Handyman Matters

Honest, upfront, and did stellar work. Thanks!

Rich’s other reviewers were lucky — at least they got as far as getting an appointment. I called Rich for some minor work at a few of the properties managed by my company. As soon as I said I run a property management company, he said «I don’t deal with those» and hung up. Why not Rich — because we hold handymen accountable for the quality and timeliness of their work? Because we expect vendors to communicate and do business properly? AVOID this jerk.

I also was one of those people who found this company in ‘the green referral neighborhood book’ and AFTER I’d scheduled, infact the morning of, I thought it might be prudent to double check on Unilocal as I learned the hard way a few years ago… nothing is as expensive as an incompetent contractor.
I read a lot of sketchy reviews (lower part of this page, now) and immediately called to cancel. Jose very nicely asked me to trust him with the work.
I had about 10 small handyman jobs. He suggested we go one at a time and I check after each job to see if I was happy. We did that. Everything was perfect.
I have to say, Jose is a kind, courteous, straightforward young man. I completely trusted him.
I will definitely be using him for a number of other jobs that now are building up.
I feel I’ve found our much needed household handyman!

I read these reviews AFTER I had the work done (my bad) but I’m somewhat glad I did. I would have never gone with them had I read these reviews, yet I’ve be never been so impressed with a handyman before. I dealt solely with Jose (seems Rich is the problem!) and he was amazing. We negotiated a flat fee for 5 – 6 things which we stuck to. The work was superb, and he was so courteous! The first day he was a bit late but I had scheduled on a day when I worked from home so it was fine. He worked around my schedule on the 2 subsequent visits. After knowing him only a few hours, I felt comfortable enough to leave him alone in my house while I had a Dr. Appointment. I never do that! When all was done, he explained every single line on the receipt for parts. Short story is that I’m impressed — and I don’t impress easily! I was so impressed I gave him a little extra cash a a tip. Again, I never do that!

I found Handyman Matters through a Google search. We needed some basic work done, and so I reached out to Rich. The initial conversation was prompt and cordial, but then I had to follow up, generally without response for 2 – 4 days at a time.
My guidance here would be that if you are interested in getting some work done, expect decently prompt communication, and don’t want to go back and forth about non-​specifics, your best bet is to look elsewhere. There are other handyman companies around that actually do want your business.

I had some problems with the electricals which resulted no power for 2 bedrooms in the house. Rich, the owner, was very professional and was on time as he had said to me. He was very nice and friendly. He was not rude at all. His electrician, Ed, was also very professional and knowledgeable. They were able to restore power in the 2 bedrooms and found out what the problem was. I was very pleased with their work and STRONGLY recommend them.

I got this company to fix the main entry door after a break-​in I had in the house. The jamp, trims, drywall around the entry door was severely damaged and the whole thing had to be replaced and rebuilt. My experience with Rich has been really good. He came over and gave me an estimate on the total work, went ahead and ordered the parts. As soon as the parts came in, he got his contractor to come in and start work on it right away. He spent an entire day and rebuilt the entire area as good as new. He cleaned up after the job and also waited for me to show up to inspect the work. A good job done at a very reasonable price. I have got estimates from other places and his pricing was reasonable and below what others had quoted me. He is a good handyman and would definitely be referring him to others who are looking for a handyman.

I can’t believe this guy. Rich is the name. I called him yesterday, Friday, to setup an appointment for today, Saturday. We reviewed, at length, what I needed to have done. Rich said he’d be at my home at noon on Saturday. Well, noon rolls around and nothing. I called him at 12:30pm and left him voicemail telling him he missed the appointment. At around 3pm, he calls be back and says, «Aww man, I’m really sorry. I lost the notes I took during our conversation and totally forgot about you.» Well, that was strike one. He says, «Well, we can reschedule,» and asks when during the week would work for me. I reminded him that unless he could be at my home at 6:30pm, when I get home from work, weekends were the only option. So, he says, «It’ll have to be next week, then». Strike two! I then told him that I needed and was expecting the quote this week, since I am getting quotes from several companies and I didn’t think it was fair to make the companies that have already provided quotes wait. The next thing he says is, «Well, you can go with one of the other companies. I don’t mind. Why don’t you just go ahead and do that then?» Is this guy for real? Does he really think he can run a business like this? Absolutely ridiculous; no customer service skills and no tact whatsoever! The next thing I did was look him up on Unilocal!Of course, I was not surprised to find that other people have given him poor ratings as well. In the end, I was very glad that I had not given him my business!!! This guy is bad news! Keep your distance!

I got this company’s name from Santa Clara County Homeowner Referral Guidebook. According to this booklet, the company is supposed to be rated 5 stars, so I decided to give them a try.
I called the company to get an estimate on the basic electrical job I needed to get done and I had 4 questions;
1) A rough estimate of how much it would cost to get the job done (I briefly described what I was looking to do)
2) How long it would take for the electrician to come out
3) What their warranty is
4) If they gave a free exact estimate of the cost before I decided to sign on to the job (F.Y.I. they don’t. To get an exact estimate, you have to pay for the guy to come out no matter what)
Well after 5 minutes into the conversation and I asked my last question about the free estimate, the guy (I think it was the owner Rich) said «Look, I already gave you enough of my time so that should be enough — If you want to go with somebody else, do so. Thank you very much» and hang up the phone.
I’ll definitely take his advice and find somebody else. I can only imagine what the customer service is going to be like if there should ever be any problem with the work. I don’t know what their work quality is like, but the Unilocal review that others have posted is enough to keep me away.

