The other night our doorbell rang and no one was there. My husband and I then noticed that the box where our bell rings inside the house was humming. After calling some handy people and looking up the diagnosis online, we figured out that our doorbell shorted out. Luckily, I was told by a family friend to immediately disconnect one of the wires from the box to stop to the humming. The next morning, I called Mister Sparky to schedule an appointment for an electrician to come out and fix our doorbell. The earliest appointment I could get was two days away. I took the appointment and was given a range of 3 hours for when he would show up. I asked how much it would cost to fix the doorbell and I was told that it would be $59 for them to come out, but that they would have what it took to fix the door bell in their truck. I did not call anyone else since I thought this was a reasonable price. The electrician did show up on time (and I also got a call about 45 minutes before hand to make sure I would be home). He laid down a small rubber-like rug to prevent the floors from getting dirty and wore little booties around the house as well. He was also very polite, patient, and answered all of my questions. With that said, I feel like I was very misled about the cost. The electrician informed me that it cost $59 for them to come to the house, and then the diagnostic services for fixing my doorbell would range in price from $99 to $199. Meanwhile, I had told the company on the phone exactly what was wrong and told the electrician exactly what was wrong with the door bell upon his arrival. Although the electrician completely agreed with my diagnosis, it still cost an additional $99 for him to make the diagnosis. From there, it cost an additional $50 for him to replace one door bell. So as you can see, what I though would be under $100 to fix a door bell, quickly became over $200. So although the service was completely fine, I was extremely dissatisfied with the price since it was a lot more than what I had expected.
Update (1 day after I wrote the original review above): I have to say that my husband was a little upset that I didn't call the business first to express my disappointment before taking to Yelp. The manager from Mister Sparky called me back this morning and explained the call center process and that customer satisfaction is very important to them and a part of their mission statement. He was able to refund the diagnosis fee this time (explaining that this would not apply to future visits). I have to say that the unknown diagnosing fee was the ONLY thing that I was disappointed with during the visit. Now that this is remedied, I was absolutely satisfied with everything, including how they handled my complaint. The only reason why I'm not updating my review from three stars to five stars is because I truly feel that it is important to explain the likely fees to the customers before the visit. The manager did say that he would pass this request on to the call center. Other than this though, Mister Sparky was really fantastic - they took the time to explain the pricing (once they were here and later on the phone), answer all of my questions (which there were many), polite, patient, on time, clean, and they fixed the problem. I would absolutely recommend them to others in the future.... just make sure that you ask in advance about the diagnosing fees.... read more
