A-1 Electrical Contracting

Called A-1, Bay and Tam's with an issue brought up by my current insurance carrier.  Bay never called back, Tam did not follow up, but Robert at A-1 called and set a time to take a look.

Robert came to calmly and graciously give me advice on how to proceed.  He advised that the expense of the work demanded by the insurance company was out of line and to seek another insurance carrier.

Result: no work for A-1, but the creation of a dedicated future customer (me) appreciative of honesty and respectful treatment.  A-1 will remain in my phone book as my electrician of choice.

Lights went out in my house and we tried all the breakers.. only one outlet worked after that. Gave Richard a call and he talked me through it. We were able to fix the problem in 10 minutes! The power was out longer than that.

Thanks again so much Richard!

Robert is excellent and a pleasure to work with, and (to my surprise as I've rarely experienced this with contractors), clearly communicates, both when making appointments, but also when explaining the possible options and course of actions.

He also doesn't rush to leave the job, but carefully evaluates and doesn't leave until both he and you are satisfied. I had a gnarly job that required him to buy new equipment and come back on two separate days and he still felt bad how long it all took and gave me a special price. Quality guy, greatly recommended.

Robert is the most reliable electrician I have used in sf. He has been at it since '85 so he has been around the block and has seen everything.

When smoke started coming out of our breakerbox we panicked! Robert gave us good advise immediately over the phone and he showed up first thing in the morning to fix the issue. Robert was able to guide us through deducing the issue and once he found the problem he fixed it in no time. On a Sunday. And he was a pleasure to work with. We could not recommend him highly enough! I'm calling Robert for all my electrical moving forward.

Robert was one of the few emergency 24/7 electricians in the SF Bay we could find that would answer his phone after hours. He was completely transparent and said it was his night off and would help us out by referring us to someone he knew in our immediate area! I have a lot of respect for him for doing that and giving the business to someone else when he could have easily passed. And the referral he provided was excellent and fixed our issue in no time! Highly recommend this standup person!

Wow. My tenants could not figure out how to change the batteries on their smoke alarm. It was beeping incessantly. I am not blaming them as I should have made sure it was changed on schedule.

I say wow because I am not in SF, I called 7 electricians and Robert at A-1 was the only one who VOLUNTEERED at no cost to call my tenants and walk them through the fix rather than cost me $200 to send someone out. To me, that is exceptional customer service. Talent + care. Thank you Robert.

Highly recommend Robert. When my part of power went out on a 7 pm on Saturday night, he answered my call immediately and recommended that I wait until morning to save some money, since I still have partial power. He showed up promptly in the morning to address the issue in our ancient marina building with power boxes from the 1920s.... quick, friendly and affordable! Will definitely be calling him again if needed.

Robert did a great job of installing a chandelier in our apt. He's a straight shooter and definitely knows what he's doing. We liked his work so much that we hired him to work on an electrical project at our restaurant shortly after. He is friendly, honest and reliable and we highly recommend him!

I had a great experience working with Robert. He attended to my job request with urgency and showed up promptly the next morning. Robert was very upfront with pricing and quickly helped me diagnose the problem and resolved my issue within the hour. I would definitely recommend him for your electrical needs. Thanks!

Robert is awesome.  I had a last minute emergency at my work office where we needed some wires pulled and added and the electrician I had originally hired cancelled on us.  I called Robert and he was there, same day, working hard and getting the job done without a complaint.  I am grateful for his hard work- it's hard to find such genuine people to work with these days!  I highly recommend giving Robert a call because he will come through for you and go above and beyond to make sure the job is done right.  He even ran to the store to get staples & plugs & ect that matched our black wire.  Great guy.  Will hire again.

Robert responded quickly and courteously, clearly knew his stuff, and got right down to business, helpfully pointing out areas of concern that might save us headaches in the future.

Robert is awesome! I ended up in a bind this morning when my electric car charger blew the circuit and left the bottom floor of our house without power. I had no idea that this was the problem but Robert had the whole thing diagnosed and the house back online in about 10 minutes flat! He walked me through what at gone wrong a second time so I could handle it myself in the future. Seriously I couldn't have had a better experience.

