HomeAdvisor Reviews

The HomeAdvisor Handyman Pro services are a disaster. I would never recommend them to anyone. If you value your time, sanity, and supplies, steer clear of this company.

We scheduled a two-hour appointment through HomeAdvisor's Fixed-Price Handyman Services. We requested a professional to install twenty-seven feet of six-foot-high privacy fence, including four beams. The handyman showed up on time, but he didn't have any tools with him, not even a shovel to dig the holes for the posts. We were very specific about the nature of the job. The website clearly states that professionals are required to bring all the necessary tools for the job.

Regardless, my husband had all the necessary tools sitting out, and the handyman took an extension cord back with him (which he unplugged from a piece of equipment I was using at the time, without asking). Naturally, I assumed he was using the tools at hand. I was painting at the time, so I left him to his work. He came and got me a short time later to show me the beams he'd installed. They were horrible.

Anyone who knows anything about fence installation knows that the amount of posts installed underground should be equal to 1/3 the total height of the fence. We had ten-foot beams for a six-foot-high fence (the eight-foot beams were out of stock). That means that we needed six feet of the beam above ground, two feet underground (1/3 of six feet is two feet), and the remainder (two feet) should have been cut off and disposed of. He didn't bother to bring a chop saw, but ours was readily available. The beams hadn't been cut, and they were only about a foot in the ground. The handyman put the cement we'd supplied in first and then placed the beam on top of it; he should have put the post in (at an appropriate depth) and then poured the cement around it. He didn't bring anything to mix the cement with or in, so I had to supply that as well. I gave him permission to move anything that was directly in the way of the fence. For some reason, he ripped out an entire bush that was merely bordering the area. He was only at the house for about 40 minutes out of the two hours we'd booked. He left wet cement splattered all over the back patio, which my husband had to chisel off because it was mostly dry when he got home. There were piles of dirt left all over the yard, as well as cement-covered buckets. This worker never touched the chop saw, but for some reason, used my husband's jigsaw and left it plugged in. It nearly took my husband's hand off when he went to move it. He also left our tape measure lying in our neighbor's yard. I'm baffled as to what he even needed it for, since the posts were unevenly spaced and the posts were only a foot in the ground, uncut.

We contacted HomeAdvisor and demanded that someone come out and undo his mess. Obviously, we were happy to pay for the two hours it would take to install the fence correctly, but we weren't going to pay for someone to undo a problem that their employee caused. The person we spoke with, Josh, promised to have a worker come out by 4 PM that day (we had a photographer coming that evening to take pictures of the house to sell). He said that they'd comp us any time the handyman needed beyond the two hours we'd originally paid for and agreed to reimburse the wasted cement. I had to jump through a series of hoops to get a refund for our first handyman and make/pay for a new appointment. I had to call customer service again over an error message I received whenever I tried to make the new appointment. I was dumbfounded by their incompetence. For example, when I called tech support with my account information and the online error number, the representative asked me if I'd "tried going to HomeAdvisor.com to make my appointment." Unreal.

On top of everything, they canceled our new appointment at the last minute due to a "call out." This was on a Friday. We rescheduled for Monday morning at 8 AM with HomeAdvisor and with the photographer for Monday evening. Monday morning, around 7 AM, HomeAdvisor again canceled due to a "call out." We had to take the pictures without the yard. The back-and-forth with customer service was terrible. The notes they had in the system about our situation were sketchy at best, and the new person we spoke to insisted that we wouldn't be compensated for any time beyond our two-hour window. My husband was on the phone arguing with them for almost an hour. When my husband tried to speak with a supervisor, he was put on hold and then told that a supervisor "wasn't available." Eventually, we decided to just see how long the new appointment took and cross that bridge when we came to it.

Finally, someone came to our house on Tuesday at 8 AM. This time, it was a couple, and they also did not bring any tools. The details about the job, including the need to remove the improperly installed fence posts, had been clearly provided beforehand. This set of workers told us they would need $250 cash to go rent some "necessary equipment" to do the job. When we reminded them that they were supposed to have any necessary tools, and that we'd already paid HomeAdvisor, they told us to cancel our HomeAdvisor appointment and pay them directly. Unbelievable! When we told them to leave, the woman even left us a card: Vicky Wang, (267) 367-1016. We called HomeAdvisor and were issued a refund. My husband asked for the workers' Home Improvement Contractor numbers so we could file complaints. They refused to give us any information. Clearly, we weren't working with professionals on any level.

My husband and I took down the improperly installed posts and re-installed the fence ourselves. Interestingly enough, we didn't require any tools other than the ones we already had at the house. Removing and re-installing the posts took less than two hours. The only thing that took longer was waiting for the cement to harden enough for us to screw the fence panels to the posts. We're still communicating with HomeAdvisor about a reimbursement for our wasted cement.

A nightmare from start to finish. Stay far away.

