Danco Electrical Contractors, Inc.

Grossly attempted to mislead us in actual cost and difficulty of repair.[redacted] of danco arrived at our property on 05/09/14 to consult us on an electrical problem and solution for a write up we had from our elevator inspector. This took him less than 20 minutes. The elevator inspector wrote up a report stating the battery back up for the elevator was not functioning properly. If you switch the breaker off to the elevator, the battery back up system should NOT kick on. This is to protect service men when they work in the shaft. The battery back up should only kick on when power is actually lost in the building. [redacted] did not understand how to fix the problem and stated he would write me a report explaining his findings to give to the inspector. He did not do this. I had to e-mail the inspector and inform him of the findings. The inspector spoke with an elevator tech, and the tech finally explained why the system was not working as it should. Then the inspector relayed the problem to me. I e-mailed [redacted] on Saturday 5/10/14 explaining what I needed him to do. There is a simple switch installed on the circuit break that needed to be tested, as well as the wire leading from it to the control board. He sent someone on monday 5/11 to test the switch. The visit again only took 20 minutes. After testing and finding the switch was bad, he told me they would look for a replacement. Now they removed the switch from the property. This is not allowed, a professional would simply record down the model number and manufacturer to use a reference to find a replacement not remove an item out right from the property. [redacted] called me an hour later stating that no one makes the switch, he needs to replace the whole circuit breaker which would cost 780 in parts alone. I told him that is ridiculous and I would look for the part myself. I requested the model number of the part and he told me it has none. Which is a lie. After I said I would look for the part on my own, he said he will continue looking, when earlier he said they do not even make that part. After spending my own personal time of approximately 4 hours researching trying to find this part with out a reference to go by I was able to locate it. This was only possible because of cell phone pictures I had taken prior. On the photos I took I was able to read off the model number of the switch that was removed. Using this I found the part. I purchased it only for $10 dollars and received it the next day. I also found it locally at a supply store for $15 dollars had I chosen to pick it up that day. [redacted] did not know I did this and called me back approximately at 3pm on Monday 5/11. He told me he know miraculously found the part locally for $80 dollars but it cost me $120 for his guy to pick it up. I told him that would not be necessary. I was furious at his conduct. He thought he could original bill me for a $780 part replacement that wasn't even necessary. Not to mention that is not including installation charges, then he tried to over charge me a mark up of 100 times the actually cost of the part that was necessary for the fix. Even after all this out of curiosity I had told them I already located the part and asked how much it would cost to install it. He quoted me 2 hours of installation. The part in reality took 10 minutes to install as it simply required loosening and tightening 4 bolts all together. Given the fact that he told me he had to replace a whole circuit breaker box which was not necessary at all, lied to me about there not being a part number for the part that needed replacement, said originally that part was not available for sale, tried to over bill for labor hours, and all around changed his story every time I found holes in it. I am filing a complaint against his company. I ended up doing most of the job for him. I found out what was necessary to complete the job, I researched and ordered the parts required. That's absurd that a manager of a hotel property had to do the job of an electrician and pay him for it.Desired SettlementAfter receiving his invoice, we sent a letter in return to him describing the events as unfolded and explained in the letter how we will only pay a partial bill for the work completed due to his gross negligence of work performed. We still are seeking out to the Revdex.com to get a full refund, because of the lack of professionalism, he tried to charge us for a job that was not required. I am referring to originally quoting to replace the whole breaker panel box, and even after lying about the necessity of doing this. He still attempted to overcharge us for the actual required part by more than 100 percent of actual retail cost.Business Response /[redacted]/Contact Name and Title: [redacted]Contact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXXContact Email: [redacted]@dancoelectrical.comOn 5/7/14 customer called in a service call and only had a few days left before a re-inspection was due for their elevator. Customer could not explain what was wrong with the elevator. We were told that we needed to rewire the elevator's backup battery.On 5/9/14 [redacted] went to customer site to evaluate the problem. [redacted] was not sure what the problem actually was so the customer provided the elevator inspector's phone number and [redacted] called and spoke with him to discuss.On 5/9/14 [redacted] returned to customer site to confirm and discuss actual scope of the repair needed. It was decided to test switch and cable from disconnect. Also requested a copy of the elevator inspector's report. Customer emailed 5/09/14 at 5:19pm confirming what inspector needed and requesting we send a technician Monday morning to perform the testing. [redacted] emailed customer back on Saturday morning 5/10/14 to confirm we would send a technician on Monday morning at 7am to test the cable and switch at a T&M rate of $90/hr.On 5/11/14 Technician was sent to customer site to test cable for continuity and test switch. The switch failed. Technician returned to shop with part to have replacement located. [redacted] called GE rep for replacement part and was told that a replacement part was not available and was provided a quote for a new disconnect & switch combination. [redacted] called the customer and verbally quoted the replacement of the disconnect and switch including labor and permit fees of $780. The supplier called [redacted] back a couple of hours later to say that they could in fact get the part and our cost was about $80. [redacted] called the customer back to let them know we could get the part and that we would charge $120 for the part and installation. Customer informed [redacted] that he had located a switch and would perform the work themselves. 5/20/14 - Customer was sent invoice for 3 hours of labor which included the 3 trips to the customer site, drive time, labor and investigation time. Consumer Response /[redacted]/I find it ridiculous that I, a hotel manager not an electrician. Knew more about part availability than an electrical company that has been in business for 13 years. Danco also never commented on the fact that they refused to provide me with part numbers off the missing part, which they had no right removing from the property in the first place. Why would a reputable company lie and say there is no part number on the product? There is no way they could say this as a mistake. I was able to clearly read off the part number just off the cell phone pictures I had taken. It's obviously that Danco thought they could quote and bill us for a job that was not needed due to the customers "lack of knowledge". Unfortunately for them, we were not as stupid as they thought. They tried to exploit us in a time of weakness. They knew that for a hotel, the threat of having our elevator shut down was an extremely detrimental problem. They most likely were hoping we would automatically OK to any work they said needed to be done, whether necessary of not.Final Business Response /[redacted]/We have no knowledge of anyone from our company "refusing" to provide a part number as stated above or saying it had no part number as previously stated. We also would have returned the part that our technician removed from the property had the customer asked for it. Our technician took the part to make sure we could get the correct replacement. In closing, we provided the customer with the service of testing to determine that the switch was bad which they paid for. We provided replacement options as we were provided availability by our supplier. We were not satisfied with the suppliers original option either and requested further research on finding only the part needed. This is why we called the customer back a few hours later once we were notified that the part had been located. We are sorry that the customer feels that we were trying to intentionally mislead them because we were not otherwise we would not have called them back with a $120 quote to provide and install just the switch.Final Consumer Response /[redacted]/(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)I spoke on the phone directly with [redacted] from Danco. Who I believe is the owner. When I asked for a model or part number of the part. He said there is none. Which is strange since I was able to clearly read it off the part from the cell phone pictures I had taken of it previously. They never asked my permission to remove the part from the property, and surely would have tried to bill me additionally if I requested them to return it. A supplier should easily and readily find a part. It shouldn't take them hours to locate a part in the database. Only minutes. Especially since once I finally did come up with the idea to pull the part number off of my cell phone pictures, it took me a matter of minutes to locate it online for purchase. In regards to the $120 dollar quote, that was just their quote to purchase and pick up the part from their supplier, that did not even include installation fees. He intended on billing me an extra $200 on top of that just to install it. Again I purchased the part for $10 dollars, and the installation took only 20 minutes. For this Danco wanted to bill us $320 dollars on top of what we were already being billed for his 15 minute visit and testing of some wires.