I can't say enough about how great Robert was to work with. We gave Robert a call late at night and he was out the next day to hang a light fixture. We had hired someone previously from another company who left mid project and said we should hire a real electrician. Robert is the real deal and I will now be recommending him to all of my friends in the SF area. He offered a great price, showed up on time, and kept us updated with texts on his way to our house. I will absolutely have Robert come out for any future projects.

Holy moly Rob is the best! Emergency calls picked up at 5 am

35 years of experience right here. He knows what he is talking about and has been in probably every experience you can think off. He know how to do everything professionally and uses his heads for the number necessary when hooking up electronics properly. He does not cut corners and is a great guy.

Will be my electrician from now on 24/7.  

He helped us fix a hood problem after our hood motor put us out of business for a day. He was on it right away even though he was completely booked. He next morning when the business were open he ran to our place at 5 to begin a job himself then went all the way to burlingame to pick up our parts and had everything done so we could open up our doors again.

Thank you for saving our small business! You are incredible Rob!

A #1, indeed!
While I may not be wild about the similarly-named steak sauce, this small business is wildly deserving of your patronage and earns a 5-star  recommendation from my husband and I, who were blown away by the friendly and helpful proprietor, Robert. It's rare these days -- especially in this town! -- to encounter someone who takes pride in their craft and who seems driven less by profit motive than by a genuine desire to be kind and helpful.

Thanks to Robert's patience and generosity, he helped resolve a problem with a tripped circuit breaker in our apartment, which easily saved us a huge amount of hassle and hang-wringing-- not to mention a significant savings in costs for an unnecessary replacement part.
Not only are our lights back on this evening, but our faith in humanity got a boost as well. Robert is the Real Deal.... and we'll definitely call him the next time our DIY wiring goes awry.

Robert was great. I called with an emergency, around 6pm on a Wednesday, my house was out of power. Robert sat on the phone with me, and walked me through steps on what to do. He even had me send him a picture of my fuse box to figure out the problem. All while his dinner was right in front of him!! Never met the guy, but he helped me as if he was a good friend of mine. I would recommend him to anyone.

Hate to give this guy a bad review because he's a nice dude and the price was pretty fair for the work he did, but it was like herding cattle trying get him to finish the job.  It was two hours work total and he said he was going to come by and get it done three different times and canceled or didn't show each time.  finally got him to get someone there on the 4th time.

**Update After Talking To Owner**
I appreciate that Robert the owner reached out to me and cares enough about his business to monitor his reviews.  I was happy with the price of the job he did and maybe this was a particularly busy time of the year so that made scheduling harder.  But I was still disappointed that I had to contact him so many times to get the follow-up installation done.  

Who knows if it was just one of those things, but since he is a nice guy I'm sure we'll give them another shot because the work was good as was the price.

This review goes beyond Electrical Panels & lighting fixtures.

5 Stars for many reasons...

~They done a thorough inspection & consultation and assembled the best team!
~They worked on the project in one day over the weekend.
~The surface conduits they installed were beautifully & artistically made.
~They went above & beyond the call of duty by installing lighting fixtures.
~The cost of all the work they did was very affordable & reasonable.
~They worked very hard with a smile :)
~They delivered to their commitment...
Robert & Collin stayed till almost midnight to finish their work, during the NFC Championship Game. That in my books is priceless!

Now we have up to code electrical circuits & properly distributed electricity in the space..Thank you again Robert & Collin!

~Christina & Jamie

A few minutes ago, Robert finished his job. In less than 3 hours, he was able to install a new socket for me in my laundry closet. It was terrific work and a job well done. I liked the fact that he was courteous and set my expectations clearly. He even went out of his way to inform me that he was running about 30 minutes late and that he gave me a reasonable estimate to do work that I couldn't have done myself.

Robert has a really great attitude and work ethic. His personality is funny and he was careful to explaining what his steps were. He admitted that sometimes luck is on his side and that sometimes you find ways to be creative about getting the job done.

I commend Robert for his hard work, cleaning up after himself, being courteous, friendly, and willing to share knowledge.

I would use this guy again, and hope that he's able to find other yelpers who would agree with me.

