Handy

I’ve been using Handy for almost a year now on a monthly basis. Let me say that when the cleaners decide to come (and not cancel 2 hours before their scheduled start time, which happened 3 x in a row to me) they usually do a good job. Twice however the cleaners broke my shower curtain and didn’t even tell me. I came home to find it on the bathtub floor and the bar pushed to the side of the wall. The other thing about them is that even though you can request a specific cleaner you will seldom get the same one come each time. I hate having a new stranger in my house each month and even though I requested the same one come, it never happens.
The other issue with Handy is their semi shady business practices. You have to really stay on top of your bookings and charged fees as they have charged my card twice and also charged me even after the cleaner cancelled. Their website makes it hard to directly contact a customer service rep and it’s all via email… they really should have a phone number where we can actually speak to someone instead of having to fit our concerns into their pre-​determined categories. When you try to cancel a cleaning plan using the as you simply can’t. You get to the cancel page, check off the plan you want cancelled yet there is no submit button. I had to email them Handy several times to get a plan cancelled.
My last cleaner never contacted me beforehand so I had no way of knowing when he’d arrived or left,…never got any notifications. That’s disconcerting since it’s a stranger in the house. I will continue to use Handy for 1 more month and if things don’t change I will look elsewhere for my cleaning needs.

Scumbags. Shady business. They auto-​schedule bookings for you and charge you 15 dollars when you tell them you never booked anything!
Assholes. They charged my credit card and loaded another 100 dollars without my permission! Guess what? There is no option in the site to remove your credit card information or deactivate your account. These are top scumbags. AVOID THIS COMPANY BY ALL MEANS!
This company is robbing people thousands of dollars on auto-​rescheduling and cancellation fees. Some people don’t even notice and they are robbed every month.

Brenda is amazing!!! I’d give her a 5 star every time. She shows up early and really goes above and beyond what she’s asked to do. I’ve been with her for a long time now and won’t be changing anytime soon.
On the other hand… haha see what I did there? Handy itself as an organization isn’t the best. The app is purposely designed to make it difficult to change and cancel your committed cycle. The people via email aren’t always helpful and different people get back to me everytime. On the phone it’s worse because of the wait time.
I’ve had last minute switch of professionals and it’s inside the 24 hour window so cancelling will charge me. One time they sent me someone who took 2 hours to do 1 bathroom and the stairs. Another time the cleaner came with no cleaning supplies… NO… Basically I’m only still with them because of Brenda.

Had a booking for cleaning Wednesday January 6^th with Nabil. He was very thorough and arrived a little late because he was given the wrong address. He phoned me for the directions. He did a great job and was very thorough. Nice young man who worked very hard yesterday. I would certainly ask for him again.

Lorna was great… Came early and made sure everything was up to my standard before leaving. I would definitely recommend Lorna. My past two experiences with Handy have actually been great. The 3 before weren’t so good but I am happy with my last two experiences.

Danisha is a super star! She is very professional and knows what a clean place should look like. she was very particular about everything. will definitely be using handy services in future as well

I’ve used handy 3 times now. 2 out of 3 times the cleaners were wonderful and did a good job. The only thing is every time I had requested «inside fridge» the cleaner never got around to it.
The cleaners did a great job in the time allocated, but they do miss things. I had to vacuum an entire area that was missed, but I chalk it up to them running out of time. I don’t think they pay the cleaners enough for them to make sure they finish everything, or their time estimates are wildly underestimated (small house, generally quite clean, they suggest 3 hours, but I have increased it to 4. still not enough??)
Also, every time I want to book again, I try to request the same cleaner, but I have never been successful. I don’t like having to stay home with the cleaner, so it would be nice to hire someone who has been here before.
I think I am better off finding a cleaner I can hire independently.

We had a bunch of paintings, photo frames a need that needed repair and an IKEA shelf that needed to be fixed!
Joseph arrived right on time and had all the right tools to fix everything for us. It was a great experience and most of all took the stress out of our weekend.
Highly recommended service.

