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Just last week I had one neighbor handyman try to talk me into trimming my trees by getting up on my roof with an 8 foot step ladder and trimming trees with a pole saw. And he was mad when I told him no.
Everybody is a "handyman." Accidents do happen, even with the very skilled. The professionals will automatically replace broken items and repair any damage at no cost to the homeowner and, if the damage is extensive, will immediately get their insurance company involved.
We own a restoration business and provide all of our residential and commercial customers with copies of our licenses and insurance. As a homeowner, you really should insist on it for your protection. If someone is trying to talk you into a service, such as the handyman insisting on trimming trees, ask him for his license, insurance, references and a proposal by email, and you'll consider it. That will usually send him on his way.
At least where we are, if someone is injured on my property and they have no workers' comp insurance or an exemption, they can sue me, the homeowner for their injuries and damages.
I don't use "handymen" especially after seeing the outcomes. Granted you can't always find anyone else. LIke when I needed my bifold doors re-aligned/stabilized. I had to think outside the box and find a door company who would come out even though they don't advertise they do standalone maintenance service.
I try and use professionals who are insured and bonded or they don't get in my house. Especially if ladders are involved LOL. I carry it for my business and expect them to, too.
Considering even THEN you have to be on the lookout like the time I told the Comcast guy to NOT fish wires through the hardwood floors but drop them through the wall.
I went to answer the phone and came back to a big HOLE in my FLOOR.
It's expensive though. Before the longer lasting batteries came out, it would cost me $80.00 just to find an electrician to climb up to the peaked ceiling to change one. Electrician because I couldn't find anyone here in my FLorida county EVEN a handyman. And the electrician wanted to wait 2 days while the thing was chirping non stop.
People don't like to work in Florida. Or anywhere, actually, anymore.
Watch out though. The day after I moved to FL, a guy in the HOme Depot parking lot was obnoxiously insisting on loading my hatchback and I had to aggressively tell him to stop. A close talker, yapping and yapping about nonsense. He had these distinctive Husky eyes and a fake leg he went into great detail about LOL. Knocking on it and stuff OMG.
He had a sign on the car "Husband for Hire".
Later that night I was shocked to see we had a sex offender tv channel.
Guess who was on it? YEP, HIM. And he lived right across the street from the HD.
There are good Handymen but you have to search and you need to look at reviews by customers who have used them. Enter Yelp and Angie's List. We did use my childhood friend to do some work for us in our house we were moving into back in 2010. He did great work but he also did great shortcuts. LOL Some of the stuff he did was a bit cheesy. Now, I look on Yelp and Angie's List for people. If they have great reviews - I will hire.
Our painter was the best and we knew he was good because he worked for a professional paint service but also did work for people on his own- on his own time. We get so many compliments. You just have to be very careful. Reviews mean a lot. I have had a membership with Angie's List for 7 yrs now. We had a new fence put in and the fencing company did a great job. We looked over the reviews for him. He did everything right and everything we asked for.
So sorry to read what you went through, and that he broke your fixture.
Oh wow... I hope it was ok to mention these two places that we use?
My new handyman recommended via my nextdoor recommendations just destroyed a $275 light fixture. I just bought this fixture to replace the world's ugliest ceiling fixture in my guest room. I have no idea what he did to the new fixture, but whatever wiring was there is gone.
There is some language barrier, and I never should have let him leave with the fixture to repair whatever he had done. He said "I kept screwing it in and screwing and then it wouldn't go.." Again, language barrier.
DO NOT let someone continue when they encounter an issue, especially when you, or they, cannot understand what happened. Now I have the inner workings of a light, and no idea of why it went wrong, but an electrician on the way. The current fixture workings are gone, the previous "ugliiest ceiling light in the world" is now re-installed and working fine (I may sue him for that alone) \sarcasm.
I think that you are reacting a little like a drama queen as it turns out that the light is now missing it's wires which aren't expensive to replace and the fixture is still intact and not destroyed.
It can be rewired again with little effort and low cost by an experienced electrician. Hopefully, you can get the original wires back from the "Handyman" and they can be put back in.
One of my lessons learned is to not do any business with anyone that I think will result in a "Lost in translation" experience as the misery factor just gets multiplied exponentially from the first misinterpretation no matter how much money I initially figured to save by using that person and will end up costing at least twice as much.
I think that you are reacting a little like a drama queen as it turns out that the light is now missing it's wires which aren't expensive to replace and the fixture is still intact and not destroyed.
It can be rewired again with little effort and low cost by an experienced electrician. Hopefully, you can get the original wires back from the "Handyman" and they can be put back in.
One of my lessons learned is to not do any business with anyone that I think will result in a "Lost in translation" experience as the misery factor just gets multiplied exponentially from the first misinterpretation no matter how much money I initially figured to save by using that person and will end up costing at least twice as much.
Depending on the fixture, the electrical workings are generally the cheapest chinese junk that can be found.
I got a 300lb cast bronze chandelier still in the crate with a wholesale value of $7000 as trade for services when a customer went bankrupt and couldnt pay me. Even with my electrical experience, I broke some of the cruddy plastic lamp sockets that were installed in it. I went out to find new ones to replace them all and found that almost everything available was the same Junk quality.
For any electrical work, be it ceiling fans, light fixtures or whatnot, we always hire an electrician.
This ^^^
I might hire a "handyman" to help me rake up brush or pick up junk, but never skilled work, unless I know for a fact that the "handyman" is a retired tradesman in that particular area, and there are retired electricians, etc., who are doing small jobs here and there to stretch their retirement money. Word of mouth is the best way to find most of them.
And, yes, if they won't speak English well, they won't be working for me. My Spanish is coming along, but it's not good enough to argue with a worker who is messing up.
For any electrical work, be it ceiling fans, light fixtures or whatnot, we always hire an electrician.
I would love to have a handyman but don't feel like they have all the knowledge needed for all jobs.
Us too, I would never trust anything as important & life threatening as electric to any unlicensed & unqualified person.
Chalk it up, Op to a lesson learned.
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