ComplaintsforPat's Handyman Service

• Initial Complaint

  05/06/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Pat's Handyman Service was hired to start repairs on my home on December 11, 2023, but he did not begin until February 14, 2024. He brought his wife, her 27-year-son who lives in a group home, 1 grandson (aged 14), and 2 granddaughters (aged 5 and 8) to help him. The following problems resulted from his work:Damage on the stairway, spindles (1 broken, 2 now loose)Damage to the sloped ceiling from plywood scraping it as he carried it upstairs Damage to the dining room floor--scratches that he just gave me a repair marker to fix; it didn't work Damage and an opening underneath the vanity sink in the upstairs bathroom that he replaced; he just stuffed insulation into the opening and hoped that I wouldn't see it. A mess from where he dumped paint down the drain in the tub Unfinished flooring and trim in the attic. He just covered it up with insultation. He also didn't finish the trim by the stairs to the attic. The attic flooring is still not correct; the boards need to be secured.

  Business response

  05/13/2024

  Pats handy man service

  have attached a letter above to this complaint

  Business response

  05/20/2024

  ***************** man service responding to complaint case number ********

  Business response

  05/24/2024

  see attached

  Customer response

  05/28/2024

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ******** and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  
  Following is my response to #******** from Pats Handyman Service, which is a reply to my original complaint:
  Pat breached our **** contract agreement that we signed on December 11, 2023, because he did not do the work requested in the time frame specified and increased the agreed-upon price without discussing that with me. Many of the issues that *** includes in his response are defects of my house that werent in my original complaint. I feel that he mocking my house because it is old.
  

  The house was not a college fraternity house; a family was living there when I bought the house. The house is old; that is why I hired *** to fix the critical defects that need to be repaired and that we agreed on.When *** accepted the job, I told him that I made a loan through **** to pay him and that he wouldnt get paid until the work was done. He agreed and was aware of this all along. *** agreed with the **** agreement contract that we signed December 11, 2023. His wife even told me the reason that the **** holds the money until the work is done is to protect the homeowner so that the contracted workers will not run away with the money.
  

  This has nothing to do with the agreement, but I did not ask where Pats wifes son lives because I thought he lives with them. It was his wife who told me that her son lives in the group home. I just repeated what she told me. That means that she was profiling her son to me. Her son said that he was fired from ******* and now is looking for a job. I was only repeating what her son said.
  

  I did not ask Pat to repair the uneven floor color by the doorway between the dining room and the living room, so I dont know why he mentioned it. The uneven color was because the previous occupants made the dining room their master bedroom. So, when I moved in, I removed the drywall and the studs that were in between the rooms. I even showed Pat where I put the drywall and the studs. I dont know why he made up a story that the doorway was removed when I already told him the story or why he even mentioned this in his reply to my complaint if it is not part of the agreement and complaint.

  When *** started, I told him to start working on the dining room ceiling, the bedroom ceiling, or the bathroom upstairs if it was too cold for him to work in the attic, but he insisted on starting the work in the attic.
  

  I did not tell Pat that ********* called me about my attic ceiling leaking. I told *** that I gave City Hall an update that the attic ceiling was leaking, that the rest of the money for the other repairs will go to fix the roof. And *** agreed to that. How would City Hall know that the roof was leaking and know to call me?
  *** told me three times that the **** called him in December 2023 and encouraged him to increase his price. I asked the staff at the **** to see if they called Pat, and their answer is that the **** will never do that.
  

  After *** and his helpers were done working in the attic, they left a lot of saw dust. I had to clean up after them so that I could put my belongings there. They did not remove their tools from the attic until the second week of April. I had moved my belongings to the attic so that they could start working in the bedroom. I kept telling *** to remove the tools so that I could paint.
  

  *** told me to vacuum the bedroom after his grandson removed the tarp. The grandson shook the tarp through my bedroom window, and the dirt went right into the dining room screen window that is below the bedroom window, so I had a difficult time cleaning it. I asked *** why he asked his grandson to shake the tarp through the window, and he said thats the only way to do it. I vacuumed the bedroom, and his grandson kept putting the paint suitcase back in the bedroom. I asked *** to remove that suitcase, and he ignored me. After they left, I put it in the hallway.
  

  The bathtub still has paint remnants from what they dumped.
  

