HANDY GUY SERVICES
About us
ALL AROUND HOME REPAIR
Business highlights
Services we offer
APPLIANCE INSTALLATION, BATHROOM REMODELING, CABINETS, CARPENTRY, CLEANING, DECKS, DEMOLITION & DISPOSAL, DRYWALL & PLASTERING, FENCING & PERIMETER WALLS, FLOOR COVERINGS, GUTTERS & SHEET METAL, INSULATION & WEATHER STRIPPING, LANDSCAPING, MAINTENANCE, ODD-JOBS, PAINTING, PATIOS, RENOVATION, ROOFING REPAIR, SIDING & RESIDING, SIMPLE ELECTRICAL, SIMPLE PLUMBING, TILE WORK, WALL REPAIRS, WALLCOVERING, WATERPROOFING & WINDOWS & DOORS.
Amenities
Emergency Services
Yes
Number of Stars | Image of Distribution | Number of Ratings |
---|---|---|
54% | ||
21% | ||
8% | ||
8% | ||
10% |
I will use Handy Guy Services again.
"HI AGAIN [Member name removed], THANK YOU FOR THE NICE WORDS. LOOK FORWARD TO HELPING YU IN THE FUTURE."
"THANK YOU [Removed member name]. YOUR THE REASON WE LOVE OUR WORK. LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR OTHER PROJECTS!"
I have done work like this in the past, and have worked with construction companies in multiple states. I have to say that Guy and Jason did an excellent job and did it at a fair price. They were easy to talk to and discussed with me different ways of accomplishing the job. Frankly, I am not sure why they received negative ratings form others. We tried to get quotes from other companies, and only two got back to us. Handy Guy responded in a reasonable time frame with a quote. If people do not want the job, just say so. If you are to busy, just say so. It's ok to say the truth-"I don't have time to do what you want done right now. Maybe we can schedule it later."
Fargo/Moorhead- passive/aggressive capital of the world.
I look forward to working with Guy and his crew putting in new lament flooring for us.
"[member name removed] THANK YOU . IT WAS A GREAT PLEASURE WORKING WITH YOU. OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE SCOPE OF THE WORK MAKES EVERYTHING GO SMOOTHLY. LOOK FORWARD TO DOING YOUR FLOORS AND SEEING YOUR WONDERFUL FAMILY AGAIN"
"THANK YOU [member name removed]. SOMETIMES THERE IS ANOTHER JOB (EMERGENCY ) THAT MUST BE TENDED TO. ALSO WE WERE SO BLOWN AWAY WITH WORK .IT WAS PLEASURE WORKING WITH YOU."
"THANK YOU SO MUCH!! WITH GREAT CUSTOMERS LIKE YOURSELF YOU CAN SEE WHY WE LOVE OUR BUSINESS (AND CUSTOMERS)"
"WE DID DO A LOT OF WORK ON THE CONDO ASSOC. . WHEN WE LEFT IT WAS ALL GLOWING AND HAPPY. I CAN'T UNDERSTAND ANY OF THE GRADES. PAINTING WAS FINE ,GOOD CUT-INS AND BRICKMOLD CLEANED AND LOOKED BRAND NEW. WHERE AS BEFORE LOOKED 30 YEARS OLD. DRYER VENT HAD TO BE CLEANED WITH A PLUMBING SNAKE AND WAS MOMENTS AWAY FROM CATCHING FIRE. THIS SITE IS WEIRD. WE HAVE 20YEARS EXPERIENCE AND RECOGNIZED BY THE BBB AS A TOP COMPANY. THIS SITE HAS BECOME A FORUM FOR PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE PEOPLE."
Guy bid the job but did not do any of the work. Unfortunately, he did not share the job overview or any details of it with his crew manager, "Jake," who came in blind and frequently complained about Guy's utter lack of communication.
First, our brand new $395 steel front door, purchased locally, was installed improperly and had to be adjusted five times before it actually closed. It still hangs crooked, the interior latch is cockeyed, you can see daylight around the edges, and there's a significant gap between it and the exterior siding. The whole thing needs to be caulked (at a minimum.) Guy told me all doors do that. When the garage access door was installed, the handle and lock assembly was put on backwards and is missing one of the two inside screws.