I'd definitely call him again, when I need him to install recessed lights in my condo.

Robert was very helpful when we called him around 10pm. He actually never ended up coming out to our home but I am still writing this review due to the following:

Robert was candid over the phone and said he wanted to save us money by seeing if the electrical issue we were having was an easy fix. He did say he was happy to come out and FIRST made sure we were safe (i.e. no smoke coming out anywhere - need to call 911?). He advised us on how to fix the problem as he was familiar with our type of home in Twin Peaks, and luckily, everything worked!

So even though we have not used Robert's service, we were very grateful he provided free advice over the phone. He is clearly passionate about his job and if ever we come across electrical problems, we are calling A-1 Electrical Contracting.

Thank you, Robert, for everything!

At 9pm at night, I was expecting to leave a voice mail on the various electrical issues that we are seeing in our building. Not only did Robert pick up the phone, he was patient, listened to each issue, and explained what could be the potential problem!

I called Robert and he answered and said he's getting an inspection but would be there in 1.5 hours. Sure enough he showed us and know exactly what was wrong. Our main panel contacts had become corroded and the contacts weren't sound. Another electrician that came over said we needed to call PG&E to cut the power before it can be worked on but Robert said that wasn't necessary. Sure enough he came the very next morning with all his tools and fixed it in about an hour. He was very professional and I'd call him for any of my other electrical needs. Also his pricing was very reasonable.

I called Robert well after business hours after a weird partial power outage in my building. He didn't just pick up right away, he walked me through troubleshooting the problem over the phone. Turned out PG&E needed to come out, which I wouldn't have known if not for his (totally gratis) help. He then proactively texted me back to check on the progress. Apparently Robert now actually works at Haley Electric (he shared this with me after I asked how I could repay his generosity), but he's the first and only electrician I'd call if I ever need help again.

Robert is definitely an expert in his craft! Within a few minutes he had the problem diagnosed and an affordable solution for me. He thoroughly explained what the issue was and even gave me advice going forward with how to conserve more electricity. He is now my first line of defense if I run into any other electrical problems in the future. Can't say enough about him - really happy with my experience!!!

Robert is the only electrician who picked up the phone on a Saturday, and he continued to go above and beyond to get the job done. It's rare to find a vendor who exceeds expectations. Thanks for being one of them, Robert!

Last night, I turned a small space heater in the bedroom and a toaster oven in the kitchen not realizing they were on the same circuit. As a result,  the power was interrupted for about half the house.  I tried the usual procedure of checking the circuit breakers, but was not successful.  This morning, I called Robert and told him my story.  He said he would be free in about an hour.  Fifteen minutes later, he was at the door and in short order found the problem, check the wiring in the breaker box and had all the power back on.  Additionally, he gave me a lot of information about preventing such interruptions. It helps to know which outlets are on the same circuit so your don't overload them.  It was a relief to know there was no big problem and the circuit breakers did what they were intended to do.   His service fee was very reasonable for a house call and the peace of mind of having an expect check our the box and test they wiring.     One could not ask for better than excellent service from a expert with years of experience  and a problem solved satisfactorily with an hour of calling.

Robert came to assess an outlet need I have, for a Sonos speaker inside a cabinet, where the cables were a mess. While at the store, he came up with a great idea that made it look vastly better than I hoped. He went the extra mile, returning to the store twice to make it right. He is skilled and good-humored and a good man. And, he perseveres until he gets the job right. As I told him as he left my house, You came and I had music. Now I have music and beauty! Thank you, Robert.

Robert is a pleasure to work with. He has helped us with electrical issues in our baby's room twice (two different apartments), and both times he resolved the problems very quickly. Safety is his #1 concern. We wouldn't call anyone else! Thanks!

Robert picked up the phone late midnight and helped me fix my issues. He saved me a lot of $ and would highly recommend him for all my electrical needs.

I had a problem with my circuit breakers and the electrician was able to coach me through fixing it over the phone without having to come on-site or charge me. He was very friendly and helpful.

