I needed to have the electrical panel at my home replaced. I called several different electrical contractors and decided to have Thornton Electrical do the work. Their price was competitive and reasonable. They were able come out quickly. Their technicians were very friendly, explained the work well and did the work on time. They did a good job cleaning up after they finished and everything looks and works great. I'm very satisfied with their work. read more

Thornton Electric - Electricians Near Me - San Mateo, California

Thornton Electric first worked on our house back in 2016. The City of San Carlos had a Eucalyptus Tree Removal Project across the street. Their tree service company accidentally cut a branch that landed on an electrical pole pulling out the wiring and damaging our electrical panel. Fast forward to 2023, an almost identical situation happen but this time last week's atmospheric river caused a branch to fall onto an electrical pole pulling out the wiring and damaging our electrical panel. We were out of power for a total of 9 days but Randy, Julio, Jose, and David helped with their professionalism and responsiveness. read more

Called with an electrical issue with our stove top - Randy answered promptly, listened to the symptoms and was able to get his electrician Dave out within an hour or so. Dave was able to diagnose the problem immediately, offered a couple of solutions and after running out to get a part, had it fixed same day. Dave was friendly, but more importantly, thoroughly professional. Hope to not have to call them again, but if needed, Thornton would be our first option. read more

Randy has a fantastic team of experienced and licensed electricians. The whole team was recently at our home for 5 days to upgrade some electrical work done by the previous owner, work that was not done to code. The whole team is great: Randy, Don, Dave, Jonathon. We worked with Don the most. Don is friendly and kind and a very experienced electrician. The work done included fixing the wiring and replacing recessed cans so it is all up to code, installing new recessed can lighting, taking down fixtures, and a few other smaller items. This team might be a little more expensive than some of the competition, but you get what you pay for. Highly recommend Thornton Electric for being friendly, professional, experienced and having excellent customer service. read more

My mother had problems with her overhead kitchen lights. I spoke with Randy to schedule an appointment. Don came over and fixed them. Why the 5 stars? After speaking with Randy, I told him my mother didn't speak English very well, she's elderly, she gets nervous with strangers - mainly men, and I live out of state. He chose a specific technician, Don, because of his background/experiences. My mother spoke VERY well of Don. He made her feel very comfortable and he was very kind. That kind of concern, thoughtfulness, and customer service from both Randy and Don are RARELY FOUND in the hustle and bustle of Silicon Valley. I flew into SJ to check on my mom. She pointed out the repair and told me about Don. She spoke so well of him that I HAD to call Randy and tell him. No problem with the lights. My mom is happy. I'm happy. All is great! THE BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE EEEEEEV-VEEERR!!! read more

I can't say enough good things about this company. I used them years ago and was very impressed with their work and customer service. I didn't hesitate to call them again for heater issues. Work is always done in a professional and efficient manner, and everyone in the company is so friendly. Thornton Electric is the best! read more

I appreciate their quick response, as they sent an electrician first thing in the morning after a fallen tree caused damage the night before. However, it seemed that they practice zip code pricing. Thornton bid $7500; I hired another contractor the same day for $2000 who successfully completed the work. Both bids were for the exact same work, and included permits and inspections. read more

I was nervous about posting here because of the last phone interaction I had with Randy, but I feel it is important for others looking for electricians to get an honest review. We had a large electrical project started by Thornton, but unfortunately, it was bigger than expected and needed to be finished on another day. After not hearing from anyone for months and no response to phone calls or texts, I finally hear back from Randy. He explains how busy they are and I get it. I am told I will get another appointment within the week. Weeks go by and nothing. Now I am unsure if they are just busy or do not actually want the job, so I call to check-in so I know if I should move on or not. Once again, I get how busy everyone is and I just don't want to waste time on something that is never going to happen. Randy yells at me. He brags about how much money he makes and how expensive his truck is. He threatens to sue me and put a lean on my house. I try to calm him down and explain that I just didn't know where were at. Unfortunately, this just escalated his bad behavior and he continued to yell and threaten me. I had to hang up. I would also like to note that I have yet to receive a bill. read more

I've been using Thornton Electric exclusively for years and I must say, they are very thoughtful when it comes to planning your electrical. They do a top notch job at reasonable prices. I use Dave and he did a great job installing puck lights, chandeliers, under & over cabinet lights and assisting with the electrical portion of our tankless water heater. Great job, great price, professional people. I wish more people would discuss their contractors on Yelp because a restaurant is easy to find, a contractor isn't. read more

I called these electricians @ 7:30am and by 8:45am my electrical problem was solved. I will call this company again when I need any electrical work on my home ! Dave was the helpful and knew what he is doing. He can diagnose a proble by just looking at the previous work, and he knows how to solve the problem too ! read more

