ProMaster Home Repair & Handyman Services

"Member, I really appreciate hearing from clients about the great job our guys do for our clients. Ben loved working on your project and I promise I will share all of your feedback with everyone in our company at our weekly meeting. Getting a "pat on the back" from a client is extremely meaningful ... thank you for taking the time to write your review. - Don Kennedy, President"

"Thank you so much for the kind feedback! I will tell Ben at our weekly meeting this Thursday how much you appreciated his help. Ben, and the rest of the ProMaster team appreciate having nice people like you to work for! - Don Kennedy, President"

"Thank you for the kind feedback! I will pass this along to everyone on the ProMaster team. I also appreciate having you as a repeat client and look forward to serving you again soon! - Don Kennedy, President"

"Member- We understand that different consumers want different things from a home repair contractor. In a free market, it is great that there are so many choices--and clearly we were not a fit for you. I'm sure you'll find a great contractor here on Angie's List who is a better fit with your preferences. Please understand however, that while we appreciate your feedback, we've chosen to operate our company in the most transparent, ethical manner possible. Our estimation policy has nothing to do with "head games" as you suggest. Rather, we believe it represents the fairest deal to the public while protecting us from people who simply want our expertise for free. The pervasive game of "free estimates" in our industry is frankly a lie. There is no such thing as free. You'll simply pay on the back side of a project with the embedded cost of a salesperson running around doing these estimates. Our clients prefer a) to deal with expert craftsmen, not salespeople and b) not to pay for failed attempts by a company or individual to get work. Hence, they value a master craftsman who shows up on time to diagnose their problem and estimate their project for a small fee that applies to job when it starts. This may not be a perfect solution, but it is the fairest we could come up with. Again, thank you for your feedback and using Angie's List. Should you find dissatisfaction with the standard crop of contractors out there and are willing to try a new way of buying home services, we'd welcome you as a new client. I'm certain you'd find our Home Repair Heroes a pleasure to work with. Take Care, Don Kennedy, President ProMaster Home Repair"

"Member- You were a pleasure to work with... Brent and all the guys love helping you. I am so sorry you are no longer living in the area! We appreciate you entrusting your daughter's home to us and we promise to take good care of her. Please keep in touch! Don"

"Thank you so much for your kind feedback! I will make sure to pass this along to the craftsman who repaired your door. I noticed that you appreciated the fact we stress being on time. Thanks for mentioning this--as I am always stressing the importance of timeliness to my team and when a client reinforces that value, it makes all the difference in the world to building that into our company culture. Please let us know if there is anything else we can do to help with caring for your home. -- Don Kennedy, President, ProMaster"

"Member, I appreciate your feedback and am sorry you were upset by our higher prices on two of the 20+ items we evaluated on your home. It isn’t unusual for a person to feel like a carpentry or plaster repair project shouldn’t require much skill. However, these are two common areas where we see less experienced tradesmen underestimate the requirements to make sure that a project not only looks good when it is done, but continues to look and perform great, well into the future. I’ve labored diligently for years to build the best home repair company in Cincinnati. You can imagine it stings when someone like yourself takes such a negative, public shot at my company. But I want you to know that I value all feedback, whether a person actually uses our company or not, whether it is fair or not, to improve our company in many ways. After all, it is in listening to the concerns of homeowners like yourself that we’ve built the polices and systems that we have. For all the consumer feedback here on Angie’s List and other sites--I am truly thankful—since it keeps us “in tune” with what our potential and current clients think. To answer your concerns specifically: Yes, our company is expensive. We are transparent about this. Excellence isn’t what every consumer is looking for… as some shop for home improvement services based solely on price. That’s OK… we don’t critique one viewpoint over the other. Similarly, however, we do not believe we should be judged poorly for simply offering the consumer a level of service, professionalism, integrity and competence that they demand of us. Unfortunately, this costs more. Believe me, I wish I could compete on price. It is simply impossible, given the talent I hire, the ethical standards I hold, and my belief that we should run a business in compliance with all insurance, tax and legal standards and statues. Ironically, we do accomplish this objective of excellence more efficiently than other contractors in our segment. Hence, our price is actually competitive--but nevertheless more expensive than those types of ‘handymen’ running a business out of their pickup truck, as you compared us to in your report. I also understand we were brought in to evaluate and rectify many projects you were dissatisfied with from several previous contractors. Is it unfortunate that we failed to convey our value, as I’m certain that you would have been thrilled with your experience in working with ProMaster, just as the other Angie’s List members have indicated in their reports. Best wishes for your repair projects. While it is unlikely that you would ever do so, please feel free to consider our company should you continue to experience the “let down” from other contractors. I know we’re more expensive than you would like. But aside from the peace of mind that comes with working with a professional, consider the cost savings to you from not having to do the same project two or three times with cheaper contractors, simply to “get it right.” Take care, Don Kennedy, President"

