KIRKWOOD & HUNTER ELECTRIC CO

Not good. The owner operator showed up to negotiate the deal and the costs. He did not show up when the work started. I has several problems when took then several days to correct; one they never did fix. I still don't have power to the ceiling fan in our kitchen. They also connected the power source for the dryer wrong and had to come back out for that.

The field manager came to give a quote within a few hours, explained some code issues that would have to be corrected, and gave me a price. I had gotten other quotes but this was the first company that had a reasonable way to resolve the code issues that didn't require tearing out hundreds of feet of electrical wiring and re-doing it. The crew came mid-morning to install the new service panel and other items. They worked well with the CenterPoint technician who pulled the meter and shut off the electricity. By mid-afternoon they had installed the new service panel and asked me to turn on all the lights and check all the electrical outlets in the house. One circuit was not working, so they quickly identified which one it was and got it hooked up. When I wanted to pay them, they said they could not take a credit card because the lady who runs the credit cards does not work on Monday. They blamed me for not asking them ahead of time if they would take a credit card. So I scrambled to transfer money around and wrote them a check. After they left, I realized that they had not sealed around the service panel with caulk and that there was actually a gaping hole exposed in the brick wall (where the electric wires ran into the house) because the new service panel did not line up exactly with the old one. I called them and they came back and looked at it and said they had never sealed around the service panel before and didn't have caulk with them to do it. They said they would come back first thing in the morning to fix it. Although they had picked up most of their trash, they had left 5-6 screws on the driveway where they worked. Fortunately I noticed them and picked them up and avoided a flat tire. They didn't show up first thing in the morning, so I called, and they promised to come before lunch. They didn't show up before lunch. Then they promised to show up at 1pm. When they hadn't shown up by 3pm, I told them I was going to the bank to stop payment on the check if they didn't come by 4:30. In 15 minutes they were at my house with caulk, sealed around the service panel, and fixed the hole. Although generally they had done a good job, at the end they left me with a sour feeling.

The first thing Kirkwood Hunter did was save us $220 by picking up and installing the electric oven. That's how much the company recommended by The Great Indoors wanted to charge. The owner of Kirkwood Hunter, Aaron Hooey, came to our home and laid out a lighting design for us to consider. His team (including Tremaine, who did most of the work at our home) stapled cardboard cutouts to the ceiling where the canned light would be. This was a big help, because we were able to live with the design for a few days before making up our minds. Their estimate and payment terms were good. We didn't have a general contractor, so I had a lot of novice questions, which Aaron and Tremaine patiently answered (no matter how many times I asked!). Kirwood Hunter struck a nice balance between offering advice and following our wishes. They worked quickly and professionally, and always cleaned up after themselves (my pet peeve). There was one glitch -- one of the pendant lights was installed too close to a cabinet, and as a result the cabinet door brushed against it. I called Aaron, and Tremaine immediately came and moved the light an inch and a half. Our new lighting is beautiful and working with Kirkwood Hunter was easy. We will use them again.