The Handy Squad Avis 310

I had a mixture of jobs that needed doing, including changing plug sockets and putting up blinds. Andre was great, really helpful and friendly - I'm very pleased with all the work, and the whole process was very easy from booking to the finished job.

Vasile did a fantastic job fixing my tiles around the bath. It’s brilliant because I didn’t have to replace the bath. ✨

No interface between the tradesperson, the company and the client.
Booked a wardrobe installation in existing alcove space. Trader ('J') arrived unannounced at 8 a.m. one Saturday morning. Took two visits to do a rush job because of the ridiculous travelling distances involved with a further visit promised in the New Year to deal with a snagging issue.
The Handy Squad then sent a different operative ('L') to deal with it but, incredibly, 'L' ignored the snagging problem and began criticising the previous tradesman's work, pointing out all the faults! Having paid up the first time around (not cheap),
we were then sent a hefty estimate to correct all the faults made by the original installer! The snagging fault was acknowledged but never remedied despite endless reassurances of a 'remedial visit'.
Staff rotas mean emails often ignored and you are essentially on your own in the Wild West.

Avoid at all costs - they did half the work, left the job then doubled original estimate costs.

Initially enquired via their web form to get three tasks done and submitted plenty of pictures to support. A simple resealing of the bath, fitting a new shower screen and boxing in and tiling of a small space behind the toilet. Received a quote of 4 hours for £400 (Inc. vat) for the works which I thought was fair. Their guy comes and instantly says he doesn’t have enough time to do all jobs. Does a great job fitting the shower and resealing the bath then leaves.

I then have to chase to understand next steps after waiting two days and hearing nothing. I get a bill of £300 labour alone for these two tasks completed (£375 all in) and then I receive another £400+ all in estimate to do the remaining boxing in.

From an initial quote of £400 they did half the work and moved the price to £775. I understand things may extend for an hour or so, so the actual price may be a little higher, but I certainly won’t be using this company again - what a terrible terrible way to treat customers and ruin your local reputation.

Ironic part is the handyman Luis was Great and professional, but organisationally what a shambles

Very professional, lisening to your requests and finding the best way to get the result.
Alex the carpenter did a brilliant job in my kitchen.
I am very pleased with the result.
Iryna

We had Luis come and fit a new kitchen sink, taps and raise the dropped worktop at our work place. He was friendly, smiley, professional and explained everything to me throughout the process. He cleared up very well afterwards and did a really great job, especially given that the kitchen had been fitted by a cowboy originally! If we were to use The Handy Squad again, I would insist that we had Luis again!

I needed help with a Bosch fridge installation, which should have been a short, easy and inexpensive job. I was charged £180 in total, and was not told about parking or congestion charges beforehand. The handyman who attended did not seem to know what he was doing even when I supplied the manual and materials. He seemed rushed and flustered, and as a result damaged the floor and inside of the cupboard the fridge was meant to go in. He did not seem to do the installation properly - parts were missing and the cupboard could not close without slamming which indicated he did not install correctly.

Finally, when booking the job, I tried initially to sort everything out at one go over the phone, but when I called, was told to email instead. Then, I was told I would have to call to make payment after emailing back and forth. It wasn't the easiest or friendliest process.

Overall, for the price and quality of the job done, I definitely feel cheated. I should have just booked the John Lewis installation which I thought was steep at £110, but at least they would have installed it properly without damaging my floor and cupboards.

Paul and Andrea were excellent - professional and super helpful

They came very promptly to do a job. The craftsman was very polite and diligent and did the requested job very well. We were very pleased with his work.

I was very upset and disappointed in what, unfortunately, was a case of fraud. It remains unclear whether this was done with or without the complicity of Handy Squad or whether it was one of the tradespersons who has "gone rogue". Read on to find out more...

I'm an overseas landlord who needed someone to urgently do two simple things to a london flat - (1) replace an extractor fan in the bathroom and (2) replace the light and change the pull chord to a switch with added trunking. My normal tradespeople were all busy, and Handy Squad looked like they could do this. A quote was given for 1.5 hours work which seemed reasonable. I agreed. Paid upfront, with the only request being (a) to be contacted in vivo if the labour costs would escalate and (b) be contacted after the job was finished and for photos to be sent.

Around 4 days after the job was finished, I suddenly received an invoice for around double the amount that had been agreed. I didn't even know the job had been done, as no one contacted me, and no photos had been sent. I was being charged for replacement parts (but no invoice/receipt given) and parking (was very expensive, but no receipt given) and allegedly, the tradesperson was there for much longer than agreed. It all sounded a bit dodgy, and I requested the documentation - the man at the end of the phone was rather aggressive to me, unnecessarily so. and seemed irked by my (very reasonable) request. I think the hope was that I'd just shut up and pay and ask no questions.

Some days later, an invoice was produced - which looked fake - the VAT amount was wrong (who does that?), and no VAT number was given, no company name, no details, etc. It also made no sense, as it listed the exact parts needed, but allegedly, the tradesperson never left the property to get any new parts. A Parking "receipt" which was a screenshot of a Google Pay from his phone - was inaccurate and didn't represent the actual costs for meters in the area, and the nail in the coffin was the photos taken of the old "parts" he replaced seemed to not be the same parts that were in the property, and the photos seemed were taken from someone else house!

So, we investigated. The tenant attested that the tradesperson was not there longer than 90 minutes.
At this point, Handy Squad conceded that this had been wrongfully charged but refused to concede any other errors: "Our tradesman may get labour time wrong on occasions, but we would not ever invoice and charge for materials that were never used." So we looked closely and then found that the extractor had not, in fact, been changed at all, it simply wiped clean and put back with no improvement to the original fault. We took photos of this and got another tradesperson to confirm -we also found that the work on the light hadn't been done at all. In other words- the tradesperson must have spent ten minutes doing a job, sat in the bathroom for an hour or so longer, tried to charge for two and did nothing that was agreed. AND CHARGED AS IF THEY HAD.

