He charged me $166 for parts for the gate (in addition to the $180 in labor) and did not provide documentation. (If I had known it would be so expensive, I might have wanted a brand new gate.) When I asked for documentation because it seemed so high, he sent copies of four receipts and just charged me for everything on the receipts. When I pointed out that there were items that were not mine, he did adjust the bill and removed $80.00 from the parts bill, but we argued about the cost of the latch that was installed, despite the receipts showing two more expensive latches returned and a trip to a hardware store for me to see with my own eyes the price of my latch. He also charged me $17 for boxes of screws and just kept the extra. Other handymen I have worked with left any extra materials that I paid for with me. At that point, I was tired of the process and just paid the bill. The gate does look better and works better; however, I don't know whether the cracked pieces of wood will survive for long. The security doors do work better, although I have to pull on one to lock it. He charged $45 for adjusting the two doors.