Electrician Everything

Allan was friendly and seemed to understand my project. He was unable to make our first meeting but contacted me to let me know that he needed to reschedule and arrived in the time frame we had agreed upon. He smelled a bit smokey/earthy but he wasn't in the house very long and I don't care what he does on his own time.

He provided a rough estimate for the project and then notified me that his estimates aren't free and that I would need to pay $85 for the 10 minutes he had spent. I mentioned that, in the future, he may want to tell people that there is a charge for the estimate before coming out. I felt a little scammed but I dismissed it as an oversight and provided him with my bank card. He told me he wasn't able to take cards and that I would need to use CashApp to pay him the $85. I told him I don't have CashApp and he would need to have his office call me and I would provide them with the details so he could get his estimation fee.

At this point, the conversation broke down. He felt that trying to intimidate me by getting right up in my face was a good first choice. It wasn't particularly intimidating, but it was highly unprofessional. He kept trying to hint that I would have real problems if I didn't immediately leave my house (I'm a 24/7 caregiver for my mother with dementia and would never just leave with a stranger in the house) to get him money out of the ATM and then refused to leave without payment. He took my picture and told me he was going to dox me on blast on FB before I had to tell him that if he didn't leave the premises I would call the police.

I know starting a business is hard, particularly when you are so young. Telling people that estimates aren't free is a required first step. Also, here is a link to a free card reader I recommend you order so the next time you get a chance to get paid you have the proper equipment to do business: squareup.com/us/en/hardw…

I hope the next time I call on you for a project you've got things a bit more figured out.