handy man

machine operator

housekeeper

house cleaner

executive housekeeper

Handy

So this is a very honest review for my time with handy. As a college student seeking part time employment over winter break, this seemed to fit the bill for my needs. While I am a college student, I am also rather handy, as I have run a landscaping company for three years and worked on furniture and outdoor patio equipment jobs before as well. I am not an expert, but through applying for handy, was given permission to work on the platform through their vetting process. Being able to choose jobs and work when you wanted to sounds awesome. For the most part, my experience has been a positive one. I was able to earn some money to put towards school while not spending too much time at work. I had positive experiences with near all (i'll get to the bad in a bit) clients, and many were very outgoing and understanding. However, for anyone considering Handy, there are a few things you should know. First, you need to make it VERY clear what you are comfortable or able to work on. My third job I signed up for was one that described christmas decorations needing to be put up, and I took it as it had only described the first level and ground lights needing to be installed. When I arrived, the client stated that a strand was needed to be installed on the arch of their doorway, over 30ft up. I did not have the equipment or knowledge that this would be required, but offered to help for a little while before also realising the pickiness they had asked for as well (once again was not stated in the job description or call). I would end up leaving and the client rescheduling, as we agreed it was a mutual misunderstanding on the part of the team (they sent someone to finish as of my knowledge). For a while, all other jobs went smoothly. However, there was a period of time I got tasked to a bunch of electrical work and always had to cancel due to the fact that I am not and electrician (it was made clear during the hiring and filtering out process), and I always felt bad because I had to make the customer reschedule each time it happened. One client was upset and ended up calling handy over it, which seemed to solve the problem. If you are not aware, handy can instant book you jobs, some of which you might not always have control over what they are. You can cancel them up to 48 hours in advance with no fee, but I often ran into the problem with being scheduled for next day electrical work (even though I was not seeking or trained to do so). All the work I was ever cleared to do were landscaping jobs and furniture/ bike assemblies. Another issue was a client who kept rescheduling until he moved the job into a day I had scheduled previously to be off work, which removed the job from my schedule. The client would constantly reschedule 30 minutes before my job for two days until it was moved. I didn't see a problem until I was charged a cancellation fee for it, even though it was the clients decision. Occasionally, you would have a client give conflicting instructions (which isn't an issue unless its a mounting job like I worked today, in which the client gave conflicting instructions resulting in needles holes and a stuck screw someone is coming to remove. The client had jumbled up the screws and was unaware of the correct ones to use and did not provide instructions.). These issues will likely lead me to quit working with handy, as I do not want to end up on another job like this. It is only two bad jobs but I take pride in working at my best, and the many others I have done would show this. The risk of having issues with these bad ones or being wrongfully assigned to another job are what concerns me. I do not want to end up in a situation where I break or damage something due to unclear instructions or client confusion. If you decide to work with handy, be mindful to what you can and can't do, and if someone instant books you, be ready to read and understand and possibly cancel if it's something you can't do. I might get back on in the future, but I believe doing this kind of work for yourself if the best route for a person like me, as you have more control over the jobs you get sent.

I started using the Handy app to work as a house cleaner because I thought the flexibility would work well with my schedule because I am a student. Little did I know the absolute nightmare I would be getting myself in to. Handy doesn’t care at all about the people who work for them. They treat them as expendable and there is zero respect or professional. The way they hold their workers accountable of the jobs they do is through ratings, which are given solely by the people who you do a job for. So you could have a multiple 5 star ratings, but if you get one crazy customer who isn’t happy for whatever reason, even if it’s completely unfair or not right, and they give you a bad raging, your score will drop significantly. And Handy will not remove any ratings no matter what. At the same time though, they make you maintain a certain rating in order to continue working for them. So you could be doing well, and again, all it takes is one “rating” to put you in a bad situation, and it also can completely misrepresent your work. They couldn’t care less about any issue you bring to them because they will ALWAYS take the customers word over yours. I went to a house cleaning one time and this person wanted me to do all these things that aren’t in my general job description and usually people will pay more money to include as part of the job because they are more time consuming. I did the best I could given the circumstances, but I didn’t finish everything they wanted me to do in the time the booked the job for. It was a loose loose situation. When I contacted Handy about this after the customer left me a 1 star rating and I asked them to remove it because it didn’t accurately reflect my work nor was it right, they pretty much told me if I had done a better job, the customer would have left me a better rating and were extremely unhelpful and condescending, which is exactly on point with how their customer service is all the time. It sucks. They always cater to the customer at the workers expense. Another time, I went to a job almost 2 hours away from where I lived and when I got there, the condition of the home was absolutely disgusting and unsafe. There was drug paraphernalia laying around with leftover drug residue, moldy food that has been sitting out for weeks…. I contacted Handy while I was there to tell them and they told me I could leave but I would walk away without being paid. So they pretty much forced me to choose between loosing out on my expected pay, not to mention all the time and money I spent just getting to the job, and my personal safety and well being. Also, the customer can cancel any job, no matter how long it’s been scheduled, at the very last minute, with no consequences, and you just have to take the loss and won’t get paid. But if you were to do that as a worker, you would get fined up to $50. The double standard is so twisted and ridiculous. You’re supposed to be an “independent contractor” but you get treated as if you’re an actual employee working for them and held to all these insane standards and sneaky polices. Overall, they are a terrible company to work for and it’s not worth your time or the BS they put you through. 