"I am sorry you were unhappy with our company because of our estimation policy. I value all feedback, use it constructively to improve our operation and consider it a valuable opportunity to address your concerns now. Please take my thoughts in the spirit in which they are offered—to simply explain he rationale behind our estimation policy and allow the readers of this report to make their own judgment on whether or not our company is a good fit for them. Given that the majority of our repair work involves diagnostic troubleshooting, when you invite our craftsmen to your home to resolve a problem, they are actually performing work. My belief is that when my employees perform work, they ought to be compensated for it. On average, it consumes about 3 man hours, plus fuel and expenses to visit someone and perform an estimate for a basic list of home repair projects. Given that ProMaster hires the foremost home repair experts, who are multi-disciplined craftsmen, you can imagine that these gentlemen don’t work for peanuts. Unlike other trade contractors who embed the cost of such work from jobs they do not win into the cost of the clients who eventually hire them, I do not believe it is ethical or fair to play the "free estimate" game, when that entire premise of “free” is entirely false. The on-time, family-friendly, professional consultation you will receive from a ProMaster Craftsman, combined with the value resulting from uninflated home repair costs, (since we don’t need to embed our lost estimating activity into those clients who hire us) ProMaster is hands-down the best value in the home repair market today. $79 for a professional home repair evaluation (not a “look see, best guess” or “commission opportunity for a home improvement salesman”) in my view is a bargain that puts the interest of a homeowner first--often saving them thousands of dollars from throwing money at the wrong problem. I realize this policy isn’t perfect, but it is the fairest we could come up with. I hope you’ll concede that we’re at least honest about it, thoughtful in how we approach the issue and most importantly, wish to interact with the public in a fair, transparent and ethical manner. Consequently, it is no accident we keep winning the Angie’s List Super Service, and other awards each year. Combined with the tremendous growth and success our company is experiencing in what is literally an economic depression—we must be doing something right. Again, ProMaster isn’t a fit for everyone. I understand that. If you feel that a phone call to our company that quickly resulted in your determination that we’re not the company for you deserved an “F” report, so be it. I do find it interesting however, that our “F” Angie’s List grades come from folks who we’ve never worked with… but I nevertheless I don’t discount their feedback because I certainly want to make sure our company is reaching out to the entire spectrum of homeowners. Hence, I think your suggestion of finding a way to more prominently highlight our policies and pricing is a good one. In fact, it is already in the works for our new web site redesign. Maybe this would have avoided your disappointment by allowing you to skip calling our company altogether? At any rate, when we get the new site launched in a few months, maybe you can take a look at it and give me some thoughts as to whether or not it fits more in line with your expectations? Again, thanks for your feedback and I hope that despite our philosophical disagreement, we at least appreciate each others perspective and remain thankful for the free market in this country that affords consumers choice in the products and services available. Take care, Don Kennedy, President"

