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"HIGHLIGHT OF REVIEW (and reason for the two star rating for price): This was the first moment where I felt disappointment with the services provided by Dollens Electric. They had spent two hours and charged me $509 ($374 for first hour plus another $175 for a second hour of work on that Friday’s first visit) in order to reach the conclusion that they needed to go and inspect the attic to see if there were damaged wires up there preventing power coming to the outlets. I find this a very high and expensive price to pay and still not have the source of the problem identified. Jason came back the next morning with a partner, Elijah. He sent Elijah up into the attic and, within 15 to 30 minutes, Elijah found a damaged wire that was preventing power from reaching the outlets. I silently thought to myself that if someone had gone up into the attic during the first visit, then this damaged wire and source of the problem would have been found sooner and saved me a lot of money. MAIN/FULL REVIEW: Four outlets at my mom’s home went out at the same time: one in the kitchen and three in the dining room. An under cabinet light connected to the power in the kitchen outlet also stopped working. The circuit breaker had not tripped; so, I told my mom that we should call an electrician. I called Dollens Electric based upon their name appearing in a booklet that had come in the mail a few years ago listing providers of various services for home maintenance. A woman answered the phone, and I asked how much it would cost for someone to come out and diagnose the problem and then fix it. She said that she would have one of her electricians call me and give me a price quote. In less than an hour I received a phone call from Jason, and I described the problem to him. He said that there is a $334 charge for the first hour to come and troubleshoot the issue. Each additional hour after that would be $175 plus any materials needed for repairs. He also volunteered that I try to go and turn off and then on the circuit breakers in order to see if the four outlets would work again. I told him that I would do that and then call him back with a follow-up. After ending the phone call, I went and turned off and then on the circuit breakers. This did not fix the problem, and the four outlets still were not working. I thought that the prices I was quoted were really high; so, before calling Jason back, I reached out to a friend who is a handyman. I told him that maybe the plug receptacles were bad and that I didn’t want to pay $334 for an electrician to come out and just tell me that. My friend said that he would come and take a look. A few days later, my friend came out and did some tests on the outlets using his tools. He told me that there was actually no power coming to the outlets and that the problem was not the plug receptacles. He said that there might be an issue with the electric wires in the attic, and that I really did need a trained electrician to come out and find the problem. So, I called Jason back and scheduled for him to come out to my mom’s house. Jason arrived in the afternoon on a Friday. I told him that there was no power coming to the four outlets and that my friend had said that someone needed to go up to the attic and inspect the wiring up there as a possible source of the problem. After that, I allowed Jason to do his work. He spent the following two hours opening various receptacles around the kitchen, dining room, living room, and family room. He ran tests on these with instruments he had. He had a tool where he would wave it along the walls and it would make various sounds. After two hours of doing this, he stated that he would need to come back the next day with a partner and go into either the attic and/or crawl space in order to see if the problem could be found there. This was because even after two hours he had not been able to identify the source of the problem. This was the first moment where I felt disappointment with the services provided by Dollens Electric. He had spent two hours and charged me $509 ($374 for first hour plus another $175 for a second hour of work on that Friday’s first visit) in order to reach the conclusion that he needed to go and inspect the attic to see if there were damaged wires up there preventing power coming to the outlets. I find this a very high and expensive price to pay and still not have the source of the problem identified. Jason came back the next morning with a partner, Elijah. He sent Elijah up into the attic and within 15 to 30 minutes, Elijah found a damaged wire that was preventing power from reaching the outlets. I silently thought to myself that if someone had gone up into the attic during the first visit, then this damaged wire and source of the problem would have been found sooner and saved me a lot of money (remember: I had paid $509 for two hours of troubleshooting on the first day with Jason leaving while still not having found the problem). Elijah, who was in the attic examining the damaged wire, and Jason recommended that I fix the problem and restore power to the outlets by installing a dedicated line. I told them to go ahead and do this. They did this work professionally. I asked them, since Elijah was up there, to let me know if they identified any other wiring issues. Elijah found some separate wires that he and Jason said needed to be extended, and I told them to go ahead and do that work as well. At my request, on his way out of the attic, Elijah also looked at an attic fan that not worked for awhile in order to tell me if the problem was electrical or if the fan itself had just stopped working. He confirmed that there was power to the fan and that it was just the fan that needed to be replaced. This was good to know. Overall, Elijah was a very pleasant and hardworking young man. The final step to this electrical job was for Jason and Elijah to bring the new, dedicated line into the panel and connect it to a new circuit breaker. Jason charged me $84.33 for an arc fault / ground fault circuit breaker for this new line. Power was restored to the four outlets as well as the under cabinet light. At this point Jason said to me that it would also be recommended to change some of the other existing circuit breakers in our panel. I had not planned on this, but I am the type of person who trusts the expertise of people. So, if my electrician says that the home needs some new circuit breakers to replace still working circuit breakers, then I will agree to it even though I don’t understand why. We were approaching three hours of work time for the second day’s visit, and I hoped that this additional work would be completed without going into a fourth hour. It was completed within the third hour of work for the second day, and I therefore ended up paying $525 for three hours of labor on the second day (rate was still $175 per hour since this was a continuation of the same job started the previous day). So, over the two days, I paid $1034 for five hours of work. Since the job as a whole was $1427.66, you can see that $393.66 of the total cost was for parts and materials. I had already mentioned that $84.33 of the materials charge was for the required new circuit breaker for the new dedicated line that had been put in to restore power to the four outlets. I expected something like this. And the charge for the wiring used for that line was $32.90. This was also expected. I was surprised by how expensive the circuit breakers that Jason installed to replace my already working but older circuit breakers cost. Again, I did not expect this because it had nothing to do with the original problem of the four outlets not working, but Jason, as I wrote above, said that this was recommended work to do. In particular, Jason replaced some of my older but still working circuit breakers with a type called “quad” circuit breakers. He charged me $151.89 for the circuit breaker part called 50/30 quad Eaton breaker, and he charged me $96.99 for the circuit breaker part called 15 Amp 240 Volt Quad Eaton Circuit Breaker. These two parts alone added almost $250 unexpected cost to my invoice for"

"Ken was great. He installed a 110 outlet under my sink for a dishwasher. Ken also installed a 220v car charger for my Chevy Volt. Clean quick work at a great price."

"Leo was amazing and especially thoughtful and caring with my elderly mother and her home in regards to solar installation. He was thorough with his explanations. He intelligently and professionally answered all questions. There was no pressure and he was communicative with the family. I would not hesitate to recommend Leo for solar installation if value and integrity are a priority for you."

"It would be wise to not sign an agreement nor pay upfront before doing a little research on what the job entails. In haste, I did't do any research before committing to the agreement and paying the full amount. In retrospect, I should have waited until I checked all the angles before committing to the job, I would have save over $700 on this project."

"For me, here is what set apart American Renewable Energy (ARE) from other companies. Working in a consulting and service industry, I am aware of what is genuine customer service and what it is not. When I started learning about a whole-house energy system with solar panels, battery backup and a generator, I did not know the right questions to ask so I could make informed decisions. The ARE representative anticipated my needs and helped me to understand the big picture. After I provided a sample of my PG&E bills, I was given a computer-generated cost/benefit analysis with diagrams. The rep explained when it would be beneficial to purchase a solar, battery, and generator system. There was no pressure to immediately buy anything. This has enabled my wife and I to now understand just what we need to buy. American Renewable Energy has installed our whole-house Kohler generator and we look forward to getting installed our solar and battery backup."