Handyman On Tap (Brighton)

"Gavin spent a week at ours sorting a variety of things - painting, flooring, external render repair and more. He was awesome - reliable, punctual, very hard working and he really knows his stuff. He did a great job of everything he did and has real attention to detail, the place looks great now. Also, he's a really lovely bloke so overall I'd highly recommend him. Shout out to Ellis in the office as well who was really helpful with getting the quote and admin all sorted. We were a bit hesitant about the 50% deposit but are really glad we went ahead. Are going to be getting them back again soon for another lot of renovation work. 5 stars."

"Hired this company to sand and oil our worktops. The guy who attended, Darren, was on time, friendly and I felt very happy leaving him alone for the day to do the job. However the quality of work was not good, marks on the worktop were missed and sander used against the grain of wood so scratches were left. They gave us a small discount but we would not use this company again. We wanted to pay for a professional service but felt we could have done this quality of work ourselves."

"VERY DODGY Deposit Scheme Make sure to get quotes from the quote fee-free companies first. This review is related to the deposit scheme and it's administration. This company started charging a deposit several years ago "that will be credited towards your job if you decide to proceed." However in reality this is a new revenue stream for themselves since if you wait more than 6 weeks to instruct them they pocket the deposit and won't credit towards the same project after 6 weeks. Brighton is a small community and we have an abundance of wonderful, hard working, trustworthy competitors who care passionately about customer service. Ever pay to book a table at a restaurant? Thought not. Oh you changed the reservation so you can't use that towards a future booking. Like I was told by phone they have the right to have whatever policy they like and I also have the right to spend my money elsewhere and to review this policy and how it is enforced worst case available for others from my personal experience. I live 30 seconds away and would not touch them because of the management lack of interest in customer service. The contractors are good, but I have now had 2 bad experiences with the central booking service and will not repeat. Why pay for a quote, when you can get cheaper hourly or project rates elsewhere without the arrogant attitude? The more we support local independents who value long term relationships with local clients and rate them highly the better the general community service level. I'd like to spare others from shoddy behaviour. Update: The management then phoned me asking if I was calm, before then very aggressively berating me by phone. This was abusive behavior and he clearly has little understanding for how to give service. Bottom Line: If there is an escalation for any reason, expect to be confronted and to have rude contact rather than a diplomatic and level-headed response. WOW. I would rather pay triple than to deal with these guys. This was TV-level stuff from Gordon Ramsey."

"I am the partner of the reviewer Janice Leeming, and this is the true series of events of our experience of doing business with this company. Last December we started looking for a company to do a whole-house redecoration. Although On Tap were 25% more expensive than the other companies, they were the only company we knew - having had positive experience of the Plumbing arm of On Tap. The 2-man team who turned up to site were courteous and professional throughout. Unfortunately, it quickly became clear that they weren't able to do the work to a good level of quality. After many weeks of persevering and re-doing of work by them, we had to shut the project down for fear of lasting damage. We told On Tap that we weren't looking for money back for the poor work already done, but wanted back the nearly £2,500 deposit that we'd paid them in advance for separate works that had not yet begun. We even said they could deduct 3 days' costs for unplanned time spent. It was, by any reasonable person's standards, a generous proposal. On Tap then sent a separate employee to site to independently assess the quality of what had been done. Even he agreed the quality was poor, as did a separate company we ourselves bought in: wallpaper coming off the wall, visible patches and streaks in the paintwork, plaster filler used on doors instead of wood filler - the list went on. On Tap offered to make the work good, but considering they'd already been on site for 5 weeks, had been unable to make anything good after repeated efforts, and had left our home in a sorry state, we obviously declined. Then the 'director' became involved. He said there were many 'additional requests' made by us that (all of a sudden, over a month later) would have to be paid for. And they - conveniently - added up to almost the exact sum we had demanded back. They concluded by saying if we wanted to take it further we'd have to take them to court. In my opinion this whole response was commercially dishonest. This man had never once spoken to us, never once come to site and was pulling additional costs out of thin air and without any detailed breakdown. So to anyone considering using this company, based upon our experience I would urge you to think twice if you value your money and your home. It's also interesting that the last positive review for this company was 5 years ago. I wonder what happened to all the other reviews?"

"I had a track record of excellent service from On Tap for odd jobs in my rental flat. However, my experience of a decorating job in our home was very different. On Tap, in my opinion, over sold their expertise, produced poor results as exemplified by gaping holes round plug sockets, original paint colour showing through, wallpaper coming away at the bottom and sides. Decorating jobs had to be redone to get them to a good standard. Our complaints resulted in more charges. My advice: looking for quality decorators and transparent charging - go elsewhere."