BLIZZARD ELECTRIC

Whatever you do, never ever hire Blizzard Electric! We have done many home construction and renovation jobs over the years (with first and second homes) and never have we encountered such a horrible contractor experience. Although the Randy Vonbernewitz's employee, who did the electrical installation on a new construction addition to our house, did adequate work, there were a couple of big mistakes that had to be re-done. But mostly dealing with Randy, including his condescending attitude, was beyond acceptable. First of all, he didn't give us a clear itemized estimate of the work. When I asked for a rough floor plan so I could keep track of what was to be done, he refused to do so. Also, his estimate and subsequent invoices were presented in an inscrutable form of percentages of items. This required hours on our part to decipher and check. And guess what! We discovered that his accounting system made a mistake that ended up thousands in error. When, after this endless puzzling work, we presented this to Randy, he re-did the numbers by hand and agreed that the amount due was lower than his bill. But did he apologize? Nah. He also charged for more hours worked by his employee than what I observed being on the site. In addition to the billing issues, he was horrible to deal with. He would delay sending his worker and then the worker would come for a day to do something, and you'd never know when he'd return to finish the next bit. Then Randy kept promising to fix a ceiling fan in another part of the house and he never got to around to discuss scheduling it. We waited all summer with many days of intense heat. And also when I asked whether he could install a remote controlled heat thermostat he said it didn't exist for baseboard heating. When I found one online he just said, yeah, that'll work. How does an electrician not know this? he was equally unhelpful with light fixture shopping. We are so so sorry we ever got involved with the worst contractor ever.

The estimate of $1350 was provided by telephone, without a house visit. I found a less costly alternative.

Randy is fair, smart, knowledgeable and trustworthy, listens well to our needs, and responds quickly and efficiently. Blizzard is the BEST in our book!

came when he said he would. then the problems began. he began underground repair by taking a relatively expensive junction vault which is supposed to be cut or drilled to accommodate wires and broke out area needed with a hammer. he left the shards of material on ground, never cleaning up. he drilled through foundation for new service. originally, he wanted to come out of house frame, above grade. this was structurally impossible. i also needed a phone line installed which i supplied. he put the new service underground as i requested but when i returned home the phone line which would have been easier to install than the service he drilled through foundation was stubbed (finished) above grade and fastened to the siding of the house. i left him a blank check so he would be paid in full when he was done. when i returned home the rear mud room was still a mess (it was raining but he could have swept up metal shavings his work left behind). the bill was staggering. we had agreed on the cost of the underground 100 amp service but did not agree on the cost of the repair to the existing underground service coming into house. when i checked his prices for the materials they were 200% higher than retail. i work in the building trades and know what a fair markup is from wholesale. i put a stop on the check which i have never done before. i called him and told him that i was totally unsatisfied with his price and would not pay it. he did renegotiate but i had to redo some of his work and when i finished it took considerably longer than i expected. after an additional conversation we settled on a price. the underwriter passed the repair on the damaged house service (which i had to do remedial work to) but never inspected the 100 amp service installed by blizzard electric. i was charged for an inspection. when i emailed blizzard, he never responded. i would recommend that if you hire him, get an explicit written contract stating exactly what you are getting for the price. then, be there when the work is done and is something is sloppy, call him on it. i would not use him again