IRVING ELECTRIC LLC

"This service call brought up red flags from the beginning. The original call came on December 7 from a customer who requested repair of outlets at her son's house at the Wrenwood address. (We have never heard of this member, the reviewer.) We made an appointment to meet the customer at the address on the following Wednesday, but upon arrival, we were met by a girlfriend. After speaking with the girlfriend and making a phone call to the customer, troubleshooting determined the cause of the problem to be a tripped GFCI receptacle behind a wooden panel behind a whirlpool bath. The GFCI was reset and the outlets were checked out in working order. The girlfriend was pleased with the repair and signed the work ticket. The customer was notified (by phone) that the repair had been made and he asked to pay by credit card. After being told that we do not accept credit cards, he advised he would pay the bill on Friday, December 14. A short time later, the girlfriend called saying some lights were “still not working”. Since neither she nor the customer had mentioned that during the service call, she was told that another service call would be charged when we returned. It was at this point that the customer called to say he never intended for the repair to be made in the first place but rather only asked for an estimate (not true). He suggested we should return, repair the lights, and then accept half payment ($75 total) for the two service calls. We declined his offer. After unsuccessfully trying to call our original point of contact to resolve the escalating situation, we did receive another call from the customer. He said he did not have the money to pay for the $150 service call and began a dialog about how he did not mean for the repair to be made, that we were dishonest and had made unauthorized repairs. He requested a payment plan of $25 per month for six months. We offered to let him pay $75 on January 1, and the balance of $75 on February 1. He agreed. Unfortunately, in spite of our efforts, this situation has gone from sketchy to quite bad. We are not sure why one person made the initial call, why the homeowner was not present at the time of the service call, and why another unknown individual wrote the Angie’s List review. We should have backed out of this job in the beginning when our instinct told us it seemed sketchy. In spite of what the reviewer said, we have spent a great deal of time trying to work with the customer who seems intent on not taking responsibility for what is apparently his own lack of good communication. You can see for yourself by reading our other reviews that we conduct business in a straightforward and honest way and this is verified by our 2011 Angie’s List Super Service Award."