First off, I will say that the new pocket doors are installed, look good, and function as they are supposed to. That's not the issue. What it took to get to this point IS the issue, and was hardly a pleasant walk in the park. We are generally agreeable people, and felt we got taken advantage of because we both have some background in construction and know certain delays can happen. Did they do all the work they were quoted to do? Sure. But they were S-L-O-W.
The original person that was sent to price the job was knowledgeable, friendly but quiet, and seemed to understand exactly what was said when certain considerations were mentioned with regard to either door. He quoted us a 2 day job. I expected a 2 day job. Then they changed our 'craftsman' to someone else, and things went downhill. These guys are nice and polite, but overall the experience has been rather unpleasant considering the amount of time it's taken.
Putting aside the basic lack in punctuality where they couldn't seem to arrive at the scheduled time, it's also taken four days to install TWO pocket doors. I will concede that 1 day was necessary since the doors were special order and required waiting for delivery, but the other three days have been ridiculous. And the work completed in all 4 days, doors present or not, could have been done in 2 at the most, had there been any attention to detail and a general care for professionalism.
Day 1 should have just been a wash in general, because we didn't even have the pocket door frame. They should have come in and talked to us about the frame, ordered it and then picked up for the next day while we ordered the rest of the materials for the job. Instead, they arrived late and stayed till 2 so they could order and pick up the pocket door frame hardware. In that span of time they managed to take the sheetrock off the wall on one side of each doorway, and removed the studs in only one wall.
Day 2 they arrived late because they went to pick up the materials we had purchased, which added time to their arrival. Then they proceeded to take from their arrival to 6pm to move some electric lines for the GFCI and light switches, reframed the basic structure of the bathroom wall (minus the pocket door frame), and removed the studs in the closet doorway/wall.
Day 3 they arrived late since they felt it was better to alter the pocket door frames at their shop instead of on the job. We generally agreed with that, but still feel it took far longer than necessary. Since they had the pocket door frames, they managed to somehow get them installed and put back the sheetrock that they had removed on Day 1. Despite the fact that we had purchased all new sheetrock. A fact we were okay with when they had to use their own wiring to reroute the light switches. But now, that also feels like something else they did to take advantage of our amiable nature.
Day 4, scheduled for 9am. The night before we received a text message that said 'see you around 9:30-ish', which was also very unprofessional. Needless to say, they arrived later than their texted ETA, and started working at 10. After two hours, they only had one door hung, half the trim, and zero handles cut in. After six hours (keep in mind this is hour six on DAY FOUR), they were finally applying tape and mud, had one handle cut in and attached, and that was pretty much it.
Our final analysis:
In total, it took 24 and 1/2 hours to demo for, install, and finish (minus door trim and paint which we are doing ourselves) TWO pocket doors. The drywall patching was a mess, drywall compound smeared all over the trim in certain places. They didn't shim properly so one of the doorways needs to be adjusted. There are 1 gaps next to the framing of the other door that they couldn't have bothered to use the drywall we paid for to patch it up, and instead left the gaps visible for us to either fill or cover up. There are screws from the drywall that are still visible.
We've spent a total of $1500 (approximately) in labor, and another $600 in materials (doors, frames, sheetrock, studs). It's money we could have saved had I known how to install pocket doors myself, and was willing to play with electricity to move the switches. It's $1500 wasted, in my opinion. If they had done it in 2 days, I'd be more agreeable, but this has but this has been a nightmare.
We paid, because we signed a contract. However, we will never hire Handyman Connection for any project again. Hopefully we'll be able to make that mediocre-to-bad job look good, because right now it looks like amateur hour. If we can't do that next small job using the internet and our own abilities, we just won't get it done.
(edited for space, full review on Facebook)