Express Electrical Service

Very overpriced experience. I paid $1300 for troubleshooting because my garage door wasn't opening. It took only half hour to fix it. Manager told me it is right price for troubleshooting with all the knowledge that went to fix it. Wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

It did not go well at all and I feel like I really got the wool pulled over my eyes and taken advantage of. This is one of those horrible lessons in life that you have to chalk up to experience. I have an old Federal Pacific electric control panel, with those notorious "stab lock" breakers, that was installed when the house was built in 1961. I never had a problem with it until now (now being Tuesday night, December 22, 2015 when there was a rainstorm raging outside and wind howling) when an electrical outage happened in my house affecting the entire first floor level. So here I was...lights flickering on and off, the heat furnace clicking on and off, the kitchen appliances beeping and going on and off all night... three days before Christmas. Not to mention what this was doing to my nerves. And to make matters worse, my husband was out of town too. After switching all the breakers on and off three times, and nothing happening, my only choice was to call a local electrical company in the yellow pages for electrical emergency service. I finally decided on Express Electrical Service because they could come by quickly and survey any damages or possible electrical hazards going on inside my home. After hearing that it would cost $129.00 just to come by to do an estimate that night, I decided to opt for the following business day when the call would only cost $59.99 (better than $129.00). I knew this was gonna cost me, and that being a woman alone I had to have my wits about me. I just didn't want to be at the mercy of these guys in the middle of the night...so much for that..... The next day, an electrical technician came to my home a scheduled. He told me I had a Zinsco electric panel...which isn't true...and the sad part is that he knew this and lied to me. My electric panel is manufactured by Federal Pacific but since the technician removed the inside panel, which is fully stamped and labeled with the FP manufacturer name, I had no way of really knowing this...and I wasn't thinking straight after having little sleep from the night before. The technician seemed like a nice, trustworthy guy with an honest face. I felt I had no reason not to trust him...but I shouldn't have. He went over all the possible scenarios with me about my outdated electric panel. We talked about the cost to replace it with another panel ($3,000 plus additional costs to fix the stucco that would be broken in order to install the new panel) as opposed to the cost of replacing all the circuit breakers (again, $3,000), which were all old, unreliable, hazardous and probably on their way out too. The cost of replacing just one breaker alone was going to cost $378.00. I felt beside myself and made a bad decision based on fear...I agreed to replace all the breakers for $3,000 (money I didn't have) and charged it to my visa card. My husband went through the roof, and he did a lot of research and got back to me, telling me to cancel the contract. The manager at Express Electrical Service was a decent guy and canceled the contract when I told him what my husband found out... that the NEC seriously strongly recommends replacing these panels rather than trying to fix them or replace parts on them that are not guaranteed to work with FP electric panels, and which are considered hazardous. FP has been out of business since 1982 when FP went bankrupt due to numerous complaints and pending lawsuits about their faulty breakers and electrical system, which didn't meet UL standards and NEC regulations. Needless to say, parts are no longer available for these FP panels and the revamped, recalibrated circuit breakers that are UL tested to fit FP electrical panels are not guaranteed either...they're miscalibrated on the high end for these panels . I ended up speaking to the manager, who offered replace my FP electric panel with a brand new one by Siemens and Murray, along with a lifetime guarantee...and would include the restucco of the wall that would be broken to fit in the new panel....and while this seemed like a good deal, my husband had had enough for one day, felt this was a lot to spend and wanted to do more research. I ended up agreeing with him...I was already feeling somewhat "had" by this time by the technician and my trust in this company was hanging by a loose thread. The next day, I talked to the technician who had come the day before, and we talked on the phone and he told me he had replaced one of the circuit breakers the night before (without my knowledge) and that I had to pay $378.00 for that. Plus, he had my electric panel inside cover that he had to return and put back in place. I didn't understand why he had the cover for the panel or why he had taken it with him. He told me I had to pay for the breaker. I asked him to come by and show me where it was, and that at that time he could replace my electrical panel and then I would pay him and we could both move on. He was very contrary with me and didn't seem to want to come by until I agreed to pay for this breaker ..and I was beginning to feel like he getting a little heavy handed with me at one point. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and agreed to go ahead. I just wanted this whole thing over with. I spoke with Chantel at Express Electrical Services, and she agreed with me that he needed to show me in person where this breaker was before I would be billed for it. Now, I had to reschedule another appointment with Express Electrical Service for later that day with the same technician (this was on Christmas eve). He ended up calling me later on and said he might not be able to make it, that he was busy with another job and I told him he had to come by no matter how late it was so that we could put this matter to rest, and that I would agree to pay the $378.00 and that I wanted my panel returned and replaced. I told him that I believed I found the new breaker once I had lifted up the control box door, which was taped down into place, cause he had broken one of the latches on it the night before (and now, it needed to be fixed too). This was a nightmare...a nightmare. Needless to say, he came back later that day. We cancelled the $3,000 contract (to replace all the breakers) and he crossed everything out on the contract, had me initial everything and then penciled in $378.00 (to replace the $3,000) for the cost of the one breaker. He replaced the one broken metal latch on the control box door with a screw....it still hangs badly cause the other latch is broken too... and replaced the collar around the electric meter (after I reminded him that it was missing) which he then retrieved from his truck (I had to ask myself "why did he take that too with him along with my electrical panel" the night before?). Your guess is as good as mine. But after this, I don't plan on doing anymore business with Express Electrical Services anymore.

I had a circuit in my house go dead. My regular electrician was out of town, so I called Express Electrical because they could respond the same day. Franco was prompt, courteous and professional. He said there was a problem with the neutral wire in the circuit, and quoted me the prices for the repair: Either $3600, $1400, or $810!! I decided to wait until my regular guy gets back. These prices are fixed, you only get to choose which level of service you want. I'm not sure how you decide which size job you want, and I didn't even bother to ask. Even the lowest is too high for me. It cost me $59.95 for the service call. Problem was, the circuit problem was intermittent, and it happened to work on the first service call. Then it went out for good and I called again. So it cost me $120 to get the bad news about their prices.