1st Call Electric

Complaint1st Call Electric installed an electrical panel into my home without pulling a permit for the electrical work. On February 5, 2015, 1st Call Electric installed a 100 Amp Panel in my home. The electric work was completed without a permit issued by the City of Raleigh for this work. Only after calling the company back and requesting the company to pull a permit for their work was the permit process begun. The 100 amp panel was supposed to be an upgrade to a 200 AMP system to work effectively with my kitchen remodel which was ongoing. The 100 AMP panel, [redacted] # [redacted], which I questioned the technician about a 200 amp system during the installation, was installed and had reused breakers from another job, with visible overspray from a previous installation of theirs. After contacting the company informing them the work wasn't completed correctly and without a permit I cancelled my check for their work. I informed their customer service representative, [redacted], that once I had another electric company correct their work, I would settle with them regarding the invoice. I was accused of check fraud by the company, for refusing to pay for an incorrect and unpermitted installation.The owner,[redacted], refused to visit the job site to witness the complaints, installation problems, and to speak with my general contractor managing the kitchen remodel. I offered to settle the disagreement by paying for their full hourly rate for the hours worked on my home, and for the cost of the installed breaker panel product. I have since had the work redone by a more professional and customer friendly electrical company to correct their mistakes and to have documented and permitted work completed on my house. The original invoice from 1st Call Electric was $1700, which I paid by check and cancelled, and Mr. [redacted] still demands $1500 to settle this disagreement for the incorrect, unprofessional and unpermitted work completed on my home by his company.Desired SettlementI will pay 1st Call Electric's hourly rate for 1 technician for 3 hours of labor that was conducted at my home, plus $150 for the panel to settle this disagreement. The 2nd technician's labor charge on the invoice was unnecessary for the work and did nothing. 1st Call Electric's business practices are less than professional and I would like to settle this dispute and never do business with them again.Business Response Contact Name and Title: [redacted]Contact Phone: [redacted]Contact Email: [redacted]We went to the home the first time on 12/22/14 on a service call for issues with electrical in the bathroom and kitchen. At that time, the Electrician and home owner [redacted] discussed removing the old aluminum wiring in the kitchen as well as updating their old electrical panel to accommodate a new kitchen they were putting in. We suggested and discussed with the homeowner from the very beginning about replacing their panel with a larger 100 amp panel. It was sufficiently sized to accommodate a home that size even with the kitchen remodel. At that time our electrician gave Mrs. [redacted] a price of $1700.00 to complete the change out of the old panel to a new larger panel. We were called again in the end of January by Mrs. [redacted] to come out and put in the new service panel and breakers as discussed. We purchased all new material from our supplier (have the invoices if needed) - nothing was "re-used" in the service panel. We even left new spare breakers with the home owner to be used once the kitchen remodel was done. On February 5, 2015 we ran new wiring and installed the new service panel, main and breakers. Mr. [redacted] discussed with my electrician that he wanted to have us return and complete the other electrical work needed for the remodel - the second phase, which was replacing the old aluminum wiring in the kitchen with copper once the demo was complete. Mr. [redacted] was advised the 2nd phase was not included in the $1700.00 price for the change out of the panel, main and breakers.As for the statement that we didn't pull a permit for this job - the permit was pulled. Mr. [redacted] has left out of his complaint that he called us on 2/10/15 and told us to cancel the scheduled final inspection of his home by the City of Raleigh - Which just so happens to be the same day Mr. [redacted] stopped payment on the check for our work. The home was inspected, (as required) by the City of Raleigh for our electrical work on 2/11/2015 by inspector [redacted], who passed the inspection (have the inspection paperwork proving if needed). Mr. [redacted] had multiple contractors working on his kitchen remodel when the City inspector arrived, and they did not have the proper permits in place. Mr. [redacted] purposefully wrote a check with the intention of cancelling it after the fact. We are entitled to payment in full for our services. We have attempted to resolve this issue by offering Mr. [redacted] a $200 discount off of our invoice; however he was unwilling to agree to these terms. He insisted he pay us $150 for our materials (which were significantly more), and wanted to give us 3 hours pay for only 1 of our 2 electricians - there were 2 electricians at his home for over 5 hours on 2/5/15. Both electricians were needed to pull wiring, properly test and label the service panel and other work. One electrician would have taken significantly more time to complete the work alone. Mr. [redacted] and Mrs. [redacted] both agreed to the price and the 2 electricians before we started this work when they scheduled it with our office. We are still willing to settle for the $1500.00 (no checks) in order to resolve the situation without further legal action.