mmsmom
11-12-2018, 09:20 PM
We hired a handyman who was recommended by a family member who used him. We used him once for various projects and he was fine. A couple months later I asked him if he could install 3 glass tub enclosures, install some towel bars, switch the dryer door swing and a couple other things. I sent him the installation manual for the enclosures so he could see what it entailed and decide if he could do it. He said he could do everything so I went over everything with him in person then I was away for a week. DH was here.
When I came home expecting to see everything completed it was a mess. He did not hang the towel bars evenly as we had discussed, two of the doors were complete but looked awful and he broke parts on the dryer door because he did not follow the instructions (he admitted this and took care of ordering new parts). He really struggled with one of the glass doors and ordered more parts and came back several times to work on it. After the 4th visit when it still wasn’t finished I looked at the work carefully and realized how much he has messed it up and chipped the tub and damaged the door in the process. So I sent him a message saying that we were not happy with the way it looked and would find someone else to finish it. He has tools at our house so I said to let me know what we owe him and he could pick up his tools and we would give him a check. At first he said ok, then later said we shouldn’t pay him anything. I know I shouldn’t feel bad not paying him but he did spend a lot of time here. His rate is $37.50/hour and he probably spent at least 20 hours here. In the meantime I had true glass installers here who fixed the mistakes they could and charged $300. I still have a chipped tub and towel bars that need to be rehung. I don’t know what the right thing to do is. He admits the work was not up to standards and he should have realized he did not have the expertise for the glass doors in the first place. However the other work was pretty standard and that was messed up too. Basically none of the projects were done correctly.
What should I do? I want to be fair.
When I came home expecting to see everything completed it was a mess. He did not hang the towel bars evenly as we had discussed, two of the doors were complete but looked awful and he broke parts on the dryer door because he did not follow the instructions (he admitted this and took care of ordering new parts). He really struggled with one of the glass doors and ordered more parts and came back several times to work on it. After the 4th visit when it still wasn’t finished I looked at the work carefully and realized how much he has messed it up and chipped the tub and damaged the door in the process. So I sent him a message saying that we were not happy with the way it looked and would find someone else to finish it. He has tools at our house so I said to let me know what we owe him and he could pick up his tools and we would give him a check. At first he said ok, then later said we shouldn’t pay him anything. I know I shouldn’t feel bad not paying him but he did spend a lot of time here. His rate is $37.50/hour and he probably spent at least 20 hours here. In the meantime I had true glass installers here who fixed the mistakes they could and charged $300. I still have a chipped tub and towel bars that need to be rehung. I don’t know what the right thing to do is. He admits the work was not up to standards and he should have realized he did not have the expertise for the glass doors in the first place. However the other work was pretty standard and that was messed up too. Basically none of the projects were done correctly.
What should I do? I want to be fair.