I found Robert on yelp late at night. We only arrived in San Francisco that day on vacation. Our apartment power turned off unexpectedly!!! With 2 children unsettled and unable to successfully make contact with the owner of our apartment i found his listing on the internet. He talked my husband through  and fixed the problem!! Thank you so much for helping us freaked out Aussies. And yes you are the best electrician in San Francisco. We are very grateful. Charmaine & Peter.

Robert at A-1 Electrical saved us tonight.

We came home on a Sunday night to a burning smell coming from our electrical box (not something you ever want to experience). PG&E told us to call the fire department. We really didn't want to call the fire department, but we did. Twenty-five or so firefighters showed up, inspected the place, and determined that we really needed PG&E. PG&E finally showed up, opened up our electrical panel, and discovered that most of our circuit breakers were burnt out in the back. They said we needed an electrician immediately to re-build our circuit box, or else they would have to cut service to our house.

Our landlord was unavailable so we started calling every 24-hour electrician we could find. Several didn't answer. Robert answered the phone and said he would be here in 30-45 minutes. And he was here within that window, by far.

He was polite, upbeat, and very re-assuring. He replaced the whole box in under an hour with higher quality parts than we originally had, and he even consolidated breakers to leave us with extra space in the box to expand if we ever needed to. As for cost, it's hard to say how his rates compare to other electricians. I've never had emergency electrical work (or really any electrical work done) so I can't really compare. The fee seemed reasonable considering the time of day and the magnitude of the problem.

As a final note, I use Yelp frequently to find restaurants and other businesses, but I have never been inspired to review a business. It's not really my thing. This is the first time that I've really wanted to tell others about my experience with a local business so I think that says a lot about my experience with this company.

Robert picked up the phone when I called him late night and was able to walk me through over the phone how to fix my electrical problem. He saved me a lot of time and money. Highly recommend giving these guys a call for any electrical needs.

Robert is the best.  I called him around 10:30 pm after a short knocked out the power in my apartment. First he tried to talk me through finding the problem on the phone (at no charge).  Then he came over 20 minutes later and fixed everything. Turned out it was a circuit breaker that I thought I had thrown back on, but I guess I didn't push it hard enough.  He felt badly that it was such an easy fix, so he replaced the outlet that had burned out in the short. Who knew there were still 24-hour electricians???

Robert at A1 also saved us. We called him at 7pm on a Friday night. After getting our oven repaired, the GE guy left and we turned it on and it knocked out the power to the range and the refrigerator. It was late on a friday evening and we had a fridge full of food and baby milk (and a sleep deprived wife on the verge of a nervous breakdown). I had flipped the breakers but I had not flipped the main or hit the reset button on the outlets in the kitchen. He patiently walked me through it over the phone (with the tone of someone directing the flight attendant to land a plane after the pilot has a heart attack). He saved me from getting off to a really bad start to my weekend and I'll definitely be calling A-1 next time we need an electrician.

I literally created this account for this review. We got home and discovered a bunch of our outlets weren't working, including the one for the fridge. Called Robert at 8pm on a Friday night, he talked us through the problem over the phone and charged us nothing. Excellent customer service. We will definitely be using him in the future.

We needed electricity to our downstairs bathroom for a fan.  Robert hooked us up!  He installed a beautiful new light fixture and a fan and gave us dimmer switches for them both.  Robert and his son worked quickly to get our work done.  They were reasonably priced and our fan works great.  They even discovered some shotty wiring we currently had and fixed it for us for a few bucks more.  We would highly recommend A-1 Electrical Contracting!

we had the very good fortune of connecting with robert tonight.  at 9:30pm, we blew a fuse in our home tonight affecting our bedroom, our 4-year old's bedroom and the bedroom of our 4-day old infant.  we called a-1 electrical contracting and spoke to robert, who (get this!) talked us through the problem over the phone.  he was able to coach my husband through the problem fairly quickly and, thankfully, we have our electricity  back tonight.  the biggest surprise was that he didn't charge us for his service, a super generous thing to do, especially in the late hour.  thank you robert for knowing your stuff and for being a kick-ass human being when we needed help tonight.  obviously, we'll call him for any future electrical work.

supposedly open 24 hours, but phone just rings and rings, no answer