First, some background: I recently moved in from CT to FL, and rented a 3 bed, 2 bath apartment. I purchased furniture for the apartment, and needed to have someone assemble them all. That's where Thumbtack.com came in.
I hired Hayden Smith (I made the checks out to that name) based on an EXTREMELY low quote (which he seemed confident of), and other 5 Star ratings on Thumbtack. On this website, his profile is named 'Handy Hayden LLC'.
He agreed to a total of $250 to do my job, which I had posted in great detail. After seeing him struggle (and hearing him complain loudly for about a day while dropping two hints of how people 'tip' him), I decided to give him $600 for the tasks he asked $250 for. He happily accepted, and I felt I was doing the right thing. Other handymen had asked for $600 to $700 for the same job, and I didn't feel like i was exploiting him anymore.
While those tasks were nearing completion, I offered to keep him on, at $30 per hour, to take care of some other tasks around the apartment (hanging wall hangings, clocks, wire mouldings, etc...misc stuff). He happily accepted.
And that was when he intentionally started dragging his feet. He took longer lunch breaks (which he always claimed to be a 30 minute break), started to make more mistakes in his work (which he fixed while on the clock), and took more breaks from work to just stand around and chat. My roommates stared calling him a scam artist WAY before I even suspected it, but I always wanted to give him a fair chance, as he was a likeable guy, as well as a remarkably young LLC. But he made it evident by himself (over text) a couple of weeks ago.
A Check for $180 I had written him hadn't been cashed. It turned out to be an issue on his side, but he wasn't having none of it. He wanted cash, and I told him I'll give him one more check. If that doesn't cash through a mobile deposit imediately, I'll go to the ATM and get him cash.
He flipped over that.
His reasoning was that he was extremely reasonable while I was being unreasonable. Seeing his tone, I fired him. Also, now realizing that he had been actively cheating me, I refused to pay the final day's check for $180, as he spent most of the day fixing things he had done badly before. Also, I had given him a TV cabinet for free, and told him he can sell that like he had planned and consider that payment.
And that's when he started threatening me with how he's going to damage my credit rating. He knew I was planning to buy rental property in about a year, and decided to hit me hardest where it would matter: my credit rating. Over the next 48 hours, he reduced the text conversation to a half-psycho, full rabid, toxic mess of threats, lies and how he was offended by me, whom he considered 'more than a client' (his words).
I had to admit: he had me over a barrel. I can't avail of work and them simply decide not to pay for it. If I had been paying attention to his work like my roommates had been, he would have been fired way before this, way before he got the TV cabinet and even a couple of lunches off me for free. So I asked for his address to send the check to.
Even after the check was dispatched, I got threatening texts from him at 4 AM in the morning, and a text advicing me to see a professional for my mental condition.
Seeing that he was a genuine nuisance who had adopted a policy of harassing customers he decides to take offense with, I blocked his number.
I'm filing a formal complaint with thumbtack.com, and ask if they'll remove him from their listing. I don't blame the people who gave him 5 Stars before me. The guy is genuinely pleasant until something petty triggers him, and then he's as nasty and mean spirited as a newly castrated badger.
I certainly won't be hiring him anymore, and have ordered him not to contact me again for any purpose whatsoever.
This was the single most unpleasant interaction in my life.
Hayden Smith turned out to be an extremely half-baked handy man, extraordinarily immature when it comes to dealing with customers, and doesn't know when to draw the line between professional relationship & imagined friendship. It took me longer than it should have to determine that he was just a half-baked handyman at best, and an even worse baked scam artist.
If you need an idea of the vitriol this man bears, he's still threatening to send me to collections, 5 days after I mailed the check out. I don't know if the check was actually lost in the mail, or whether he's simply refusing to cash it to send me to collections out of spite. But I'm asking thumbtack.com to look into this as well.
I'll also be filing formal complaints with the Better Business Bureau and the Florida Attorney General's office.
