Response from ProMaster Home Repair & Handyman Services
I am sorry you were unhappy with our company because of our estimation policy. I value all feedback, use it constructively to improve our operation and consider it a valuable opportunity to address your concerns now. Please take my thoughts in the spirit in which they are offered—to simply explain he rationale behind our estimation policy and allow the readers of this report to make their own judgment on whether or not our company is a good fit for them. Given that the majority of our repair work involves diagnostic troubleshooting, when you invite our craftsmen to your home to resolve a problem, they are actually performing work. My belief is that when my employees perform work, they ought to be compensated for it. On average, it consumes about 3 man hours, plus fuel and expenses to visit someone and perform an estimate for a basic list of home repair projects. Given that ProMaster hires the foremost home repair experts, who are multi-disciplined craftsmen, you can imagine that these gentlemen don’t work for peanuts. Unlike other trade contractors who embed the cost of such work from jobs they do not win into the cost of the clients who eventually hire them, I do not believe it is ethical or fair to play the "free estimate" game, when that entire premise of “free” is entirely false. The on-time, family-friendly, professional consultation you will receive from a ProMaster Craftsman, combined with the value resulting from uninflated home repair costs, (since we don’t need to embed our lost estimating activity into those clients who hire us) ProMaster is hands-down the best value in the home repair market today. $79 for a professional home repair evaluation (not a “look see, best guess” or “commission opportunity for a home improvement salesman”) in my view is a bargain that puts the interest of a homeowner first--often saving them thousands of dollars from throwing money at the wrong problem. I realize this policy isn’t perfect, but it is the fairest we could come up with. I hope you’ll concede that we’re at least honest about it, thoughtful in how we approach the issue and most importantly, wish to interact with the public in a fair, transparent and ethical manner. Consequently, it is no accident we keep winning the Angie’s List Super Service, and other awards each year. Combined with the tremendous growth and success our company is experiencing in what is literally an economic depression—we must be doing something right. Again, ProMaster isn’t a fit for everyone. I understand that. If you feel that a phone call to our company that quickly resulted in your determination that we’re not the company for you deserved an “F” report, so be it. I do find it interesting however, that our “F” Angie’s List grades come from folks who we’ve never worked with… but I nevertheless I don’t discount their feedback because I certainly want to make sure our company is reaching out to the entire spectrum of homeowners. Hence, I think your suggestion of finding a way to more prominently highlight our policies and pricing is a good one. In fact, it is already in the works for our new web site redesign. Maybe this would have avoided your disappointment by allowing you to skip calling our company altogether? At any rate, when we get the new site launched in a few months, maybe you can take a look at it and give me some thoughts as to whether or not it fits more in line with your expectations? Again, thanks for your feedback and I hope that despite our philosophical disagreement, we at least appreciate each others perspective and remain thankful for the free market in this country that affords consumers choice in the products and services available. Take care, Don Kennedy, President