The Garage Saga: Part 2

If you missed part 1, read it here.

I waited nearly 24 hours for a response from Electrician #1 we were going to hire to compensate for the handyman who flaked on us. I never got one. So I searched online again and called another highly related company (Company A).

He picked up the phone on a Saturday and spoke with me about what we needed. I told him we were on a time crunch and needed this done by Wednesday of next week. He said they had some time Tuesday morning and they could come by and take a look. He did not give me a quote over the phone because he said all projects are different and they'd give the quote after looking at our specific house and project. I thought that was logical and fine and left it at that.

I texted Electrician #1 back, notifying him we would no longer be needing him because I did not receive confirmation he was going to try to get us on the schedule. Now this text he responded to in a timely manner. Strange why he didn't even text me an "ok" after my text the day before...

If he had only responded to my text promptly like he did
to all my other texts....he might have gotten hired for the job. 

The electrician Jonathan contacted (Electrician #2), did not respond with his availability until Sunday evening, and by that point we had already scheduled with Company A. We told him Monday that we had already booked with someone else.

On Tuesday, September 20th,  Company A came out to our house in the morning. Before he came, I received a text message with the name of the technician and a license number. Out of curiosity (and probably a good habit to be in), I looked up the number on the Texas Department Licensing and Registration (TDLR) website. The license number pulled up the company name but not the electrician himself. I called the office to inquire about this and was told it should have had the electrician's license number. She hung up saying she'd call me back after she figured out what was going on. I never got a call back. When he arrived, I asked him about this and told him I couldn't find his name or license number on the TDLR website. I asked him if he could show me his license. He couldn't because he didn't have it with him. The closest thing he could show me to prove himself as a licensed professional was an email dated January 2022 confirming his renewal for an apprentice electrician license. 

We put aside the license situation for a while and had him give us a quote for our project. Originally, we were wanting one outlet installed, but then it occurred to my husband if he wanted to complete the project in its entirety and plan ahead, we would actually need two. Company A gave us their quote and we looked at each other in shock. There was no way we were paying that much money for two outlets. I even asked the electrician if he could complete the job right then and there, and he gave me some wishy-washy answer which wasn't a confident yes**. After an hour and a half of going back and forth trying to see if there was any way we could get the price lower, we paid him his service fee and he left. 

My husband called Electrician #2 back and ask him if he still had availability for Wednesday. He said he did and could do the job for us and quoted us less than 1/3 of the price of Company A. Electrician #2 was also a master electrician and we were able to search and verify his license on the TDLR website. 

Electrician #2 called my husband later that day, Tuesday afternoon, and actually told him he finished his other jobs early and could arrive to install the outlets for us shortly. He arrived around 2:30 that afternoon and was done in an hour and a half. The same amount of time we spent going back and forth with the electrician from Company A was how long it took Electrician #2 to complete the job and charge us 1/3 of the price for it. 😐

We finally had two new outlets installed in the garage. The rest of it was smooth sailing, right?

Wrong.

On Wednesday, September 21, my husband called the installation company just to confirm the following day's installation schedule. When he called the company, they told him we were not on the schedule. 😳 We had paid the deposit of half the project cost over a month ago in August and my husband was told that the requested date (September 22nd) would be submitted for approval. 

What we were not told was that our request for that date was denied on their end and we weren't actually on their schedule at all. 😱

Tune in next time for part 3.

**I did my own research later and found that anyone with an apprentice electrician's license here needs to work under the supervision of a master electrician. I don't believe this company intended on sending anyone else out with him to complete the job so there's some questionable stuff there.