From Ace A.
FixTman LLC. (Massachusetts)
This is a long review, but I promise it’s worth reading. Run fast and far away from these guys.
I reached out to FixtTMan on Thumbtack. Immediately after contacting them, I received an aggressive text message because I did not respond to their messages inside the app.
After responding in the app, I was pressed for address and email address, even though Thumbtack intends for communication to occur through the app.
After telling them when I was looking for the services to be done, they scheduled a time slot on their own for the requested day (which didn’t work for me) without even asking and consulting me. They just sent a message that my appointment was scheduled. I had to get them to change to my preferred two hour window (arriving between 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm) with extreme difficulty.
During the communications, I asked on three separate occasion that I receive some notification when the technicians were on their way. I was assured each time this would be the case and not to worry.
With no heads up that they were arriving, I got a call at 12:59 pm from the technician that he was in my building’s lobby. Normally, having your tech arrive at the first minute of a two hour window would be a positive, but I had preparations for the job that I had to do that took 20 minutes that I needed to have done before they could start.
I scheduled the appointment to complete a relatively simple job of hanging 5 frames (two 11 inch by 15 inch, and three 8.5 inch by 11 inch), all to be placed spaced evenly apart and centered on a 24 inch wide wall. I had even already taken measurements and marked the Walls with where I wanted everything to go. I explained this several times. They still could not get the positions right, nor the amount of space between them, and each piece had to be redone at least three times, including removing the mounting hardware from the wall and placing it again. This meant additional, unnecessary holes (four times as many) in my freshly painted walls. They were also rough and not careful with my expensive custom framed items. Again, this was an easy job in that I had everything ready to go, and knew exactly what I wanted, even having marked the walls as mentioned previously But they paid no attention and did whatever they wanted. And each time he “fixed” it, (adjusting the location of the frame) he did it with his eye, not a tape measure to determine where the proper spacing was. After each “fix” I had to measure their “fix” again and show them that it was wrong. Why wouldn’t they measure their own “fix”?
Each time they supposedly fixed it, the items were not centered. They kept telling me they were, so I kept grabbing my measure tape and showing them after each of their adjustments that they were not centered, like something was wrong with me.
Beyond the worst hanging service possible, they placed a mounting nail I provided, that they bent, on my $5000 marble dining table, then used a hammer to beat on the nail against the marble to straighten it out, scratching and chipping the marble, leaving a divot in the table. A little later, they dropped the hammer on the same table quite roughly.
These guys *may* be good at other things (doubtful though based on me experience), but I would never recommend them to do any hanging of anything that requires supervision. They had to be corrected numerous times, on each piece, and strictly supervised. Get an actual professional hanging service (there are a few on thumbtack that appear to be highly rated); not a Jack of all trades master of none handyman.
Ultimately, I had to throw them out of my house. To add insult to injury, they had the guts to send me an invoice even though not one of the pieces was hung properly (and four of the five weren’t even on the wall)! Not only did they send the invoice, but they sent it for TWO hours of labor, even though the job was “completed” (incorrectly obviously) in one hour because they spent one additional hour with me trying to get them to fix their mistakes (which they never did). I responded that they should be paying ME for destroying my wall and dining room table. Got a call from the manager asking for photos and telling me they would send a “senior” “quality control” technician to evaluate and conduct the repairs. I wouldn’t let these guys back to repair anything if my life depended on it. I did send the photos, but didn’t receive so much an apology. The following day, after missing a call from them, they sent me a message with the audacity to tell me that “…the company policy is to send the QC tech to fix the job and do the mounting correctly and take care of the issue,” and “when the issue is fixed,” I can pay the invoice or they could give me a “50% discount on the invoice and you can hire someone to fix the issue” for me and to let them know which option works best for me. They really still expected some kind of payment! The only reason they were adamant about sending a quality control technician was an attempt to get paid for the job they didn’t do. Not that I would ever let them back on my home.
The cherry on top of it all? One of the techs blew up my bathroom (which I don’t have a problem with in and of itself!), then DID NOT WASH HIS HANDS before starting the job.
I am suspicious (but have no proof — yet) that these technicians did not have the proper licenses and certifications required by the state. There is no way a qualified, licensed, bonded and insured professional could have committed such an atrocity of a job. Thumbtack does NOT require “Pros” to maintain insurance to be on the platform.
ABSOLUTELY DO NOT HIRE THESE GUYS IF YOU VALUE YOUR THINGS. Every aspect of this experience was terrible, from the very first second I reached out to them only to receive aggressive responses because I didn’t respond to them within seconds, all the way through the job itself.
I ended up hiring an actual art installer for double the cost of FixTman, but it was money well spent. Don’t give your hard earned dollars to these clowns for a crappy job. You pay them, but for some reason, due to their ineptitude, you have to explain what you want done over and over again, and even then they don’t do it right, and then they make you feel like something is wrong with YOU because they don’t know the basics.
I am reaching out to Thumbtack corporate, as well as the Better Business Bureau and TrustPilot to file a complaint and cross posting this review on both of those sites, as well as any other platform where reviews for FixtTMan exist. I am also doing a deep dive into their licensing and certification. Their BBB profile and TrustPilot profile is filled with similar experiences by others, and may of them seem to have an unfavorable resolution. I actually read them all before hiring them, but I didn’t listen because I had such a simple and easy job. Do not make the same mistake I did!
