Universal Home Experts

I was pretty happy with them. I had no complaints. They seemed to do a pretty good job checking the electrical system of the house. The price seemed a little high.

I called and told them I was an Angie's list member and that I needed the two chandeliers lowered. I explained the job, but they said we would need to have the guy come out to see before he could give a hard estimate. They did warn me that there was a $59 service call charge, but that can be applied to the job. I don't like to pay for estimates, but the reviews here made me sure I'd want to use them so I said, ok. (never again) The guy came and was here for almost an hour. Yes, almost an hour and did NO WORK. He listened to what we wanted and asked some questions and then asked if he could sit at our dining table to figure up the estimate. He warned me that already he would have to come back another day because 1) he didn't have the tall ladder on his truck, and 2) he would need help to do the job. I was already irritated because I had already explained the job over the phone so I figured they knew what would be necessary to do the job. When he finally finished writing up the estimate we sat down at the table so he could explain the charges. It looked like this: 1 Service Partner Membership -------------$129 2 Install Chandeliers ---------------------------$734 1 Assemble Chandelier (giving one free) $157 1 16 foot ladder ----------------------------------$218 1 wiring of fixture (one free)-------------------$218 Total with discount for Service Member--$1456 I read this and was almost speechless. Flabbergasted, I began to ask questions: "What is the cost without the membership?" Answer "10% more"; "Why do I have to pay for Assembling and Wiring in addition to installing? Doesn't installing cover the assembling and wiring?" Answer, "No, it's all itemized." Question: "Why is it $218 for the ladder? I think I could buy my own ladder for that price!" Answer, "That's just the charge for having to bring it into your home." Then came the sales pitch. If you buy the Service Partner Membership you get this price which is discounted 10%, PLUS you get a free AC/Heating Service call to access the status of your AC units. (No telling what estimate would look like!) I sent the guy home and decided to make another call to another electrician also recommended on Angie's list. I called and spoke to the guy at Trim Electric. After I told him what I wanted done he said, "That should take 2-3 hours. Our charge is $65 for the first half hour and $60 for every half hour after that, plus materials. The total should be between $300-400. My response: "SOLD! When can you come?" Their final bill looked like this: Removed (2) existing chandeliers in foyer and rewired to be lowered and installed back on ceiling. Installed (2) customer supplied medallions. Materials --------------------------- $15.00 Service Charge and Labor ---$305.00 Tax ----------------------------------$ 1.24 TOTAL-------------------------------$321.24 Savings: $1134.76 Bottom line: Don't use Universal unless you want to pay through the nose.

Used a $74.00 coupon to get an electrical inspection done. The price above includes the coupon. Was very pleased with the professional Universal Wiring employees. One performed the inspection and replaced one light fixture and two others came out a few days later to take care of the rest. They were very prompt, clean, efficient and polite. Service was excellent. They came on time, didn't waste time getting the job done, cleaned up very well after themselves. They gave me an estimate prior to doing the work. However, I failed to get other bids, and only discovered later that I could have had the same work for quite a bit less.

The gentleman that came to the house was very professional. He even wore his little covers on his shoes. I had them come out to give an estimate on various items for the house. What I did not realize was this company has a "club" plan. Basically.. you get an electrician to come out whenever needed and if you join the plan you get a discounted rate. I only needed a few items done and did not plan to have them "on call" sorta speak with a club plan. The regular rate and the "club plan" rate both in my opinion were outrageously expensive. I did not end up letting them do any work. The have set rate categories and depending on what the job is - is where it falls in the set rate. Sorry - too expensive for my blood.

They are well trained. They are very knowledgeable. The electrician that came to my house was very nice. He gave me different scenarios and the price for each. He started with the least expensive, and the did the trick. He was on time.

I was very impressed with them. I got them through Angie’s List. They really listen to me when I talk, and they do what they can do. They did a lot of things that they didn’t charge me for which I appreciate. I had work done last year, and they didn’t do it properly, so while they were out there and did some of the work, I had to stay for some of it, but they were fair. I just really appreciate them. I would definitely use them again in the future; in fact, I will be calling them out for my electrical work.

Showed up on time, was very professional did an outstnding job. No suprises.

The company's representatives visited me in response to my request (which had resulted from an Email Notification from Angie's List) for an estimate for installation of UV Equipment. Their inspection revealed that the HVAC systems at our home had several defects that required attention. See above list of Services performed. The proposal submitted by them was discussed, technically and commercially and an agreement reached. The company was punctual, responsive and dependable. I take it that they have performed good work, but it is too early to give a final judgment on that in such a short time. I felt that their prices were on the higher side, but to be fair I did not obtain any competitive offers, due to lack of time. All in all I would at this point in time categorize their performance as very satisfactory and dependable.

Overall it went very well and they recommended alot of work to be done on the powerboard.

I was running a few minutes late from work but Michael was super patient and awesome. He was waiting by my doorstep when I approached. I showed him the two outlets that were not working and he immediately diagnosed the problem. He answered all my silly home owner questions about the work at hand. He was very knowledgable and kind. He walked me through step by step what needed to be done and the costs associated with the work. It took him no more than 20 minutes start to finish. I absolutely enjoyed having them perform the work at my house and have already recommended them to a friend.

