My husband and I first contacted RELM in the early part of June to get estimates on various projects at our home (Williamsburg). At the designated appointment 2 weeks later, Michelle and Lionel (RELM Handy Service) arrived almost 2 hours late, repeatedly apologizing and assuring us it was not their norm. They presented themselves well, having a very "can do" attitude. After viewing the various projects they claimed the ability to do everything we needed and promised to present us with an estimate in 'a few days' - a partial estimate took about 2 1/2 weeks to arrive and only after numerous calls from me. They told us they would have a couple of 'their people' contact us about the various jobs that Lionel didn't perform. Scott, who identified himself as a general contractor, visited in the next few days, inspected the jobs that were supposedly in his realm and said he would immediately begin finding qualified workers for the individual tasks. We never heard from Scott again nor any workers associated with him. When we called Michelle for an explanation we were told that Scott was 'independent' and therefore she had no control over his actions. She gave us his number, we contacted him ourselves but never heard back. Dylan, a 'weeding' and light landscape specialist with a very high price tag ($100 for the first hour, $75 per hour afterward!), followed a few days later and did an acceptable job pulling weeds but broke a wooden spike holding a deer retaining fence. He apologized, promising to return the next day and repair it as well as to spray a 'special' type of weed killer (which he forgot to bring), all included in the price of what we paid him. He never came to complete either.
Lionel committed to the cleaning of a clothes dryer vent which had been giving us a problem for some time, claiming on his inspection that they could take care of the issue, no problem. Our washer/dryer are stackable units which take special tools and skills to move, un-attach, reattach and move back into place. He and Dylan arrived to perform this work with NO hand truck, asking us if we had one they could use! They struggled for a few minutes to try and move the units and it became clear quickly that they had NO CLUE as to how to perform this task - this was a complete misrepresentation on their part and a waste of our time.
At this point we were beginning to wonder about RELM but, due to the simpler, less-taxing nature of the jobs to which they had committed (caulking a sink and outdoor painting), we figured we'd keep them scheduled. In the meantime, Dylan worked for us one other time, no tools and obviously very little knowledge of landscaping, other than weeding. When we complained to Michelle about our unhappiness with Dylan she again played the 'he doesn't work for us' card and told us to contact him ourselves.
Our projects were finally scheduled for 8/16 an 8/17, over a month away. On 8/9/23, I got a text from Michelle asking if they could change the scheduled date but it didn't work for us so we were then rescheduled for 8/25 and 8/26. A few days prior we learned that the arrival time wasn't until 10:30 even though we led to understand that they were going to be there for 2 'full' days. My husband was concerned about possible rain interfering with the painting but had come up with alternative work in case. He and Michelle discussed it in length and I thought we were all set. After waiting a month and a half, on the morning they were supposed to have arrived, my husband got a text telling him that an 'emergency job' had come up and that it might be 11:30 before they arrived. In a return text my husband clarified that rain was no longer an issue so Lionel could prep and paint. For some reason, that was an issue because, Michelle claimed, it was not 'what he had prepared for'. My husband explained that we had everything he needed and that no preparation was necessary. Even if he needed to pick up something (which he didn't), they (Lionel and Michelle) only live about 3 minutes from our house! Michelle then texted that 'that's not we had agreed on, etc." at which point we lost our patience. We told her that if Lionel didn't show up by 11:30, ready to perform the work we needed, to cancel us altogether...and that's what happened. Who knows what time he would have shown up, if ever??
Our advice is to be very wary about this 'company', RELM. We found them to be unreliable and unprofessional - overall flakey - excellent in working up excuses, poor in actually working. read more
