Red Beacon Delivers to Home Owners

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Red Beacon LogoRed Beacon is a really cool new service that we heard about while shopping at Home Depot. The employees at Home Depot are awesome, they really do know their stuff, but you can’t take the employees home with you to actually do the work!? You know, the electrical, the plumbing, fix the sprinklers, or repair the garbage disposal.

They know how to do it, they can even explain it and show you in the store, but they just aren’t allowed to leave the store and come to your place to do the actual work.

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As we made our final purchases at the Home Depot store located in Fairfield CA, the cashier pointed our attention to a small red sign located at the exit that promoted the Red Beacon site and their service. When I got home with our Brand New French door (which was still in its frame and needing to be installed), I went to the Red Beacon website, selected the job I needed done, and clicked on the submit button. That was it!

Within minutes I had a bid from a local contractor to install the door. Within 10 minutes, I had three bids and had selected the one I thought that best fit our needs and price. Very reasonable!

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Best of all, the service at Red Beacon was free, the workmanship was backed by their $1000.00 guaranty, and the work was completed to out total satisfaction and amazement.

Red Beacon is a beacon of light to us homeowners who can handle some of the little things around the house, but when it comes to hanging doors, repairing sheet rock, painting, electrical, plumbing, and major repairs and installations, they get us the right person to get the job done.

We will never worry or thumb through the phone book for local services again. Red Beacon Rocks, and we will be using the service again and again for as long as we live and own our homes!

I just now searched for an electrical engineer and a sheet rock expert to come over and do a couple projects we’ve needed done for a while.

Red beacon Jobs

In the time it took me to write this article, four pre-approved vendors have already contacted me via email, now I just need to review their proposals, read their reviews from previous customers, and select the one I want based on the price that works for us.

red beacon results

It really doesn’t get much better than that, thanks Red Beacon!

red beacon emailsNote: Red Beacon currently only services 11 major metro cities and areas, but have more coming soon.

Comments (6)

  1. David

    Sure – and they also take 25%!!!! off the top of the service provider’s cost for doing the job. Anyone out there want their project inflated by 25%!!!! so that the pro can still make money!? See the video by the electrician in Houston (I believe his name is Jeff Weismann).

    And, if a service pro is really that good, they don’t NEED others finding them jobs. They already have all the business they need from actual word of mouth – not somebody they don’t even know leaving a “computer review”

    25% off the top. Do you call that a good deal? I don’t think any informed service provider OR homeowner would. It seems to me that a service provider would have to be pretty hard-up to have to tack 25% on the cost of a job – that’s just plain, simple common sense.

    Redbeacon will last a few more years (perhaps) and be gone. Its a gimmick to make money for Home Depot. That is, unless you WANT the cost of your project to be loaded with an extra WHOOPING 25%. Give us a BREAK!

    • Brad Andersohn

      Great feedback David, thanks. I’ve asked Home Depot to respond… lets see if they do?

      I had a glass door with frame installed for $150.00 and they did an excellent job. Fast, efficient, and professional quality workmanship. When I contacted a door replacement company to just come replace the broken glass, they wanted $500 dollars! Really??? I put in a brand new door (with frame and glass) and had it installed for a third of the replacement cost using a red beacon contractor. If there was a 25% hike, I sure didn’t feel it. 🙂

  2. David

    Brad,

    If a door replacement company wanted that much just to replace broken glass, in my opinion, they are WAY over the top. How many did you contact to gauge prices? I’m glad you got a good deal in the end, but it only demonstrates what I’m saying. Redbeacon seems to be a place for the “el cheapos” to undercut each other’s bids. You happened to get a good job done, but how many people have not? Plus, if I understand correctly, you already had the door, you just needed it installed. If not, and the service provider supplied the door AND installed it, they either have a very inexpensive source of supply or ended up getting very little in terms of profit. This, would indicate that Redbeacon is a (only ay to really express it) rip-off to service providers who can’t find work otherwise. If they could, why would they pay the outlandish commission?

    How long (if you already possessed the door) did simply installing it take? If it cost $150 and took about an hour, that’s $37.50 to Rebeacon and the installer makes $112.50 for the hour. Pretty good pay, but just for relatively small, $150.00 work.

    I just can’t see how service providers would do very well on large jobs – like a kitchen or bath remodel when Redbeacon is taking a huge 25% off the top. Maybe for the small stuff (if one is fortunate and gets a good service provider), but (despite Redbeacon’s claimed “screening procedures”) I’d be willing to bet that there a lot of hack providers signed up with them just to get jobs at which they would otherwise not have a chance. If they were truly good and well known in their service area, they would be getting work without having to pay a huge commission on lead generation.