Handy Hayden LLC Reviews
First, some background: I recently moved in from CT to FL, and rented a 3 bed, 2 bath apartment. I purchased furniture for the apartment, and needed to have someone assemble them all. That's where Thumbtack.com came in.
I hired Hayden Smith (I made the checks out to that name) based on an EXTREMELY low quote (which he seemed confident of), and other 5 Star ratings on Thumbtack. On this website, his profile is named 'Handy Hayden LLC'.
He agreed to a total of $250 to do my job, which I had posted in great detail. After seeing him struggle (and hearing him complain loudly for about a day while dropping two hints of how people 'tip' him), I decided to give him $600 for the tasks he asked $250 for. He happily accepted, and I felt I was doing the right thing. Other handymen had asked for $600 to $700 for the same job, and I didn't feel like i was exploiting him anymore.
While those tasks were nearing completion, I offered to keep him on, at $30 per hour, to take care of some other tasks around the apartment (hanging wall hangings, clocks, wire mouldings, etc...misc stuff). He happily accepted.
And that was when he intentionally started dragging his feet. He took longer lunch breaks (which he always claimed to be a 30 minute break), started to make more mistakes in his work (which he fixed while on the clock), and took more breaks from work to just stand around and chat. My roommates stared calling him a scam artist WAY before I even suspected it, but I always wanted to give him a fair chance, as he was a likeable guy, as well as a remarkably young LLC. But he made it evident by himself (over text) a couple of weeks ago.
A Check for $180 I had written him hadn't been cashed. It turned out to be an issue on his side, but he wasn't having none of it. He wanted cash, and I told him I'll give him one more check. If that doesn't cash through a mobile deposit imediately, I'll go to the ATM and get him cash.
He flipped over that.
His reasoning was that he was extremely reasonable while I was being unreasonable. Seeing his tone, I fired him. Also, now realizing that he had been actively cheating me, I refused to pay the final day's check for $180, as he spent most of the day fixing things he had done badly before. Also, I had given him a TV cabinet for free, and told him he can sell that like he had planned and consider that payment.
And that's when he started threatening me with how he's going to damage my credit rating. He knew I was planning to buy rental property in about a year, and decided to hit me hardest where it would matter: my credit rating. Over the next 48 hours, he reduced the text conversation to a half-psycho, full rabid, toxic mess of threats, lies and how he was offended by me, whom he considered 'more than a client' (his words).
I had to admit: he had me over a barrel. I can't avail of work and them simply decide not to pay for it. If I had been paying attention to his work like my roommates had been, he would have been fired way before this, way before he got the TV cabinet and even a couple of lunches off me for free. So I asked for his address to send the check to.
Even after the check was dispatched, I got threatening texts from him at 4 AM in the morning, and a text advicing me to see a professional for my mental condition.
Seeing that he was a genuine nuisance who had adopted a policy of harassing customers he decides to take offense with, I blocked his number.
I'm filing a formal complaint with thumbtack.com, and ask if they'll remove him from their listing. I don't blame the people who gave him 5 Stars before me. The guy is genuinely pleasant until something petty triggers him, and then he's as nasty and mean spirited as a newly castrated badger.
I certainly won't be hiring him anymore, and have ordered him not to contact me again for any purpose whatsoever.
This was the single most unpleasant interaction in my life.
Hayden Smith turned out to be an extremely half-baked handy man, extraordinarily immature when it comes to dealing with customers, and doesn't know when to draw the line between professional relationship & imagined friendship. It took me longer than it should have to determine that he was just a half-baked handyman at best, and an even worse baked scam artist.
If you need an idea of the vitriol this man bears, he's still threatening to send me to collections, 5 days after I mailed the check out. I don't know if the check was actually lost in the mail, or whether he's simply refusing to cash it to send me to collections out of spite. But I'm asking thumbtack.com to look into this as well.
I'll also be filing formal complaints with the Better Business Bureau and the Florida Attorney General's office.
Please help in any way you can.