Joshua Levy

It is very hard to find a reliable handyman, and Josh Levy illustrates many of the pitfalls. Two or three years ago he worked for me but I dropped him as he became increasingly unreliable and finally stopped showing up altogether. About six months ago he wrote me, saying he’d realized how badly he’d behaved toward me, and he wanted to make it up to me. Things were more or less okay at first, although he usually cancelled me at least once before actually coming, and he was always at least an hour late. Then I told him I wanted to set up a security system outside involving video and lights. In researching equipment, I specified, he needed to find a video recorder that could film intruders’ faces in enough detail to make it possible for the police to arrest them. Any equipment that could not do that was worthless to me. So I bought certain equipment at his recommendation, paying about $400 altogether for the equipment and his labor. To make a long story short, it was a total failure. When recording human movement, the video only picks up walking blobs, not details. He refuses to acknowledge doing anything wrong, citing that he researched the equipment (but obviously not enough, right?). So that was the first problem. The second, and more serious, problem is that he has totally let me down as far as trying to send back the equipment for a refund. In the three-four weeks since the initial installation, he has found a reason day after day after day after day to put off coming to get it. After several weeks of non-stop excuses, I have no alternative to accepting it will never happen, although I reserve the right to take him to small claims court. I even now have to pay a second person to take down all the lights and cameras that were a waste of money in the first place. Above all, I want people to be aware of this background. Josh lacks the professional and personal maturity you expect from someone his age. Clearly we cannot trust that his recommendations about equipment have been adequately researched. He also fails to accept responsibility for his mistakes or honor his commitments, time after time after time making every excuse in the book for cancelling you.