BY: JESSICA BEUKER
Living in an old rented apartment comes with a myriad of household issues. The bathtub drain is clogged, the washing machine is leaking, the porch doors are broken and won’t close, the fridge stopped cooling, a water pipe burst and is flooding your bedroom.
For the record, every single one of those things has happened to me this year. When something like that happens, I notify my landlord and he either notifies property management, who then take three weeks to do anything about it, or he sends someone himself, in which case I am given the dreaded time window. “We will have a plumber to your house on Monday between the hours of 8 a.m. and 6 p.m.” Time to call in to work and cancel all foreseeable plans. But more often than not the repair guy will show up on my doorstep at 5:55.
Recognizing this problem is what prompted Paul Arlin to create and then offer others a solution. After spending hours of his time calling different electricians for what turned out to be a quick half-hour fix, Jiffy was born. Jiffy is an on demand home services app aimed at taking the stress out of home repairs.
The Uber of home repairs, the app lets you search for services available in your area and whoever is available first will answer the call — eliminating long wait times. According to The Globe and Mail, the app allows you to search for a specific need such as painting, carpentry or plumbing and offer specific details like ‘need kitchen painted’.
The immediate, “in a jiffy” option will have someone at your house within three hours. However, you also have the option of selecting a future date and window of time such as morning, afternoon or evening. After booking you will receive an immediate confirmation, along with a phone call to confirm timing.
Jiffy hand selects home maintenance and service workers in 22 different categories including repair, plumbing, furniture assembly, painting and carpentry.
The company pre-vets every single supplier to ensure they are licensed, have a good reputation, and have at least $2 million in liability insurance. They also negotiate pricing, based on researched industry averages.
Much like Uber, users can rate the service providers when the work is complete according to Notable. When the job is done the worker will input time spent, the customer’s credit card will be charged and an electronic receipt is sent.
The Toronto-based startup, which launched in April, received $500,000 in funding from global head of vertical strategy at Facebook, Jordan Banks, as well as other investors. The app is growing and Arlin hopes to expand into six other cities by early next year.