  When *** came to the house, I showed him the critical defects that needed repair: the attic, bedroom ceiling, dining room ceiling, the vanity and portion of the ceiling in second-floor bathroom, and attaching the wire rack to the wall for my spices in the kitchen. He agreed. He told me that he will pick up the vanity from the store to replace the old vanity in the bathroom because I dont have a truck to haul it. I thought all these were included in our agreement. *** also told me that he was going to help me put up a TV antenna so that I dont have to pay for cable and replace a storm door handle, which are two things that he didnt do. *** promised me all this, and I kept reminding him that I am not rich and dont have extra money to pay him.*** said h*** do it for me anyway.
  

  I called Pat after we signed the contract in December 2023 to see when he is going to start working, and he assured me that the work will get done. Then one day *** came to the house and looked in the attic and left. He would tell me that he would come, but then no call, no show because of family problems or other appointments; he would work for an hour or two and leave, or sometimes he stopped by and talked to me and left without doing any work. *** said he would come at 10 a.m. but arrived past noon most of the time. I had to call him to see if he was coming or not.  
  

  On February 14, 2024, when *** started working on the attic, He brought his wife to help him. According to ***, his wife quit her job as a manager at Kwik-Trip because they are working her like a dog, and she didnt want to work there anymore; that is why he asked his wife to work with him. *** also said that he was going to bring his grandchildren to help him. A few times the 8-year-old granddaughter came with *** without his wife, and one time she was complaining that her arms hurt, and *** told me they were going to stop by to buy her ice cream and the pain would go away.
  

  What *** and I agreed on when I showed him the attic was that I wanted a large cabinet removed, put in new flooring, and repair the ceiling using the insulation that the weatherization crew had put in months before. He agreed and measured the flooring. Then when *** started working in the attic, I noticed that he started putting in studs, and I asked him what he was doing,and he told me that he was building a room; and I reminded him thats not what we agreed on. I just wanted him to remove the cabinet, put in new flooring and ceiling using the insulation from the weatherization crew. *** and his wife talked to me and started to convince me to fix the other parts of the house instead of the attic. I told him firmly that I wanted the attic done as we originally agreed. *** said that he would just put the plywood flooring and not do the ceiling. I agreed. So, Pat let me sign a new invoice dated February 18,2024. With a ***** look in his eyes, *** told me to sell my house to the city because my house is old. *** said that he and his wife were too old to do this job and left. I didnt want to argue with him.
  

  I did not request the 2 light fixtures. I didnt even know that they went out to buy 2 light fixtures until his wife told me that *** bought it because he cant see in the attic. I thought that after their work was done,they were going to take the 2 light fixtures with them. But they left them there. Why would I ask *** for 2 light fixtures when I already bought a light fixture before they even started working at the attic? He can come and remove his light fixtures so that I can put in my own light fixtures. He put a new plate on and attached an existing box outlet to the rafter.
  

  I told *** to remove their tools from the attic after they were done working, but he left them there until the second week of April.
  

  Pat put just one layer of plywood flooring in the attic, and I told him to put one more layer. Some of the plywood flooring that he used has defects. *** did not put the flooring all the way to the edge because he told me he doesnt want to cut any more wood. I asked *** to put trimming by the stairs because the edge of the plywood was already tearing apart. *** did not put the trimming all the way to the edge by the stairwell. I told *** that the floor needs to be screwed down more, but he did not make the adjustments that I requested.
  

  *** and his wife told me that the weatherization crew put dirty (garbage) insulation in the attic that was picked up from the secondhand store.They said that there were some cigarettes butts and other garbage in it. But when I checked the insulation that they put around the edges, I did not see any cigarettes butts in it. *** and his wife bagged the rest of the insulation in a black plastic bag.
  

  After *** was done working in the attic, he asked me for $2,000 in cash. I told him I had no money, and any payments would have to come from the ****.
  As far as the ceiling being scratched, I was right behind *** when he was handing the plywood to his grandson who was on the stairs, and I saw the plywood hit the ceiling, the trim, the stairs, and the wall by the stairs when they were bringing the plywood and studs upstairs. When I was cleaning the stairs, I noticed that one of the stairwell spindles was broken and 2 were loose. I asked *** to glue it, and he said no.
  

  I painted the wall by the stairs after they were done working on the second floor and attic to cover the scratches they made on the wall when they were bringing the plywood and the studs upstairs. They left the studs by the bedroom door. I told *** to remove the stud wood by the bedroom doorway because it was blocking the doorway. They left it there for a month. When they finally moved it, they put the studs on the front porch on top of my shoes, and I found it when I checked for my mail.
  

