Hired My Handyman to install a modular shower enclosure (already bought) at a Beach cottage I rent out. Owner Tina Gleisner told me 3 hours at $84/hr unless they had problems & I authorized more. They were to do decorative trim work (no trim done). No mention of trip fees ($40 each visit). For this double-market rate hourly fee, she would provide 2 skilled craftsmen (carpenter and plumber) with a minimum of 15 years experience each, as described on website (My Handyman is a franchise).
Only one inexperienced, unskilled young man worked the job. I met the guy Friday to pay and was horrified to see the floor destroyed and in pieces in front of the shower, and the cabinet shelving removed and damaged laying on the floor. Also, the job was not finished (no trim or showerhead) and was done wrong (the drain leaks into the subfloor; permanent drip from the old leaky water control valve that was patched with solder instead of replaced, as I specified). Old insulation above the shower had been ripped down and was nailed back up, hanging in tatters along the walls.
The handyman presented me with a bill for over $1,400. I was alone; when I refused to pay he became intimidating, and demanded I sign his accounting sheets without modifying them. I thought the problem was just a bad employee who spent his time at the Beach instead of working at my cottage. I thought the franchise guarantees (satisfaction guaranteedbefore you pay and 1-year guarantee on workmanship) meant something.
Long story short, they got my credit card number and billed over $1,400 after receiving my complaints, despite the franchise guarantee not to bill until you are satisfied. I called her franchise owner, Mr. Handyman International, since they get a huge up-front franchise fee AND a percentage of every jobshouldn't they make good on the 1-year guarantee when the local owner ignores it? Their reply: they talked to Ms. Gleisner and she blew them off too, so I was on my own. I started research and found Ms. Gleisner had a previous NH handyman company, I Handyman Solutions, which closed after complaints to the NH Dept of Justice, which were referred to litigation. Her web site claims My Handyman has been in business since but actually this one was just established 3/28/08 (www.sos. Nh. Gov/corporate/soskb/). I tried putting reviews on local web sites; she contacted the administrators and threatened them, and my reviews were removed. Ms. Gleisner writes long letters defending her handyman's work even though she refused to send anyone to look at the damages, and she describes what my job was like even though she has no construction experience and never visited the site (and the kid she sent had NO IDEA what he was doing).
All my phone calls, complaints and requests for mediation through 3rd parties have been ignored, though I offered a generous settlement of over 3X my original estimate, plus letting them off the hook for repairs, just to be done with this nightmarish rip-off. The greedy owner expects the full $1,400 while she ignores the 1-year guarantee and leaves me to have the job redone correctly and the damages fixed. Ms. Gleisner is the most unethical business owner I have met in over 25 years of having homes, garages and pools built.
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