extend wire to connect stove to panel 695$ for 1.5 hr
By far the most stressful experience I have ever had with an electrician, or any handyman.
Here is the work executed,(see invoice):
"Found that stove was not hooked up into the panel.
Wire was not long enough to reach and had open connection, so i rode a junction inside a 4 1/16" junction box to extend the wire into the panel. Circuit 14/15."
(pics of invoice)
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7114/7587836092_21d7fbb234_k.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7271/7587833060_7025214b63_k.jpg
The price initially was 850$. I negotiated down to 695$. You decide if it's too much. If there`s an electrician out there willing to explain this to me, I am listening.
The initial 80$ covers just travel. So you now have an electrician in your house, great. What do you do? You have to accept the "diagnostic" price which is an additional 246$. They tell you that it is possible that it might take hours to diagnose, and it's all included even if it's 10 hrs, and that it is possible that they could fix it in minutes after they diagnose..
Imagine your surprise when they finish the diagnostic ****in 7 minutes flat***** and now they're ready to give you the price tag for the whole project. IMhO that means they grossly overestimated the scope of the work. And any honest company should revise the price tag. But no.
And imagine your surprise when that price tag in total ends up to be more than 850$ for less than 1.5 hr of work.
That includes at least 45 minutes of conversation of the polite electrician trying to make us "happy".
So I asked the manager, how come it costs 850$ for 1.5 hrs of work. He starts telling you about their straightforward price structure. And parts. And transportation. And their expertise. And training.
But if you try to find out how much out of the 850$ is for the parts, or for the permit, good luck! they will not tell you. I'm not out there to get the lowest price - but I didnt' realize until afterwards, how much more extra did I pay.
But it works!!
- Approximate cost of services:
- $695.00
- Any advice to offer fellow homeowners facing a similar project?
- good luck.
- Company Response
Ioana and Mike, your dispute and frustration with the pricing of parts and labor of the electrical work done in your home has directed you to unfortunately single out Hi-Lite Electric who is a respectable licensed and insured electrical company. Hi-Lite Electric was schedule to come out to your home because you had a stove in your basement that was not working, and in order for us to find out why the stove was not working we had to perform a diagnostic to determine the problem. This of course was all explained to you by our technician, so, before any work began you were made fully aware of the cost of the diagnostic which was authorized by you in writing. During our diagnostic we found the problem, and parts were required as well as an Electrical Safety Authority permit (Diagnostics, do not include parts, and permits when required by law, this was also, explained to you)
Also, Ioana and Mike, if you did not agree with the pricing for the work the technician was going to do for you he would have gladly left your property and you would not have had to pay for anything, but, you wanted our technician to continue with fixing your problem, this was also, mentioned in the follow up call to Micheal , the following day, he said he was very happy with the work itself but not the pricing.
As you mentioned yes the technician did spend time answering all of your questions and inquiries in regards to how much we pay for a breaker and why a breaker cost so much at home depot and how much we pay for a permit ect.
While in your home our technician explained to you that your obsolete electrical panel was taken off the market because they were deemed unsafe – Federal Pioneer – Stab lock
See link below for further information on this:http://inspectapedia.com/fpe/fpepanel.htm
When we service our clients homes we are always looking out for their Safety, Security and Comfort, always educating our clients, explaining what could happen with an obsolete panel, any obsolete wiring or equipment.
For the electrical work done in your home, we feel the review given to us was undeserved, because you can be rest assured that your electrical work was done properly and to code. (Certificate of Inspection was sent to you).
Your complaint was soley based on the pricing, wanting to know, OUR cost of material, OUR cost of permits, and how fast our technician found the problem (which I believe this was to your advantage that you had a qualified technician working in your home and not an unlicensed handyman working on your electrical system!!! Who may have taken a lot longer to find the problem or maybe not even find it at all or make the problem worse). When you call a reputable company that has been in the trade for over 30 years you are not paying for their time you are paying for their expertise.
Ioana, in an e-mail to me you mentioned, an electrician friend of yours said that the work we did for you should have cost you no more then $300 – I wonder why you didn’t have him do the work for you and I am curious if he is licensed or not?????
“You decide the price” – in your case, you know how to play the game – You did make the statement once all the work was done to our technician that you would be sure to put a good review on Homestars for us. This site is a reputable site and if they were made aware of this they would not like it!!!!
Total Price of Services and Materials for the Work done in your home was $615.35 before tax
Our goal is to make sure our customers are happy and satisfied, although we do realize that you can’t please everyone all the time no matter what you do.
Wishing you happier experiences with another contractor. Sincerely, Luciano Zeppieri, Master Electrician