The worst part is what they did to the old owners of our house. When we were looking at the final details of our soon-to-be house, the old owners provided us with invoices of all the recent work they had done. There was an invoice from FC Electric in 2012 for having "all knob and tube wiring replaced in the attic with modern electric" yet when our inspector went up in the attic IT WAS STILL THERE. They had replaced the knob and tube in places where it was easily visible but not elsewhere, as their contract stated they would do. Knob and tube in the attic was covered by spray insulation, a huge fire hazard. The old owners contacted FC and made them come back out to complete their contract from two years ago, free of charge. This made me immediately suspicious of their competence and being trustworthy in their work.
My wife and I had decided we wanted to rest of the knob and tube in the house replaced as well, and would split the cost with the old owners before the sale. We had FC in to give a quote. They quoted an extremely high price saying something to the effect of "it was nearly impossible" and that they would have to drill holes in the beautiful ceiling of our dining room as well as the plaster walls (difficult to repair nicely). We didn't want that to happen so we contacted another electric company. They quoted a much more reasonable price and said they could go in through the floorboards in the second floor and would not have to drill the ceiling or plaster walls. We hired them and they did a great job, with minimal cuts in our old hardwood floors, repaired nicely.
Then we discovered an issue with the outlet on the back of our house, outside. It was not supplying electricity. This was an outlet that during the inspection was found to be reversed, and the owners were going to have FC fix it during the removal of the knob and tube, while they were in the house. So when we moved in, we tested the outlet and instead of being reversed, it had NO power at all. So we called FC and the owner claimed to have not been told to do anything to that outlet, that they had not touched it. We told him that it had gone from being reversed to having no power, so they must have messed with it. The company owner stated that he was not there when the work was done and could not speak to the fact that his guys had worked on it, but he would come look at it. When he came over (three days after he originally said he would come over, showing up randomly when we were not expecting him) he again claimed they were not responsible for the outlet but said they would fix it for a charge. He also wandered through the house, visibly upset that we had gone with another company to fix the knob and tube. He made accusations of poor work, slandering the other company and even claiming they had not removed the knob and tube completely. I called this other company to confirm that yes, the work had been done, and he proved that it had. FC had made false accusations.
We contacted the old owners of our house about the outside outlet again. The woman who lived there stated that she had been in the back living room while one of FC's guys had been working on the outlet. YES, they had touched the outlet, and were clearly to blame for the lack of power to it. The old owners, also upset, emailed FC even though they no longer owned the house - they have been very helpful and nice. Again, they had been screwed by these guys. So I called FC again, asking them to come fix it for no charge. Again, the owner was upset, scolding me for him "getting many emails and calls about this and it is turning into a big mess." Yes it is a big mess, I said, but as soon as you come and rectify the problem we will stop bugging you. He said he had my info on file and would contact me when he got back to the office later that day. He never did, and a week later still has not contacted me to fix the outlet.
We will forever go through the OTHER company. FC has lost a lifetime of work from us. read more