"Member, Thank you for your kind words! I also appreciate your thoughts on the importance of a company's insurance. While often overlooked, such coverage is one of the primary factors separating the legitimate contractors from the amateurs. But you are right... it does protect you from liability in case a worker falls off a ladder! Don Kennedy, President"

"I have never had feedback like this before, so I will confess that it is somewhat difficult to respond to your criticism. But I nevertheless value your thoughts and will use your feedback to improve our operations here at ProMaster. On the positive side, I’m happy to see that despite our rigorous schedule right now, we were able to bend over backwards to rapidly fit you in at time convenient to you… and that our craftsman showed up on time. I’m also glad to hear that he welcomed your presence on the walk around inspection and discussed multiple repair options with you. So thank you for that positive feedback. While “professionalism” is a subjective quality, we strive to meet that in the eyes of all of our clients. One of the things that I demand of all of my craftsmen is honesty. Often times in home repair there are multiple ways to tackle a problem… and especially with wood rot repair the extent of damage or course of action can’t fully be determined until the affected area is disassembled. While honesty is a good thing, our craftsmen must deliver disconcerting news about the expense or complexity of a home repair diplomatically. It appears from your feedback that this was the part of the discussion we let you down. In which case, I apologize. I think the lesson learned here is that you would have preferred us to simply come up with a solution and directed the next step. Some clients are offended by that approach, but our failure was that we should have asked you what specifically you wanted from us. It is clear that we misunderstood your expectations. This is our fault and I apologize. But I thank you for sharing it because at our next meeting with my craftsmen, I am going to use your incident as an example of the importance of gleaning clear expectations from the client. While you and I have not spoken directly, I was privy to the conversation with our customer service rep where you felt fired. I am sorry that we said something to make you feel this way, as it was not our intention, whatsoever. While it isn’t my place to tell you how to feel, I interpreted his suggestion to not use our company if you didn’t feel comfortable with the solutions we offered as sensitivity to your concerns, not as firing you as a client. He was attempting to be gracious and conciliatory, as we don’t believe in strong-arm sales tactics. We’re extremely comfortable with homeowners using us or not... and even encourage folks to not use our company if we are not the best fit for their needs. Given that we are unusual in this manner, could it be that our good intentions were misconstrued? In any event, I appreciate your feedback, as I think we can learn from it. I hope you find another contractor that you are happy with. Feel free to use our checklist, Three Golden Rules for Better Home Improvement on our website at http://www.mastermylist.com/consumer-education/three-golden-rules-for-better-home-improvement/ to reference third-party links and information to properly vet your next contractor. Take Care, Don Kennedy, President"

"Member- Always a pleasure serving you and I appreciate you returning to us again and again for your home repair needs! - Don Kennedy, President"

"Member- I appreciate how kind you were to our guys, as both Chip and Ben loved working for you. I'm thankful we were able to affect the repair without harming your wallpaper! Best of luck to you and your family and we look forward to serving you again soon! - Don Kennedy, President"

"Member- You've been such a fantastic client of ours for so long now. Thank you for inviting Brent back so many times for your home projects. He loves working with you and we all appreciate your kindness towards us! Takce care, Don Kennedy, President"

"THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOU KIND WORDS AND FEEDBACK. I WILL PASS THIS ON TO OUR CRAFTSMEN WHO PERFORMED YOUR PROJECTS. BOTH BRENT AND GARRAD LOVED WORKING FOR YOU AND YOUR HUSBAND. I SO APPRECIATE HAVING YOU AS OUR CLIENT AND LOOK FORWARD TO HELPING YOU AGAIN SOON! -- Don Kennedy, President, ProMaster Home Repair & Handyman"

"Thanks for you kind feedback. I know we're not cheap--so I'm glad you feel like you received the timely, safe, quality service you expected. Besides being cheaper (which I can't do without sacrificing the quality of our craftsmen), I'd love to know what we could have done better to have made this experience an overall "A" versus a "B" for you. Drop me an email or give me a call if you wish. Thanks!!! Don"