Engle and Fahs

I returned home yesterday to find that the power to the outlets in my garage had no power. Went to the fusebox in the basement and saw none of the breakers had been tripped. Flipped the appropriate breaker off and on. No luck. Found a GFI outlet and attempted to test and reset it. It did not function at all.

Left an after hours voicemail with my electrician, but heard nothing back in the morning. Found this company with a Bing search, after my first choice was booked up for the day. They instantly gave me hope of same day service. Within 15 minutes, I got a call from the local technician, who stated he was about 15 minutes away.

After testing the garage outlets, finding out that outlets outside the house also had no power, yet the light switches performed as usual, he went to the fuse box. He noticed that there was a GFI outlet next to the fuse box. I had my freezer plugged into it. This was constant for at least 5 months. Discovered that the freezer had no power. Reset the GFI and the freezer fired back up. Went upstairs to the garage and discovered that, somehow, a GFI outlet in the basement protected every garage outlet, as well. As we were checking all the outlets, the GFI tripped again. Replaced the GFI outlet, as well as the one in the garage. Discovered that the garage GFI had zero power coming to it. (I'll set up a separate appointment down the road to investigate that.)

The technician was quite knowledgeable, personable, and patient as he investigated the issue.

Thank you for a mysterious repair well done!

Review: Engle and Fahs, Inc (electricians) was contacted by my husband to fix an existing electrical meter that was pulling away from our home. They came to the house and gave us a verbal estimate to fix the meter: no greater than $600 is what we were told. They said depending on how long they had to sit and wait for [redacted] (the electrical supplier)on the day they were coming to fix the meter would determine the overall cost of the job. The electric service was turned off by 8:45 am on the day of the job. We received the bill for $410.60. The breakdown of the bill was $200 for labor and 210.60 for materials. We paid the bill in full on 12/23 but included a letter asking for an itemized description of the materials. The check was cashed by Engle and Fahs on 12/27 but they never responded to our request for the itemization of the materials. I called them on 12/30 and spoke with [redacted] Fahs who explained that they don't itemize their bills because "some people will count every screw and if they only find 19 and we charged them for 20 it is a huge hassle for both of us to haggle over 5 cents." He told me that what I didn't see on the material part of the bill is the charge from [redacted] to turn off the electrical service. That charge was $150.00. He over and over again told me that he feels that their fees are fair and that they didn't even charge us for the time that someone had to take to call and arrange for [redacted] to turn off the electrical service. I told him that knowing that made the bill seem more reasonable. I still had an uncomfortable feeling about this bill so I contacted [redacted] myself and received an email from them stating that Engle and Fahs, Inc was actually charged $110 to turn off the service. I have left two voice mails, one on 1/2/14 at 11:00 am and one on 1/2/14 at 4:10 pm, for [redacted] Fahs to respond to me and explain the discrepancy between the stated [redacted] charge from him and the stated [redacted] charge from [redacted]. It has been more than 24 hours with no response.Desired Settlement: We would like an itemized description of the materials used for the job as well as an explanation of why we were told that [redacted] charged Engle and Fahs,Inc $150.00 and [redacted] told us that the charge to Engle and Fahs was $110.00.This is not a financial request. This is about integrity and trust.

Business

Response:

January 15, 2014

Dear [redacted]:

Engles and Fahs is an electrical contractor. We have been in business since May of 1997. We perform all types of electrical work including industrial, commercial, residential, voice and data. Our company has taken great pride in the fact that we have always provided quality service at a very reasonable price. Consequently, we have experienced a high rate of repeat business. Our invoicing format differentiates between labor, material and total. (Please see attached invoice.)

The following is a detailed breakdown of the project for the complaintant:

- Verbal Quote — no request for labor/material breakdown $600.00

( Verbally told by customer to proceed)

- Actual Invoice — Paid in Full: $ 410.60

- [redacted] fee (Our cost $113.15 + mark-up $ 151.51

(Copy of Credit Card payment attached)

- Epoxy, Fasteners, drill bit wear and generator use

(Our cost $45.45 + mark-up) $ 59.09

- Labor - 1 hour at $75.00 per hour $ 75.00

- Labor - 2.5 hours at $50.00 per hour $ 125.00

Should you require additional information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,