  They dumped some of the trash through the window by the stairs and hit the down spout. Some of the trash was left for weeks in the backyard before they dumped it. I still have trash in the backyard that they have not picked up.
  

  After they removed the old ceiling from the upstairs bedroom, I checked the bedroom and I saw water**** damaged from an old leakage. They didnt repair the leak; they just put drywall over the old area to cover it. *** and his wife were in the dining room eating lunch when I told them what I saw.I went to the restroom then right away they put the drywall over it just on that spot and left for the day. I asked *** to remove the tarp after he was done, but he left the tarp until the 2nd week of April and asked his grandson to do it.  
  He broke one of the blind wands. *** said he was going to replace it but didnt. *** broke my computer table. I asked *** where the screws were; at first, he told me he taped them on the side of the table; and when I told him that they werent there, then he told me there were no screws at all. I told *** that I found some screws on the floor, and he told me those screws came from the wall. If the table has no screws, the table would sink in because I had my computer and printer and other materials on top of it. He told me to buy a new one. I told him I had no money.
  

  The ceiling fan that he put back in the ceiling is swaying badly. *** did not put caulking by the trim on the other side of the wall.
  In the upstairs bathroom, when *** removed the old vanity, he did not put in the new vanity right away for days because he had to trim it to fit the pipe. So, before he put the vanity in place, I saw the wall when I checked the pipe. THERE WAS NO HOLE AT ALL ON THE ***** If a hole was there, I would have noticed how big it is. They left the rubble on the bathroom floor. I asked *** to fix it because the bugs would get in there, and he said there were no bugs, and the hole was already there. He said no. So, he asked his wife to get insulation from the attic and shove it in there.  I found more holes at the back of the vanity when I removed the lower drawer on the left side of the vanity and the bottom. He did not fix the portion of the ceiling that he said he was going to fix. He broke a nightlight that I had in the bathroom and said he was going to replace it but didnt. *** asked me for $2,000 in cash after he was done in the bathroom. I told him I had no money.
  

  *** asked for my house key. I told him that I would leave the door unlocked so that they could continue working. They would come and go as they pleased. *** even suggested that I leave my door unlocked at night, but there was no way that I would do that.
  

  Before *** started working in the dining room, I had already painted the whole walls and I cleaned the room. *** inspected the whole room.*** knew that there were no scratches on the floor. *** and his wife even told me that I should have painted and cleaned after they were done working on the ceiling. I said that I needed to paint when I did because they were slow with their work. *** noticed that I had uneven areas on the wall that I already painted, and *** told me that he was going to skim coat with grout because it didnt look good. I did not ask *** to skim coat the uneven wall. I did not see a crack on the wall. The tarps that they laid on the floor were not large enough to cover the floor. I saw it with my own eyes that when the grout dropped on the floor, the wife just picked it up and did not clean it. I tried to clean it, but it left a **** on the floor. Pats wife painted the ceiling edges all around, and she made a big mess of my paint job and left lots of paint drippings on the floor. I had to redo some of my painting and used their ladder so that I could reach at the top of the ceiling. They left the floor dirty.After I cleaned the floor, thats when I noticed the floor scratches and his wifes paint drippings.  I asked *** to give me something to fix it,and he gave me repair ****ers. After I was done using the ****ers for the scratches, I had lines all over the floor and stairs, so I used wood stain to cover those lines, but the lines still show through.
  

  On May 1, 2024, I called *** and told him that **** wanted the itemized invoice so that they can pay him. That day ***, his wife, and grandson came and finished the trimming in the dining room and took their stuff. *** asked me for the **** email, and I told him to search for the email that the **** sent to him, and his wife found the old email dated June 2023. *** told me that they were going to email the **** the final invoice, so I notified **** that *** was going to email that final invoice to them. Because the **** did not receive Pats final invoice, the **** reached out to Pat but he did not reply.

  When I filed my complaint to the Better Business Bureau, all I wanted was for *** to fix the defects and honor our agreement, but this has become a nightmare.
  
  Regards,
  
  ***********************************

  Business response

  06/17/2024

  we accepted her offer you can closeout complaint

  Customer response

  06/17/2024

  [A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. 
  
  Regards,
  
  ***********************************
  

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