Conor O'Keefe Master Electrician Inc.

Billy O'Keefe, Conor's father, also an electrician, first came to my house on another job with another contractor. Billy seemed to be an experienced, knowledgeable professional, who did the job and left the work site clean and orderly. When I asked if he could come back to do a couple of electrical jobs for me, he answered that he could look at them right then. He quickly took care of one by flipping a switch, and then spent about 30 minutes or so very carefully climbing up and down a ladder studying the other, a sensor light problem on the roof, before saying he’d have to come back with his son Conor to fix it, as he could no longer do jobs standing on a ladder. Billy would let me know when they could come. I heard nothing more until a few weeks later I got a call before 7 AM one morning. It was Conor O'Keefe saying he could come that day to install the sensor. I had another person coming to work on an internet problem and was reluctant to have them come at the same time, but he pushed so hard that I agreed. My mistake. My experience with Conor included, but was not limited to, the following behaviors: *He came an hour later than I'd agreed to and opened our conversation by telling me that his father had spent a lot of time at my house and he, Conor, would be charging me for it. Billy had said nothing one way or another about charging me for those 30 minutes, and paying him wouldn’t have been unreasonable, but there was no discussion of price or circumstance at all. Conor wanted money. *He turned off the circuit breaker in the part of the house where the internet tech was working without telling either of us, which led to a lot of wasted time on that man's part trying to figure out why he couldn't fix the internet problem. *He never asked what I wanted, but brought a new light fixture with 2 bulbs to put up where I had a one-bulb fixture, and insisted that he had to use the one he brought. *He had his radio blasting from the back of his truck outside in our very quiet neighborhood, until I realized it was his radio making all the racket and not the workmen next door. *He didn't seem to know how to aim the sensor lights onto different parts of the driveway where I told him I needed them, and instead of focusing them himself, he had me walking around the yard in bright sunlight trying to figure out where he was pointing the bulbs to tell him if they were aimed correctly. He was very impatient and just seemed to be trying to hurry me along, even though I told him I really couldn't see the lights in the bright daylight. I've had a few sensor lights over the years but never had to run around the property to tell the electrician how to aim them where I wanted them. The way he finally left them, someone could drive all the way down the driveway and enter my house without turning on either bulb. *As for the two outlets, he put in the wrong colored parts, and when I asked if he could change them, he said he'd told me that was all he had, and that I'd have to special order the off-white equipment I wanted. *He said those two were dysfunctional (they weren’t) and that I should have him come back and change all the plugs in the house to because they were probably all dysfunctional. *He spent about 3 hours seemingly working, but I could hear him talking loudly on his phone a lot of the time. He even complaining to me about his calls! But he charged me for 4 hours. *Unlike his father, he did not leave the place clean and orderly, but left a mess in each of the three areas he worked. Follow up: When I tried to reach Conor shortly after the day he was here, 6 May, to come back to adjust the sensor, I never heard from him. But I called and emailed again three days ago and got a rather nasty, aggressive email back, which said: As for the light fixture, we spent a considerable amount of time adjusting that light. The motion eye is designed to trigger the lamps when someone is within 10' of it as stated in the manufacturers guide. If the motion eye is faulty then I'm more than happy to replace it, but if I come out and that fixture, when placed on test mode and it picks me up within 10' then I have to bill you for my time, which is a $150.00 service call. My earliest availability is mornings starting on Wednesday of next week as I'm already booked for the earlier part of the week. Please let me know how you would like to proceed and which mornings you'd be available. In this almost incoherent email written late at night, he bizzarely goes on the offense by revealing that he knew all along that this light would only sense motion 10 feet away, but he’d brought it with him anyway, to install 17 feet off the ground on my house in order to sense motion on the driveway which is 30 feet from the house at its closest point. He charged me about $100 for a light he knew wouldn’t do the job, and $500 more for about 4 hours of completely unnecessary labor to install it.

One of six outlets was installed in the wrong place.  Another one was installed as a four-gang instead of a two-gang, despite a clearly labelled sticker on the wall at the work location.  An outlet that was supposed to be switched on a timer was not.  We then had to wait three months before Conor got around to even filing for the permit and inspection we had clearly asked for when the work was agreed to.  When the inspection was finally performed, an outlet failed for reversed polarity.  When Conor came back to fix the bad outlet, he disconnected it from the timer it was supposed to be controlled by.  We didn't discover this problem until after he left, and I am so done with trying to deal with Conor that I'm going to hire a different electrician to fix his work.

This was 3rd job Conor has done for us. As always, he returns calls quickly, keeps appnts regulary, listens to what we want, makes good suggestions, and does the work carefully and expertly. He is a pleasure to be with. We plan to use him for a major commercial renovation.

He didn’t have much care for my home. He tore my wallpaper and destroyed the plaster around the light switch in the bathroom. The hallway wallpaper was also torn. At first he said he personally carefully sliced the wallpaper. He yelled at me and wouldn’t agree to come see what he did. He accused me of having mental issues, and at first, he wouldn’t call to apologize. He threatened to go to a lawyer when I stopped payment on the check. I just wanted him to own up to what he did and see if he would help to fix it. When he spoke with my husband the next day, he admitted that it was his helper that had done the damage to the bathroom wallpaper and plaster. He eventually did call with an over-the-top apology including telling me that even if my furnace wasn't working on Christmas Day, he'd be there to fix it if I called upon his services again. I issued him a new check for an agreed to amount.

The reason I am writing this now is that we recently discovered an outlet that he hadn't reconnected. This is an outlet that we use and in fact had two items plugged into it when he disconnected it. When my husband called him, he refused to come out and fix it. He suggested that we use an extension cord to plug into an outlet 8 feet away. We were not calling him to do a and quot;newand quot; job. We were calling him to reconnect an outlet that he had disconnected.

I put N/A next to the price because I didn't get any other quotes. I don't know if his price is high, low or normal. The issue wasn't the price. The issue was the way he treated my home and that his customer service skills leave much to be desired.

He showed up on time. He was professional and the work was high quality.

Conor was recommended by my plumber (Matt Digby - excellent guy!), and he came round to size up the job within 24 hours of our first conversation...he reviewed the job very thoroughly with me, and made several excellent suggestions to either save money or get a better outcome. He then retreated to his van for a few minutes, and worked out an estimate which he presented on the spot, together with a suggested timetable. We committed the job to him about 48 hours later.

He communicated well regarding permits, start date/time and so on, he arrived on time with all the equipment/parts needed, and got the job done in a couple of hours less than he originally predicted, Conor and his associate Ryan had to come through the house several times, and both were polite, pleasant and good-humored at all times. They were also neat and tidy throughout.

I have a lot more electrical work to do, and I have already discussed the various jobs with Conor...same pattern as before...he listens, understands and then makes great suggestions as to how the task might be completed to better effect and at lower cost.

Footnote: the Halloween storm tore down the 200A service from one outside wall on our house, and tore down the generator service line from another wall...Conor was at the house by noon on Sunday, rearranged his work schedule to get parts, permit and do the work on Monday morning, and had the inspection completed by 2pm on Monday afternoon...as a direct result of his work, we were re-connected to the grid on Monday evening, and had power flowing by Tuesday afternoon. Conor really is a first class electrician - why would I use anyone else?