Great Called him and he fixed it in minutes.

Our electrical service line (ESL) from the CenterPoint Energy junction pad to our electric meter was an underground line about 150 feet long. It was damaged by a lightening strike which caused the line to suffer periodic voltage surges. The line would eventually short out completely. The voltage surges, if allowed to continue, would have eventually damaged our home's electrical and electronic equipment. Running a replacement line underground would have involved digging up concrete pool patio and at least one tree. Universal ran a new line to the back of our garage, installed a new electrical meter, and then ran the new ESL through the garage attic, breezeway attic, and house attic. The new ESL was then routed outside and down to our existing electrical breaker box. This was unique solution which was actually less expensive and much less damaging than replacing the damaged underground ESL. This ESL replacement was covered by our homeowners insurance which reduced the out-of-pocket costs.

Dennis came out and looked at the situation, we had lost electrical power to the house, it turned out the main cable from the transformer to the meter had corroded, and needed replacement. The replacement would have to be heavy copper wire placed in plastic conduit 18"+ in the ground. Dennis gave a quote for $5,651 for all of the work. Also gave a quote if I dug the trench and laid the conduit of $1,383. Introduced a home protection program where for about $350 a year they would perform the lateral repair for free if ever it failed, as long as I paid this annual premium. This was strange and a grab for easy money, because the aluminum wire lateral had laster over 35 years, and the copper I was installing will last indefinitely. I dug the trench but could not open the meter box to connect the conduit, so I decided to contract out the remainder of the work. I called Dennis up, said I had dug the trench, he needed to quote me a new amount since he would be doing the conduit additional to the $1,383 for the remainder of the work. He quoted me a price of $4386. I was incredulous, this was an additional $3000 to install about 65 feet of plastic pipe. I offered to pay $2500 for the remainder of the work, over $1100 additional for installing the pipe, but he refused. I eventually found an electrician to do the remainder of the work for $1600, they also repaired some extra items at the panel. Total cost including the trench of $2100.

They are very good. I have been very satisfied with the services.

They looked at my air conditioning unit - they came out on a holiday, they were very professional and everything went very well! They provided excellent service.

They were very professional and were very informative.

They arrived late for the initial appointment, and wound up scheduling to come back to perform the work. They arrived on time for the return appointment and finished early, cleaning up behind themselves. Although they had to make wallboard cuts, they were careful with their cuts so I didn't have any followup wall repairs to perform. So far, the restored circuit and the new circuit are working fine. I have no problem with the quality of their work. However, they were very expensive for the amount of time they spent doing the work. My expectations may be unrealistic, but I thought their price tag had too many digits in it given the amount of time that was spent performing the work. You may consider getting more than one bid for the work, or at a minimum asking them to provide some breakdown on the pricing.

While a little pricey, there was no surprises after a thorough estimate was given. Both the office staff and the technican who actually did the job were top notch. I am completely satisfied with the job.

They were very good, friendly, and went out of his way to get the job done in a quick manner. He worked hard to make sure the customer is pleased.

They did their job which is exactly what I wanted. I would recommend others to give them a try because I have a regular electric company that I use. I always like to give somebody else a try as a backup or to see how they work in comparison to what I have.

I had just moved into a house and expected that ATT would have the phone "turned on" but there was no service on my phone. ATT charges $100 just to come out for any phone issues inside your house so I called Universal, which has a smaller fee to come out. I had used Universal a few times at another house so I expected honest service and that is what I recieved. The Universal electrician was able to show me what ATT had to do to activat the line (the problem was not in my home) and assisted me to write my "script" for calling back ATT and letting them know what needed to be done. So that would have been a fair deal. However, the electrician also provided a check of my homes current electric service. I purchased a mid-century (60 year old) home so the electric status was a big unknown. He let me know what was okay and what could use some fixn', and even provided a detailed quote. So I essentially recieved an inspection and home electric 101 class for free. Good stuff... definately seems to be business as usual for Universal.

They were good. They came out and checked out the house and found the problems that I had with wiring. It seems like they fixed the problem I haven't had any issues with it since.

The technician arrived promptly and was very professional and knowledgeable. He determined where he thought the source of the problem was located and provided a couple of options for a possible solution. The Pros, Cons and prices were reviewed for each option. I felt the prices quoted for repair were a bit high, however the FREE whole house electrical inspection that was included in the $59 service fee, was a huge bonus. Although I believe the technician was very experienced and capable, the quotes were enough to make me consider trying another company. At this time, a decision has not yet been made.

The did a complete examination of my electrical system and offered very good suggestions on how to increase my energy efficiency and safety.

It was determined that there would be somebody else that would be better suited. It had to do with cable wiring. The gentleman was very nice. He could have done 50% of what I needed done but I would have had to find someone else to do the other, so I just paid him the $59 service charge and contacted someone else. Quality of service was not the best and not the worst either.