Jack of All Trades

I wish I could give zero stars… since ultimately he did nothing.
I don’t live in the city and needed someone responsible to work on a property for me. I also had on-​going and future work so one would think he may be more honest and responsive… but in fact the opposite was true. What he did do was waste a lot of time making promises that NEVER came true. He didn’t call when he said, schedule when he said, and never completed any work. After two weeks of this I finally got him on the phone and he said he couldn’t find the right paint locally (white semi-​gloss by the way, hardly difficult)! So I shipped him the paint at my additional cost. UPS confirmed delivery… but then I never heard from Steve again… after numerous calls and emails. Huge waste of time and money… and he effectively stole my material from me, since he didn’t use it on my job or make any effort to return it.
Avoid Steve under any and all circumstances. He is unprofessional, communicates poorly or not at all, and the entire experience with him was a nightmare.
The sad bottom line is that he is dishonest and has no business calling himself a professional.

We had a horrible experience after hiring Steve to install new doors in our home.
After receiving quotes from several vendors, we hired Steve based on his competitive prices. On Steve’s first day on the job, he noticed that the door slabs would need to be cut down in order to fit into the door frames and mentioned that the project was going to take a lot longer than he expected. We were very confused at the time, considering that Steve measured our original doors before providing an estimate. We assumed that a professional with his level of experience should have known that the standard sized door slabs would need to be cut down to match the dimensions of our existing doors.
On Steve’s second day on the job, he informed us that he did not have the appropriate drill bit and that he would need to make a trip to the local hardware store. Two hours later, Steve returned with the drill bit and stated that he would be back the following morning to continue work.
Approximately thirty minutes after arriving on day three, Steve told us that the door hinges that we purchased did not fit the mortise he had drilled and suggested that the hinge packaging may have been mislabeled. We measured Steve’s drill bit (the one that he had spent two hours on the previous day tracking down) to find that it was the wrong size for the job. We informed Steve what specific sized drill bit he would need and asked if he would be able to honor his original pricing with all of the problems he was having. He replied that he would keep track of hours and charge us for the lower of the two — quoted price versus hourly labor. In order to be certain, we asked him to confirm that we would not be charged a higher amount than was originally quoted. He answered that he would not charge more than the prices he originally provided. About fifteen minutes later, after becoming frustrated by not being able to fit our closet door into the frame, Steve packed his equipment and told us that he would not be finishing the job due to unforeseen problems. He mentioned that he would bill us for the work completed.
The following night, we received an invoice from Steve which, unsurprisingly, exceeded the original prices provided. We responded to his email describing how we did not think it was fair for him to charge us for the door that he left hinged and unfinished (didn’t fit frame or have knob installed). His reply to our message was that he provided an estimate originally, not a quote, therefore prices were not guaranteed. Basically, we were being asked to cover the additional expenses incurred due to Steve’s inability to accurately plan and estimate.
The entire experience was so frustrating that we decided to share it on Unilocal with the hopes of helping others avoid making a similar mistake by hiring Steve. Take our advice and pay extra for someone with a higher level of skill, professionalism, and customer courtesy.