Marshal Dunnik from Toronto

A Gates Wildlife Control fridge magnet was a fixture on my parent's fridge growing up. Twenty-five years ago they called them to remove a family of racoons living in the chimney. Point is, that's how long they've been around. A quarter century later I'm all grown up and buy a house with a raccoon problem: the previous owner - a sweet old lady who knew better, but couldn't resist for some reason - fed a mother raccoon by leaving cat food out for her. As you might expect, this raccoon haunted the property looking for free handouts. My wife is from Manhattan and subway rats the size of cats don't phase her, but this raccoon did. When I gently shooed the raccoon away, she always sought shelter under the carport: I thought she might have a den down there. So I knew who to call. Somewhat unsurprisingly, they were extremely busy that time of year (June) and couldn't get somebody out for a couple of weeks. But I knew they were worth the wait. The technician shows up and determines that the space under the carport is not a den: it was just a convenient hiding place. He said he could dig up and wire off the perimeter of the carport but shrugged. I shrugged too. No charge for the visit, of course: it was just a consultation. But there's no doubt in my mind that had we a raccoon problem, I would have trusted Gates to take care of it.

Three decades ago my father had UNILOCK bricks installed in the driveway. Over the years, as you might expect, the soil underneath shifted and there were several humps and bumps. Once I inherited the house I decided to have it re-laid, intending to keep the existing bricks. If you are ever thinking of buying UNILOCKs and are shocked by their high price, well, this is why: not a single brick was cracked or broken, after three decades of cars parked on top and thirty seasons of freeze-thaw. All bricks were able to re-used. After a good power-wash, the bricks could have easily been passed off as brand-new. Glad I was able to salvage all of them, since purchasing new ones would have rang up the bill to well above $12k. Very glad I was put in contact with Mr. Interlock. Their name says it all: this is exactly what they specialize in. The project was on time and on budget, site was cleaned up, un-used bricks neatly stacked in the backyard. The driveway looks brand new - hasn't looked this good in 20 years. Probably could have saved a few bucks by going with the lowest bidder, but I figured it wasn't worth it: if this driveway is to last another thirty years, why not hire the best? And so I did.

Contracted Bees & Pest Removal for the, um, removal of pests - specially, a colony of wasps that had made their home in the kitchen exhaust vent. I wanted to get the work done before the winter, to prevent the wasps from burrowing into the home. Next-day service is promised and was delivered: Paul and his assistant arrived the next day, on time, and worked quickly and efficiently. Was pleased to learn that they use a natural pesticide, the extract of the chrysanthemum plant. Don't know if these are because of provincial regulations or by choice, but either way, it's a good thing. Was also pleased to learn that both Paul and his assistant are bee-keepers. Who better then to take care of wasps? Price was reasonable and includes a 6 month warranty against the return of the wasps. Overall, highly satisfied with their work.

Wanted to upgrade my existing wired alarm and bring it into the 21st century. Solicited bids from 3 companies, each highly reviewed here on HomeStars. Engineered Alarm Solutions won the bid, in part because no monitoring contract was required - extremely unusual in the industry (most lock you in for 3 years). Another reason I chose Engineered Alarm Solutions is because of Gabriel, the owner-operator. He actually is a Professional Engineer, a dues-paying member of the Professional Engineers of Ontario. Granted, a P.Eng. is overkill for installing an alarm system, but I felt that an engineer's attention to detail and their training to "get it right the first time" would pay dividends. And so it has. Knowing a bit about alarms and reinforcing that with a bit of research, I knew exactly how I wanted to upgrade the existing wired system, adding a glass break alarm, CO2 and smoke senors, along with a new circuit box and alarm panel, among other upgrades. Gabriel made it happen. In fact, Gabriel installed my system personally, along with one of his techs. He told me he doesn't usually do installs, but made an exception due to the workload. You gotta respect an O/O who has no problem "getting his hands dirty". The best judge of an alarm system is how many false alarms it generates. After 3 weeks with the new system, that number is zero. There was one trouble alarm, but I called for service and the issue was quickly dealt with (was a problem with the alarm panel circuit board, replaced at no charge, they warranty what they install so long as you have a monitoring contract with them, standard in the industry). All in all, very happy I chose to go with Garbiel and Engineered Alarm Solutions, rather than one of their larger competitors.

I almost don't want to write another review for Mr. Rescue - he's so good, I want to keep him to myself! The more positive reviews he gets, the logic goes, the busier he'll be, and the less available he may become. But I'm writing one anyway. Charlie (Mr. Rescue) was able to, once again, rescue my elderly mother out of a jam: she had hired a construction company to rebuild the front steps. This company refused to re-attach the railings for the steps and the landing. Mr. Rescue came to the rescue by securely attaching it. I was also concerned about my mother's side door: it didn't have a bolt lock. So, while Charlie was there, I encouraged my mother to have that installed. When I saw the bolt lock later I was not surprised to see that Charlie had chosen a Schlage lock: a perfect choice. Not as strong, theoretically, as a Medeco but much less expensive and perfectly adequate for a side-door that already has a knob lock. So what else can I say about Mr. Rescue? He's punctual. Professional. Experienced. Skilled. Comes ready with a wide variety of tools. Affordable. Courteous. And, last but not least, completely honest. Look no further if you're in need of a general handyman.

