Mr. Handyman Central MetroWest

I had Michael Campbell come to my house and hang shelves, pictures, and curtain rods. He also replaced a lighting fixture and tightened the headboard of my bed.
Mike was very efficient, friendly, and professional.
I will definitely use him again for my next home project — painting my bathroom.

We had Mike G. to our house today and in several hours he fixed and organized a multitude of things that I had been saving up for his visit. Polite professional and friendly it was a please to have him and we so appreciate his work which is always done well. It seems no task is too challenging.

I cannot in good conscience recommend Mr. Handyman.
We had a checklist of things we needed repaired when selling our condo. We called in advance to see if they could do those things and were told on the phone yes, they absolutely can. This included things like flooring work, repairing a popcorn ceiling, and painting.
I asked for an estimate but was told they do the estimate on-​site. You have to pay something like $ 150 just to get someone to come out and tell you how long things will take. This is a HUGE RED FLAG. They couldn’t give me any sense of how long it would take prior to this other than «it usually takes a little less time than we estimate».
The day arrived and the guy showed up promptly. We walked around and showed him the things that we wanted done. He could only do about ¹⁄₃ of them, despite the person on the phone telling us it would be fine. One reason was he «brought the wrong truck».
Things he did ultimately was install a toilet, attempt to fix the popcorn ceiling, smooth a few walls and corners where the drywall was damaged.
All of those things had to be redone. The toilet slowly leaked dirty water in my bathroom. The popcorn ceiling looked terrible. The walls/​corners still needed sanding and weren’t very even.
I paid over $ 1000 to have them do, essentially, nothing worthwhile. The technician even left saying «I’m not happy with how this turned out but that’s the best I can do». What a ringing endorsement of his work!
Because I was selling my condo and about to start showings, I called a different repair company to come out and fix it because time was of the essence and I could not trust Mr. Handyman to do a good job fixing it.
A few weeks later, when things calmed down, I called them to complain. I reached someone who said they were the owner of the Metrowest location. He said he was shocked to hear that we were unhappy as we had done a phone call followup and said we were happy. THIS WAS NOT TRUE. My girlfriend answered and said we «no longer require their services», which was her way of firing them. They took this to mean «job well done».
This makes me question their testimonials and wonder how many other unhappy customers are out there that they are simply misinterpreting.
Anyway the owner did nothing to fix the situation. He wanted to spend more time arguing with me that I should have called them immediately, and he ignored the fact that some of the items (like the slow-​leak toilet) took weeks to manifest and become noticeable.
No refund was offered. They did offer to send someone out, but I had already had repairs done.
Honestly, when even the handyman on-​site was saying, WHEN HE WAS THERE, that they didn’t do a good job, the go-​to response should not be defensive arguments.
In summary, the work was bad, the people on the phone over-​promised, and the customer service tries to blame you for them doing poor work.
Overall a terrible experience and I regret every minute of it.
EDIT: Not 100% sure how to reply to comments, but the below comment from Mr Handyman is not correct. The technician left literally saying he was not pleased with the work. We had home showings and were in the process of selling the house and seeing as how the first jobs were ALL botched, we needed to get the work fixed ASAP.
The popcorn ceiling was not guaranteed to match, this much is true. We were told this after he already started, and the technician spent a lot of time (the majority of the hours we were charged) on this task. The whole time he was saying he didn’t think it would look right, it wasn’t going to come out right, and he wasn’t happy with it.
I want to stress this again — we did NOT state we were satisfied with the work, not on the phone, not in person.
I also want to stress that yes, my significant other answered the phone for the followup, and she did NOT state we were happy with the work. It sounds like they did not recognize what getting fired sounds like.
Mr. Handyman NEVER offered to come out to review the work for a refund, they offered to come out to fix it a second time (which we had already done, due to time constraints and no faith that having them repair it would actually work a second time, since it didn’t work the first time). We declined them coming out to repair it because we already had someone fix it. We took a little longer to contact them because of the home showings and the fact that *not all issues were immediately apparent*. No mention of a refund (partial or otherwise) was suggested by them, and they just left any question I asked of it hanging without acknowledging it.
For the amount of money and lack of personal service, I cannot recommend anyone use this business. We spent over a grand on more or less nothing, and from our conversations they are not trustworthy.

Another wonderful Mr. Handyman experience. It was a nasty job that needed doing and D couldn’t have been more pleasant and professional. Will use again Mr. Handyman again. soon!

Our handyman arrived unprepared to install a basic disposal, despite two phone calls explaining our needs. He ended up installing a towel ring and a towel bar — which took him ONE hour to complete-​with three or four trips back and forth the truck. I was fully aware of their one hour minimum, which was supposed to go towards installing my disposal-​not some silly towel bar. I would never have hired someone to solely do that.
Additionally, the technician copied my card down wrong and I was told my card was declined. No wonder it was declined. It is very obvious that there was a lack of communication between the office and the technician on all fronts.
Needless to say, I expressed my dissatisfaction with the office and was offered a $ 25/​credit towards my next appointment. What a disappointment!

