MCLAUGHLIN ELECTRIC

This job was a fiasco from the start. I needed to get hardwired smoke detectors installed, something that I would normally do myself but couldn't this time because of time constraints. I called McLaughlin Electric because they had done work for me previously that I had been extremely pleased with. The person that I talked with initially was helpful and indicated that I would be called back to schedule an appointment when they had gotten the supplies necessary. A week later, having not heard from them, I called back and was able to schedule an appointment for the next morning. I was told that I was the first job, and that the technician should arrive by 8:30. When he still hadn't arrived at 9:30, I called the main office and was told that he was stuck in traffic. He finally arrived at 10:00, and brought with him a wirelessly interconnected smoke detector system, of which only one smoke detector was hard wired. I told him that this was not the system I had requested, and he told me that it was still up to code. He installed the system within an hour and left. I had the house inspected the next day, and the inspector would not pass the house because the smoke detectors were not all hardwired. I called back McLaughlin Electric, and they were very apologetic and sent the same technician back out to the house the next day to replace the smoke detectors again, at no additional charge. After the technician had left the second time, I discovered that some of the outlets (that had been working prior to this visit) no longer worked. It being a Friday night, I began to investigate what had happened and discovered that in the process of installing the new box for the smoke detector, some of the wires that had been in the old box had been left unconnected by the technician. I fixed this myself. When I finally received the bill for this work, I found that I had been charged for travel time to pick up supplies as well as the time the technician was actually in my house for the first visit. However, they did not charge me for the second visit. If I were to call McLaughlin again, I would insist on having a technician other than the one I dealt with for this job. I know that they have some good people working there, because we have been pleased with their work in the past.