Southwest Electric Co

TERRIBLE!  This has been the biggest nightmare we have suffered in our remodeling of this property.  We picked Mr. La Rue because of his good record on Angie's list, and now we are really sorry that we did. 

We sent out a Request for Proposal to re-wire the property from top to bottom.  The house was built in 1929 and still has most of its original electrical.  Mr. La Rue responded and inspected the property 3 times before submitting a proposal/contract for review.  We accepted his low bid of $12,000, made a $500 deposit and, once work was begun, another $1,500 deposit. 

Since then, in spite of the contract terms which state clearly "Under no circumstances shall billings exceed $12,000.", he has been billing us an average of $3,000 per week.  He is charging us $85 an hour for apprentice time which is costing him only $20 an hour and has only set foot on the site 2 times for about 20 minutes each.  The average Master Electrician rates in this area are $55 and include the Master Electrician and up to two helpers for that price.  We are purchasing all materials so Labor is his only cost.  Further, he has not submitted the progress reports required by the contract on what has been completed and billed.  To date, he has invoiced us nearly $20,000 and the job, based on an independent review of the project, is only 40% complete!  Now that we have refused to continue paying him his exhorbitant fees, he has pulled his workers and refused to continue work until we agree to his terms.  AND, he is threatening to put a lien on the property and sue us for HIS breach of conract. 

This man is not to be trusted.  I can't imagine where those good reviews came from after the experience we have had with him.

Excellent work and price, however the fellow was several hours late, which was somewhat annoying and very unprofessional on his part.

He did a very nice job.  He was fair and punctual. 

 see above comment.

Came twice for everything, mid march and late march. Very professional, punctual, and always called if he was delayed or if there was any problem. I would happily recommend him for his quality work and professionalism.

I spent $200 on that service and I thought the pricing was good. They did a good job and especially when they found that there was a problem outside and they actually had to do more work than expected, and they did not raise the price or anything. They staff were nice and good. They were on time and they did the work when they were supposed to.

Mr. LaRue is very professional and appeared to know exactly what he was doing. He came prepared with all the right tools and skills to complete the job in short order.

He did a very good job. He mainly to put in the ground; however, he felt it was not required so rather than doing work which was not required he moved on and did other work.

It went very well. I originally called because the bathroom lights in my house were out. Flipping the breaker did nothing. The electrician explained over the phone how the lights in my house are wired through a GFCI switch in the garage. He told me he didn't want to take my money for something so simple and explained how to flip the switch free of charge. It worked. I asked him to come out anyway to fix the double tap in my breaker box, which is a code violation. He and his assistant came out. They were friendly and on time. The fixed the double-tap in about five minutes, answered a few general electric questions, and also helped me open up my porch lights--not really electrician work since it mainly involved finding the proper screws. I would definitely call them again. I found them to be very fair and honest.

Southwest Electric showed up exactly when they said they would and finished exactly when they said they would. The work is professional and done with great attention to details. Considering the quality of their work they are a full blown bargain.