Cole Electric Inc.

Hi Michael: We are very happy that you got your power back on. But since you were not actually the one to contact us and you were not at the house when we were, I would like to add some details:

You are correct that we were very responsive. Your girlfriend, Breonna, contacted us on Monday 6/26 at 6:31 am through Yelp. We responded by 7:00 am. Because she told us that most of the house did not have power, and that she had been having escalating power issues for months, we rearranged a packed day to have our licensed Senior Master Electrician troubleshoot the issue. He arrived at 8:40 am that same day.

Your review gives the impression that we charged Breonna an outrageous fee without doing anything. This is not correct. Unlike some competitors, we don’t charge a fee for just arriving, we only charge for work we do towards solving your problem. Troubleshooting requires experience and tools and is indeed work.

Our master electrician and his assistant worked on the problem for well over an hour. They did significant troubleshooting – opening and testing at more than a half dozen receptacles and switches to try to puzzle out the location of the short circuit. He quickly identified that a large part of your home is on a single, overloaded, 15 amp circuit. It appeared to have been modified multiple times and showed signs of cross connection to other circuits. (We commonly see this kind of dangerous thing in flipped houses like yours where unpermitted changes and additions have been made.) Not finding a simple cause, our electrician then planned to painstakingly trace the wire runs to pinpoint the short. Because much of your wiring goes through the crawlspace, they needed to go down there to trace the circuit. In the crawlspace, however, they saw standing water, presumably from the recent storms. That, combined with observed rigged and illegal wiring, made it potentially very dangerous. He therefore decided to delay work in the crawlspace until it was dried out.

Since he believed that tracing wires in the crawlspace would be required, and we never want to waste time or overcharge a customer, he explained to Breonna that because they had not yet found the issue, he intended to come back once the crawlspace had dried out, when it would not be dangerous to the crew. Because they failed to solve this in one trip, we chose to charge her a discounted rate for only the first hour of the work ($175) and we offered to give her an additional credit for part of that fee on our return visit to fix this problem.

You said another electrician solved it in a few minutes, but you didn’t explain how. Knowing what our own expert had already seen and done, there are three possible ways the other electrician succeeded: 1) The cause was actually moisture from the storm (which we saw in the breaker panel as well as the crawlspace) and that electrician coincidently arrived as it dried out enough to start working by itself; 2) the electrician chose to do something illegal in the panel that no licensed electrician would do; or 3) the electrician got extremely lucky and found something that we somehow missed.

As I said, I’m happy that you got your power back on. However, I suspect that you will continue to have power troubles because of the poor condition of this home’s wiring. I would strongly recommend that you have a competent, licensed electrician inspect and correct your wiring so that it can be made safe and reliable.

It was are pleasure to take care of your electrical issues. Communication makes the whole process smoother. Smoke detectors and early warning save lives ! Thank you for choosing our company and taking the time to share your experience.

We specialize in panel replacements and service upgrades. The electrical panel is the heart of your home electrically. Many are overloaded or just outdated . We can now even upgrade panels for portable generators to supply your basic needs during power outtages and storms . I appreciate your comments and will share them with the guys. Thank you .

We greatly appreciate your business as well as taking the time to post a review. We look forward to helping with any other projects in the future.