Total scam. Charges a $400 sign-up fee, and in addition charges over $20 per lead! To add insult to injury, they charge for the leads even if you just open up your e-mail, regardless of whether you click on any link or contact the lead. To add insult to that, they send the leads to more than one person, even though only one person can get the job, and charge everyone for the same lead. To add insult to that, some leads are actually false, or are from customers who say they never asked to be contacted. In short, you lose more money than you can make with them.

During the windstorm (no rain) early in the evening of December 14, 2018, three 30-foot sections of a large cedar tree broke off with two of the large branches (8-10 inch diameter) landing on my dining room roof and the third landing nearly horizontally across my deck smashing a large circular safety-plate glass topped table and breaking several bulbs on lightbulb string on the deck. I went online to find a Certified Arborist and tree company to deal with three other hazardous large trees. I read a lot of comments and I am exceedingly pleased that I found and hired ISA Certified Arborist Dakota Red Cloud and his company Progression Tree Care. All three had decay problems and were hazardous. During the tree removal process, two of Dakota’s crew discovered an even more hazardous tree problem, a seven-foot-long crack below the notch in this double-headed 135-year-old cedar. After again getting city approval, Dakota’s team safely brought down this hazard and once again did a truly superb cleaning up all the debris, evening cleaning sawdust off the roof of my garden greenhouse. I give my highest positive endorsement to Dakota and Progression Tree Care!

I signed up for HomeAdvisor and was happy to pay the annual feel for leads but then started getting other charges. Got 2 leads. Cost me $245, both were answered by the same guy saying he never asked for services.

Market leads are sent to hundreds of contractors and charging all the same for a false lead, in my opinion from the experience, all scam.

Mr. Jerome Brown is a great human being, does professional and beautiful work. He truly takes pride in his work. He stayed with the job until it was finished. He kept the area safe and clean. He is really concerned about pleasing the customer. In all the years we have had contractors, he truly is an exception. I am very pleased as well as my wife. We are trying to see if we can clone him! His work speaks for itself. GREAT WORK.

I went to work for a couple of scam artists who have mastered scamming contractors and customers alike. I found these people on Craigslist and Indeed. They change their business name all the time and HomeAdvisor will take their money and let them right on. I am owed over $3,400 from them. Totals for 2 months are over $23,000 of owed to customers and workers. HomeAdvisor did not help any customers who used the HomeAdvisor platform for safe contractors. They really should do a background check and have a better understanding of how many fraud contractors there are out there, and track them or recognize them better.

I have been in business for 5+ years now and have used multiple lead generating companies and this is BY FAR the WORST one I have ever dealt with in my life. After every contractor I have done business with warned me not to do business with HomeAdvisor, I decided to take a leap of faith and give them a shot, and that was an ignorant decision on my part and will NEVER happen again. Not only did I start off by spending $400 on leads that had ZERO SUCCESS, but then HomeAdvisor charged my credit card with no authorization for $800 for leads that I never contacted or accepted. When contacting customer service I was told there was nothing they could do and that I agreed to those stipulations over voice recording (which I have no recollection of) and I spoke to a representative for two hours before signing up for HomeAdvisor and was made to think I would only pay for leads I contacted and or accepted, not that I would be automatically charged when emailed a lead no matter if I never contacted them, which is absurd, and I would never agree to that.

Long story short, don’t waste your hard earned money on this SCAM of a company.

I had a plumber come out to attach a clothes dryer vent to an outlet. They quoted $531.00. Said it had to be metal to metal and I needed an entirely new system. All I needed was a vent to be connected that had fallen off. Another plumber did the job for $30 and I purchased $12.00 worth if vent material. The HomeAdvisor plumber offered to come out on his day off and do the job for $50.00. He told me that HomeAdvisor charged so much for each lead they had to up their prices to make money I now asked if they are associated with HomeAdvisor as most companies hide that fact. If they say yes, I tell them I am not interested. Just for knowledge they sent 5 plumbers to quote on the same job and charged each one a finders fee. Nothing but a SCAM.

Someone has to put a stop to this website. HomeAdvisor is nothing but thieves. How can they send contractors to people's houses, taking money they worked for to make a better home, and they never do a background check on the contractor. Even one star is a lot to give them. Nothing but scammers. They should be stopped right now. Where is the consumer protection? And if the BBB is supposed to be a source for consumer protection, why is HomeAdvisor still in business with all these extremely poor reviews?

HomeAdvisor will take advantage of your small business. They overcharge you for leads and will not work with you when you dispute charges. You will not get to talk to supervisors, you will get sent to collections. Homeowners do not understand that when they click buttons to get information about jobs, contractors get charged outrageous amounts for the "lead." Save your money, save your time, stay away from this awful company.

This is a scam. They do not tell me how they bill and after four days I was in the hole almost $600. Their goal seems to be to screw people out of their money before they realize what is happening.