When the bathroom exhaust fan was installed, the ceiling hole was overcut by several inches and then "patched" with a wadded up plastic bag. And nothing else.
The exterior painting caused the most problems. The bid was for full prep, including scraping, power washing, and priming the house as needed, as well as high quality primer and paint. We'd already gotten really expensive paint and asked Guy several times to remove that from the bid. Crew Manager Jake told me the entire house needed to be primed but, in order to cut corners, Guy instructed his crew to scrape and spot prime minimally. At the same time, Guy supplied a tiny rinky-d*** power washer that hadn't been started in a year and, according to Jake, was woefully inadequate for the job -- so the crew used ours.
Guy's crew power washed the house and then immediately sprayed on the exterior paint instead of waiting at least 24 hours for the composite board-and-batten siding to dry. As a result, apart from the paint job being generally uneven, the paint started peeling days later and the entire job needs to be redone. Guy said all houses do this.
The top-of-the-line trim paint, included in the bid, never materialized and my husband had to go buy some at Scheels on 13th Ave on his lunch hour. On the heel of all these headaches, my husband was pleased to learn from Guy that a "master trim painter" would be doing the finishing touches on the exterior. When the Master showed up, he was a 20 year old kid with no experience who'd just blown into town from Rockford, IL and responded to Guy's employment listing on Craigslist. The Master missed a lot of spots and completely painted all our windows shut. You can imagine this caused problems requiring box cutters and a ladder. (At the end of the day, the Master realized he'd locked his keys in the car, so he did what any other intelligent man would do. He broke the car window and drove away, never to return.)
Guy sent Jake out to do other people's jobs simultaneously while working on our house, so he was often hours late or left mid-day without notice. Maybe this is standard practice. One day Jake came back and asked me if he could take some of our materials from the garage because he ran out on another job and Guy wouldn't return his calls. I don't think this is standard practice.
Meanwhile, my husband was uncomfortable coming home to a wide open garage and no one here. Worse yet were the unsupervised new guys sitting on the front steps, waiting for Guy to pick them up, while smoking and throwing their cigarette butts all over our yard. That's not acceptable in our neighborhood. Or any other neighborhood.
In spite of all the problems we had with the revolving-door crew (Jake quit) and the questionable workmanship, Guy was very eager to get paid. Right NOW. I'd given him $3,000 before starting the job and he expected another $2,900 on completion. When we did a walk around of the house and I told him he'd screwed up the exterior of my house, his response was, "If you'd paid me two days ago before the paint started peeling, we wouldn't be having this conversation." No kidding. I was floored.
Our final exchange ended poorly, with Guy becoming frighteningly aggressive in my living room (in front of a witness) and me telling him numerous times to please leave my property and not come back.
Instead of being disillusioned with Angie's List, I decided to post this review. I've waited a couple months because I needed to calm down and put everything into perspective. Now it sounds almost funny. I see that Guy rebuts all negative Angie's List reviews with ridiculous rhetoric, excuses and finger-pointing. As I said before, BEWARE. This man over promises, under delivers, treats his employees poorly and, in my opinion, is as unethical as the day is long. Don't make the same mistake I did.
UPDATE: As expected, Guys response was ridiculous. I used the name "Jake" because I didn't care to identify the gentleman that subsequently severed his relationship with Guy. Yes, I was in Montana the last week of the job (as I told Guy I'd be before we contracted) but my husband was home the entire time. (So were my neighbors, and they were taking notes!)
Nobody SCRAPED the house after painting. Rather, the paint bubbled up on the wet siding and peeled off in strips with nothing but my fingers. We did no work on the door. In fact, I'm now trying several types of weather stripping and haven't found one that's substantial enough to fill the gap.
As long as Guy is accusing me of being dishonest and not a quality human being, I'd like to point out that over $1200 of equipment was stolen from our garage during the time Guy's crew had access, including tools, an air compressor and a very expensive multi-extension ladder -- things specifically used by handymen and not generally targeted by wandering teenage vandals. Granted, I didn't see the stuff walk out the door....but the stolen items had been securely stowed in the locked garage and not easily accessible. It makes us wonder.