I am not really a review type person but I feel like I should warn people when I have had a particularly bad experience with a company.
I booked a cleaning with Handy in September. The cleaning happened and well it seemed ok except for the fact that I paid the company extra to clean my cabinets and they were barely wiped down, like still spices and dust on the inside… Also I didn’t realize until after I had put my 4 star review in that the cleaning lady had actually drank half a bottle of my red wine?!?
I was not impressed but I let it go and figured I would just request a different cleaner the next time.
Then I was to have my another booking recently, I had to cancel and I wanted a refund… They gave me credits on my account on their website. I had to email (there is no phone contact) and ask to get a real refund to my credit card. It took about a week for me to actually received the refund. After that… I was reviewing my credit card bill and I noticed that they actually billed me twice!!! So I had to email them again. I am currently very disgruntled waiting their reply…
I urge you to choose a cleaning company that has a phone number for starters, makes it easy for customers to receive an actual refund, do not charge you twice AND DOES NOT DRINK ON THE JOB! Jesus. What a joke.

I have been using Handy’s service for three months now. I will admit that I had 2 – 3 really good professionals clean my place. However, the others were just OK… Several of them would leave after 1.5 hours even though I paid for 2.5 hours. I could understand if there were not anything else to do, but there was (for example: mopping the floor.)
I have had a couple of professionals who were very rude. The last one was scared of dogs even though it states on my profile that I have a dog, and he will be with me at all times. BTW: I have a 10 pound Chihweenie who is very sweet and likes all people. The last person kept complaining that there is no free parking – well I live in downtown Toronto. What do you expect? She stated that she had tried to call me and text me. However, I showed her my cell phone, and there were no contact from her.
I don’t get the same pros each two weeks. I am allowing a complete stranger into my apartment each time. I have decided that I will cancel my service as of today. I am truly not satisfied with the unprofessionalism, pros coming late and leaving early, and jobs that were done half assed. I am not asking for much. I am asking to clean the counters and mop the floors. I don’t think that this is too much to ask.

Awful experience. the cleaner did not show up in 3 different occasions ! I never trust this company again!

For the second time, I have received a text message from a Handy cleaner when I have NO booking scheduled, which is also reflected on my account. The last time I wa charged as the cleaner showed up and without an email or phone number to contact Handy I have no one to contact to ensure that I am not charged again. When Handy contacted me about the previous booking they refused to refund the $ 65 they charged me even though I clearly had no booking scheduled on my account. The customer service is terrible with this company. Do NOT use.

So bad. Even after their social media person reached out to me and I provided them with all the necessary details (see below my original review), I still did not receive any personal communication from them to address the issues I had. Not an e-​mail, not a phone call or anything. I also had to go through some trouble to cancel my pending appointments, which they force you to schedule when you sign up with them.
Handy really needs to get their act together. I would never book with them again and am still looking for a decent housecleaning company.

I had a great experience with Handy, and my professional ELIZABETH. She was super easy to communicate with, and I was really happy with the level of cleanliness of my apartment when I returned.
I will definitely be a repeat customer.

Wish there were an option for ZERO stars.
I had a ‘professional’ last week that came to my home. He didn’t do anything. He complained, went for 3 cigarette breaks and then yelled at me when I complained that he had been there for 2 hours and he had put 3 screws into the wall. (I’d like to add onto this by saying, I hired another handyman from Mr. Handyman the next day, within 3 hours, he had finished all my shelves, finished another project and was helping me break down boxes)
I called the ‘help’ number. After 45 minutes of waiting, I finally got in touch with a person and was refunded. I was extremely turned off by this, but I decided to give Handy another chance because I think what they’re doing is clever and I like to support that.
I woke up this morning to yet another disappointment. My service was going to be delayed a day. I DO NOT want my service on Thursday, otherwise I would have booked it for Thursday. I had a task that would have taken 20 minutes, I was willing to pay for 2 hours. Instead, I can’t even get this done at all. Why is it that a ‘handyman’ is able to cancel his appointment with less than 24 hours to go, yet I have to book 24 hours in advance, and either get an incompetent handyman, or get cancelled on? I hate to say it but, fool me once…
Unfortunately, they’ve failed to keep me as a customer, and I’d assume this will happen quite often in Toronto. We’re not a city that accepts sub-​par professionals or a company with a lack of respect for our schedules.
I wrote to their ‘help’ email but I’d assume that no one will get back to me as it did take me 45 minutes to get through on the phone.
Try Mr. Handyman if you’re looking for awesome service and friendly, professionals.

