O CONNOR AND SON'S ELECTRIC

Fantastic electrician. Informed me of the issue, walked me through resolution, and recommended additional proactive steps to avoid problems in the future. Yes, the hourly rate is high, but you get what you pay for. And what you're paying for is experience.

Tom O'Connor knew instantly what the problem was, replaced some ancient wiring with his customary artisanship and finesse, replaced the entire light fixture—which was also faulty—and the problem was solved.

Very good. He was here within a couple of hours. It only took him about an hour to do the work. Very respectful.

Last minute, end of the day call, was really hoping to have it taken care of same day, did not think that would be possible. Tom returned my call within an hour and offered to come over within 45 mins....for the price of $300 per hour. A little steep, but he promised he'd deliver. He did! He handled the problem in literally 2 minutes (a GFI switch needed to be reset). Tom was wonderful to work with...but I do think he could have come down on the $300 price tag to press a GFI reset button. I'll definitely call him again!

Tom charged $200 for a look-see and an estimate on 11/7/2016. He said he charges $300/hour for driving time and time spent estimating a job. He quoted $1700-$2000 for the job. Said the job was more complicated than it looked. He was too busy at that time and would call in approx. 2 weeks unless he got a cancellation. As of today 11/30/2016 he has not contacted us. Quite a profit to drive and estimate and charge, but not do any work. We waited 3 weeks and got another electrician who charged $550 for the job.

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Service was great!  I got a reply from the owner, Tom, the same day I contacted the business.  We booked the visit in under a week.  Julien arrived right on time and was very professional and knowledgable.  Worked efficiently and was happy to both solve problems and troubleshoot.  Even offered to replace any burned out lights high in the ceiling while he had the ladder out!  There was no question that everything would be done both to code and for the purposes of safety and convenience for me.  There's no doubt that I'll be calling them for any future electrical needs.  Not the cheapest but definitely the most capable as well as responsive.

On a busy morning I discovered we did not have power to parts of the house, including the kitchen. I take care of my mom in the afternoon, and w/o a microwave and fridge DOOM hovered on the horizon. I called O'Connor and Son's, and Tom called me back w/in a few minutes. He dispatched "his guy" who was there w/in an hour. This fellow patiently backtracked through two types of wiring (age of the house) to figure out the problem - including tramping about in the attic - and solve it. Frankly I expected the bill to be much higher as it was an emergency call and took awhile. "His guy" was professional, patient, and thorough. I will be calling them again soon for another issue. GREAT service! I cannot think of enough positive descriptors to say about them! Oh, and by the way, turns out the faulty wiring had been sparking awhile behind the problem switch plate as evidenced by the charred drywall. A happy calamity!

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Tom was very responsive, though he was very busy the day before the "big storm" in Palo Alto. He understood this was an emergency and came by to fix my generator.

Our dryer kept tripping the circuit. We had just had A/C installed so I didn't know if it was related or not so I really wanted a real electrician to take a look.
Tom was fantastic. I called that morning and although he was going out of town the next morning, he was able to squeeze me in in that afternoon. I sent him some pictures of the circuit breaker so that he could have a better idea of what was going on and pick up some extra parts on the way over and eliminate an extra visit (and therefore extra cost so I really appreciate that!). He was prompt. He took a look at our ancient circuit breaker. Noted that it was warmer than it should be. Made some recommendations about other electrical in the area and replaced the busted breaker.
Afterwards, he followed up to make sure things were working properly and emailed me an invoice. Tom was also just a super nice guy and clearly knowledgeable about all things involving wiring a house. I will definitely call him again next time I need any electrical work!

julien is a very professional electrician, who takes the time to explain what he is doing; as we are senior citizens, this could have been very confusing, but julien has an easy going, relaxed manner that invites questions and discussion.
he checked several lite switches which had been heating up, to a point we felt was dangerous. he also checked an over head lite that flickered, as well as an outlet (for an attic fan) that had sparked. we also had a living room outlet that had actually burned out a timer, and we wondered if it was a defective timer, or the actual wall outlet.
julien was able to remove a lite bulb which had become stuck in the overhead recessed socket above the sink, and then replace the bulb. finally, julien had noticed the previous owner had done a bit of wiring himself, and he felt he should check several of the wires to be sure they were not and quot;liveand quot;. we sure appreciated that!
later this summer, we plan to replace our old recessed kitchen lites with new frames and bulbs, and we plan to call oconner and son to do the job.

A wall socket in our kitchen just stopped working one day. I checked out the socket itself and couldn't find any problem. Other sockets on the circuit were fine so I was mystified. I checked Angie's List (of course) and quickly settled on O'Connor Electric. I called and talked to Tom and they were able to get Justin out that morning. Tom is very easy to deal with and has a great (if occasionally wicked) sense of humor. As noted, Justin came out and fixed the problem: the one that went bad was the last one in a chain; the next one up the line had a loose neutral wire. I wasn't home but he explained things to my wife and was done and gone within an hour.
This is where it got, as Morpheus would say, a little weird. Instead of giving us a bill or even a quote, Justin asked that we email Tom and he would send us back a bill. Hmmm...OK. So I sent Tom a note: and quot; As I understand it, I'm supposed to send you this email and you'll let me know the amount, then I send you a check. Does that sound about right?and quot; A few minutes later I got back a two-word response, saying (and I quote), and quot;$1000 yesand quot;. This is the wicked sense of humor part I mentioned. When I talked to him later he said he'd sent another note right on the heels of the first saying he was kidding, but I actually never got that. He later called to apologize for the confusion and made sure I understood that the actual bill was $200, for which he promptly sent an invoice by email. So it was all good.
I do find the $200 charge on the high side for what was literally an hour's work, especially after reading several other reviews here where the bill for similar, perhaps even more extensive, services was $150. Perhaps his rate went up with the new year -- I can understand that and I'm happy to pay for good work.
I do want to make it clear that Tom and his crew are very good at what they do and (overall) a delight to work with. I recommend them without hesitation, though it might be wise to ask for a quote, or at least an hourly rate, ahead of time. Tom himself seems the sort of guy you'd love to sit down with over a glass of Jameson (unless he's a Redbreast man, in which case there's no hope).
JUST KIDDING, TOM! :)

Tom was punctual, extremely professional and provided excellent explanations of what was going on with the electrical system in my house. He was very personable and answered all of my questions. He knows electrical stuff inside and out - and I know very little - so I really appreciated his clear explanations!! I very highly recommend his services for any electrical issues!!

