Handyman Connection - Westchester County

"This customer called in her work order on 9/13/17 to have some shelving installed and to have a closet made ready for a new closet system. This involved spackling and painting the closet. Our craftsman gave her an estimate around 9/19/17. We did a follow up call on our bid on 9/25/17, and what follows is our notes on that conversation: "Customer liked Rich but she wanted job to be done in 1 day and Rich said it would take him 2 days. She said there wasn't much work to be done and couldn't understand why it would take 2 days. Also, she said the price was high according to other estimates she has gotten. Rich said his est. was a little on the high side and could lower it according to her. She said she would call back if interested in getting work done." As the work involved spackling with drywall compound it was impossible to complete in one day but would have been done in two, not the multiple trips she asserts. On 10/3/17, the customer called and wanted to know how much it would be to install just the 2 shelves in the laundry. I called Rich and unfortunately, he was booked for 3 weeks with other work he had bid on so could not get back to the customer in a timely fashion. As soon as we heard from Rich I had my secretary call the customer explain to her why we could not help her and apologize so she could find someone else to help her. The reason we could not help her was simply that the craftsman who originally bid the project was too busy as were the other craftsman that service her area. The idea that it had anything to do with money is false and ridiculous. We do many jobs in the $125-$200 range that people can't find anyone willing to do. We will be glad to send anyone who is interested a list of the jobs we have done in any month they would chose and they can judge for themselves how many very small jobs we do for our customers when they can't find anyone else who will. Alternatively, scroll back through our companies' reviews in the Handyman category and note how many small jobs we do as compared to other contractors."

"The issue with water coming from the shower head when it is not engaged, i.e. all the water should be coming from the tub spout, is caused by the fact that the water pipe connecting almost directly to the water line going to the shower control is a 1/2" line. When the water in this line goes into the smaller line directly connected to the shower control it exerts too much pressure on the shower valve and causes the minor dripping in question. This was all explained to the customer some time ago and if they think we are telling them a story, they are more than welcome to go into the building's crawl space and see for themselves. We could not and cannot change the plumbing in this multi-unit building to address this problem. Relative to the problem with the shower door, the cause is that their bathtub is not level. From right to left it slants down over an inch. Until the customer accepted the fact that the only solution to the problem was to raise the bottom track of the door such that the glass doors fit in the frame squarely we acknowledge the fact that it was leaking as the doors were not in the bottom track. It is true that we are still trying to address the issue of the shower doors by attempting to caulk the large gap under the shower door bottom frame piece but that is only because the customer would not accept what my craftsman told them the problem was 3-4 weeks ago and we were just able to meet with them on July 1st, when I presented the same above facts and they accepted the solution. Relative to the sink faucet, first we never were made aware of the problem until we were on site on July 1st. The customer pointed out that when both the hot and cold water were on one did not get lukewarm water as one would expect, but water that was hot. Again, the customer's home is in a multi-unit building and there is a significant difference in the pressure of the hot water versus the cold which may relate to the water lines coming to their unit or the lines in their unit. Regardless, we simply turned the hot water valve under the sink half off and the problem was solved. When we were there on July 1st, the customer said nothing about missing floor grout and we did not note any. Nothing was said about a crooked light either. If there is an issue with either of these items, we will address them when we return to install more caulk under the shower door. The small amount of clear caulk that is shown in the picture was removed on July 1st. We categorically reject the notion we have no ethics and don't guarantee good work. My craftsman has returned to address issues as they have arisen and we showed up together as promised on July 1st and will be turning this week as promised to continue to work on the caulking under the tub if the customer will make a payment towards the balance of the money owed on the job., While we are on the subject of ethics, this customer agreed to pay for all materials on the job. When he was presented with the receipt for the caulking we needed to use under the bottom track of the shower door, he refused to pay for it. Things don't go smoothly in an old building with old and odd plumbing, walls that are not square, and a totally non-level bathtub. I realize that this is very frustrating to the home owner but to extrapolate that to my company being unethical and not guaranteeing good work is simply unfair and untrue."

"The customer's initial poor review had stated that the rubber cove base board we had installed was "falling off." As happens with some customers, instead of calling us to tell us she had a problem she decides to write a poor review without giving us a chance to address the issue. We sent the original craftsman back to the house to see what the problem was. The baseboard that was "falling off" was on tiny corner, measuring 3/4" x 3/4", of one price of the baseboard that was part of a piece that was attached to a piece of kick plate under a kitchen cabinet. This piece of kick plate flexes as it only is backed by the legs of the cabinet and the customer told the craftsman that her cleaning lady must have hit it with a vacuum. This she later denied when I spoke to her. None of the other rubber cove baseboard had come off the wall in any other part of the kitchen. Even at this point, she states " Baseboard was completed to a degree; not the fault of the worker." Obviously she knows the problem with the baseboard was not an installation problem."

"This job was done in October of 2014 and the then owner of Northern Westchester County and the craftsman who did the job are no longer associated with my company. Thus I cannot investigate the issue to make any type of response other than to say I am sorry this customer's experience was not positive. As a side note, it is ridiculous for Angie's List to post a review from someone who had work done 2 years and 4 months ago in Feb. of 2017. Can I make a complaint about something at AL from so long ago and expect them to be able to make any type of informed response??"

"Mr., [Member Name Removed], I am from Handyman Connection in Elmsford, NY and we have no record of a request from you in our system for flooring in the Bronx in December of 2016.. As a matter of fact, we do not work in the Bronx as we are not a licensed contractor in NYC. A person with the same name did call about having a window replaced on 4/21/[Member Information Removed] in Valhalla but that person called the next day before we could even get an appointment to assess the project and told us they were going to have a window company. Have you confused my company with another one. My e-mail is Stephenwhite39gmail.com. Please get back to me. Thank you. Stephen White Handyman Connection"