I started cleaning houses on the side when I was in high school along with other random jobs I did such as  house and pet sitting. 10 years later, I have been working on the handy app for 3 years now and I absolutely hate it but I am so poor, being a full time student, that I have to have a secondary 3rd or 4th income option at pretty much all times. When I started it was $15 an hour which was barely acceptable considering you are an independent contractor and pay self-employment taxes at the end of the year, have to have insurance  in case you break something which runs $40 a month, have to have all of your own supplies, and your own transportation. In the beginning years I would obviously try to meet people and get them off of the app the only way you can make money in this industry as a solo is setting flat rates and getting good tips. I can detail clean a 3-bedroom 2-bathroom house in a couple of hours. On the app I would only be getting paid $26 for this when the market rate for this in my city is at least $70. I go from using this app frequently to not using it for months at a time. When I start working different hours or if I move I lose clients so I get back on the app for more income. Over a year ago I logged on one day and the pay had randomly been cut by $2 apparently nationwide from $15 an hour to 13 which is completely unacceptable. The rating system is completely asinine. People refuse to communicate with you to your face while you're still at their house and will leave comments later on. Or the majority have complaints about the app ( they cancelled but somebody was still scheduled to show up, their favorite person didn't show up, etc) and take it out on your rating. If your rating drops too low you are terminated so to have your job constantly depending on the opinions of others who are judging you from a very disconnected point of view. I noticed that in the last year customers are expecting a lot more for a lot less money and have stop tipping as well. This is the completely unacceptable part of the industry. Housecleaning is extremely difficult it is hard labor. I am very detailed and I've constantly move and work my butt off to make sure that your house is sanitary and clean and hair free by the time I leave. Treat your house cleaners, pool boys, landscapers and all the other people in the service industry that work hard for you, with the respect they have earned and compensate them for their time and energy. I understand there are a lot of terrible house cleaners on this app who are taking advantage of the lack of face2face management but I believe there are a few really good people who deserve to be paid in full for the job and not middlemaned and by this Corporation. Employ those people outside of the app and stop using this. And don't work for them. They take advantage of you with fees and you have no way actually communicating with someone. There are no phone numbers you can only email and that email is sent to a different person every time you respond. The cleaners have background checks ran but the clients do not so every house that I'm going into could be an extremely dangerous situation. I could write a book on the problems with this company. Just stay away.

Handy overall is easy work and is great for people such as myself whom like working knowing they picked their own schedule. You don’t have a boss or anyone on top of you demanding things,etc. Unfortunately Handy lacks in many things and definitely need allot of work. Handy has these issues: They do not supply the worker with cleaning supplies or working shirts which if they actually invested in doing so the company would blossom more and workers would feel like part of the company or should I say platform. Having to spend money on supplies isn’t always easy to do especially when a lot of customers don’t even have cleaning supplies. It is unfair that customers get to give the worker a rating or leave a comment about the cleaning they received but the workers never have the chance to explain their side of the story. As a worker on the handy plate form I have come across such an issue and not once was asked my side of the story. Of course I have always wished I could reply to a review a customer wrote to defend myself. Handy should allow us workers to reply to a customer review/comment. Long as it’s not in a disrespectful way I don’t see much of a issue with this being part of the company. At least allow us to say thanks to those who do give such good feed backs. Our ratings shouldn’t be brought down either because of what a customer rated by 1-5 stars. Let us rate the customer as well and write a comment on their profiles so that they know how it feels to be judged in a inaccurate way. Now on to the fees!! I understand that Handy wants to make money from us using their plate form for getting jobs through them but these cancellation fees are pointless. We should be able to cancel a job for free since we are the ones providing the services. Those cancellation fees get taken from the money we made on the platform and it isn’t fair. We are humans and things do come up and emergency’s do happen. Canceling a job should not interfere with our ratings. Ratings for doing a good job shouldn’t go down because we had to cancel even if it’s a few minutes before the actual scheduled Time. I find these issues to be unfair and I’m sure I’m not alone. If handy took time to view our concerns and make better changes we all would be better. The passion this company lacks desperately needs to be found and changes need to be made. I hope Handy makes changes soon. This company isn’t bad but it needs a lot of work.