Tom was prompt, professional, and extremely quick to identify the root cause of our problem, which was due to some and quot;unconventionaland quot; wiring in our circuit panel. He had the problem identified in about 10 minutes, and fully repaired and tested in 40minutes, including replacing a blown switch, and helping us to replace a couple of can lights above our bath-tub that had blown out during the and quot;showand quot; the night before. Tom is the real deal when it comes to an electrician that you can trust to take care of your home. He's not the cheapest, but I was more than happy to pay him for his time, and I'm confident that he fixed the problem such that it will not reoccur. My time is valuable, and having Tom arrive on time, promptly diagnose, repair, test and be finished within an hour of arriving (the last few minutes of his time were spent helping us with the lights, and then reassembling the electrical panel) meant that I wasn't held hostage on a Saturday waiting for someone to arrive. I would highly recommend Tom for his skill and his professionalism. By the way, he has a wicked sense of humor too. I won't hesitate to recommend him to friends, or to use him again in the future. Well worth every penny. Thank you again Tom for your assistance on a Saturday!

I had contractors building a deck and when they tried to attach some metal flashing to my home exterior they got shocked. It appeared that the chicken wire in the stucco was live as well as a nail in the wall. I was of course terrified to have live metal in the walls, surrounded by insulation, especially as rain was forecast for the next day. After calling PGand E (who came out and basically just turned off the breaker), I called as many electricians with emergency service (it was a Saturday) as I could find on Angie's List. Tom immediately responded and came to my home ASAP.
Tom checked out the problem and determined that a nail had just barely nicked a wire. He pulled it out and made sure the rest of the wall was sound and that the chicken wire wasn't live. He reassured me that it was safe and explained things in depth, which I really appreciated, as the whole thing really scared me. He told me that he could open up the wall and replace the wire, but explained that it would involve extensive work and that he thought it would be a waste of my money. And finally, he gave me a discount because he said he felt like he didn't do much. I disagree though, he fixed the problem, made sure I was safe, and reassured me (not an easy task). As a bonus, he has a good sense of humor.

Tom was prompt to pick up the phone call and set up an appointment. He had to change the time a bit later due to something else he had to attend to but he showed up within 2-1/2 hours of my call. He is very knowledgeable. For the electrical problem we were having he was quick to diagnose form the master panel itself the probability of the PGE wiring at fault as being 50% and if it is the house wiring for us to be prepared for some real work. Our electicity was going off in a few rooms and we were unsure of whether it was a panel or a wiring issue on the outside or inside. That day he gave us good information on what to look for, etc and charged us the service fees for the consultation. He called back in two days to ensure all is well and lo and behold I told him it was not so as we were having intermittent outages in selective rooms. He is tech savvy and guided me to how to check the voltage on a panel (I have multimeter at home etc) and walked me through it via phone. He was ready to do Apple facetime video chat too :. Anyways, he helped via phone and asked me to wait for the PGE folks whom I had an appointment with later in the day. PGE folks isolated the problem to the external wiring connector to the house main drop and fixed it. After that (touch wood) we do not have any problems.
Overall, Tom is very experienced and very professional to interact with. He has a great sense of humor. His fees were a bit steep for the service or consulting performed. But the extra touch of reaching out to a customer a couple days to check on and guide through some self test that I performed with his help goes a long way. Thank you Tom!!

O'Connor and Sons came recommended to us by someone who inspects a lot of homes. This guy sees all sorts of crazy dangerous electrical mistakes and said Tom's work is always top notch.

We bought a 1959 Eichler with the original electrical panel and some scary switch behavior (humming, dimming, blown circuits). Tom and his lead electrician Julian replaced our Zinsco panel with a new one, checked all the circuits, and properly grounded everything they could access.

They also diagnosed and repaired a few potentially dangerous situations created by prior owners, upgraded the electrical boxes, wiring, and really brought our house into the 21st century. Julian works quickly and quietly and gets the job done. Tom is open and honest and does not oversell you on more than you need (like a 200 amp panel when 100 or 125 will fit all your needs).

Their knowledge is extensive. O'Connor and Sons have decades of experience on all types of homes and buildings and situations. Old mansions, McMansions, ranches, Eichlers, office space, and more. Small repairs, new construction, remodels, etc. Tom is also well versed in other aspects of building and home repair/remodels in general. I trust his advice. He has saved us a ton of money and time by connecting us with solid, honest tradespeople.

Both Tom and Julian live and are raising families in Palo Alto. They are established and community-minded people. I like knowing they will be around years from now. I heartily recommend them for all your electrical needs.

Julian searched out a short which was intermittent and hard to find. He had to move furniture, search through many outlets and switches to find it. He was thorough, professional, persistent, and successful. Tom O'Connor has a sense of humor which I appreciated and I will use them again if I need an electrician.

The appointment went very smoothly - Julian was there on time, very polite, very knowledgeable. He explained what he was doing and why he was doing the work, and also made cost-effective recommendations. I felt very pleased with the level of service, responsiveness, and price.