We presented all the evidence to HandySqaud, who, at this point, agreed with our findings but said their tradesperson had "misinformed" them.

HandySquad offered to send someone else, but I declined (once bitten by fraud..), and they offered a full refund, which I accepted. But at no point did they get back to me about the fact that fraud had been committed; at no point did they tell me that they would stop using this tradesperson, and at no point did they raise this or escalate it as a complaint.

The question is this : is this a rotten apple, or is it a more systemic attempt to rip off customers, using awful tactics that many unsuspecting people might not catch on to? If it's just a rogue employee, then why not assure me that they won't be using his services again? Without these assurances, it's hard to have faith in their integrity, and it's surely one for Trading Standards to look into in more detail. My only message to anyone wanting to use them is to be highly cautious and look for these telltale signs ...! And if you've had similar experiences to get in touch with Trading Standards.

I had used Handy Squad quite a few times in the past and had good experiences. Unfortunately, they have gone seriously downhill and the experience I had with them earlier this year was disappointing and upsetting.

First, when I booked the job the Handy Squad said they would take a nominal “holding payment”. I later found they had taken the full payment for the job before any work had taken place.

On the day, the carpenter arrived 45 minutes earlier than scheduled. This meant I was not ready for his arrival and made things quite stressful. He then made me feel like I was the one at fault for the situation.

Secondly, the work which was carried out was terrible. I had explained the job clearly beforehand and provided photos etc. I was not told I’d need to have any materials ready. I had kept some leftover bits of wood which I hoped could be used, but I am not a carpenter and didn’t know the ins and outs of how much would be needed.

When the carpenter looked at the job, he said that he may need to come back on another day as there was nowhere nearby to source wood from (which I don’t think is accurate). I said ok, and also showed him some wood I had leftover in case that was workable/useable. He said he would “start work and see”, which I agreed to as the job was two parts and it was clear the first part should be fine to do (1. moving a cupboard, which did not require extra wood, and 2. boxing in pipes, which did need extra wood).

The initial part of the job (moving up the cupboard) was completed and was ok, though the bottom of the cupboard was left not fully in line with the one beside it which s disappointing. However, the boxing of the pipes was a disaster. The carpenter didn’t explain to me before he did it that there was not enough wood so it would have to be done in different types which didn’t match or fit together. If he had done this I’d have said to leave it until I had sourced additional wood (and therefore not incurred any further costs).

I was left with something that looks terrible; mismatched wood and jagged edges. I am having have to have it redone at additional cost. When I tried to explain the issue to the carpenter he claimed he did this because I had insisted I wanted the existing wood I had used, which was not true. As he had been so unfriendly throughout the job I was too scared to argue back.

After he left, I recieved an invoice for more money, including extra charges for ‘materials’ - I had no idea what this was for or how it could be justified; I was not told any materials were needed (all the wood used was already mine and I had plenty of screws etc).

While I absolutely understand that if the wood I had wasn’t suitable then there’d be a limit to what could have been done on the day, I don’t think the way things unfolded was at all professional or appropriate.

When I complained to the Handy Squad about this experience and queried the extra charges, I recieved no response.

I asked The Handy Squad to help with an urgent and massive painting job as I'd been left in the lurch by another terrible painting company. The Handy Squad sent Victor the very next day and what a super hero he turned out to be! He arrived and immediately set about prepping the walls for painting, found solutions for the damage the last decorators had done to the house, replace an old light fitting, mixed up a paint colour himself ON THE SPOT from old paint I had and fixed a very tricky issue with the skirting boards. On top of the massive job he had to do, I also asked him to stick to my tight deadline of five days. He worked tirelessly! The job was finished right on time, the house looked amazing and he went above and beyond to make sure I was happy with his work. Victor was very professional and experienced. As a woman I appreciated the respect with which he dealt with me and the job, unfortunately this can be rare.

James did an excellent job today replacing a light fitting. Whole booking process with HandyShack was smooth and I am very pleased to have discovered this organisation. This is the second time I have used them in past couple of years and will happily use them again.

I arranged for Victor from the HandySquad to come and fix a plumbing issue that was preventing our dishwasher installation. Victor was polite, diligent and delivered exactly what we asked for. Even when there were challenges that could have scuppered the plan, Victor persevered and came through for us. The whole experience with HandySquad was brilliant from start to finish, from the quote to the booking and the exceptional delivery of our request. Thanks to Jay for helping us organise the booking and Victor for an excellent result.

My first use of Handy Squad and the whole process was excellent. Very helpful people to deal with the booking and then a young handyman called Andre. The work was simple ( clearing our gutters and bleeding radiators ) but done cheerfully and nice and neat and tidy throughout.

We had a fairly complex carpentry job that involved splittig a large teakwood bookcase into two parts. Handy Squad's carpenter, Jacek Kedziora, provided an excellent solution whereby the bookcase can now work either as two separate parts or as a single unit. He worked quickly with efficiency and skill. I strongly recommend him for similar challenges.

Super quick and easy to book! Very efficient, friendly and professional job completed.

We needed a super quick turnaround and we couldn't not have asked for a better service.

Radek was very professional, did an excellent job.

The team were very prompt in responding to my initial enquiry. They provided a fair quote and were able to book the work in within 2 days.

Ben arrived on site and was very diligent with his work- hanging 2 heavy wall mirrors and various pictures. Clean and tidy work- very impressed.

10/10 would use again.

Russell carried out a variety of jobs. Some were a bit tricky and he thought hard about successful solutions. He was always on time and we’d certainly use him again. The office- based team were equally helpful and efficient!