Handy is a company of thieves and people with a robotic mentality. I used Handy because I was transitioning from New York to North Carolina and Handy seemed to be what was used most with the exception of Takl. So I decided to give it a go. The first thing that I found very strange was there is no way possible for you to reach someone by phone or virtual chat in an emergency situation. You have to use the app and email them and wait for them to respond. Often it says you'll get a response in 30 minutes, that's a lie. I have never once gotten a response in 30 minutes. The responses all come after you complete the task or sometimes even the next day.  So there is strike one. Secondly, this is not my first rodeo with freelancing apps. I absolutely love being a Taskrabbit tasker and the way Taskrabbit operates. Handy takes a very hefty percentage compared to what they charge clients. Handy is used by Wayfair and Walmart for furniture assembly and mounting services.  I've had several clients show me that Handy charge them several hundred dollars but only paid me $20, $40 or $50. I had one client who showed me he was billed by Handy $700 to have a gazebo put together but wanted to pay me $70 to do the job. That means I was only getting 10% to 20% of what they charge clients. What type of practice are they running. So that was strike Two. Lastly, because we have to email them for everything it helps you to see how incompetent some of them are especially with simple definitions like furniture assembly and mounting. As well as how people in the customer service department all don't follow the same rules.I had an on task issue that was not responded to by Handy until after I had already completed the task. I asked for the proper compensation for mounting and the young lady named Angelica told me that the  pictured hanging and tool rack mounting work I completed was the same as furniture assembly when in fact they are not and are not even listed in the same category on their own website. I felt that she was responding just to respond. He answers seemed robotic and she kept changing her answer which made me feel she was lying. Strike three.

Firstly, I'm not looking to make $30k a year with this platform. It's just a side job that my cousin told me about that conveniently and reliably pays every week. But that's the only reliable thing about them. The pay isn't bad but there are no tips (unless they've been keeping them). My first job was a disgusting college house where they literally just poured all of their beer on the floor instead of down the sink. There was mouse poo, ants all over and birthday cake splattered on the walls and floors. I cleaned it beautifully in the short amount of time I was given. I went 30 minutes over and never got a top or an apology for the disgust. I'm iver that though. My biggest problem is the way the jobs on the platform are filtered. Since I haven't taken that many I am on the bottom of the totem pole and have very little show up on my app in advance. The only jobs that pop up are on the day of, and 1-3 hours before they start which puts me at risk for being fined if I can't get through traffic, parking problems, or other emergencies. I once got a $76 parking fine and almost got towed for a $32 job. There is no support for the worker because all of my recent confirmed customers have cancelled on me. Handy provides no explanation other than what compensation you will get ($0 unless the customer cancels within 4 hours of the job). Customer service is also extremely slow with getting back to you. The only way you should do this is if you have a real job and if you need money on the side. Be very smart about the locations you accept and aware of how much time you need to get there since they only give you an estimate of the area. If you live in the city it's especially hard to get to a job during rush hour. Also be smart about the materials you buy. This is definitely set up for handy to make the most money while you sacrifice your time and efforts and receive little in return. Tips should not be optional when someone is cleaning your home.

I have been at this[Handy.com] for about 6 weeks. I have 5 decades of experience in handyman, construction, and assembling [I know what I am doing and I am real good [and fast] at doing it.] Most of the jobs are grossly underestimated as far as time required to complete. There is no way for the handyman to tell Handy and get the time changed. only the customer can do that [so the app says]. 

Everyone one of the numerous times I have tried to get the customer to change the "required time" the app does not function. The "chat" window on the customer side of the app does not open. Many times, all the app will let the customer do is to "rate" me.  The email on the customer's side is extremely difficult for customers to find, even if they are given that ability [which is apparently seldom if at all]. If I do bring this to Handy's attention, then several of my upcoming jobs suddenly "the customer has edited the job and you were removed". I know for a fact that on three of the jobs [customers have told me personally], Handy sent the customer telling them a "scheduling conflict has occurred" and tells the customer what time the handy man will come. I have probably complained about this too much. Apparently in a metropolitan area of 2.5 million people, no one has posted a job in the last 24 hours.

The other major issue is the size of the service area. Many times I have been booked for jobs 40, 60, even 96 miles from my house. We are not paid for travel time. I get paid for one hour [though usually takes closer to 2 hours, and then spend three hours [or more] driving and I am being paid an effective rate of under $4 an hour.  If I decline these jobs, the app takes away certain aspects of the app that allows me to claim jobs.

