Free Estimates on Electrical - Avoiding Rip-OffsPosted by Goff Mejer on July 16th, 2021 I've been an electrician in Los Angeles since 1979, over 30 years. In that time, I've seen the job of greater than a number of rip-off electricians. Customers let me know which they hired some company -- let's refer to them as "Joe's Rip-Off Electric" -- and, I find that the customer was way overcharged. Sometimes the task wasn't even needed. I've also seen the project of electricians who don't know very well what they certainly yet. Sometimes I've been hired to clean up a career by someone we'll call "Justin Amateur Electric." How to avoid such electricians? If your task is definitely an installation of new electrical components, the key is to ask about for a no cost estimate on the phone. This doesn't apply to repairing a thing that employed to work -- in this instance, the electrician should begin to see the job to share with you a price. He'll need to troubleshoot with his tools and find the culprit. But for installing of a whole new permanent fixture, a brand new electrical panel, and even a complete house rewire, a qualified electrician should usually manage to give that you simply ballpark estimate without even seeing your task. Why is a Free Estimate so important? Joe Rip-Off Electric won't wish to offer you a bid over the phone. Joe carries a different plan. He desires to send an electrical contractor to your dwelling or business to check out the job. He'll impose a fee for looking over the job, figuring it all out, after which will give you a bid. He'll charge for your estimate, but he'll explain which he'll deduct it through the final bill. One variation for this plan is that Joe will show you which he gives free estimates but he must do it on-site. You'll need to pay him for his travel time or pay a few other fee. In any such approach, you may be paying to get the estimate. Here's Joe's thinking. Once you've amass a bill to the estimate, you'll want to recoup the charge by agreeing to get Joe do the position. Only problem is that now you're tied to Joe. Joe is aware of this and knows that you haven't had a possibility to get competitive bids. He has a totally free hand to overcharge you. If you may well ask Justin Amateur Electric for a free estimate over the phone, Justin may also explain he should see the job first. But he does not have exactly the same reason as Joe. Justin doesn't know enough about electric to give you a quote. He's afraid he'll overestimate, or maybe more likely, underestimate and lose cash doing your career. If image source hire him, you are taking the opportunity using the quality and safety of the work. And the task may drag on while Justin learns the trade at the expense. Get three estimates. You can avoid both Joe Rip-Off Electric and Justin Amateur through getting a totally free estimate over the phone. When i hear you ask for an estimate, describe the task you want accurately. Get estimates from no less than three electricians. Don't necessarily go using the lowest estimate. You want a system that works well, that passes inspection if the permit is necessary, which is safe. So, while you're obtaining the estimate, take note of clues about quality and competence. If an electrical contractor doesn't give a no cost over-the-phone estimate, can it suggest he's dishonest or incompetent? No. Some honest and experienced electricians are suffering from a policy through the years of not giving free estimates. This is because giving a no cost estimate, either over-the-phone or on-site, takes time. An electrician can seem to be used when giving free estimates. He's occasionally gotten calls from those who have already chosen another electrician but are just calling around to discover a low estimate so they can bargain around the price of the electrician they've already selected. While I'm mindful of this kind of customer, I believe that a lot of times giving a free of charge estimate on the phone is both necessary to the client plus a good business practice. I do be careful about when I'll send out an electrician to look at work and give you a firm bid. We'll send an electrical contractor if I trust the client to go ahead with the job over a bid that's equal to or under our original phone estimate. Surprisingly, sometimes our firm bid is less than the original phone estimate. This can happen if your electrician travels to the work and realizes by looking things over that there's a better way to get the position done. Get a firm bid in some recoverable format. After you get free estimates on installing a new electrical component, the next thing is to get an electrical contractor visit your job site. On a whole new installation, before doing any work, they should usually be able to give that you simply firm bid in writing and sign it. If you agree to a written bid, you mustn't have to pay more for the task regardless of what the electrician finds when he actually does the job. Repair jobs demand a trip to the task site. With repair jobs, you'll not be able to count on the "Free Estimate" technique for finding an electrician. You'll have to depend on looking at the electrician's website and customer references and watching your comfort level with the honesty and competence of the company. If you may need something fixed that used to work, usually the electrician will have to do go to your job and charge with the half hour or hour to take out his tools and troubleshooting. However, within a half hour with an hour, he should know about the extent with the problem. At that point, if he hasn't already fixed the challenge, the electrician should give you a firm bid in some recoverable format before doing more work. Often, by the time the electrician has worked out the challenge (in just a half hour for an hour roughly) -- say it is a loose wire -- it may need another minute roughly to repair it. In fact, he could not be certain the loose wire was the complete problem until he tightens the wire, the circuit now works, and the position is done. Publishing Rights: You may republish this article with your web page, newsletter, or e-book, around the problems that you agree to leave the content completely intact, including the author's name, so you credit the article towards the links inside Resource Box and make these links active.Like it? Share it! More by this author |