Electrical Quandry

8 years ago

Looking for some advice and input from electricians/contractors here.

Long story short, I hired an electrician I have been very unhappy with to upgrade an old panel to 200amps. He gave me an estimate of $1800.

It has been a nightmare dealing with this guy but after over a week of work it took him and his crew, the panel passed inspection but the power company needed the meter moved.

Before this happened I got an invoice for $4000, with a single line item for the panel change and meter move (which had not been done yet). I tried to ask for more detail in the invoice seeing as how it was more than twice the bid for the panel and he had said the meter move would only run $700-$1000. Tired of working with this guy, I got a general contractor who has a good electrician to do the meter move instead.

When the old electrician told me his crew was going out to tear down ivy and move the meter, I told him to stop and that we'd regroup next week.

They did the work anyway.

I am at a loss for what to do next. Professionals here on Houzz (who I am assuming are far, far more professional than this electrician), how would you want a customer to handle this? If one of your employees or subcontractors did something like this, what would you want to happen?

Thank you for any advice you can give!

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Comments (2)

Steve J
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
What, if any, of the detailed work to be done and estimate is in writing from the electrician?
DavidR
8 years ago
Sorry, you asked for pro input and I'm not one, so I kept my hands under the desk and didn't respond before now.

But a few things jump out at me here. First, I have to wonder why you contracted with an electrician you'd been unhappy with before.

I also don't understand what really happened at your house. You say "I got a general contractor who has a good electrician to do the meter move instead," but then you seem to say that the first electrician came out and moved it again? So both electricians moved the meter? How did that go down?

Though I'm not an attorney, I'd have to say that if you signed a contract for the panel installation, but not for moving the meter, IMO that's all that the first electrician should have delivered. I'd think you were within your rights to have a different contractor move the meter pan, if that's what you wanted. And it does seem really odd that even after you told him not to, the first electrician went ahead and did the work.

But if you had a verbal agreement with him to move the meter, that could muddy things. You should probably discuss this with an attorney, to figure out where you stand in this.

BTW, a week to swap out a panel seems excessive to me. I had a new weatherhead, mast, meter pan, and panel (same capacity as the old service, 100 amps) put in one of my rentals several years ago. IIRC, the electrician did it all in a day, maybe even less (I wasn't there the whole time).

My panel swap also cost less than half what you quote as your first estimate, but that was quite a while ago, so maybe it's not indicative of current costs.
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