*UPDATE*
After my previous review, I was contacted by the folks at Handy to assure me that what happened to me was not the norm, and that they would like to help me re-​schedule my booking to make it right. They DID re-​schedule, my place was cleaned with my preferred cleaner, and all was well. I DESPERATELY want to tell you all that it’s been smooth sailing since, but here I am — unable to give any stars.
I was put in touch with a gentleman named ‘Rory’. Rory’s e-​mail signature let me know that he was with ‘Toronto Operations’. He let me know that he was now here to help me and make sure that I receive my preferred cleaner every time, and all of the hiccups were a thing of the past. As I write this, Rory’s e-​mail address has been disabled, and I’ve been assigned new cleaners, against my wishes, twice. As I had previously mentioned — Handy e-​mails you with less than 24 hours to go before your booking to introduce you to your cleaner. If it’s not your preferred cleaner, and you don’t wish to go forth with the booking, BAM — $ 15 charge to the customer. Can you PLEASE provide notice 36 – 48 hours out to not unnecessarily charge your customers? The timing of 23 hours and 30 minutes, on average, notice makes me feel like this is on purpose.
At this point, honestly, just keep the $ 30 cancellation fees (even after promising me that it wouldn’t happen to me again), I will go through the motions of having to sit on hold to cancel all upcoming appointments, because evidently — you don’t want to make it easy on your customers to leave your service.
Judging by all of the negative reviews here, you’re fantastic at writing people back and delivering good service as a one-​off, but there’s no consistency, and I can’t help but feel like I’ve been ripped off by your service.

As of right now, Handy could not get worse. My first cleaning with them went flawlessly. My last three cleanings have all been canceled with less than 2 hours notice! One of them was an urgent one before I had guests coming for an AirBnB stay. The cleaning prior to this one was so poor as to be basically useless. The cleaner came early and left late.
I just have to say that right now Handy is batting 1 out of 5. These last two problems happened even after their social media coordinator reached out to me. It’s impossible to reach anyone by e-​mail or on the phone. I think this company must be about ready to go out of business!
If you at all would like your apartment cleaned when you request it, I 100% suggest that you find another service!

I’m still mostly a fan of Handy, because all of their professionals are courteous and make my house sparkle, however! I understand peoples’ frustrations… making it hard to cancel and remember repeating appointments can be a giant pain in the ass, and can result in being charged for something you won’t use. Not the best.
Here is their customer service line to make your life easier, if you, too, have ended up with repeating appointments you’ve totally forgotten and want to ditch: 1−800−574−7036.

I am extremely disappointed with handy’s services!
As my cleaning lady showed up more then an hour late on April 24^th and was booked for 2 hours, left after an hour and a half!
When I called to complain I was told there’s nothing they can do about it!

I’ve never had my home cleaned by a professional, but it’s definitely a treat when Handy sends someone like Domenik to get the job done. He was very efficient, friendly, and thorough. He showed up right on time and covered quite a lot of ground for just 2 hours — it was more than enough time. I gave Domenik a ¹⁰⁄₁₀ rating and I highly recommend him. If they hire more professionals like him, I’ve no doubt they’ll grow their business in Toronto.
The only thing I don’t like about Handy is that they insist on the recurring appointment. I’m not really comfortable with being away from home for the service, so that means having to find a time where I can be at home (without being in the way).