Beginning, convenience and pay were great; allowed me to work when I want and where at the convenience of having more family time. As time progress working along side AirBNB I enjoyed the views of new culture and home décor so exquisite. As time progress the company grew and you can feel the shift in management, where cleaners were more of an asset to the company, yet looked upon as a nuisance when issues arrived. One thing that I fought for was in the fairness in fees, example: Before clients had the option to cancel up until an hour prior to cleaning; if less than an hour of cancellation or is a no show the cleaner will be compensated by a hour pay. The cleaner must stay  at location of a no show at least an hour to get this pay, unless told otherwise. Later they switch this to customers having  up until three hours, if not cleaners are compensated $15 and must stay at location for a hour unless told different. The unfair put was the charge for the cleaner; no matter the emergency or reason a cleaner must pay $35 for cancellation less than 48 hours and at one time $50 for a no show (which is understandable). I felt the imbalance in this cancellation policy was unfair and being brought to their attention they did change it to a more fair fee.

Though my complaints lead to improper pay where week after week they were cutting me short; sometimes $50 to nearly $200. In order to be compensated I most show proof that I had said jobs, yet you must check in (gps for which they can pinpoint your location at any given time) once at a job. They wouldn't go by customer name, number and address to do research, they wanted job numbers. This inaccessible once job is completed unless you're tedious like me and save emails and little things like "job numbers". 

Summary, if you want freedom in how, when, and where you work this is a great pick, just keep note of your payments with detail.

Worked for this company for two years and I don't recommend anyone follow my footsteps. 

1. They are cheap and leave little room for advancement; their ideas of advancement are giving a .25 raise after being there for 2 yrs & then load you with more work. 

2. Their benefits are awful. When I worked there, health insurance only covered the county their office/home resided in. Yeah, they work out of a house on main st that I am pretty sure is not up to code and probably have a ton of violations. Their office floor isn't even level. Try being pregnant and have to fear a desk is going to fall on you. Fun.  

3. Don't get pregnant and expect them to treat you well. They are a company that employs less than 50 people so therefore do not have to follow the common courtesy laws of the Family Medical Leave Act. Instead of letting their pregnant employee know they would not be giving back her shift or position back-HandyPro let her come back to work thinking she still had her job and dropped her change of employment info to her on her first day back. That "new position" was a demotion and evening/weekend shift.  She was then left with no current salary, as she was unable to work the new shifts they demoted her to. But they rationalize their behavior with "we still are offering you a job."

4. They can't keep customer service employees/handymen. They underpay & overwork. As a result of that, over half of their employees I worked with while there for 2 yrs quit before their 90 days. Don't waste your time. 

5. HandyPro is micro managed. Their management is really good at eating and delegating their staff to do their job(s) for them. Management then nitpicks everything their staff does and half the time you feel like you never can do anything right. But when you allow your wife "manage" the call center who has been a stay at home mom for the last 10+ yrs and has no education in business-then I guess you should expect this treatment. Again, don't waste your time!!

I started with Handy with a lot of experience and a good attitude, and...everything was great, until... I started getting close to doing the volume in houses that would earn me my $2 an hour pay raise. Once I started getting close, I noticed that all of my 5 star ratings had little generic side notes to it "customer unhappy with floors" "customer unhappy with kitchen"..uh, excuse me? The same person leaving 5 stars and raving reviews, tips, PLUS requesting me immediately, is complaining about several things off to the side?! Not likely. At all.

If you Google Handy reviews (which most people do in order to see what people are saying about the service), what they find are sites like this- where workers are talking about how much power the customer has with their rating. They literally know the power they have, and demand you do a ton of extra stuff, and they know that you will do it, in fear of the rating. They also lie about the size of their home.

Some customers are vindictive, if you refuse their request for whatever reason, they can and DO get their nose out of joint and will continue to request you to give you a bad rating. A lot of people like that "last word". Each "comment" whether said by company or client, impacts your rating a great deal, a lower rating means NO raise-the companies response is "do more houses and they won't have such an impact". But, the problem with that is, the customers always cancel, so even if you book all week, you might get 2-3 jobs.

I enjoyed my job, and wanted to make a career out of it, but it is clearly rigged, so that you are not able to go up in pay. They want to keep people working at ground entry , and not pay them more for the same job.

Very unethical, and dishonest. Clients know they have the power to basically get you booted off the forum.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Handy man 2 salaries reported	$24.75 per hour
Machine operator 1 salary reported	$21.50 per hour
Housekeeper 1 salary reported	$22.00 per hour
House cleaner 1 salary reported	$16.00 per hour
Executive housekeeper 1 salary reported	$20.00 per hour

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