In response to the reply of John, the owner. Tariffs do not account for anything when a few inches…read moreof wire and a few inches of conduit were the only materials supplied by your company, the need for which was made clear when I called and spoke to Pat, describing the problem and how it occurred, and certainly as shown in the picture sent to your technician before he even left for my job. Tariffs indeed! Laughable.
BE SURE TO GET A QUOTE WITH THESE GUYS, AND HAVE A WITNESS SO IT ISN'T "HE SAID, SHE SAID." Lied on the invoice, jacked the cost up 73% ($183!!), didn't do the work stated on the invoice. The only good thing is, the remotes are working again, because this was NOTHING MORE than cut wires, and it is not rocket science to repair wires and replace a small piece of conduit.
The rest of the details....
In a bizarre accident, the lawnmower took out the wiring between the controller ( the metal "box") and the slab the controller sits on. Nothing worked, not even the remotes. Saturday around 1. Have to leave for work at 6 am on Monday, so emergent, or soon to be. Called several gate companies that advertised emergency services and/or 24 hour service. Reached a couple, high costs, reached Lone Legacy, described the problem in detail, Pat quoted $250 and the tech could be here "right away." Tech was coming from 28 or so miles away (less than 30 minutes). I asked about sending a picture so they would know exactly what the problem was, Pat gave me Miguel's phone number and I sent the picture with a brief note that if he couldn't do it, no point in wasting his time or my money.
He got here almost 2 hours later. I figured he was on another call, even tho Pat said he was immediately available. He later said (read the below) that "it's Saturday and [he was] working on [his] own projects!!"
He was here over 2 hours. He then brought the invoice, IT WAS $433!! An extra $183, or 73% higher than the quote. I had approved nothing more than the fix needed.
Miguel claimed on the invoice: "Repaired the damaged wires, put a flex conduit to protect the wires. After the repairs only one opener was working. After checking all the voltages i realized that the transformer for 24 ac wasn't working. The transformer has a fuse inside the was blown. After replacing the fuse both openers and receiver are working properly."
THIS IS IMPORTANT: 1) He had permission to repair the wires. That would include repairing the conduit. That's it. 2) The "openers" are keypads. I knew only one was working--I didn't care to have anyone but my regular gate guy fix the malfunctioning one. Miguel did not ask, did not advise, didn't get approval for that.
I called Pat (went straight to voicemail twice), I asked Miguel to call her and have her call me, and he got right through. She called. I explained the situation. She said "maybe he had to replace (something--which he hadn't") I asked him if he did that, he said no.
After a little more discussion, Miguel lowered the cost to the quoted amount. He said that he would not be paid for the work he did, but I don't believe that for a second.
