As a heavy Thumbtack user for years who gave only 5-star ratings in the past, hiring Carter's is by far the worst decision I've ever made and I am regretting so much, because they are so unethical by 1) lying about things, 2) trying their best to charge me more than necessary, and to make things way worse 3) complaining to my tenant about me who has nothing to do with the service. Let me explain in details below.
1) Lying about things: they said the will do a free onsite estimate and share with me the cost before doing anything. They lied! They went ahead and did the work and asked me to pay them for the service without confirming with me in advance.
2) Trying their best to charge me more than necessary: honestly, with 1) above, I'd be fine if they do a decent job. Unfortunately, that was not the case. I was so confused when the technician told me that "hey, I have good news and bad news. Good news is I was able to fix it (so you need to pay me for the service), but bad news is the fix doesn't work because the lock is old and you will need to replace with a new lock, which is usually $120 by itself but I can charge you for another $65." What the heck??? If that's the case, why bother "repairing" it first? I followed up with their customer service (the lady), and she started by trying to explain that the reason for the temporary fix was because it takes a few days for the lock to arrive. This makes zero sense to me, and after telling her that I am a handyman and do things myself and this is just a regular sliding door with a regular lock that can be picked up from HomeDepot same day, she agreed that a new lock can be installed on the same day. I cannot think of any good intention here other than the conclusion that they are trying their best to charge customers more, especially for those who are not handy.
3) To make everything significantly worse, the technician complained to my tenant when I refused to hire them for the follow-up installation job. They first complained to my tenant for not willing to pay for the serivce, which was once again a lie. Even though I was pissed off when on the phone with them because of 1) and 2) above, I told them that I will pay them for the "repair" but just can't trust them to do anything beyond. I paid them a few minutes after them sending over the invoice. Funny enough, my tenant told me that she was told I am not willing to pay for the service. Even worse, even though my tenant was neither invovled in hiring the technician nor paying them, the technician followed up with my tenant complaining about me! What the heck??? This significantly damaged the trust between my tenant and me because she now feels I am being insane because of what she heard from the technician.
I regret for not taking a close look at the actual reviews earlier, because I thought they got a 5 score then they must be good. But then when I was composing my review, I saw someone else mentioned exactly what I mentioned above in 2)!
I urge you to think twice before hiring them for any project, even though their listed price may feel appealing to you. read more