If you’re anything like me, you do not possess expert handyman skills. I have learned how to handle basic jobs like installing ceiling fans, installing electrical outlets, and minor plumbing jobs. But anything more complicated than that, and I don’t trust my skills. Therefore, my wife and I call those national handyman services to get certain jobs done. We’ve had great experiences, and some very poor experiences.
“The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly”
When we have called local companies that specialize in doing specific jobs, we have had pretty good luck. However, those companies sometimes charge an arm and a leg. For that reason, we have contacted those national handyman service companies to try and get the work done.
You’ve see advertisements for the services to which I refer. To list a few, there’s Angi.com, (formerly Angie’s List), Thumbtack.com, and HomeAdvisor.com. There are many more if you do a Google search, but you get the idea. I won’t be mentioning which companies we have contacted.
The Awesome Handyman Experience
First, the great handyman experience. One rarely looks at the base of one’s bathroom toilet. However, when you do, and you see brown seepage along the caulking, it is time to reset your toilet bowl. That type of job is way beyond my plumbing skill set.
The handyman assigned to our job was extremely professional and knowledgeable. He set about completing the job in a timely fashion. This gentleman was dressed appropriately, and he brought his own tools, hardware, and supplies. On this occasion, our handyman did a fantastic job which still looks great to this day.
In fact, he impressed us so much, we paid him more than we had agreed to in order to get him to do some caulking in our other bathrooms. Very impressive.
The Horrible Handyman Experience
After that positive experience, we decided to go with the same company again. This time, we wanted new drywall, texturing, and painting of an area where we removed a medicine cabinet.
Needless to say, we had a different “professional” assigned for this job. He showed up late. He had no paint brushes, no paint, no supplies whatsoever. The company quoted an estimated time to complete the job of 3 hours. He ended up going almost five hours and still did not complete the job.
Worse yet, he did not know how to properly texturize the drywall. In addition, he wasn’t a good painter either. How he passed this company’s standards we’ll never know.
The handyman service charged us extra for his overtime, so we called them to tell them of our most recent experience. They sent another gentleman out at no extra charge to fix the problem. He did not do much better.
As you can imagine, we no longer trust this particular company for odd jobs around our home. All things considered, the old adage, “You get what you pay for” certainly rings true in at least one of these examples.
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Larry Martino is the long-time afternoon drive personality on 96.3 KKLZ. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of Larry Martino and not necessarily those of Beasley Media Group, LLC.
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