Man@Work Handyman Service in Brooklyn - A Bit of a Warning

his website clearly states that plumbing projects would be quoted at a flat rate. did you not read that? why complain about the $125 per hour when it obviously doesn’t apply.And if it took maybe 20 minutes to install a shelf on a wall, then he charged you at the handyman rate for that. I don’t understand the critcism.  You were not ripped-off;   are you  just po’ed because the faucet didn’t take hours?

ParkSlopePS

in Handymen and Odd Jobs 13 years and 5 months ago

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ronvalron | 13 years and 5 months ago

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Hi Folks, this guy advertises in the Handymen directory – that’s how I found out about him. I thought it might be helpful for there to be something here letting people know a bit more about how he works. I saw Bob’s ad and was pleased when I saw his flat hourly rate of $125 for basic handyman work. (Yes, that’s a lot for a handyman, but good non-flakey people are scarce, and I don’t mind paying a bit more for someone who can come quickly and will deliver a hassle-free experience – at least in theory. Plus, I thought my work would only take 1-2 hours.) I needed to replace a kitchen faucet, put up a shelf and help me with some tricky screws on some luggage with broken wheels that my tools couldn’t hack. Since basic handymen have replaced faucets for me before – and since he did not say on his Web site that he has a different rate for faucets, even though his web site specifically mentions plumbing – I had him come to my apartment. I figured that his small trip fee (which you pay if you don’t do the work he provides the estimate for) wouldn’t end up applying. After all, the fee is refundable if you do the work, and I figured I would have him do the work since he seemed competent (I wasn’t aware of the Angie’s List coupon and should have looked it and the reviews up, alas). I told him about the faucet when I first talked to him on the phone, and he did not say anything then either about there being a separate rate for faucets.

He arrives, surveys the job and quotes me $300 for the faucet alone. I blanch. How long will it take? He hems and haws and won’t estimate the time needed even though he’s already looked at and underneath the sink and seen the hardware. Oh, and his faucet installation fee always starts at $300, he says. At this point, I’m sorely tempted to tell him to take a walk, but he knows that I know that I’ll need to pay him his estimate fee and then start over from scratch with a bunch of flakey handymen who may or may not call me back. My faucet is busted, and I don’t have any more time for this task, let alone another day to stay home from work dealing with it, so I give in. I imagine that most people do, and he must know this. The whole thing made me feel like a total rube. And maybe I am – I did pay the fee, after all. (I’m sure you’ll let me know in the comments below…)

But I can’t resist asking him: Why not just say on your site (or on the phone, at least, when I tell you that this is a faucet job) that the minimum faucet price is $300? He has no good answer for this, probably because there is no good answer. The truth is that I wouldn’t have even called had I known that $300 was the minimum.

The faucet work took 45 minutes. So I paid him over $6 a minute. That seems like an awful lot for a faucet installation. Yes, he is a (licensed, I think) plumber with lots of experience. He deserves a living wage. But $300 strikes me as just too much. So now you know what the deal is when you need faucet help from him, even if he doesn’t or won’t post this on his Web site. Are there other minimums he maintains and other services that his $125 hourly rate does not apply to? I have no idea. I’d ask if I were you.

The pluses were these: He called back quickly. The work seems good. He replaced my luggage wheels for “free,” though that was after $50 to put up the shelf (a few new holes in a concrete block wall in essence) and $300 to do the faucet.

Bottom line, I ended up feeling taken advantage of, and I would not use him again.

northofditmas | 13 years and 5 months ago

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You lost me at “Angie’s List.”  If you can’t handle basic tasks like putting up a shelf forget about the internet and work your neighborhood.  Find a local hardware store that does housecalls and build up a relationship.  If you tip well the staff will respect you and charge you fairly in order to keep your repeat business.

ronvalron | 13 years and 5 months ago

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And you lost me at you lost me. Why is using Angie’s List a bad thing? They have way more (and better organized) reviews there than here. So makes sense to use em, no? (Not a rhetorical question btw – if there is something terrificly wrong with Angie’s List, it would be good to know that.)

eman134 | 13 years and 5 months ago

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you should have gone to leopoldi hardware on 5th avenue or tarzian on 7th and asked them for a referral…both long established businesses with links to the community, not hucksters on the internet

urbanexteriors | 13 years and 5 months ago

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A plumber arrives at a doctor’s house to fix a leak. When the doctor let’s him in, he notices the plumber’s brand new Maserati parked out front. The plumber fixes the leak in 45 minutes, and hands the doctor a bill for $500\. After the doctor hands him the check, he says to the plumber “That’s a beautiful car, and very expensive. I can’t even afford to buy one” To which the plumber replies…”Neither could I when I was a doctor”

greenmountain | 13 years and 5 months ago

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As a home owner, I am not required to hire a licensed contractor, but as an installer of faucets, shelves or anything else in a NYC residence, I am required to be a Licensed Home Improvement Contractor.  This is my license number:  1130473.  I know the laws of our city are intended to prevent stories like this.  It would be political dynamite to require home owners to hire only licensed contractors, because code compliance, tax collection, frequency of workers covered by compensation insurance, and even child support, would all go up.  It is hard to have it both ways.  If we as a community really want consumer protections, but only ask contractors to follow increasingly strict laws, meanwhile we undercut law-abiding contractors and over pay for illegal operators, than we should blame ourselves and not wave the finger only at the contractor.  Is there anyone on this list who wants to end consumer protections?  How about extending the law to require home owners to hire licensed HIC’s?  What if the warning was about crack dealers or hookers?  Would it be ok if it were legal to consume the service, but not to provide it?  Do we not have a public health crisis when our lead and asbestos-bearing construction debris is dumped illegally in poor neighborhoods, when buildings fall down? Is Angie better than Brownstoner?  Doesn’t anybody even want to know what the license requires or the technician you let in to your home?  Does anybody bother to check if your handyman is licensed or following consumer protection laws?  If not, why not?  It is easy enough to call 311 or go to nyc.gov, consumer affairs. Replies on or off forum would be appreciated.  I am in the directory.

Hardcharger | 13 years and 5 months ago

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Yes you got a little taken, but not so badly to feel ashamed.  It was a good lesson.  At least the work is done and hopefully correctly.   Friends and neighbors are usually the best references..   If you see vans on the block, start writing down names and talk to your neighbors.   I once grabbed a guy off a job down the block to help move some stuff.

bobjohn | 13 years and 5 months ago

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the annoying part, he will not pay taxes from this  $300 so any of us would have to make $500/45 minutes to match the same rate of return.

ronvalron | 13 years and 5 months ago

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Actually, he collected sales taxes and let me use a credit card, so I assume he’s paying taxes.

ronvalron | 13 years and 5 months ago

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Hardcharge – you are right – on seventh viewing of the man@work site I do now see that he says down below (I didn’t even realize there was a down below because it is off my screen, more than one paragraph later when it should be up near the $125 bit) that plumbing is different. That said, he was crystal clear to me when he arrived that faucets start at $300\. He can and should post that on his Web site and/or tell people that over the phone if that is the case. Thanks for pointing this out, in any event, and I will amend my other post too.