I hired Mark from House Depot to upgrade my 100A panel to 200A. This required a service upgrade on the power coming into the house from the street. There was some paperwork and hoops to jump through. Mark explained the hoops to me and offered suggestions on how to meet the requirements. He was flexible.
The work was ultimately performed by his friend, Farhan, and Farhan's assistant. These two took their time, 2 days, to do an excellent job of disconnecting the old service, connecting the new service, dealing with Toronto Hydro and the ESA, getting the new service into the house, and installing the new panel, which I had already purchased, and the breakers which I purchased as well. Most electricians refuse to consider using anything but the supplies they bring themselves. House Depot agreed to use my supplies and I was able to negotiate a discount on the job.
They worked all day and late into the evening on the first day. Then they came back and finished it after half a day the next day.
The cables were run into the panel professionally and neatly.
The Electrical Safety Authority gave me a pass on the inspection.
These guys seemed like they were unprepared for certain aspects, such as attaching the panel to the wall - the wall isn't finished; they lacked various tools, they were even extremely confused on how to get power for their tools and lights, which is strange for electricians. I had to solve their problem by asking a neighbor if they could run extension cords from his house - and this was for 2 days. Many neighbors wouldn't agree to this. But they completed the work anyways, and I'm happy with the results and the price.
Unfortunately, the experience was not completely positive because Farhan refused to acknowledge the $100 deposit I had initally given to Mark. He wouldn't listen and I couldn't find the receipt and my bank doesn't send me cancelled cheques. So I stupidly let him trick me into giving him an extra $100.
So overall, the work was completed well enough to satisfy the inspector, who didn't even enter the house - so that's not really much of an indicator.
And, I paid less than the quoted rate most others were giving me.
But the way the job was handled leads me to think I can't recommend these guys to any but the most hard-nosed, patient, and cheap homeowners.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $1,500.00
- Company Response
This owner previously gave 9 out of ten. I am the owner of the company.
It is not fair after more than a year you add some notes and insult me and telling me my guys tricked you for extra $100.
The reason you could not find the receipt is because you did not pay it other wise you would not have paid extra. Especialy after the job was done and passed by the ESA, we asked for the full payment.
I can certainly say most of the electrical contractor do not finish a job with $100 deposit( as owner claims), while the cost of the material and ESA inspection is more than a $1000, this clearly shows the quality of the job is so great that the customer will pay the total(quote from above:, to do an excellent job of disconnecting the old service, connecting the new service, dealing with Toronto Hydro and the ESA, getting the new service into the house, and installing the new panel, which I had already purchased, and the breakers which I purchased as well. Most electricians refuse to consider using anything but the supplies they ...).
As you are well aware the job was not possible to do it in a single day, 1. the panel material were supposed to be supplied by the owner, which were not
2.The ESA inspector will show up the latest time of about 1 PM,which if we start the job at 8 AM, it leave up 5 hours. The owner can check this with ESA authorities. That job with that size as we had explained takes much more than 5 hours
As you agreed in your statement my guys did a great job with such compexity, how come they do not know when the power is disconnected by hydro, they need to have temporary power from neighborhood.Getting power from neighbor is very routine when you are ugrading the service panel. When power is disconnected from the house by the Hydro, there is no way other than getting from the neighbor. This was informed to him before starting the job.
I remember you said you provide the material with regard to panel, and circuit breakers and so on, if you could not provide the material as you promised then the delay for the completion of the work rests on the owner.
this ended up to pay more hours to my employees due to this delay.
Still if you have problem and you think you overpaid I pay you the $100.
you can call me at 416 822 9030