I have used Thumbtack many times before and had a good experience w/ every pro except now. My experience with this business was literally the worst experience I have ever had with a vendor or contractor.
My initial issue was needing to replace a faucet cartridge on my tub to adjust the water which was estimated to take 1 to 1.5 hours. The tech that came out was on the phone the whole time w/ John P. (he refused to give me his full name but I saw it on the caller ID) the lead trainer. It was clear she was struggling with the job. I would have been ok w/ her saying that she couldn't complete the job and I would have paid her for her time. Instead, I got an update on the app saying that the time estimate to complete the job changed from 1 to 1.5 to 4 to 5 hours. I hadn't planned on it taking that long and had to return to work as I had to take time off yesterday (and most of the next day) to be home to deal w/ this. She left after two hours without replacing or repairing the cartridge and reinstalled the faucet backwards so that the hot / cold lever was on the wrong side. I then immediately got a bill for $250 w/ the faucet installed incorrectly and the original issue unaddressed.
Later I noticed that the bathroom directly below the one where the tech was was now soaked in water. I notified Fixer of this as well as the original issue not being resolved and the faucet being installed backwards, and a second team came to try to fix what the first tech had done. They said there was now a leak in the wall behind the faucet that the tech had worked on and turned the water off. They called John P. He said he couldn't do anything and I would have to call "customer service". I repeatedly asked for a contact (name and number) of someone at Fixer to help me resolve the issue. He would not provide it nor would he provide his own name or contact number, though I saw his first name and initial of last name on the tech's phone. I could hear when he was talking to the tech saying "I'm sorry you have to deal with this @#$$ referring to me"! At no time did he ever apologize to me for anything that happened or give any other suggestions about how to fix the issue they had caused other than tell me I had to call "customer service".
I did get a call from a customer service rep who said they could perhaps turn it into their insurer but that would "take a long time". Her attempt to solve the problem was to provide some "referrals for a plumber" at my expense to correct an issue they caused. When I insisted that someone who could resolved the issue be sent today since at this point I don't have any water rather than having a plumber come out they sent a 3rd Fixer team. After a couple of hours, they said they couldn't fix it. The customer service rep said that if their team could not address the issue she would have a plumber come out. That didn't happen.
After three visits from Fixer I still didn't have the original, quite simple issue addressed, had no water at all and a leak in my walls!
After it became clear they would not adequately address the issue, I called a plumber. He identified the source of the leak in about 5 minutes and cleaned the cartridge which corrected the issue that I had called Fixer about in the first place. Unfortunately, this resulted in a significant bill that I now had to pay, as well as additional tiling work around the tub faucet which he had to rip out to repair the leak. I haven't even looked into the possible damage in the walls yet from the leak.
At every turn, this company could have resolved this issue and for some reason chose not to. I really wanted to like this company as it appears they are very pro LGBTQ and employ quite a few women at their company which is atypical in my experience. What a disappointing, demoralizing experience.
Tina White
Fixer
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