Mr. Handyman of Kalamazoo - St. Joseph

"While we certainly would like to have had this Angie's List Client as a customer we have checked our database for both the name and address and have not come up with anything. According to our records this person has never been a customer of Mr. Handyman of Kalamazoo-St.Joseph. She must have confused us with someone else."

"We just want to thank this customer for the opportunity to complete their work for them and are glad that they are satisfied with the results. We will pass on her comments to our technician. At Mr.Handyman we take customer satisfaction seriously and are glad when our customers let us know how we did as all feedback provides an opportunity for improvement or reinforcement of our customer service goals."

"We thank this customer for the feedback but will be following up to understand where we could have done better. It appears that she was basically satisfied but there was apparently something that could have been improved."

"Unfortunately, as is encountered in many remodeling or repair jobs, the scope of the work changed once we were able to peel back the "layers". This job was a bathroom remodel. Upon initial inspection it was noted in the estimate that there was damage to the sub-flooring(under the ceramic tile) in the toilet area. We knew that we would need to do some sub-floor repairs in this small area prior to putting in the new tile. Once the technician started removing the tile in the toilet area he noted that the sub-flooring material on top of the original sub-flooring was "particle board". This material had been installed by whoever had installed the ceramic tile that we were pulling up. Particle board is the worst material to use for sub-flooring in a bathroom room due to the wet nature of the area. When particle board gets wet it "disintegrates", ie. softens up and becomes particles, no longer board like. The "soft" floor in the toilet area was due to a wax ring leak in the toilet to sanitary flange connection. As the technician pulled up more tile in the tub area he noted the same wet/soft subflooring issues near the tub. At that point the technician made the decision to pull up the entire layer of particle board sub-flooring along with the old tile in the entire bathroom. This additional work was now beyond the scope of what was originally quoted. Unfortunately, the technician did not immediately inform the customer of the problem or the office before moving ahead with this extra work. The office became aware of the issue when a field visit was made by the owner later that day. At Mr. Handyman we don't like surprises for our customers or for ourselves and therefore try to manage these types of issues in advance. When preparing estimates/quotes for customers we use a form that contains verbiage that identifies the potential for the unexpected and that when these instances occur we need to get together to discuss the impact to the project scope from both a timing and cost perspective. When we approached the customer to discuss the added work/cost issue later that day it did not go well. The customer insisted that there would be no discussion around added cost and that we would have to "live" with our original estimate. We felt that this was unreasonable in light of the amount of extra labor and materials provided (~$400) but it was also apparent that we had failed to communicate on a timely basis before moving forward with the additional work. We certainly were not going to walk away from the job because that is not what we do. We decided that the best course of action was to complete the job to the best of our abilities which the owner later confirmed. We chalked this up to a learning experience and have since tried to ensure we are timely in addressing these types of issues and also to discuss with the customer beforehand the potential for surprises and how they will be addressed when and if they occur."