Complaint Review: Mr Sparky

I had Mr. Sparky came out to my house to get my power back on.  I was without power for four days and I was in need of an electrician to help me. After their salesman Roberto arrived he kind of glanced at the circuit breaker box outside and said that it definitely needed to be replaced.  Then he proceeded to go inside to look at the breaker box and said that it was urgent to get it replaced as well, within 30 days. 

He then got on his tablet and started figuring what he could charge for the outside box and about 25 minutes later gave me a price of $5342.75 not believing what I  heard.  I was in shock. Roberto was pushing payments on me and said that I could pay $90.00 a month.  He wouldn't talk about anything but the money. Then I said I would like to see the estimate and he said he couldn't print it out and that he would email to me.

I have no idea what I was paying for and what was in that figure.  He tried getting another $3500 for replacing a perfectly good inside breaker box.  He insisted that the $800.00 surge protector was absolutely necessary to pass the inspection.  I called my countys building dept and spoke to an inspector and he said that it was not necessary that I have the surge to pass the inspection.

After being pressured by this Roberto I paid it and then found out later from another electrician that it was only worth $1100 and that the inside panel was good.

I was furious and called the manager  and he came by with the invoice and said because I was so upset that he would change an electrical outlet and that would justify the amount that I paid which was five times the national average cost.

I called again and spoke to a regional manager and he said that if I had a couple of written quotes they might do something.  the electricians that I called gave me a verbal quote but because the job was already done they could not put it in writing.  

I did get verbal quotes from several electricians for the same job and they said it  would be $1100 to $1475 to replace. They ripped off the elderly and took advantage of me because I live alone and had nobody there to help me with this.  they took all the money I had and have to rely on social security.

I would have thrown this Roberto out the door but I don't think I would have survived another day without water and ac. They have to charge so much because of their fancy red vans, uniforms, and tv adverising and they send three people to do the job.  Their manager has a manager that has a manager, regional, district and they have to pay their salaries.

These are ruthless scoundrels.   Beware