I'm really not a fan of leaving bad reviews, especially when the person you're reviewing has your home address but this one is earned. I initially hired Joe to make a larger opening for my closet to accommodate a reach-in organization system. His work is in the room would be 3-star status BUT he was only supposed to be working on one wall yet he managed to get some nonremovable white stuff on another wall, one that was my statement wall (dark gray with gold polka dots). This mistake cost me an additional $65 to buy paint to repaint the wall that he ruined. He acknowledged that he effed it up and even said that if I got the paint, he'd come paint it. Nice right? I opted to just buy the paint and paint the wall myself to avoid hassling him. I haven't purchased more polka dots for the wall yet but that'll be an additional $30. This is a part of the reason Handyman Joe is getting this one star review.
Wall paint issue aside, I reached out to Joe a few weeks later in a message requesting the cost to remove the baseboards in three rooms and put them back at a later date. I requested this quote twice and he never responded back in writing. He called me and told me it'd be $100. I made sure I asked if that included him putting them back on and he told me again that the job would cost $100. He came over and removed the baseboards in less than an hour and I paid the $100 up front. When I asked for him to put them back on at his convenience, he introduced the idea that there would be a new price that was more expensive because "he would have to make cuts and nail it to the walls which takes longer to do" Uh what? I initially paid him about $500 to do something that took him like three days to do but now he thinks I'm Boo Boo the Fool and going to pay $100 for less than one hour of work? If his prices were written or justified prior, things would be understandable but his style of quoting is extremely unprofessional. He went back and forth with me via text briefly about five days ago but hasn't responded to the last message I sent leaving me having to find someone new to put back the baseboards he removed. It's all unfortunate really but I learned a valuable lesson. I will never take a phone quote again.
Pros:
1. He's prompt in returning Yelp messages, but that's likely because businesses get docked points for keeping potential customers waiting.
2. He does decent work, not perfect but gets the job done.
3. He's nice and handsome to look at but that's pretty irrelevant huh?
Cons:
1.He doesn't really come on time. With the exception of the first day we met, he was late as hell practically every time he was scheduled to come. There were times that if I didn't message him, he would've just kept me waiting instead of rescheduling. In addition, he had to leave early one day because he had prior obligations which ended up affecting my schedule because I had to arrange to be home when he was coming.
2. Lastly, the most important con is that he's just not a good businessman. He may be a decent "handyman" because he has tools but certain things are unforgivable. Come on time, be responsive to messages, honor your word, send invoices to cover your own butt. If he had the business part mastered, he would've sent me an invoice which stated "baseboard removal $100" and a simple discussion could've avoided any confusion. But now he just seems like someone trying to get extra money because he may have misquoted me for the original job. I planned to find a handyman/contractor that I could refer out to my real estate clients and use for other projects in my home but with Joe I just ended up disappointed. I would not recommend him for anything major. read more