    I’ve seen nothing but bad reviews and disdain for Redbeacon on the “contractor talk” website. Plus, please check out Houston electrician Jeff Wiessman’s comments about Redbeacon on Youtube. He’s got thirty years experience in his field. Please see what he has to say about them.

    I think Redbeacon is simply a way to make money for Home Depot by mostly taking advantage of service providers who are hard-up for work. However, as I said, I’m glad it worked out for you personally. It just seems to me to be, in the long run, a “skim-off-the-top” type thing and (no other way to really express it) a rip-off to both home owners and service providers alike – especially on any kind of larger, more involved type of project. 25% off the top!? – regular common sense tells me that is simply outrageous.

    • Brad Andersohn

      I guess all the guys that stand outside in the parking lots looking for work would’ve been even cheaper, but I was happy with the work, the situation, and at the end of the day felt good about it. At the time, sure seemed better than looking through the yellow pages or Google ads. I was able to look in the mirror at the end of the day and have no regrets. Not always the case as evidenced in your situation and perspective which by the way I respect, value, and appreciate… thanks David. Happy Holidays to you and yours~ 🙂

      • David

        Brad,

        Did you already have the door and simply have it installed for $150? If so, could I respectfully ask how long the installation took? Did Home Depot ever respond to your inquiry? Have you had a chance to view Houston electrician’s, Jeff Wiessmann’s Youtube video about Redbeacon? He has thirty years in his field and I think you’d find his observations about Redbeacon quite interesting, as well as those on the “contactor talk” website

        As I said in my last post, I’m glad you, specifically, got a good deal on a relatively small project. As I indicated then, I simply wonder how many people don’t. I also wonder how Redbeacon can possibly benefit service providers of large projects if they take 25% off the top from the provider. And, again, I wonder how many service providers at all get a genuinely good deal. Sure, lots of them are signed up with Redbeacon. But, as I stated in my opinion before, how many of these are “hard-ups” who can’t get business by their local reputations and so have to resort to 25% taken off the top of their charge to the customer?

        In terms of my own specific situation, I have no regrets since I’ve never been involved with Redbeacon. I simply read about their policies on the internet and it made me think. So, I then made what I think are some quite reasonable, common sense observations, – basically the same one’s as master electrician Jeff Wiessman and the many people on the “contractor talk” website that I’ve mentioned have made.

        Maybe those people standing in parking lots looking for work very well could affiliate with Redbeacon. Perhaps they just don’t want to pay an outlandish 25% off the top.

        Again, I’d be interested to hear if Home Depot ever gets back to you and to hear what they have to say in response. My guess is you won’t be hearing from them anytime soon. But again, I’m glad you personally got a good deal, and I respect and appreciate what you have expressed on this topic as well.

        Happy Holidays to you and yours also.

  3. Brad Andersohn

    I did already have the door (in frame) which I had purchased from Home Depot. The installation took a little over an hour, it was a pretty tight fit. No shims even needed. It was a dual pane French door which is why the other door and glass replacement companies wanted so much money to simply replace the glass. It was actually their idea to replace the door, said it would be cheaper. Which it obviously was…

    Like you, I doubt that I’ll be hearing from home depot on this blog post, but I can also say that I have made a few new friends there which have done some (non red-beacon related) work for me outside of their working shift hours. They have given me some better than awesome deals! Specifically, in the paint department… one of my new found friends there sanded, primed, used kilz, and painted (two coats) on 24 Kitchen cabinet doors for only $220.00 plus supplies.

    (A previous tenant in a rental I own destroyed the cabinets, you can imagine the replacement costs and installation for new kitchen cabinets)

    I’d like to think they treated me so well because they read this post, but chances are… that wasn’t the case. I think he was simply a good guy working at Home Depot who wanted to help a frequent customer and because of his actions, has earned a pretty loyal and repeat customer. That kinda customer service regardless of the company providing it will win my loyalty hands down every time. Maybe subliminally, that’s why I didn’t mind trying the red beacon avenue???

    It’s kinda like the pebble in the pond ripple theory and effect. The bigger the stone, the more ripples and the further they go. The story and lesson here has even deeper roots but I’ll save that for another post on another day. lol~

    Sure do appreciate and have enjoyed our conversation here, I think the reality of our discussion is that there is good, and bad experiences with good and bad companies etc. and there is no one size fits all, but thanks to the internet and crowd sourcing… we are all able to freely share those experiences, challenges, and victory’s with others… how cool is that?

    Hope you’ll continue reading some of the stuff I post here from time to time, thanks David. 🙂

    Cheers~

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