Incompetent and disingenuous
Incompetent and disingenuous, stay away! I rang them to book a handyman to restore and paint a bay window sill on the 1st floor of our terrace.
Their phone IVR option said press 1 to book a handyman. I pressed it and had someone on the phone right away. The work I needed required someone to come for an hour or two over several days (so paint could dry in between coatings).
I described the work required and provided some estimates around the height of the sill, explaining we have very high ceilings on our ground floor. The sales consultant insisted that it was fine and that a 3 metre ladder to get to the sill would be sufficient. I said I had my concerns whether that was high enough. He said don't worry, it will be fine. They were happy to book me in the first session (the next day) but insisted I pay in advance. In fact, he spent more time suggesting I book in all the sessions and pay for them upfront rather than actually understanding the work required.
I paid for the booking which was the next day and received an email with a job description that was completely irrelevant. I rang back and another sales consultant insisted I shouldn't worry, they'll leave notes for the tradesperson and if they had any questions they'd call me back.
The tradesperson arrived the next day and had no idea what the job was, he looked at the sill and said he only had a 2.5m ladder and the job description on his notes simply said 2.5m ladder required. I read the description, it was a shambles and I really felt sorry for this poor tradie who had come to try and help me but was ill prepared. He apologised profusely and I explained it wasn't his fault.
I rang Handyman Service London while he was there and every single customer service or booking management option on the phone IVR insisted I had to register on their website and manage my booking there or leave a voicemail, i.e. there was no human on the other end to manage a real-time problem.
So, to try and speak to a human, I chose the sales option as I knew they would pick up right away. It turns out, soon after a job is booked, their IVR registers the phone number you call with and actually FILTERS it so as to stop you speaking to a human. Yes, you read that right, once you pay for a booking and it's confirmed, sometime between 30 minutes to a 12 hours later, you no longer have access to the sales option (the only option with a human on the other end) on their IVR and you're redirected to their website or instructed to leave a voicemail.
I then rang on my wife's phone as they didn't have that number and funny enough, I got through to someone in sales right away! They acknowledged they messed up the description, even after I rang a second time to raise my concerns.
I expressed my disgust that they had set up their phone system to not allow anyone that had booked a job to ever call back and speak to a human and they simply acknowledged that was the way their IVF was set up.
They said they couldn't issue a refund directly and that customer service would call me back to process a refund. Let's just say I was rather assertive in my response and within 10 minutes I was speaking to someone in customer service who apologised and said she would commence the refund process however it would take several days before the money was back on my card. This all happened yesterday so I'm still monitoring my account.
For the record, the customer service person was very polite and apologetic and the tradesperson was also very genuine.
Handyman Service London didn't bother taking down the correct details about the job. They insisted I pay up front for my first job and were pushing to have me pay for all the subsequent return visits upfront too (thankfully I didn't).
Their job description was useless and even when I called back to correct it, I was dismissed as if they had it under control.
The poor tradesperson had no idea about the job until he arrived and I explained it. He didn't have the equipment to actually do it.
And finally, they had the audacity to flag my phone number so that once I had booked a job, I was NEVER allowed to call up their sales line and speak to a human again.
I hope this account of events speaks for itself.