Response from Wilcox Electric LLC
I am very sorry that this Member had an upsetting exchange with Wilcox Electric. I would ask him to check his Inbox and Spam folders for an emailed response from shay@wilcox-electric.com at 1:54pm, Thursday 7/27. This misunderstanding could have been avoided if she had asked for the property location before addressing the electrical issue. It is, however, incorrect to assert that we do not return calls or emails. I saw the email in which she explained that we do not service Bethesda, and she recommended another Montgomery County contractor. I don't want to split hairs, but I have to object to the discourteous comment too. The second employee later in the afternoon turned his chair around and consulted with me in the next office. He informed the Member of the same information that was contained in the email. He's a nice man, and I did not hear anything that sounded inappropriate. There is a problem with the way in which Angi.com now assigns service areas. We service Washington, DC mainly with our office in Hyattsville. In order to include the areas that are close to our office (Silver Spring inside the Beltway and Takoma Park), Angi.com puts us in a larger "district" that goes out to Olney! In years past, I could define our area by zip code. I wish that was still the case. With traffic as heavy as it is, we need to maintain a tight geographic coverage. If we did not limit our geographic coverage, we could end up with a one hour service call that requires two hours of travel time round trip in a vehicle that gets 12 miles per gallon. (That was the scenario with this customer.) I fear that we would not stay in business very long if we spent that much time on DC area roads and highways. As a final point, I would add that traffic is the most common answer to a question I always ask during employee evaluations: "What do you like least about working for Wilcox Electric" Answer: "DC traffic" So again, I am very sorry that we upset this Member. I will inform Angi.com about this.