Response from Point Loma Electric & Plumbing
Here is the description of the reason for your call: "No power coming to outlet for the dishwasher, circuit breaker does not help, makes a noise when he flips the switch" First I will address your overall compliant and then each of the F ratings you left us: We never do any work without FIRST getting the customers approval to proceed. Our electricians always explain that we are a flat rate company and we charge by the job not by the hour. There is a charge to diagnose the reason for the electrical problem and not only was this explained to you, but this was put in writing and you signed that you understood & agreed to the charge BEFORE we began. You knew in advance that we don't work for free and that there was a charge to diagnose the problem. You approved the charge before we began. We cannot fix anything until we know what caused or is causing the issue. Our level 1 diagnostic charge covers locating a problem in an ACCESSIBLE location. Behind an installed and hardwired dishwasher is not considered accessible and you were not charged any for additional tasks. It was also clearly explained to you that once the electrician determined the cause of the problem you would be given several repair options and quoted the exact and final price to make the repair. We would only make any needed repairs upon your written approval. If it was a simple loose connection, faulty breaker or something that could be repaired during the diagnostic there would be no additonal charges. After checking your breaker and determining that there was a shorted circuit, the electricians had to pull your hardwired, permanently installed dishwasher out. This was no small feat as your flooring was installed AFTER the dishwasher so the unit had to be carefully lifted above the flooring. It was not possible for only one person to have gotten it out, so it was fortunate that we had sent an apprentice along with the Journeyman electrican. We charge exactly the same if we send one man or 3 men. Again, our prices are flat rate not hourly or by the man. Upon lifting & pulling your dishwasher from the wall, the electricians discoverd that when it was installed, it was installed on top of the wire which supplied power to the dishwasher, and that ultimately caused the wire to burn up & create a short circuit. We determined that the crushed wire was shorting out your electrical circuit breaker. Diagnostic work is a process of elimination. What you claim was wasted time "looking at other things" was the diagnostic process where we look FIRST at the most common causes of these types of issues and rule them out one by one. No electrician would have begun the troubleshooting process for this by "just pulling out the dishwasher". Most dishwashers are not installed on top of the supply wire as yours was and "just pulling out" a hardwired permanently installed dishwasher is very rarely necessary. You were offered the option for us to replace the bad wire and hardwire the dishwasher back into the wall with the wire free & clear from the weight of the dishwasher. That was the least expensive repair option. You CHOOSE for us to remove the hardwired 120v cable and install a new appliance cord which would then be plugged into an outlet instead of hardwired into the wall. ($126) Since there was no outlet present, you requested us to install a brand new outlet box and plug in order to plug in your dishwasher instead of having it hardwired. ($269). You were also given an Angies list discount of $72. Before proceeding with the repair and installation of the new outlet, you approved these charges in writing as well as the cost of the diagnostic in advance of us doing the work. After the electricians were done, you were asked if you were satisfied. You then signed the invoice stating that you had approved the charges, agreed to pay and were satisfied with the work done as well as the clean-up we did. After leaving this review, you called our office claiming that we charged you for work that we did not do. You said we charged you to diagnose your dishwasher but that there was nothing wrong with the dishwasher. We do not work on or diagnose problems with appliances, only electrical issues, which you clearly had. You told our electricians that you were going to get the dishwasher installer to pay the diagnostic charge since the improper installation of the wiring was the cause of the problem. Your problem, as we discovered during our diagnosis was a shorted out electrical supply wire to the dishwasher because the dishwahser was crushing it! It was clearly an electrical problem, not an appliance problem. We called you to discuss this and evidently you felt that no diagnostic was required?? If we had xray vision and could see through walls and behind / under appliances, we might not need to charge for the knowldege, or our years of experience, or the time it takes to diagnose electrical problems. There are too many different causes of electrical outages to list and there is no way to know what the issue is, unless we troubleshoot the issue. This is what the diagnostic charge covers. No reputable company figures out the problem for free. If you take your car to the shop, they charge you to find out what is wrong. Electricians are no different. We have to charge to find the problem. Had the appliance been properly installed to begin with, you would not have experienced this issue. However, because our electricians (or anyone else's) do not have xray vision and the cause of the problem was not out in a visible location, besides being a very rare occurance such as this, yes a diagnostic charge was clearly warranted. The additional repairs were not only your choice, but your idea, and were approved by you, in writing, in advance of installing the outlet and putting a cord on the dishwasher. To address your other F ratings: Price F: See above. We are sorry you were not happy with the price we charge. We did not pressure you in any way to hire us for our services and you approved each and every charge in advance as well as upon completion. Quality, Responsiveness, Professionalism: Your electrician is one of the best and most competent electricians we have ever had on our team. He is unfailingly polite, professional, meticulous and neat and is highly skilled. We get many compliments and positive reviews on both his workmanship and demeanor with customers. Punctuality: You were given an arrival window of between 9- 12 am. Our electricians arrived at 9:24 and you were called when they were on their way. Due to the nature of our business we do sometimes run behind, however this was not one of those times. We are sorry you feel that warranted an F for punctuality. We care deeply about giving our customers a positive experience and about their satisfaction. Unfortunately there are times where the customers expectations are not realistic or fair and this is one of them. We are sorry you were dissatisfied but we feel that we delivered the service you hired us for at a price you agreed to and was fair to both you, the customer, and our company.