"first of all i have no one working for me named jake. we couldn't get a hold of the owner becouse she was in montana and didn't return calls. the paint job was done well......really!! but when i came to inspect the work and do a walk around with the owner she had SCRAPED!! ON THE PAINT TO MAKE OUR WORK LOOK BAD.THE DOOR WAS IN GREAT SHAPE YET VERRRY SLOWLY MOVED TO THE CLOSED POSITION. I BELIEVE THAT THEIR WORK ON THE DOOR HAD DONE MORE DAMAGE TO IT , I DON'T KNOW I HAVEN'T SEEN THEIR WORK.THERE WAS NO DAYLIGHT AND THE REVEAL WAS PERFECT. SOME TIMES YOU RUN INTO VERRRRY DISHONEST PEOPLE . THIS IS ONE . SHE SCRAPED THE HOME AFTER WE WERE DONE TO KEEP FROM HAVING TO PAY THE REMAINDER OF THE BILL. I BELIEVE THE ONLY WAY TO GET SATISFACTION HERE IS THROUGH LEGAL MEANS.THIS IS NOT A QUALITY HUMAN BEING.SHE DIDN'T LET US FINISH OUR WORK SO SHE WOULDN'T HAVE TO PAY THE REMAINDER ON HER BILL."
"I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY IT TOOK A YEAR TO GIVE A BAD REVIEW? [member name removed] WAS VERY HAPPY WHEN I PRESENTED THE BILL. WOW, SOMETIME I WONDER WHY I DIDN'T BECOME A DOCTOR OR SOMETHING."
They are a very pleasant crew and are prompt, clean and efficient. I think there are some jobs they are better at than others.
"YOUR A VERY NICE PERSON TO WORK WITH [member name remove], THANK YOU"
Since we purchased the majority of the materials, cost was lower and they did pick up the bigger items from the retailer.
"WE WERE SO HAPPY TO WORK WITH YOU AND YOUR WIFE, YOU GUYS ARE SO PATIENT AND GOOD HUMORED. LOOK FOR WARD TO YOUR NEXT PROJECT AND GOOD LUCK ON YOUR HOME SALE!"
"[removed member name]GAVE US A WARPED DOOR HE GOT FROM A SUPPLIER, WE DIDN'T KNOW THIS AND TRIED TO INSTALL IT AS PERFECTLY AS POSSIBLE. [removed member name]WILL GET THE SUPPLIER TO TAKE OUT THE DOOR AND INSTALL A NEW ONE. HE EXPECTED US TO TAKE THE HIT FOR HIS MISFORTUNE. THERE ARE SOME COMPLETELY UNSCRUPULOUS PEOPLE OUT THERE. AND [removed member name]IS ONE OF THEM . DESPITE BING WARPED THE DOOR OPERATED PERFECTLY, MY MEN DID A GREAT JOB!!"
"I'M REALLY DIS APPOINTED IN THIS RESPONSE. I TOLD THE HOMEOWNER WHO HAD A SEPARATION WHERE HER VAULTED CEILING MET THE END WALL THAT THIS COULD BE A STRUCTURAL PROBLEM THAT NEEDED A STRUCTURAL ENGINEER TO DIAGNOSE. BUT I WOULD DO ALL THE COSMETIC WORK AND WE COULD HOPE THAT IT WOULDN'T MOVE ANYMORE (THE WALLS AND CEILING). ALL THE WORK WAS DONE AND THEY SAID IT LOOKED BEAUTIFUL. SO OVER THE HARSH WINTER THE WALL AND CEILING AGAIN MOVED. REALLY, WHAT AM I TO DO WHEN PEOPLE CAN'T OR DON'T REMEMBER THE ORIGINAL CONVERSATION AND MAKE CHARGES I BELIEVE ARE TOTALLY FALSE. WELL THE DAMAGE TO ME HAS BEEN DONE AND I HAVE NO OPTION BUT TO HOPE PEOPLE SEE THE TRUTH.."
Licensing
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