Powell Electric

$99 to get an outrageous quote for $3500 to check a gfi outlet. I was bribed a refund of my $99 if I removed my negative 1 star review on Google. Read Yelp reviews. Don’t get scammed.

Where to begin, I can't say enough good things about Powell Electric, their customer service representatives, their management and most importantly their Electricians. I live in a single family home in Westlake Village, CA. 5 years ago, Powell installed a dedicated electrical line for my pool. Over time one of the wires corroded underground causing the pool to lose power and shutting down the pump. The work was warrantied for 1 year as with most/all Electrical work these days. I spoke with Sam, one of the field managers at Powell and he was fantastic, without question he sent out his team the very next day and fixed the issue at no charge. They went above and beyond by replacing all the wires to ensure this wouldn't happen again. In this day and age, customer service at this level is rare and hard to come by. This company, Powell Electric exemplifies all the values one would expect from a family owned and operated organization and their outstanding commitment to their work and their customers is second to none. I highly recommend making Powell Electric your go-to choice, you will not regret it! Dane Stojanov Happy Customer :)

I was quoted almost $3000 to fix a light fitting. Shady people. Had to pay $80 for call-out. Avoid

While they did a good job, pricing was egregiously high with them.

First they scheduled and never showed so we called back and they came the next day. The price to replace 3 small lights was $3850. I called our regular electrician and he said the lights were $25-30 dollars each. That is more than a major rip off.

Horrible. I called them at 10:21 a.m. on 9/14 because my 93 year old mom's electricity went out. They assured me a technician would arrive between 2-5. When no one arrived by 5, I called them and was told (rather tersely) that the tech was still on another job but would be there soon. They called me back a half hour later to say the tech would not be coming, his other job took too long. Despicable, do not use their services.

I’ve had hit and miss with Powell over the last few years. Lately it’s always a miss and they are price gouging. I have a few examples but I’ll use upgrading to 200amp service as this main review. Electrician came and fed us all sorts of scary stories with the city, moving the box and creating a whole new flat pad concrete area. $25,000. Quote. Called another electrician who spoke with a city inspector about having to create this new concrete pad area and the inspector literally said “that’s insanity, no.” New quote $5,000. They also “diagnosed” a light that we have on cloth wiring as a hazard and would cost thousands to repair and upgrade. Turns out it was a bad switch. Regardless of it still being cloth, it’s in good shape, said the other electrician and in a conduit. We had two Powell techs that were great. The rest have been con artists. They are super quick for you to know that no matter what your call will be $100. Needless to say, we no longer use them for anything.

I found Angie's List so won't go back to Powell Electric

He showed up on time, was very helpful and fixed it quickly. He even fixed one of the other breaker buttons for free because he said it would probably be breaking on us soon. Everything was great except the price was a little on the expensive side. I would use again if I needed someone right away and didn't have time to research.

The electrician was very nice and informative. He explained everything and even fixed another breaker button which he said would probably break soon at no extra charge. I think the price was higher than maybe some local or smaller companies, but we did not want to wait until their first appt and Powell Electric was willing to come the next day.

One guy came to give estimate and 2 showed up for job. It took about 4 hours to complete the job. They kept the area clean. They explained that I needed more work than I thought I did and they gave me an accurate estimate. They explained everything really well. They gave a good first impression.

They were quick to reply, courteous and professional. However, they did not correctly identify the problem with the nonfunctional outlet. While they wanted to replace all the wiring, yet, all that was required was turning the associated switch to the "on" position. It is my opinion that was something they could have considered as a plausible solution.

Whoever answers the phone had no knowledge of Angie's List or tax matters. He reacted as though this was the first time anyone had called with that expectation.

First of all, this company (or at least who I talked to) would not give me a quote over the phone on how much the installation of two fire alarms would cost. This would be for a hard-wired, plus a battery operated alarm. When the electrician arrived he quoted me a price of $649. I said that was really expensive and he took $50 off. He didn't really seem concerned about what an outlandish price that was. I stupidly agreed to the work and paid the $599. I have total buyer's remorse - and at the very least can warn others about what a rip-off this company is. If you make an appointment and get a crazy price once the electrician is at your home - you will still need to pay the service fee for the guy coming to your house even if you do not do the job. That's what they are betting on - that since the guy is there, you'll just go ahead an do the job - like I did. I would never recommend this company to anyone - I guess lesson learned. TOTAL RIP-OFF - BEWARE!!

Right off the bat they asked if we wanted a Saturday appointment THAT WEEK. Since I run a business elsewhere, I usually had to beg for a weekend appointment. Great start! We picked an arrival time and Mariano actually was EARLY. We're on a roll. Then, inside of an hour he replaced a switch box for an immediate fix, gave me advice (that worked) on protecting the outside wiring from the rain, produced a (reasonably priced) bid for a more permanent solution, got back in his sleigh and rode off into the sky. I'm a fan if you can't tell.

Great. I love Powell Electric. They are always efficient, respectful, and do what they say they are going to do.

