They FLAKED and LIED!
I contacted these guys solely because of the reviews here on Yelp, as I needed an electrician for work on an investment property I have in escrow right now. We agreed on a time and date, and I even called back to verify with them that we were on.
Needless to say - that since we are in escrow, work needs to be done in a timely fashion due to banks and all the legal stuff, so I was very much relying on good reviews to find reliable, NON-FLAKY people, because we have a timeline to finish all this. I had made this clear to the people at AmpTech. Or so I thought.
The day comes. I had scheduled a few other inspections for that day, all on Yelp, and each one of those other guys are getting a 5-star rating from me for coming on time and doing a great job.
We had my realtor, the property manager, a relative as a general helper, and all the tenants taking time to get all this done, but the AmpCo guys flaked on me big time and lied about it too.
I called Mike to see what is going on after him being 15 minutes late from the original schedule time. He had apparently turned back to go home since he wasn't sure if we were going to be there. I figured, OK - he had tried to call me (I saw a missed call from him 10 minutes prior, once I picked up the phone to call and see where he was at) - and thought that this was just an annoying, but human miscommunication. I asked how long it would be till he got there.
He said that he was already on the freeway but would be at our place in 20 minutes. The Realtor and Property Manager had been expecting that we would have been done by the new ETA as they had other appointments, but reluctantly figured that we had no choice but to wait.
After 45 minutes from the call, I called back to see where he was, and Mike said he would be "leaving" right away! I was like "WHERE ARE YOU?! You mean you haven't even LEFT?"
He said he was in "LA."
I was flabbergasted.... "LA is kind of a broad... WHERE in LA? You said you were on your way to our place!"
Mike then finally said that he had taken on another client since he had tried calling ME, and didn't know we were still on.
When I confronted him that I had originally called them and verified that we WERE on - (everyone else understood the appointment time, just not these guys) - he tried to blame ME for not understanding HIM correctly and questioned whether or not I had even called to verify.
But he lied to me when he said he was on the freeway (that first time I called), when he clearly was always planning on going elsewhere, or was trying to string me along due to a double booking that he hoped wouldn't be a big deal to me...
When I had missed his call, (the time he was supposedly wanting to make sure we were still on) was around the time that he should have already been at our place. At best, he was a poor time manager, at worst, a liar and a flake.... wait, no, he did lie and flake! So any sympathy for miscommunication is out the window.
And again, I had a bunch of other people who did come, and I made all appointments the same way in good faith.
Needless to say I told the guy that I was counting on them to be there and get the work done. I was not going to make everyone wait for who knows how long so this guy can take on more clients before coming to the one scheduled with me.
I am a very understanding person, and know what an impact a poor review can have on a business, so I would never write a scathing review on anyone unless I felt that there was a very real reason for this. Not a single person in our group - all professionals with many properties that need work from time to time - would ever hire these guys after this experience, or recommend them to others.
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UPDATE: In light of his response to my original review, I believe that the only misunderstanding was that I expected him to show up like he said he would in the 20 minutes that was discussed when we did speak - and when he said he was already on the freeway. I don't happily leave negative reviews. read more
