Mr. Rosales worked on our newly purchased property in late September - October and did a 3.75 out of 5 job on this project. At the time he was amenable to our requests, revisited work that was sloppy, etc. As a result of a fairly positive experience (which is hard to come by in the Handyman world) we hired Mr. Rosales to complete a Fencing Project. At this point Mr. Rosales and I had become accustomed to each other and he understood my expectations for the project (which were high). We were scheduled to break ground on 11/11 and Mr. Rosales no called/no showed until 2PM (It took 3 text messages of checking in to get a response), when he acknowledged the Veteran's Day holiday being the result of his absence and offered no apology beyond that his workers wanted to spend the day with family (which is a fair request, but poorly handled considering he had a $3K deposit and went MIA for several hours). This was my sign to run and I stupidly did not. He started the job on 11/12 with an agreed on completion date on 11/22. Although during the first week of the project I had scheduled work travel planned that Mr. Rosales was aware of (and had my significant other as a reference and contact) - but when I text him about questions or for clarification his response was he could text me or work and that I was bothering him (ummm...Rude! and yet another sign). At this point this was our only method of communication (mind you down the road he used me not being available as an excuse for his poor work). I returned from travels and learned that this carpentry right hand ditched him on the job and clearly left him in over his head (but yet a week away from deadline he was still confident he could complete the job by 11/22). I began to evaluate and share my feedback on the work completed during my travels away, which was a display of poor craftsmanship and was informed by Mr. Rosales I was preventing him from finishing the job (excuse me, but how can you finish the job without my approval?!). Fast forward to today (yes today, almost a month beyond the promised completion date)...The fence is up (but not finished), is not sturdy, is poorly stained, is not level, missing paint on the frame, etc. And we know this because we had an expert evaluate it and without saying a word this person noticed all the shortcuts and wrong doings.
Today, we ended up asking Mr. Rosales to vacate the property for not being amenable to our requests (he rejected a final walkthrough to make corrections and basically said we were stuck what we got (short a few things), and denied an item in the contract from being executed (worth $1500)). Additionally, he refused to compensate us for items not completed, he said he could not because --- he had NO FUNDS! P.S. He needed to reimburse us because I stupidly paid him in full for the project (as we had a second portion to complete, that I cancelled when I realized the trap I was in - but had already provided too much up front). It's literally been a disaster. The guy learned to build a fence on our dime and all he did was check a box - we have a fence - but its barely functional and looks terrible up close. I think he spent more time in his truck (we have Amazon Video proof) than working on it.
So if you have the patience of a saint, just need to check a box with a project and do not care about effectiveness or curb appeal of the project - he is your guy (but be prepared to pull out the violin for this guy - he will tell all his family whoas to win over your sympathy when he needs more money from you). Good riddance and Good Grief.
Although, I legit may need to pull a page out of his book and tell my family about all my whoas with Rosales Handyman - because now I need to pay to fix his mistakes and work not completed. Should I start a Go Fund Me?
This may seem like the normal Handyman experience to most, but I am censoring out of a lot of incriminating details in an effort to be realistic with potential clients (and warn them), but not slander another human being on the internet (its the Holidays after all).
Do or Do Not. There is no try.....all I got was try (ya feel me?) read more