My refrigerator stopped working. After some investigation I noticed the outlets upstream of the fridge were working and the outlets from the fridge and downstream were not. Well, it was time to call a real electrician. I googled 24 hour electrician near me and JJ Electric was the first result in the answer box. It had 5.0 stars with 10 reviews. Looking on Yelp, it had 4.5 stars with 85 reviews, so why not, I gave them a call.
I talked with Jay and described what happened. He said he would send his tech out tomorrow morning. I also added that I would like to put my fridge on a separate circuit (which is now code). Jay said that he wanted to come out along with his technician, and asked if the morning after would be okay, which was fine. I added that I would like some outlets changed (my house is old and some of the original outlets are loose), and to add another outlet to the same circuit. He asked me to text him the details and address. Well, Jay did not show up. No call, what happened? Well, I had texted my information to some other number. I re-texted the info to the right number and called Jay, and we set up an appointment for the following morning.
Jay and his technician, James, arrived on time, and after showing them where things were, the fridge, electrical panel, the outlets, and such, they went to work. There was some head scratching as to where the wires ran from the working outlet to find where the break was. (Nothing is ever as easy as it seems). Jay suggested three ways to go, explaining what he would do, how much wall he would need to break into, or if he could come up through the floor. He recommended that while putting the fridge on a separate circuit to go ahead and put the downstream outlets on a separate circuit too.
At first I thought of just staying with my original plan of putting the fridge on a separate circuit and reconnecting the rest of the outlets back together. Looking at what was plugged in: a coffee pot, an electric kettle, the fridge, the fan for a fireplace insert, a TV, and Blu-Ray and DVD players, Jay estimated the current of the first three appliances. I'm thinking that just the coffee pot and kettle could take 80% of the circuit capacity when both are turned on, which they were from time to time, so sure, sounded like a good idea to make separate circuits.
This is when Jay gave me his estimate. I figured that he wanted an accurate assessment of what to do before he talked money.
Jay left while his technician continued to complete the work. While crawling under the house, James found that mice had chewed some insulation off around some cable, and showed me how he was going to do the repair.
I noticed that the technician, instead of using the back push-in terminals, connected the wires to the outlet's side terminals, which I prefer. And also he aligned the slots on the screw heads on the face plates, a nice touch.
There is no paperwork. Estimates are verbal, and there was no bill or invoice itemizing the work and costs.
Jay is the first electrician I've used that uses text. At first I thought it odd, but after this experience, it's the way to go. There is a record of what I wanted, my address, and when I sent it. It also let me know I sent the information to the wrong number. I suppose one could argue that had Jay taken taken the information over the phone then I couldn't have sent it to the wrong number, but I've also had contractors lose the information, or have to tell them three or four times what I wanted.
All in all, the repair went well. Life is good and safer.