David O.
05/09/2023 12:00:00 SA
I worked with Gareth through my contractor on a remodel for my place during 2021-2022. I was satisfied with the quality of the work him and his team did.
A little more than a year afterwards, I was having trouble with a pair of outlets in my kitchen, and one in my garage stopped working. I called to ask them to come check them out. The garage was a dumb mistake on my part - it was one of the ones with a switch on the outlet itself that had flipped, so that was just a matter of pushing the button. The kitchen outlets we weren't able to reproduce the issue, but he gave me an estimate of a few hours of work to change out those outlets for the types with switches.
I was really surprised to be hit with a $260 bill for this short visit of less than 10 minutes where no work was done besides pushing a button and giving me a rough estimate. I am sensitive to not wasting the time of his team, and understand why companies charge a service fee for home visits. I was just really surprised by the amount of the charge, especially given the existing relationship, and that this was pertaining to work his team had installed.
I asked if this charge would be credited towards the work that was estimated, and he said he would give me a 15% discount on it rather than a credit (which would amount to far less money given only a couple hours of work). I asked if he would forgive the amount given the prospect of maintaining the business relationship but he said only if we do work within the next month. I paid the bill and let him know we wouldn't be doing business again.
