I should have hired a handyman instead.
I chose to hire an electrician because I wanted the job done right and had a few wiring needs that I wasn't comfortable having a handyman perform. I went into this fully expecting to have a great experience, look at all these 5 star reviews!
It wasn't until after the electrician had left and I'd already paid that I realized I received a subpar service.
I also would have preferred to provide this feedback directly to the business owner, but unfortunately was not provided that opportunity.
1) scheduling was so difficult. I couldn't get a hard date scheduled even weeks out and ended up having to take a week off work to give flexibility for them to fit me in on a random day. Perhaps this is because I was a small residential job.
2) the estimate was for 3-4 hours and the work was completed in 5.5; not all the work requested was completed so the estimate was clearly inaccurate
3) I requested for a bathroom switch to be rewired so that the vent fan and the light could be on separate switches. During the estimate walk through I was told "no problem." When the electrician came out, I was told that it couldn't be done or that the ceiling would be torn open and I'd need to hire my own drywall contractor to repair it. I have mixed feelings on this as the electrician's refusal to do this work surely saved me cash and headache, but also this task was one of the main reasons I contacted an electrician and not a handyman.
4) There were items on my list such as installing a new outlet outside the house that the electrician did not bring appropriate parts for. I will chalk this up to failed communication between myself and the business owner during our initial walkthrough.
5) Sloppy work and no ownership of mistakes made. The electrician made multiple cuts into my siding and drilled multiple holes through exterior walls in a way that I can only describe as "whoops, that's not the right spot." He didn't mention any of this to me, so I noticed after the fact that I will be needing to patch and repair multiple holes (large enough to allow critters into the house if not handled). I'm not sure what I can do about the siding. The installation of a new exterior outlet also caused a stud bolt to be pushed out into the interior of the house. The electrician also refused to use a full length of cord for a chandelier, provided by me, and instead chose to patch two pieces of mismatched colored cord together.
6) Failure to properly diagnose two exterior outlets that are not functioning. I have two outlets outside that don't work, the electrician spent one minute looking at them with a fluke tester and told me "yes they have power, the gfci just needed to be reset." Well, I should have verified then and there, but as I was multitasking and the electrician had already clocked 5.5 hours at this point, I took his word for it. These outlets still do not work, there is no "pop" with the gfci reset button. I have not been successful at getting these outlets to work.
7) Lack of housekeeping. This one is a bummer since I see everyone reviewing before me was treated much better. There was zero clean up. Drywall dust, bits of wire, screws, chunks of my siding, all left behind with no effort to clean up. I actually stepped on a scrap of wire later that night, which drew blood. He also left visible pencil marks on everything.
Summary: So I got a few lights hung, a camera wired into the inside of the house, and a shoddy new exterior outlet. But I also got a cut on my foot, marks on my ceiling and walls, damaged siding, two holes in the wall to let ants inside the house, and some new work for me to complete on my own like installing an electrical cover box on the exterior outlet, putting a blank plate over where a light was removed, rewiring my bathroom vent fan, patching, and maybe painting. All for an electrician's premium. And I still have two outlets that don't work. read more