I called to have an 220 outlet installed for my new dryer. Called on a Saturday, and was very pleased with the guy who answered the phone, scheduled an appointment for that day, then called me when it looked like the electrician would be a little late. He said there was a fee of $99 for the service call. The electrician was extremely personable, and I liked him. We discussed upgrading the entire electrical panel (which I do need) and the logistics of getting it done quickly. He then came back with an eye-popping estimate of $8700 for a job that I know costs under $3,000 because I have received two estimates. When I told him that, he said that was the company, not him, and that he would call me on Monday after he talked to the company about what could be done on the price. Clearly somebody was trying to take advantage of what they assumed was an unsuspecting homeowner, and I would say I found that outrageous except it is unfortunately pretty typical for contractors when they deal with a female homeowner. He charged me $76 instead of the $99, which I was glad for the discount, but let's face it, I had to pay this amount when they made it impossible for me to hire them to do the job and apply the $76 service call towards. I assumed they would call me back and quote me the $3,000. No calls. Will never ever consider hiring them again. What a waste of time and money and frankly it was insulting.

They are relocating backyard patio lights, installing switches and timers. They are very quick with responding. I called yesterday, they came out today to do the surveying and they will be out on Monday. They gave me a detailed report.

The technician was incredibly nice and professional. However, I cannot believe I wasted the service fee to have someone come out and look (though that is credited to your job SHOULD you choose them) when so many others give free estimates. I found a licensed and bonded electrician who did the work for $450. It met the City's requirements, passed inspections and I qualify for the discounts of an electric car owner, etc. The work looks great, is clean and properly executed. No reason for the highway robbery price. The reason I was given for their quote was that they were not sure which location they could run the wires from but if it was the closer location (subpanel vs main), it would be $250 cheaper. So rather than nearly $3K, it would be about $2500. This still sounded insane. I pressed further why such the high quote. The other reason given was that it's a company with employees and rent, etc., and that they are licensed, bonded, etc, so you pay for the expertise. I found a licensed, bonded electrician for 1/3 the price, basically. I read some other reviews complaining about Powell's prices but proceeded paying the fee for the quote because paying for the cheapest bid can lead to problems too. You get what you pay for, right? Well .... not in this case. You overpay for the work. period. Courteous? Professional? Absolutely. Out of touch with reality? Priceless.

He gave me a folder with all of the paperwork and with his licensing information. I like that they are large established company. Doug was upfront with the pricing and gave me an estimate. He was professional and respectful.

They're super neat, punctual and cleaned up well. They were able to take care of hedges on the line. The guys that came out were very professional and very quite too. They're just a very good company.

Estimator was 30 minutes late and unprepared to do work that day. Prices were very high and estimate took far too long. Estimator failed to make measurements that were needed. Switches were replaced quickly. Failed to install ceiling fans according to directions and failed to install in-wall remote controls. Fans assembled improperly. Sloppy installation work on fans. Light fixtures installed appropriately. Switch installation for attic fan was sloppy requiring additional painting. Microwave oven installation was left half finished and very ugly -- the estimator and electricians failed to measure the vent cabinet in advanced, so they later discovered that it was too low -- though the estimator had been warned of this potential issue at the initial walkthrough.

Because our prior electrician no longer works in the area and we could not get a solid referral from any neighbors, we contacted Powell to come to the house to do the work we needed based on its extensive advertizing in the area. Powell charge $99 for the service call. After fixing the light on the garage door opener and testing a motion detector on the side of the house, the service technician, Kevin, then checked the overhead kitchen light, the main reason for the appointment. After doing so, he gave us a $349 written quote for installing the new ballast and sockets we provided for the existing light. He then proceeded to examine the outlet-receptical and gave us a $239 written quote to replace it. We were shocked by the quotes, particularly the receptical which we estimated would likely take him less than 15 minutes to replace. We asked Kevin to tell us how much time he anticipated both jobs would take. He refused to do so, stating that Powell did not do the work on the basis of time, but rather on a job basis. We refused to be ripped off and sent him away. We then joiined Angie's List, secured an A rated electrician from the list with a cupon for $99 for two hours of electrical work. As we suspected, it took less than an hour for its electricians to complete both the replacement of the ballast and receptacle. Thus, for the $99 cupon price we received services for which Powell intended to charge us $688 -- a rate far exceeding any electical engineer's hourly rate for highly complex work. We would never consider hiring Powell for any electrical service. The only thing that prevent us from giving it an overall F rating was that it did answer its phone and schedule an appointment promptly. Attempting to charge approximatelly $700 for an hour or less of electircal work is nothing short of unconscionable. There is nothing magical or mystical about changing a ballast or a receptacle. Use this company only if you have a masochistic desire to be ripped off.

PE has a $99 charge just to come out. So instead of calling another electrician, knowing I was being stuck with that charge, I had them do the work, which they grossly overcharged for. This experience was the reason I started to subscribe to Angie's List, so I lived and learned.

Expensive bu excellent work.