Seattle Handyman Pros

I wish I had read reviews for this handyman before hiring them, they are all true. I have experience with 4 handyman and this one was not easy to deal with.
I hired them for framing work and the complaining and excuses has been endless ever since. In general, they do work the way they want to do it, not the way you asked. There were times it would have been easier and neater results, but Lee the framer plainly refused. And then there was the time he came inside the house to use my bathroom for the first 20 minutes of the day and REFUSED to even take his shoes off when asked so we had to clean up after him. That was a first for me.
The work took longer, it was not bad framing, and there was good cleanup after which doesn’t always happen with contractors. But there was some damage done too. They damaged my door by leaning it on the concrete instead of on cardboard I had provided, then he drilled into our natural gas line TWICE and that required our evacuation and emergency $ 450 repair bill on a weekend. Mistakes happen, but a big hassle.
Greg the owner seems to have good intentions, he stuck to his estimate even though the work took longer and he paid for the natural gas line repair (which he obviously should), but he also cashed checks before the work was done and I have been waiting for him to come back and finish it ever since.
It has been ONE MONTH now. He cancelled last weekend, and three mornings this week. He wouldn’t come Saturday after 11 when I was home so now its next week and I keep changing my work plans around to accommodate him. Each time it was panic attacks, feeling light-​headed, etc. This has consumed so much of my time that I have just become frustrated and just need it done so I’m hiring a new contractor next week and will have to get the money back from him. Really, Seattle Handyman Pros shouldn’t be in business because everything is such a hassle for the customer.

We hired this company to help with a few minor repairs on a rental we were in a rush to get rented. The job we hired them for was to troubleshoot 2 problematic light fixtures, install a new bathroom fan/​light, and install a toilet.
This was a terrible experience. Over the phone we were told that the owner himself, Greg, would be coming out to inspect the job and provide an hourly bid ($ 54/​hour) as well as a project bid on the spot. We were clear that we were in a rush to get these repairs completed before new tenants moved in.
The owner did not show up, but sent someone else, John, instead. John provided us with no hourly option for fees, only one bulk cost of $ 450, much more than we anticipated spending. I asked John to take off the toilet install, and he said he could do the other 3 jobs for $ 300. He had no bid sheet or written materials, so he wouldn’t give me a written breakdown of any of this. Almost as soon as he got started, he told me he didn’t think he could fix the troublesome light fixtures as he lacked the skills to fix electrical issues. I asked him to please not even consider working on anything he didn’t feel equipped to do and to take those items off the total cost. I certainly wish that I would have been informed that this is out of their skill area when I originally called and set up the service!
I had to leave to make another appointment, but right before I did he offered to do the toilet install for only $ 100 since he wouldn’t be doing the lights. I agreed in my haste.
John left the job before I could make it back to inspect the work. He called to collect $ 350 over the phone, which did not add up since he didn’t do the lights. He also mentioned that he couldn’t get power to the bathroom fan but he assumed it was installed correctly. I asked to speak to the owner.
The owner, Greg, then spoke to me and was very pushy about the price. I explained that what John had verbally told me during the work being done was to expect a total charge of $ 250. I spent nearly an hour on the phone with Greg with him haggling with me until we settled on $ 275.
Later that day, when we returned to the home, we found that John had completely ruined our electrical box. The main breaker switch was broken off, the entire thing would no longer work and power was completely off in the home. We immediately called Greg to tell him this and learned that he had already known this. How could he charge us anything when they were aware that they had caused such damage? Greg also told me he did not have the skills to fix the broken electrical box.
We found an emergency electrician and set up for him to come out the next day. Greg refused to refund any money, and said he would meet the electrician to remedy the situation himself. We soon learned that the bathroom fan was installed extremely poorly and completely against electrical code. The electrician informed us that it was a major safety hazard, and I passed on the information to Greg.
Greg never did show up the next day, continued to refuse to even partially refund the job, and it cost us $ 500 to have the electrician fix all the damage that was done.
I’ve never written a negative review like this before, but I just hope no one else would have to go through the stress and expense that we did in this situation.

4÷26÷2012
I have used Service Magic off and on for a number of years always hoping they would get better. I have found one long term contractor who I now deal with directly. But all the others either didn’t know what they advertised or more recently were horrible. On 4÷23÷2012 I engaged GMS Gregs Maintenance Service in Seattle to do a minor bathroom door repair. A 3:00PM appt was made for a few days later. I got up at 4AM that day and went to work early so I could be home early in the afternoon. When I got home I had a voice mail from Greg saying he couldn’t come himself but that he was sending one of his best men. I called Greg and told him I was home and he said good because his person was in the neighborhood and would right over. I waited over an hour and called Greg back when no one had showed up. He said his contractor had taken another small job in addition to what he was supposed to do at the job in front of mine and now they would not be able to get to my house until 6 to 7 or some other day. I was shocked. I asked what about my appointment. No answer so I said let’s finish this today as I was not about to go through this again another day. I waited until just before 7 and fired Gregs Maintenance Service and left them a deservably negative review on Service Magic. Awhile later their contractor did arrive at my house and I told him he was too late and that I had fired their company and he should leave. I was polite but not happy. He had a very odd inappropriate grin on his face. Later that night I got my cell phone out of my briefcase to charge up during the night. I noticed there was a message waiting indicator so I went to my messages and there it was ’ go fxck your fagott”. I wondered if it wasn’t that person and called the number but a lady answered who said she had no idea what I was talking about or any kind of message. So I forwarded to her clearly showing her number and the message. I got a reply back that this wasn’t her number ! and that was the end of the conversation. So I stored the number in my contacts under the word Obscene. I then noticed my voicemail indicator was on so I went to my Visual Voicemail. I saw earlier in the day I had a voice mail from Obscene! The worker identified himself by name, company and clearly spoke his phone number which was in fact the number the text message came from. Although it was late I called Greg and asked him if Wxxxx was his employee. He answered yes and I told him the contents of the text message. He then said don’t be mad at me I don’t know the guy and just hired him today. I couldn’t believe my ears and I said you send someone you don’t know into people’s homes? I filed a police report. In Seattle hate crimes have zero tolerance and gay people are legally protected. I then posted on Service Magic’s Facebook page EVERYTHING. I got a call in the morning from a pleasant person who said this was unacceptable and they would warn the business as they had no previous complaints. She later said she had talked to Greg and he indeed did know the contractor who he had employed before and trusted and had just rehired him the day before. She said the employee had been talked to about the seriousness of his actions. Really. Fire his ass! That is not zero tolerance. She said they screen the businesses not the employees. Then buyer beware. What sort of guarantee is that if they at the top won’t take responsibility for what the lead people to believe that quality screened businesses are sending people into their home. Service Magic I think you should get out of Seattle. We have different values and zero tolerance is zero tolerance.
And to Greg’s maintenance — it is 2012 and you are in the midst of tens and tens of thousands of gay people in Seattle — who I hope never do business with you in the future. In Seattle we don’t tolerate any kind of bigotry of any kind.