Overall, a satisfactory performance. Inherited my parents Kawai baby grand piano: since it takes up so much room and I no longer play I intend to sell it, and decided that it's worth getting a tuning and a general report as to its condition. Arranged an appointment with James from PianoInside. Get a call from him the day of the appt. requesting a reschedule: turns out his previous job took him four hours. That piano needed extensive repairs and he spent much of that time on his back and in awkward positions. As such, he was pretty burned out and requested we re-schedule. I agree - it's the nice thing to do, and besides, I want him alert for my tuning. Arrives on site next day with a truck and a trailer for parts and piano transport - I guess these tuners at PianoInside come loaded for bear, as it were. Assisted him in parking his rig. As for the rest, not much to tell: he took approx. 1.5 hours to tune the piano (which is about right) and it sounded almost pitch perfect (the old piano wouldn't accept a concert tune, but he knew just how to pitch it down a notch). I requested a verbal assessment of the piano's condition (free with a tuning, otherwise there's a charge, written evaluations available for a fee as well) and was pleased to hear the old piano is in great shape for its age. Was given a rough estimate as to its re-sale value. The only quibble was regarding payment, which causes me to downrate the service from 5 to 4 stars. As we were about to part James said he only took cash, cheques or e-transfers, not credit cards. I told him I had none of those things ready, and noted that he really should have told me about this beforehand. James seemed a tiny bit suspicious, so I offered to have him photograph my driver's lic., and promised to pay via e-transfer within 24 hrs. Would nevertheless highly recommend PianoInside, but save yourself hassles and arrange for payment ahead of time.

TLDR: Good luck trying to cancel. Enercare made it as difficult as possible. My mother passed away in early February 2016. She had a heating and cooling plan with Enercare. I wanted to stop the contract from automatically renewing (since Enercare employs negative-option billing), and also wanted to make February the last billing period (plan expired in April). Simple, right? I went through this process with Rogers Cable, and it was (surprisingly) easy. No Death Certificate required, charges pro-rated to half a month's billing, a follow up letter confirming all this received in the mail 3 days later. The first agent I spoke to at Enercare demanded a Death Certificate, thankfully, an electronic copy would satisfy them. I requested the service not re-new: done, I was told. Then I asked to pro-rate the remaining part of the contract. Refused. What? So death does not release a client from your contract? No. Seriously? Yes, I can send you our Terms & Conditions. I get the Terms & Conditions via email, but there's nothing relevant in there. Now I'm starting to think I better get a written confirmation about the cancellation of the contract, or I'm going to find oh whoops! It's renewed for another year! So I call again, and the 2nd agent says, cancellation? What cancellation? I don't see no cancellation. She says she has to get me in touch with their Retention Department (oh joy), and that one of their reps will call me within 24 hrs. What, you can't transfer me? No, I'm told, our phone systems are different. Twenty-four hours elapse, no call. I call back again. Third agent says, I can transfer you to the retention department, hold on. Uhuh. Fourth agent is the dreaded retention specialist. Thankfully she did not bother to get me to re-new the contract, but confirmed that the account will not auto-renew. I ask for written confirmation of this. Refused. Why? It's not our policy. Assures me not to worry, it won't renew. I don't accept these assurances, insist on a note. Refused. I say I'm going to contact the Ministry to clarify this. Turns out there's nothing in the Consumer Protection Act that says a company must provide written confirmation of the cancellation of a service contract. Well, there should be (I think I'll write the Minister and my MPP). Most companies will do this anyway, or upon request, because why? Because it's the right thing to do. But not Enercare. Fine, you win Enerdontcare. Then I get a call today from Enercare. The 5th agent, who seems senior or in another department, confirms that the contract will not auto-renew, agrees to pro-rate the end of the contract if I didn't want to run it out to the end, and also agrees to send a mailed statement to this effect. I'm stunned. So why the runaround? Why did your company put up so many obstacles? Why was I given false or conflicting information? She apologized and agreed that the entire process wasn't acceptable, and that she's going to "escalate this" and use it as a "teaching moment" for their call center staff generally and the agents I dealt with specifically. This satisfactory resolution raises the score from 0 to 1. UPDATE: Will it surprise the reader to know that this saga has two more chapters? After writing this review, was contacted by an Enercare agent's whose job it is to monitor social media for posts like this, and try to make amends before it causes too much damage. Puts me in contact with the "Office of the President" whose agent, finally, resolved the issue. That's seven agents total, if you're keeping score at home, for this issue to be resolved.

Attracted by numerous high-scoring reviews, I contacted Mr. Rescue to help my mother out of a fix. Her dishwasher needed servicing, but the repair tech was unwilling or unable to remove the unit from its housing, claiming he was afraid he'd damage the cabinetry. An offer of a damage waiver did not change his mind. So I called Mr Rescue to, erm, come to the rescue. Charlie (Mr. Rescue) was able - somewhat unsurprisingly - to extract the unit for servicing, and later returned to re-install it. When my mother asked about payment, Charlie laughed and refused to accept it, it being such an easy job. Didn't even charge for his gas/time. Clearly he was hoping that such good faith would be rewarded with additional contracts, and he was right. I later contracted him to conduct a couple other minor repairs to my mother's house: re-positioning of the downspout, fixing of a circa 1950 doorknob assembly, and replacement of the weather stripping on the front door sill. All relatively minor work that was easily tackled by Mr. Rescue. Would highly recommend Mr. Rescue for any "handyman" jobs. Professional work honestly done, 10/10 stars, doesn't get any better than this, really.