Diulus, Mark Electric Company

Review: I phoned the merchant when there was an electircal outlet at my house that did not appear to be working. I told the person on the phone that I wanted an estimate for the repair. Later that week, a workman and an assistant from the merchant's company came to my house when I was at work and only my mother was home. My mother let them in and explained the situation. After looking at some outlets and the fuse box, but without explaining what he was doing, the workman took out some tools intending to do some work. At that point, my mother said, "What is the estimate?" The workman did not seem to understand what she meant. She explained that we had asked for an estimate, and she wanted to make sure that was clear before they did any work. According to my mother, the workman then called somebody on his cellphone. After that conversation, he decided to leave. (My mother was very clear that she did not even ask the workmen to leave. They simply made that phone call and left without stating what they had done, what they thought the problem was, what they thought should be done to fix it, how long it would take, how much it would cost, etc.)

When I came home that evening and heard the news, I kicked myself for letting strange men come to the house with only my mother at home. The electrical working of the house was just the same as before they came, and we did not even have any more information regarding what was wrong or what it would cost to fix it.

A few days later, a different electrician we called came to the house. He told us what he thought the problem was and said he could fix it for $25. My mother agreed, and he did indeed fix the problem in less than 10 minutes.

This happened in September 2014, or 7 months ago. There has been no electrical problem since then.

However, a week later, I received a bill from the offending merchant for $98. Here was the description of the work for which he was charging us-

"Troubleshoot electrical problem. Found outlet burned out in 2nd floor middle bedroom. Circuit breaker had tripped circuit #9 in panel. Ceiling light near bathroom on 2nd floor needs new fixture with pull chain. Option furnish and replace pull chain with exposed bulb that has no globe."

To review, we had been sent a bill in the amount of $98 for "troubleshooting an electrical problem." This amounted to "finding an outlet burned out," noting the number of the circuit that had tripped, and offering to "furnish and replace pull chain" in a bathroom that we did not ask about in the first place.

Note that, despite billing for "troubleshooting," the workman did not actually tell my mother what he thought the problem was.

I phoned the office of the offending merchant and explained this situation. I left my name and number and was told I would be called back within a few days.

I was never called back. I thought they realized their mistake and let the matter drop. However, the sent me another bill the next month for the previous amount plus a "finance charge" for a total of $99.03.

Let us analyse what that means. $1.03 per month is $12.36 per year, or 12.61% rate of interest.

I called the office again and explained the situation again. They said they would call me back in a few days, and they never did.

The next month, I received another bill, this time in the amount of $100.18. That means that, not only was the offending merchant charging interest compounded monthly, but the interest rate had gone up from 12.61% to 13.9%! ((12)*(1.15)/(99.03)=13.9) I cannot identify any regular method of accounting and finance that would explain this. He seems to be pulling numbers out of a hat.

But it is worth repeating that all this exorbitant charge and interest was despite the fact that no repairs were done, nothing was fixed, and we did not even have any more information when the workers left than we started with. What is more, my mother did not even tell the workers to stop working- they made that decision on their own with whomever they called on the phone simply because my mother asked them how much they were planning to charge for their work.

I phoned one or two more times, but I never received a reply, so it seemed like a waste of time to continue. Nevertheless, the offending merchant sent me bill after bill, demanding payment, despite all evidence that this was improper. I have never received an acknowledgement that I dispute their bill, let alone some attempt at resolving the conflict. He simply sends me the bill for the full charge plus usurious interest, and, when I call the office to try to deal with this, I am simply told to pay the bill.

I want this company to stop sending me bills for a non-service. He might think that he is entitled to charge this amount because "someone was sent out," but this ignores at least two important points. 1) 'Sending someone out' would be valuable, if the workman ever actually told us what he thought the problem was. Since he did not do so, it did us absolutely no good that he looked around the electrical work and thought he knew what was wrong. 2) Even if had given us some information and therefore actually done some "trouble-shooting," $98 is a grossly unreasonable fee for that service, demonstrated by the fact that another electrician was able to charge $25 for "troubleshooting" and repair combined.Desired Settlement: I would like the offending merchant to send me a letter stating that he will no longer send me a bill for this erroneous charge. After that, I would like him to stop contacting me.