Jennifer F.
08/01/2022 12:00:00 SA
Watch out for shady and deceptive billing practices. I needed to run new wires through a new roof for 2 ceiling fans. I called American Electric by recommendation of my roofer. They charged me $75 to come out and inspect the job. The wires had to be run on the walls but would be covered with molding (provided by my roofers). They quoted two hours to do the job at a steep rate of $210/hour plus materials. Although I had sticker shock, I didn't want to call around and pay more service fees. I estimated that 2 hours at $210/hour plus cost of wire would be $450-600. They scheduled the job for 10am. They didn't not knock on my door until 10:50am at which time I let them in to begin work. They did the job as planned. At one point I noticed that it was very quiet for a long period of time and looked out and they were sitting in the truck outside. This was at 12:20pm. They returned to work at 12:30pm. They had taken at least a 15 minute break, possibly longer. When the job was completed I asked how many hours they were billing for and the cost and he said the office would create a bill. I asked about the break or lunch they took and if it would be deducted and the electrician replied that they didn't take a lunch or a break. After seeing my confused look, he said, oh you mean when we went out to the car to cool off and take a smoke break? Yup that's the one! That's a $50 smoke break on my dime! They finished the job and walked out of my door at 1:15pm. They sat in the truck for 15 minutes and came back at 1:30 with a bill for $835 with no itemization of charges. I said woah that looks high. They were charging for 3 hours labor (10:30am to 1:30pm). By my time tracking they worked from 10:50am to 1:15pm. That's 2 hours and 10 minutes when you subtract the 15 minute (possibly longer) smoke break. Additionally they charged me $205 for the wires/materials at a rate of $8/foot times an unspecified number of feet. I spoke with the lady in the office who she said that she's being generous giving me a materials discount. I told her that they did not work for 3 hours and she said she'd check the GPS in the truck to see when they arrived. Additionally she was charging through 1:30 when they were just sitting in the car while she worked on the invoice. Typically I wouldn't be so picky about 15 min here and 20 min there but at a rate of $210/hour that really adds up fast! She called back and said she would bill me for only 2 hours and 15 minutes after checking the GPS. That sounded great and I wasn't going to argue about the extra 5 min! But total bill was only reduced by $50 when it should have been reduced by 45 minutes, which equals $157.50. They reduced the bill from $835 to $785. When I stated this didn't make sense she stated that she raised the cost of the materials fee to $300+ when originally she was charging me $205. She stated she had given me a discount before and then took away the discount since she reduced the hourly labor. She also stated that I should be happy with the cost and that other jobs for just 1 line/fan would have cost $700 alone and that they did what no other electrical company could have done. To clarify, they did exactly what another electrical company said would be done but I just went with them because I already paid the $75 service fee and also my roofers provided me with molds to cover the wires, which solved my problem of having exposed wires. Additionally it's irrelevant what other jobs cost, because I'm paying by the hour. Anyways, it was clear that they were padding the bill and taking advantage of what seemed to them like a desperate situation by billing an exceptionally large amount for labor/hour and padding the cost of materials. I measured and rounded up generously that the wires were about 28 feet total. I was told they cost $8/foot. When I googled the cost after they left I can see that the wire cost .65 - .70 cents / foot. They charged me $300 for materials that should have cost $20-50. Clearly their billing practices are greedy and deceptive and they conned me out of $260+.
