My Electrician Inc

To [redacted] (Revdex.com Resolutions Consultant),MEI is a one man shop. I needed time to respond.With regard to the Spa Project My Electrician Inc. did on June 24th 2015 for [redacted] residing at [redacted]., Vida, OR 97401 the following is an account of and with the customer to the...

best of my understanding.On the morning of Tuesday June 23rd I was buying spa parts for my self at [redacted] when I was approached by one of the employees at the business concerning [redacted] who had just purchased a Spa from them and needed to have it hooked up. I was then introduced to her. She said the project was in Vida, OR. ( about 25 to 30 miles from Spring?eld up the McKenzie Highway). She asked me what my cost per hour was. I told her I am $90.00 per hour including the time spent for travel to and from. I also told her that there was a mileage cost of 0.75 cents per mile for travel out side of the Spring?eld area proper. She then began to tell me that there had been a spa there before so the wire was there and they needed the new one hooked up. The [redacted] employee then handed me the Disconnect that would work for the new spa. [redacted] then told me that the spa was scheduled to be installed on Wednesday at 1:00 pm. I received a call from [redacted] later that day and was asked if I thought that the job would take very long since how she described it was a simple hook up of existing wiring to the new disconnect and the spa only a few feet away. I told her I had no way of being certain without having seen the project. She asked again, so I told if it was as she told me it might take up to 2 to 3 hours plus the pickup of materials and travel to and from. She then said ok about $300 plus materials. I said Plus materials and driving and mileage costs. Again I am $90 per hour plus materials and travel.On Wednesday morning she called and said the guys wouldn’t be there until about 2:30 pm. that after noon. I said ok and proceeded to pick up some materials I thought would be needed not having seen the project. When I got there the guys were still trying to get the spa over to a distant platform 6 - 7 ft. off the ground and 100 ft plus from the house. After looking at what I had to do I asked [redacted] and her husband where I should install the disconnect and suggested the nearest post which would be the easiest. There was no disconnect installed previously at that location as I had been led to believe. I climbed under the spa deck and saw electrical conduit for the previous spa circuit as well as another circuit that was carrying power to the light above the deck. I made a material list and told [redacted] that there was “a lot more conduit work than was expected and informed her that the project was much more involved than from what she had told me. I then went to my van to see what materials I had. I made a note of what I needed but didn’t have, and told her husband that I needed to go back into town and get materials. I then went 20 miles back into town to pick up materials and drove 20 miles back to the house on country highway. It took me 1 hour of driving and about 1 hour to pick up materials at 3 different locations. I began to interrupt the existing conduit, pull back 50 amp rated conductors, and added 15 ft of con-duit “T-ed” off from the existing and drill up through the platform in three places to provide a chase for the new spa and new disconnect locations. I pulled 2 new circuits through new conduit runs and hook up the spa. All together I was there until about 10 PM in the evening and didn’t get back into town until 10:45. When I ?nished the job I gave her the bill and she was surprised and assumed I was only going to charge $300. I reminded her what my rate and costs were. But she apparently had ?guring in her head the approximate cost given the description she gave me. That I wanted to get the job done so I would not have to make an extra trip and delay the project, and in addition I was not charging her overtime rates. She then told me that her mother was the one paying for the job and that her mother would not un-derstand why I was charging so much more than “she thought I had estimated”, could I lower the cost. I told her that after 9 hours of time spent on the job without interruption, she couldn’t be serious, and reminded her that I gave her no ?rm ?gure but an hourly rate plus materials and mileage. I told her I could knock off $60 for the mileage, but that it I was basing my costs from 1:30 until 10:30 that evening. This was also the ?rst time I had been told about someone else being involved in the payment. She also said that they were only renting from her mother. I said it was a major small project and that the ?gure I gave her was only a guess based on the information she had given to me. I thought she reluctantly saw my point and had me run the card. Then I went home.The next day I got a very angry message on my answering service from her mother (who again I never met and had no idea of until the end of the project was involved). She told me she was going to ?ght this, that the hookup was 3 times the cost that I had said. “She said” that others had quoted $200 - $300 (probably the same way, over the phone and sight unseen. She should have used the other guys if they gave her that kind of price after looking at it. My materials were $160). She also said that I was doing bad business and that I should have essentially eaten the extra over and above my estimate (even if I had given an esti-mate, it was only an estimate not a ?rm ?gure and based upon what information was given to me). I did a good job and provided a fair price considering the project was not as simple as [redacted] had told me and the distance for materials I had to run. I have been in business for 23 years and this is the ?rst time I’ve had somebody dispute with me over a project for which they are so assuming and unfamiliar with the actual condi-tions and related conversations.