Mister Sparky - Owatonna

I contacted Mister Sparky this morning regarding a light fixture that had not been working in our home office. I made the call around 9:00 a.m. and was told that someone would be out to our home between 1:00 and 4:00 p.m. (Same day!) The person answering the phone explained that there was a $79.00 Service/Travel Fee and that "Straightforward Pricing" would be provided, by the electrician, before any work was actually performed. She explained that the Service/Travel Fee would be above and beyond the parts/labor fees. I personally don't believe in paying Service/Travel Fees on top of part/labor fees in situations in which a service is actually being performed and I don't typically do business with companies that charge such fees. However, in mentioning that I thought the $79 fee was extremely high for a Service/Travel Fee and that I would need to check around with some other local electricians, the woman on the phone offered to waive the fee as long as work was actually performed. If no work ended up being performed then she said the $79 fee would apply. I was fine with that approach so I asked her to send someone out. The electrician called our home around Noon to explain that he was on his way and should be arriving in about an hour. (He was also kind enough to ask if that timeframe would still work for me). Upon arriving, promptly around 1:00 p.m., the gentleman introduced himself as Jay Lewis, 30-year electrician (and Master Electrician). He asked me to explain the problem/issue and then put "covers" on his shoes before we headed to the office so that he could actually take a look. He thought he knew exactly what the problem was (and that it was likely the light switch itself, not the fixture) but said that he would take a look, provide an estimate, and review the estimate with me before performing any work. The problem did end up being something different than what he expected but he showed me exactly what was wrong and he explained why he thought it had happened. The work estimate was initially $103 (for the situation that I made the call about) but after I explained that we had a couple of other light switches that were doing the same thing he offered to take a look at those as well -- bumping the work estimate up to $151. I felt that was a fair fee so I approved the work. Jay performed the work in a little less than one hour, cleaned up after himself, and processed my payment, via credit card, right on the spot. He then explained the warranty and left his name and cell phone number with me in case I had any questions or experienced any problems.