We hired Chris from among 3-4 other contractors because of his HomeStars reviews, and because he positioned himself as an all-around handyman along with being a bathroom renovator. For people like us with investment properties, finding a local good handyman/reno guy is a plus. His quote was very competitive/detailed and includes pickup and delivery so we went with him. Almost from the start though, we noticed some mood-swings. When I was explaining to him on the phone about a feature wall, he interrupted in a loud voice saying ‘Listen to me..listen to me, and understand what am saying’. I placated him well, and he calmed down and we ended that call cordially but also warned hubby he might have a temper issue. True enough, within a few days, Chris called hubby on the phone, asking him to come home immediately from work as he has an urgent concern about the items he collected from the store. Hubby was in the middle of a meeting and told him he can only come in an hour’s time. Chris insisted he urgently needs to see the original invoice where the tiles were bought, and hubby said since the invoice is at home, he can only give it to him in an hour. Chris said, ‘Where is it? Is it in your room, I can go take it’. Chris got upset and slammed the phone on him when hubby told him he is not comfortable allowing him to enter our bedroom, but he will be back in half an hr. At lunch, hubby went home and Chris showed him the tiles are less than what was bought. When hubby asked why he did not reconcile what he was collecting against the invoice copy given to him, he got very upset and started thumping hubby on the chest. ‘Are you saying I made a mistake?’ was his angry words. We had already paid the guy some deposit at this point but because of his mood swings, hubby told him sternly we are willing to write-off what we have paid him so far rather than dealing with his anger issues. Chris tried and justified the assault by saying hubby was also waving a pen infront of him as he spoke to him. After sometime, he calmed down, apologized and said he never leaves a job undone, and that ‘we shd start over on a clean slate’. Hubby and him drove over to the tile store, and hubby had to pay an extra $400 to purchase the ‘missing tiles’..writing off the extra expense just to keep the peace. Because we did not want to waste the $6k money we had paid him so far, we tried to be nicer - offer him coffee or offer him some of our food when he’s around at meal time. Not sure if he misunderstood my intentions or he just doesn’t have a concept of boundaries, as the following week when he knew hubby was away on a business trip, he just entered the house without calling/ringing the doorbell at 8pm on the pretext of ‘coming back to measure the door’ so he can go to Home Depot and buy it. He worked til 5pm that day, and he didn’t call or text before he came (very unusual for a guy who calls us non-stop and texts us kilometric text messages). I was so upset that I slept barricading the door he has access to with furnitures, didn’t sleep a wink the whole night, and kept a knife by the bedside table. I told hubby I refuse to deal anymore with the guy after that incident. He kept calling me while I was in a meeting at work ‘to try and clarify something’..it turned out he just wanted to know where he wants us to put the opening of the shower door. A fact we had already explained to him in the beginning, and something which is not adjustable anyway, as there is only way for it to swing open if installed correctly. The day before hubby came home from the trip, he was texting again and said the toilet bowl is missing from the items he collected from the store, and its an urgent issue as he planned to install it that very day. Hubby asked him to go back to the store and take it since he said free pickup and delivery. Chris said, ‘this will be the 3rd time I am going to the store (second visit was because he was ‘not familiar’ of how to install the shower features we bought – so technically, his shortcoming) so I will have to charge you $200 delivery fee. For a $250 toilet bowl!! When hubby refused, he told hubby to call the store and demand a free delivery – which hubby did and got, and Chris gloated over on the pretext of ‘having saved us some money’. The toilet bowl was installed a couple of days after the store delivered it to our house – so much for urgency. The Friday night before his final week, we asked him if he could stop over even for 15 mins to our house to show him stuff which still needs fixing (where grouting still needs to be applied, door framing that doesn’t seem well aligned, a crack on the threshold he was billing us for) so that he doesn’t bother us with calls and back-and-forths during the work week. He refused saying he was unwell, send us numerous and kilometric texts and sent us pictures of his medicines as proof. We said fine, but placed sticky notes in the areas that needs further fixing. On Monday, hubby was still getting ready for work when Chris came…and when he saw the sticky notes, he balled them all up in his fist and threw the ball angrily saying, ‘you know its very insulting for a contractor to see things like this when he is not yet through with his work’. There are tons of other nightmares we endured with this guy that I can’t even list here (check with Zeno at Tubs Etobicoke, he can vouch for what am saying)…hubby doesn’t want me to post this review as he is worried abt warranty coverage in case something goes wrong, but after the washroom is done he charged us another $60 to install a splash strip under the sliding shower door when we complained that trickles are still coming (isn’t this supposed to be covered by warranty??). I am posting this bravely because I think no one deserves to go through the same ordeal with this man and his so called company. Needless to say, we are installing a new door right after his reno with us for security (oh, and btw, when we demanded for our door key back after the reno, he chuckled and said, sorry I forgot!). Lessons learned: Always speak to a contractor’s previous clients and run a background check. Never agree to pay in staggard amount..pay only once he is done. And do not give a contractor a key to yr house. P.S. 4 months after the reno, the ceiling below the bathroom is leaking..when we called him as its technically still under warranty, this guy said 'I honestly dont know..I have never encountered this issue before".
- Approximate cost of services:
- $12,000.00