So it's bound to happen sometime after thousands of transactions with vendors and it's ALWAYS in your time of need ... we just got ROYALLY screwed over by Mark and H&H Lighting & Electrical! If you want an electrician who has a complete lack of attention to detail and threatens you with a mechanics lien when he was paid but didn't finish the work, OR a contractor who over-promises and under-delivers, H&H is your company.
We found H&H Lighting & Electrical on Yelp due to their high reviews. Mark met with my husband who detailed every single thing that we needed done on our remodel. Mark wrote up an estimate with a few line items on the bigger things and absolutely NO detail on the other smaller things that needed done. We then had him back out two days later because we needed a more detailed estimate to make sure we were on the same page and we had a tight schedule. We also needed to remove items to get closer to our electrical budget, so we removed almost all of the can lights, hard-wired smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, etc. in order to get closer. Mark gave us a new price to meet our budget, but no updated written estimate.
Mark gets started but WHAT'S THE FIRST THING HE DOES? The almost $1200 charge of the alarms and detector that we wanted to remove. At that point, I made him go over EVERYTHING that we discussed, which he noted on a yellow paper pad, still no actual estimate with details. Because he seemed to have a grasp of what needed to be done and was only a couple days into the project, we proceeded with him. Our mistake!
The next problem was that Mark told us it would be four days to complete the whole project, and he wasn't close to done after 8 days on the job. His first excuse was that his helper Lucas was sick and bailed on him so we gave him the benefit of the doubt and let him continue. We then found out that Lucas is a trainee and Mark doesn't really have anyone else qualified to work with him. (I'm also not sure why his license says that they're exempt from workers comp -- it says that they have no employees at this time -- Lucas is clearly an employee and should be covered by workers comp in this dangerous business).
And then there were the endless mistakes: putting up two ceiling fixtures in the same room off-center with each other, putting in Decora light switches when we wanted standard light switches, repeatedly telling him ALL interior switches on dimmers and then not doing dimmers, installing alarm/detector wiring (that we didn't want) and the couple of remaining can lights randomly in the middle of the ceiling with no rhyme nor reason, putting a vanity light's wiring so high that the fixture would hit the ceiling, and then losing the cover to our brand new ceiling fan/light/heater combination.
The best part is Mark blames US for being disorganized when HE'S completely disorganized. Here's what he texted my husband:
The first day we met I discussed four days then you called a second meeting doubling the work then you stopped thing with deciding no can lights this job is to rushed and has been unorganized in 98% done and if your that unhappy with us then maybe we need to stop all put in the few breakers that are left a not do all the add inside
First, I don't even know what he's trying to say other than calling us unorganized. We are the EPITOME of organization here ... we are just at the mercy of good contractors who need to be able to self-manage since we are not yet living at the location. Second, we didn't double the work and we actually removed stuff ... this is how wrong he was all the time. Mark never said that it would extend the number of days that he needed to work, and he put our whole tight and very organized remodel plans in jeopardy. Everyone was waiting on Mark, but then he said he had bronchitis so we had to move on with another electrician.
This is not by any means over and we've already taken up his lack of a written estimate, having an uninsured employee, etc. with the CSLB and then we'll go to the BBB as well. We can't let this happen to anyone else. AND the mistakes our new electrician has discovered are enough to make us want to pursue a full refund -- old breakers installed rather than new ones in a sub-panel, light switches controlling nothing, things taken out that shouldn't have been.
Anyway, it's such a complete waste of time and effort to even write something like this when we have a major remodel underway with 5-6 talented contractors on-board, BUT I feel like it's my duty to be clear about the lack of accountability and risk to your home without workers comp. Just looking up a contractor on the CSLB is not enough ... be sure that you get a written estimate detailing everything and NEVER let a contractor without workers comp have an employee on site. Licensed does not equal insured OR being accountable for your actions OR being a good business person.