I’ve used Rich’s service a few times for really small jobs, but this time I am really disappointed. I don’t think I“ll use them again. The spring on my garage door broke and I called him to get it fixed. I didn’t know the spring had snapped. It just didn’t open. He sent Jose to come out to fix it. Jose had no idea the spring broke either. I had to point out to him that the suspensions on the sides were off the track and that the door is misaligned. He called Rich to come out to help him lift the door. Rich is the one that noticed that the spring broke. He told me it would take a few hours to fix this problem and they stayed for the whole freaking day! I took the day off from work because of this. They were amatures with garage doors. They reversed the springs at their first try which wasted at least a few hours because it didn’t work. I don’t think they ever replaced the springs on a garage door before. They looked confused every time I popped in to check on them. They had to call the garage door shop to ask for help. They gave me 2 hour discount on the labor because of the mistake they made. I bargained it down to 3 hours because they ended up charging me $ 785 to replace springs on the garage door and aligned the door and also replacing the tubes in my toilet because there is a minor leak (water going from the tank to the bowl). This is outrageously expensive! Someone else I know paid $ 950 for a complete replacement (including the door, tracks, springs everything except the motor)!
That same night, I noticed that the toilet they fixed has a worse leak than before! It now goes into a cycle with the water leaking into the toilet bowl and then the motor pumps more water into the tanke and repeat. I called Rich about it and he said he’ll send Jose out. I had to tell him no that I can’t take another day off to wait on monday. Jose came out sunday afternoon to fix. Turned out to be a bad part. I had to tell him to raise the water level because he had it set to fill only half of the tank. He didn’t seem to be an expert with replacing toilet tubes which is not a hard job. After I thanked him for coming on a sunday, he told me that usually they charge for labor when it’s caused by a bad part, but since Rich told me he won’t charge me, he will not charge me anything. Are you kidding me? There’s supposed to be guarantee on the fix. You didn’t fix it the first time and made me waste more of my time (time is $) and you’re trying to charge for more?! I am not the one who bought the part for you to replace either! Why would I have to pay? I will definitely verify any fixes next time before handyman leaves. And I will also never use them again.

I agree with Balaji B. I can’t comment on his work because it never got that far! I contacted Rich Latour (the supervisor) to have his company put a pet door in one of the walls of my garage. He called me at 7am to schedule me for the following day. I thought it was a little early in the morning for a business to be calling (he woke me up), but I let it slide. He scheduled the appointment for 8:30am on the following day (Saturday). He even gave me an email confirmation stating that we had an appointment scheduled on the following day at 8:30am, so I figured he was pretty on top of things. Boy was I wrong! On Saturday morning, my husband (who wakes up at 5:45am each morning during the week to make the train) got up early on his day off to pull the cars out of the garage and clear away anything that was around it to give the handyman plenty of room to work. Then, we just sat there and waited. 8:30a went by…9:30am went by… I called Rich at 9:45a and left a message… no response… I called again at 10:30a and he picked up. He acted like he didn’t even realize he had made an appointment with me! He first asked if I got the pet door delivered yet… hello? Why would I have made an appointment with you if I didn’t have the pet door delivered yet?! Then, he realizes his mistake and says «Oh, my apologies… I didn’t even schedule the appointment with my guys. We’ve been so busy today.» I don’t give a crap how busy you were that day… that is not my problem! If you couldn’t handle the amount of work you scheduled yourself that day, then you shouldn’t schedule it and leave us waiting around like a couple of dumb-a@%es! Is your time more valuable than ours? Seems like you think it is! He asked when I wanted to reschedule… ha! Yeah, how about you wait around till I get back to you.

Most unreliable company you can find.
They scheduled me for Tuesday 9AM. No one showed up till 10AM, no phone calls. I called them and they said they got stuck and will be there in 15 minutes and it was 11AM, no body showed up and I called again… they said they will reschedule, so Saturday… I took half-​day off for this…
I agreed for Saturday like an idiot. 10AM, 11AM nobody showed up… this time I didn’t even bothered to call them. what is the point…
Then I get a call on Sunday saying they can reschedule me… as if I have nothing to do in my life other than wait for them…
I can’t comment on their work… because they never showed up… but I can say for sure they don’t value your time…
I forgot to mention, I used
to find them…

I’ve been looking for an honest, quick, real handyman who knows about a thing or two who actually wants to work and I finally found it! I haven’t had the job done yet but just talking on the phone I know this guy is different. Unlike some others that I’ve been contacting, he was prompt in returning my call, knowledgeable in different areas of my project needs, and honest and realistic about pricing AND wants to work! Ha! Finally the one that is actually concerned about my needs and concerns and someone who isn’t so cheap that doesn’t want to take on a small job. This is exactly what I was looking for! I’ll follow up with actual work later…
So they came today to do the work and man! I got lucky! These guys have your best interest as their top priority. They will do their best to save you money and do exactly what’s been asked to do in a timely manner. I would recommend them for all types of work from small to large. They will be my maintenance contact from now on!
BTW, they are able to do pre-​sale work for your home too.