Great experience, start to finish. I had a badly wired overhead fixture that failed over the weekend in strange ways. Randy gave me excellent phone advice Saturday at no cost about what my options were, and what stuff to buy so that a repair Monday morning could be done quickly and at a reasonable cost. Dave arrived on time and took care of everything on site. Both of them were knowledgeable, friendly and very attuned to figuring out what would work best for us. I called a half-dozen electrical firms on that Saturday, looking for guidance. Thornton was the one place that actually wanted to solve customers' problems, instead of just capturing email and phone data for later marketing use. Good guys! read more

Had a great experience with Thornton. I lost power to half of my house on Sunday evening. I had PG&E come and they found that the main breaker was arcing and I should turn it off to avoid further damage and call an electrician to replace it. I called Thornton since they were open late on Sunday. I appreciated that Randy gave me the option to come immediately (~$700 for emergency service) or wait until Monday morning (~$200). I chose to wait without power until the morning. They rearranged their schedule to send Don out at 9am and arrived on time. Don was able to quickly clean the terminals and replace the 50-year old breaker. Fortunately, the panel was not damaged and did not need to be replaced. The repair only took few minutes and there is a 1-hour minimum, so I asked Don to check my subpanel while he was there to see if there might be other latent problems. He tightened a couple breaker connections that weren't as tight as they should be. Don was very friendly and efficient. He also answered all of my questions clearly, so I felt very comfortable about what had happened and how it had been fixed. read more

We have had a lot of electric problems in our home and I could finally rest easy again after discovering Thornton Electric. They had amazing customer service! Definitely the best electric company around read more

Thank you Randy and Dave for helping out me out! The service was quick, efficient, and reliable for my friends home repair.

I have had work done with Thornton in the past, and was happy with the quality of the work, but was very disappointed to have them give me a bid for a small project that came in $5500 over what I ended up paying someone else to do. I wasn't given adequate itemization about labor and parts when requested, and as a result feel as if the company was trying to take advantage. Happy to have found a better option, but be sure you get multiple bids before you use them! read more

Randy was very responsive, and he sent an electrician to our home within one hour. However we were not told their rates over the phone and were surprised to be charged $220 for what turned out to be a 15-minute visit in which the electrician replaced a single dimmer switch. Wow! This is roughly twice what our regular service person (who was unavailable today) charges. Live and learn - I should have known to ask. Thornton Electric is probably great when you have an emergency situation, but for other needs, be forewarned about the very high cost. The electrician who came to our home seemed in a hurry and was for some reason not very helpful in trying to answer my questions about the switch and wiring. It has been a long time since we have had such a poor experience with a professional service provider in our home. read more

My advice to all...Before doing business with Thornton, make sure you have ALL estimates in writing. When you agree to have additional work done, have a contract in writing. Check all work to make sure you get what you paid for. You'll thank yourself and protect your wallet!!!! read more

My family has been doing business with Randy of Thornton Electric for over 30 years on all of our rental properties. Day or night, rain or shine, we have counted on them for our electrical problems. We trust Thornton Electric so much, they have the keys to all of our properties. Recently they replaced the main panel at one of our apartments and even the tenants told us the electricians were very nice and helpful. We hope to use Thornton Electric for the next 30 years as well. read more

I had two bad switches and a wiring issue. The technician arrived on schedule and made the repairs very quickly. The work was great I would recommend Thornton Electric to everyone. read more

Dave has been coming by my work pretty frequently to fix my light ballasts. Each time he is very sensitive to my customers and acknowledging that I have to help my customers first before tending to him. He's always very safe and professional. He also gives advice on how to save me money by switching to different systems and lights, and teaches me a little on lights every time he comes in. Excellent service! Never fails! read more

Four of our kitchen outlets just stopped working. I called 3 other places that didn't respond. The owner picked up the phone right away and sent David out within a few hours on the same day. He fixed the problem under an hour and was very courteous. The charge was $230 (incl. tax) for an hour of service. I'm not sure what other people charge since they didn't bother to follow up with me. Thanks Thornton. I will definitely call again. read more

My family did not use Thornton Elect. Co however I would like to rate them because they were prompt and efficient when responding to our needs and question. We truly appreciate your time and would like to thank you. read more

I was very happy with how prompt Thornton was when we recently experienced a partial power outage. I called them at 7 am and by 8 they were at our door. The technician took one look at our outside line and diagnosed this as a problem that PG&E needed to solve. Unfortunately, for that five minutes of service they still charged me $195, their agreed upon rate for the first hour of work. Maybe I am being unreasonable but that seems excessive for five minutes of work and not being able to fix the problem. Lesson learned is to always contact PG&E first with electrical problems. They won't charge anything to come out and if they can't fix it they will advise you to then call an electrician. read more

