Do NOT hire or use LANDMARK ELECTRIC, INC of Troy, Michigan. This business is dishonest, disreputable, and predatory.
Here's our story:
On the evening of September 27, 2021, we noticed water dripping from our electrical service panel. Judging this to be an unsafe situation we shut off all power to the house and attempted to call several electrical contractors. Landmark indicated they could come later that evening, which they did. The Landmark employee who came, Shawn Hickson, determined rain and weather-driven water was accessing the panel from the utility company cable line running into the house.
He then spent about 2 hours sitting in his truck putting together a proposal for services. He presented the proposed list of services with an estimate of $7,500.00 and said they could do the work on October 6, 2021.
(In hindsight we realized much of the repairs and services proposed by Landmark/Shawn Hickson were extraneous and unrelated to the problem, representing significant "up-selling." This included falsehoods, such as claiming our existing electrical service drop line connection from the utility company was not consistent with city [Royal Oak] code - in fact, the existing hook-up had been done in accordance with city code).
Because of the inherent danger and urgency of the situation and possible difficulty in getting another contractor in a timely fashion we agreed to pay a deposit of $1,122.00 to hold the October 6 date for the proposed work. Shawn Hickson said he would restore power to the house that evening, though we were uncomfortable with the possibility of water continuing to intrude the panel and stated we did not need the power immediately if it was unsafe.
After presenting the proposed scope of work, Shawn Hickson went to the electrical service panel in the basement and returned after about 10-15 minutes saying he had replaced 9 of the circuit breakers and turned on the main breaker to re-supply power to the house. He further claimed he had rigged something to divert any water gaining entry from contacting breakers or other panel components. (In a later communication he/Landmark claimed he had removed "all breakers in electrical panel, drying all breakers with heat gun, drying electrical panel interior with towels/heat gun and replacing 9 breakers located at top of panel that were too badly damaged. In addition, silicone and duct seal was used to seal outer electrical service / meter housing." These were outright lies.)
The following morning, September 23, we inspected the panel as well as the outside components and found no such apparatus, nor in fact any evidence of any new silicone caulk or seal or other work by Landmark to stop or deter water from entering, and we continued to observe water and moisture in the electrical panel. It is noteworthy that we thus found ourselves in exactly the same position as the previous day: water still in the electric service panel, with nothing at that point repaired and no prospect of repair until October 6, two weeks away, despite a deposit of over $1,000, and more rain in the forecast.
We contacted another electrical contractor who came out later that day, inspected the situation and proposed repair services which they could do the following day. We decided to hire the second contractor because they could do the work to correct a dangerous situation much sooner and because their cost estimate was considerably less expensive ($2945.00) and was focused on what was needed to repair the problem.
We then contacted Landmark on the afternoon of September 23, 2021, less than 24 hours since their after-hours service call, by email and by phone (leaving a voicemail message when they did not answer). We stated we wanted to cancel their work scheduled for October 6.
We further stated we were willing to pay the service call/dispatch fee and a fair price for the work that was done, namely the replacement of 9 circuit breakers.
After we cancelled Landmark's scheduled work, they revised their invoice but still charged us $795 for the service call, 15 minutes' work replacing 9 circuit breakers, and a "cancellation fee."
It is clear that Landmark's business model is based on predatory, exploitative, and dishonest practices. Numerous reviews on Yelp from other customers relate similar stories about Landmark.
We called Landmark many, many times - more than 25 - in an attempt to work out a fair and reasonable billing and agreement. On the three occasions when someone actually answered our call, we asked to speak with the billing department or a manager; we were told someone would call us back but they never did.
To summarize, LANDMARK ELECTRIC, INC is a disreputable business with extremely poor customer relations skills that attempts to gouge prospective customers by using dishonest practices. Avoid any dealings with this company. read more
