Larlin’s Home Improvement

I read someplace that Unilocal reviews can have a huge influence on small businesses, so when searched Larlin’s in order to write mine, I was astonished to find two extremely negative reviews, one from someone who has never written another review, and a second from someone with only five reviews, four of them negative.
My own experiences with Larry and his son Brandon have been extremely positive. As a complete klutz when it comes to household skills, I’ve used Larlin’s Home Improvement several times over the past few years. Most recently I had a short list of small, but necessary repairs: replacing a light fixture, caulking the tub, and installing a smoke alarm. Brandon appeared exactly when he said he would and dispatched the tasks easily.
They are personable, competent, and efficient. Prices might be a bit higher than other similar services, but the work is solid and dependable. I’d recommend considering Larlin’s Home Improvement, for any household job, large or small.

I’m not understanding of other bad reviews written, but we had a wonderful experience with Larlin’s Home Improvement. From what we understand, they have an A+ rating with BBB as well. If you type in their name in Google, my lord! They’re everywhere! Anyway, we had purchase one of their vouchers to have a simple handyman project done. We were contacted by email and had a follow up appointment confirmation call. The appointment was set, they came and executed the light fixture install and a few other items I had them do. They were extremely courteous and professional about everything! In fact, I realized that they not only did handyman services, but a variety of other remodel services too, so I had them remodel my entire bathroom! It came out awesome. Love these guys!

Awful.
This guy seemed decent enough during an initial phone call. After a bit of back and forth by email, I was ready to move forward on a repair job but needed to make a couple small amendments in the services I requested. After asking him to make these amendments to the google docs estimate that he relies on and re-​calculate his costs accordingly I presented him with a Living Social coupon that I purchased for his services.
And that’s when it begins:
Larry didn’t respond to me for weeks. I phoned him and emailed just to follow-​up to see what was going on. After two weeks of stringing me along, he sent me an email with the exact same estimate as before, completely ignoring my previous request. Once again I ask him to amend it. After doing so, he has his staff write up a «contract» which again neglects to mention the amendments I requested. I email them about this and they finally send me a new document.
But wait.
The next day he phones me up and accuses me of having some kind of problem or grudge («what the hell is wrong with you»), and «driving his staff crazy» — apparently by my refusal to sign a contract that is inaccurate and insisting that all contracted labor is written down. He proceeds to send me yet another copy of the contract (why?) but instead of trying to listen and understand what’s going on, let alone recognizing his repeated failures to provide an updated and accurate written estimate, he continues to rave arrogantly at me and then hangs up before giving me a chance to respond («I gotta go. I gotta go. click»). WTF?
I truly wish I had been aware of the previous Unilocal review that said:
«BEWARE of this vendor. They don’t seem to have much integrity and the owner himself is ok with sending a sarcastic response when I, as the customer, called them on it.»
I completely agree with that assessment.
I don’t know anything about his skill as a contractor but there seems to be a pattern with how he deals with customers. He gives the impression of an incompetent, small-​minded and snarky individual who wastes people’s time and lacks the most basic of communication skills. Living social refunded my money in light of this ridiculousness.
Hopefully, these reviews will prompt him to reconsider how he conducts himself.

Beware! I bought an Amazon local voucher for $ 130, that offered $ 340 in handyman services from Larlin. I called the day before it expired last November but they didn’t call me back until mid-​late the following week.
Due to a death in the family, I didn’t call again to schedule an appointment until recently. I called the office and got vm, almost always got vm. When Emily called me back, I mentioned the voucher and she sd that I would get the paid value only. I reminded her that I DID call before the expiration date but they didn’t call me back until several days after. However, we had a leaking faucet and really needed to get it fixed, so I sd ok. I then got the written quote saying labor would be approximately $ 500 To replace the faucet and hang the kitchen pot rack + parts and Larry (owner) gave me credit on it for the full $ 340 promotional amount.
Because I wanted to call attn to it to ensure there was no thought that I was trying to take advantage, I emailed back thanking Larry for honoring it. Emily then emailed and sd Larry didn’t know it had expired, it will be $ 130 credit, not $ 340. I emailed her again to ask Larry if he would still honor the promotional value because I DID call before it expired and had proof of same. Emily said that Larry would call me back. Larry did call me back on Friday, April 17^th and in that conversation he again reiterated that he did not realize it had expired. I pointed out to Larry that I responded to his email to ensure there was no confusion thanking him for applying the full amount because no one from Larlin called me back before the voucher expired.
Larry apologized, and acknowledged that sometimes they have ‘communication issues.’ As a solution, he proposed that we «split the difference» to get me some of the promotional value but not all of it. I agreed to that and requested an updated quote.
After emailing and asking repeatedly, and Larry sends his quotes by Google docs so you can only open it if you have a Gmail account, on Tuesday evening April 21^st I was finally able to open the quote.
I was shocked to see that he had only increased the credit by $ 55. Mind you the difference between what I paid & the promotional value was $ 210, so splitting the difference should’ve been a credit of $ 105. But he only gave me a credit for $ 55, on top of what I paid for the voucher which he legally has to honor. I emailed back yesterday upon being able to open the quote and reminded Larry of our conversation on Friday. I also noted in the email that it was interesting that in the initial quote he had quoted up to $ 500 in labor cost. However on this latest quote, where he increased the credit to me by $ 55, he also increased the labor cost by $ 65 and I wanted either an explanation why that was or labor reduced back to approx. $ 500, where it started. That email was sent late morning and when I didn’t hear back from anyone by 5:00, I reached back out to Amazon and they refunded me the $ 130 I paid due to this extenuating circumstance. I also emailed Larry & Emily that I had done so since no one got back to me and thanked them for their time.
Late last evening, Larry sent me one more email: «Kim, I think this is best. All of the confusion is getting the best of you. Thanks for getting the refund from Amazon. Best wishes to you!»
Seriously, I’m not confused. Not only did they wait until AFTER the voucher expired to call me back, but then he jacked up the labor cost and didn’t keep his word for the credit.
So, as I started, BEWARE of this vendor. They don’t seem to have much integrity and the owner himself is ok with sending a sarcastic response when I, as the customer, called them on it.