After getting our hardwood floors done, we realized the we needed to replace the moldings and paint. I was hoping to get the job done by Easter and took a chance on the flyer that Affordable Handyman Services, LLC placed in the Asbury Park Press. The ?President?, Brian Gillette, stopped by and I was immediately suspicious, because while I was giving a detailed description of the work I wanted done, Brian took no notes, made no measurements and simply repeatedly stated that he does million dollar houses and that this was all a piece of cake. Brian came in with a very low estimate, but I took a chance on him because he said he could start immediately. The trouble started pretty quickly when he got in a loud argument with my wife over what type of trim we had decided on and his instance that he was a seasoned professional (again with the million dollar houses) and he knew what we really wanted. This incident resulted in a complete turnover of his crew when they were fired after telling him to stop yelling at the customer. The guy is pretty high strung, to say the least. He did apologize, saying he was a bit stressed out. After that there were numerous other problems, such as his instance that tarps are only a nuisance, tools all over the furniture, sloppy paint and the fact that he had to run to the store twice a day to pick up the trim that we had agreed on. After 4 days, we agreed to part ways.
After all that, the work he was able to do (his crew, really) was not too bad. It was about what I paid for, although I got killed on the material costs because he bought the trim by the stick, rather than in bulk. If you do choose Affordable Handyman Services, LLC, there are a few things you should watch out for.
1) Prepare your own detailed contract, specifying exactly what you need done.
2) Create a plan where the job is done in stages, and base payment on the completion of a stage.
3) Don?t let Brian touch a paint brush.
4) Insist on prep work like tarps, etc.
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