I have to say that I am truly impressed by Randy. He was very professional and saved us a small fortune. PG&E had put in a new power pole a few houses away from us. Since then we've had 1/2 power to our house intermittent. Phase B went out mostly at night but some times in the day. I called 1 electrician and he came out quoted $17,500 to upgrade panel from fuse to circuit but informed us he had to rewire entire house, add new smoke and carbon monoxide detectors (just had new ones put in 2 years ago) . I kept telling him it was intermittent and it was PG&E problem. He said it was my fuse box. So I called Thornton Electric and Spoke to Randy. He told me it was $195. To come find problem. I agreed. He wasn't here 5 minutes when he told me not my fuse box it's a PG&E problem! I knew it! He just saved us $17,500!!! He gave a senior discount. I called PG&E Lloyd came out found the problem and fixed it in 10 minutes. Thank you Randy for all your help!! I will recommend Thornton Electric for anyone who lives here in Bay Area. read more

Just called TEC with an electrical problem. Randy spoke with me over the phone did a preliminary diagnosis and referred me to PG&E. Not only did he end up being right, but saved me the money he could have earned by coming out and telling me the same thing. Thanks! read more

I hired Thornton to install a new service panel 6 years ago when I bought my house in San Mateo. I hired them again last week to wire my garage and install overhead shop lighting. They did an excellent job on both projects. Super clean & high quality finished product. The electrician showed up on time, gave me good design advice and finished the project on time. I highly recommend them. Frank San Mateo read more

These guys are amazing. The best attitude and the best service. We use Randy and his crew for our corporate events and I use him for my personal use. Clean, efficient, priced fairly, etc. Can't say enough good things. Gig X read more

We had a series of electrical outlets that gave out on our two year old remodeled kitchen. The reset switch on one outlet and a bank of other outlets would not reset and the breaker in the box would not reset either. I called Thorton Electric Co. on President's Day holiday and Randy said they could send someone out the next morning between 8-9AM. Dave showed up promptly at 8AM and began diagnosing our problem. It turned out to not only be a blown breaker, but a short in a wire inside the switch box. I would have never figured this out! Dave made the necessary repairs and we had our outlets working again within 30 minutes! Dave was very professional, courteous, and friendly! I would recommend this company again for any electrical needs. There has been some criticism for the rates this company charges. My personal feeling is if you want quality work that is done correctly you will have to pay accordingly. Thank you Thorton Electric Company. read more

The workers arrived at the job on time. I was impressed and they took time out to discuss the job before they started working. On the first day they replaced my electrical service panel, and restored my power. Next day thay came back to do the detail work, and also talk to the electrical inspector, everything passed inspection. I'm very happy with the job, I recommend them for your job, big or small. read more

I rate these guys well after they helped us in a pinch. So I called them again when our bathroom fan started sparking. The guy can out and disconnected the light in the fan and said he would order the replacement part and get back to us. This cost $275. Then he never called back. So instead of paying their mark up for the part and another expensive service charge, I just ordered the part myself and fixed the problem. If you are going to charge so much, it would be good to make sure the job is done. read more

I had a not to obvious problem that turned out to be a faulty circuit breaker. Thornton was quick and efficient. Zero complaints and I would definitely call them for a bigger job read more

I love Thornton Electric or TEC! My husband and I always know we can call TEC when we have an electrical problem. They are trustworthy and will not sell you something you do not need. The guys are all very knowledgable. We have referred them to many of our neighbors and not one has had a complaint. Very professional and always show up, and on time. read more

Just hired Thornton Electric to do some work on my house before moving in. Randy came by when promised and after hearing what I wanted done, formulated a staged plan and sent me a good quote. Dave figured out how to do some of the work with minimal modifications. For example, I had two exterior lights that didn't have on/off switches in the house (don't ask!). I asked TEC to add new switches which would have looked ugly. Dave came up with a plan to use existing switches which made practical sense, but it also obviated the need to add additional wall switches. TEC did everything I asked for quickly, professionally, and affordably. I would not hesitate to use them again, and I highly recommend them. read more

I had spent $200 on another electrician found on CL (he was licensed). My circuit breaker kept going off,for which he just switched a fuse from an unused circuit to the one powering my kitchen/dining room. This took him about 15mins.and he didn't even bother using a new fuse! The same issue recurred after a couple of weeks when I found Thornton Electric and spent the same amount of money for Dave to do a thorough assessment of my home.He said that possibly my old outdoor porchlight (which was getting loose) might be causing the short circuiting due to rain etc . I changed the porchlight and did not have another short circuit occur. Dave is very professional and really knows what he is doing. When I had to reschedule, their office staff was very prompt in replying .I've also spoken to Randy, the owner, who is very attentive and wants his customers satisified. I highly recommend this company to those needing expert, professional electrical work. read more

We were very pleased with the service we received from Thornton Electric. We had what turned out to be a serious electrical problem. They were prompt, discovered the problem quickly and made the necessary arrangements for repair. The repairman followed up the next day with a phone call to see if all work had been completed. We will definitely use Thornton Electric in the future. read more

Very happy with the project Randy and his team did for us. Quick turnaround on the quote, followed by quickly getting permits and PG&E stuff sorted out. They completed the installation of our new electric car charger quickly (with very short power down time) and with great quality. Very attentive and courteous, we felt well taken care off. read more