I hired them to install a shower surround and build 2 sets of external stairs with 2 steps each.
Process
There’s a big disconnect between what you tell them over the phone and what gets conveyed to the tech.
I said I wanted them to install a shower surround and if there’s time, build the stairs. They scheduled me for a 2:00 appointment. It didn’t sound like enough time to me, but I assumed they knew what they were doing.
When the technician arrived, he said «I don’t have time to install a shower surround. You should have been scheduled for a visit first thing in the morning.»
So I had him start on the stairs and come back a second day for the shower and to work more on the stairs (they did not charge me the higher first-​hour price since it was their mistake, which I was grateful for).
Price
They charge $ 146 for the 1^st hour, $ 48 for each 30 min. after that, plus materials. Problem is they don’t come over first to get details and take measurements, and they don’t come with any lumber.
Even though I gave specific details over the phone (distance between ground and floor, width of doors), the tech still took measurements and then went to Home Depot for lumber. On that particular day, they were doing construction on the water mains. A trip that normally takes 15 minutes took over an hour. So I paid to have him sit in traffic. On top of that, if they have to buy any lumber, they charge you an extra $ 15 van fee.
If I knew he wasn’t going to come with lumber, I would have bought it myself first.
The total cost for the stairs was about $ 1,000 and only 1 set was finished: The second set was freestanding and the steps weren’t attached. By contrast, another company quoted us $ 550 including pouring a concrete platform (which turned out not to be needed.)
The shower came to about $ 500 but was also not finished. He had scraped off the old caulk and glued the surround on. It has yet to be caulked.
Quality of Work
One thing I did like: he made the steps on the stairs extra wide, after talking to me about it. But that’s about all I was happy with.
The Stairs:
1. I know from working on a retaining wall that anything sitting on the ground has to have gravel/​sand under it, down to below the frost line. If it doesn’t, you’ll get movement when the ground expands in the winter.
He just put the stairs right on the ground after leveling the dirt.
2. I asked him before he started if I can easily detach them from the house later because we’ll probably be putting in a patio. He told me yes, but instead he nailed the stairs securely right to the concrete foundation. There’s no way I’ll be able to remove those stairs again.
3. Under the steps of the set he finished, I could see cracked wood where the screws went in. It looks like he didn’t predrill the holes.
The Shower:
1. The old caulk was not totally removed. I’ve read online that you have to get absolutely all of the old silicone off or else the new caulk will fail after a couple of years. If he couldn’t get all the old stuff off, he shouldn’t have glued on the surround until he did.
2. With my old surround, the caulk had failed and water had seeped into the drywall behind it, rotting the studs.
So when the drywall was replaced, it purposely ended about ¼ inch above the tub. This way when the surround was installed right down to the tub, there would be a gap behind it and the drywall wouldn’t be sitting in water in the case of leakage.
The tech told me he was going to plane the surround because ‘every bathtub is different’ so I was expecting it to fit right against the tub. But instead he glued it flush with the bottom of the drywall so that it also ends ¼ inch above the tub. This totally defeats the purpose of ending the drywall above the tub and I’ll have the same problem as before if the caulk leaks.
I’m probably going to have to rip the whole thing out and do it over myself.
3. When I removed the drying brace about 3 weeks later, the seams between the panels did not stick.
Customer Satisfaction
The people were nice and they say they want the customer to be completely happy. This works well on paper, but some people would rather pay someone else to fix something rather than confront someone. If they were really serious about this policy, they would send out a supervisor instead.
When I complained about the gap at the bottom of the surround, they said they were going to have the originally tech come by «to explain why he did what he did, and if it’s wrong, to fix it.» I don’t have a lot of confidence in the tech and asked if someone else could come out, but was told no.
Is he really going to rebuild my stairs for me, predrilling the holes and installing it on gravel, and reinstall the shower flush with the tub? I don’t think so. And I can’t spend any more money on this incredibly expensive project.
This company is probably fine for a small fix-​it job if you don’t care about the price, but not to build something big or to do a major install, imho.

I give Mr. Handyman 5 stars just for putting Dorian G. in his/​her place (below). Tsk, tsk Dorian G.

This is the fourth time I have used them. I needed some insulation removed and some woodworking in the attic… adding strapping. They showed up on time ready to work. V friendly and knowledgeable. Job was well done and fast. They are handymen so cant do electrical but they referred me to one who also responded fast. I’ll review him when the work is done tomorrow. Only slight issue which did not impact the quality was that the supplies (straps) were probably marked up 100% …although having said that they did order them for me which saved me the effort. I will not hesitate to use them again.

Hired Mr. Handyman to get a list of things I had lingering for 6 months done. There motto of «on time done right» was 100% accurate. I would not hesitate to call them again.

Another solid experience. Men showed up on time and did good work. Thanks again.

We used Mr. Handyman several years ago and had a good experience with some basic electrical work that needed to be done.
Fast forward a few years and now we need some carpentry work done. We were given an estimate over the phone for the work (both cost and the amount of time it would take). The serviceman came out the morning of Christmas eve. It took him twice as long as expected and since we were being charged by the hour, we were outraged. Had the service come out to scout the job first, both them and ourselves would have had a more realistic idea of what was involved. How can you blame the homeowner for not knowing that the builder used a custom molding and that removing and reinstalling would be more involved? You don’t. That’s why we hired them to get it done.
After the serviceman had exceeded nearly twice the estimated time, we kicked him out. The job was about ²⁄₃ done.
And the icing on the cake was that after asking the serviceman if he would like us to remove our car from the garage so he could set up his saw horse and saw in there (to be out of the wind and cold air), he insisted it was not necessary. He then proceeded to scratch our car with the molding he carried to and from the house. The company is insured and bonded, but refused to pay for the damage.
We filed a complaint with the BBB and hope that other people will learn from our experience with this company.
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Regardless of Michael C.‘s reply, I stand by my account. There was no blizzard on Dec 24, 2010. We asked the serviceman to leave because the time had exceeded much more than anticipated and we needed him to move his truck off our driveway so that we could to go to the store to buy milk FOR OUR BABY before the store closed, because it was Christmas Eve. Not the mall, not in a blizzard.