For some reason this company has few reviews and half of them really bad. I will begin by addressing this now as a satisfied customer.
Firstly, I never use curse words on Yelp and give no credence whatsoever to any review that contains them. There are 2 sides to every story and Brian M.'s comments sound like sour grapes of a disgruntled worker who was likely fired. Also, if a former inmate has turned his life around and can apply technical skills in a job that helps people better their homes, than so be it. That's the whole point of rehabilitation. I would imagine the construction business keeps many former convicts gainfully employed. It takes tough guys to do tough work; few MBA grads get into framing/rebar/roofing/etc. As for anyone else's bad experience, the fewer the details, the more suspect a review, as details are required to formulate an educated opinion on anything. I am into detail ergo my epic reviews. You can't just say "they ruined 3 painted areas of my home!!" Ruined how exactly? What solutions were offered? What were the extra costs for exactly? How did you feel the proposed solution failed? Any reasonable person who runs a "global furniture company" must know how to accurately describe a situation. I certainly wouldn't want Katie L. on any jury pondering my guilt or innocence. I suck at roofing!
Now my (detailed) review:
I was in need of a Handyman and happened to spot their truck occupied by owner/estimator Brad while he was parked near a friend's place doing some paperwork. He was friendly and gave me one of their cards and directed me to call to book an estimate. We needed an InstaHot/cold-filter Franke faucet set replaced in our kitchen. I'm fairly handy myself and do many things around the house, but I always leave plumbing work to the pros.
I called their office and Brad came out as scheduled and on time a few days later. He looked at the new faucet set as it sat in the box, and made sure I had all of the necessary accoutrements for the install which I did. Otherwise they are happy to either give you list for Home Depot, or go there for you.
Brad is a nice down-to-earth guy, very professional and not at all condescending the way some contractors can be when expelling things to us laymen. He took notes and assured me this would be a fairly easy job for his technician.
Brad also is currently giving us an estimate on a renovation job which will be channeled through their sister company Happy Home Services. Stay tuned on that.
Brad emailed me an estimate later that day with a very reasonable price and I called to book the install the next day. I was able to get a time slot for the following morning and was told that Craig would be the man on the job.
As promised their man Craig showed up on time and got right to the task at hand. He had in my opinion quite a job ahead of him as when I considered doing it myself, the thought of dealing with the multi-tubed-limited-access nightmare under my sink gave me visions of freaking out on my fixtures with an axe resulting in a major kitchen renovation; better to let this pro handle it.
Handle it he did. Craig meticulously removed the old fixture and installed the new one. Some of my existing compression fittings (particularly to the water filter) are old and finicky with drips and whatnot, however he managed to get everything in and working fine. Craig was also friendly and knowledgeable and answered any questions I had while he was doing the work. He tidied up and left the kitchen the way he found it, except that now we had a working fixture!
Their $60 hourly labor charge is well in keeping with the industry standard and it was $90 total for 1.5hrs work. Money well spent. This would have taken me 3 days and probably 9 trips to Home Depot before likely giving up and calling in the cavalry!
I will certainly use The Happy Handyman again when next I am faced with a job out of my technical depth; which isn't very deep.
My experience with The Happy Handyman company was as good as it could be and for those of you who read my reviews, you know that I am a TOUGH CUSTOMER to please!
Thanks Happy Handyman. I'm Happy. You will be too.