Help with contractor

[Dodoac2002a]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
Texas

Hi,

I have a question. I hired an electrician (young just starting his own business) through craigslist. We had no written contract and the property is not a homestead. He verbally told me it would take him 2 hours to fix the problem after taking almost 2 hours to look at the problem. He verbally told me this twice that it would take 2 hours to fix and told me he was confident he could complete in an hour. When he sent the invoice after completing the work, he charged me 6 hours (including looking at the problem) and included a charge for parts. He also claimed he shaved off 1.5 hours of labor because he didn't want to charge me too much and the bill would be high. Then, he said that he didn't charge me for after hour fees. I had no idea there was even an after hour fee that was part of the electricians service. None of this was told to me. He completed the work and sent me an invoice that was triple the time even though verbally he told me it would take 2 hours. He never once called me to tell me that it's gonna take more than 2 hours and never once told me he had to purchase part. I feel deceived by a dishonest electrician. Is there anything I can do? I don't know if he is licensed.

 

[justalayman]

So you expect his time to investigate and diagnose your issue should be free? There is a big difference between tossing out an estimate based on assumptions and educated guesses and actually working to determine the probiem.

If he quoted you an hourly rate without giving you notice there was a premium for after some specified time there can be no "after hours" charges. He would have to disclose that ahead of time but since he didn't charge you a premium rate for after hours, it's a moot point.

Rarely does a repair not require materials of some sort


Whether you had a contract for the repair to be $XXX or you were quoted an hourly rate with either an estimated time or a quoted time I have no idea. Do you?

 

[Dodoac2002a]

If you read what I wrote, I never said that I expected the estimate to be free. Did you see me state that anywhere? In fact, it was agreed upon in the beginning that it would take him an hour to look over the issue and figure out the problem. The hour turned into 2 hours and he verbally told me over the phone that he would only charge me an hour. My main issue is the electrician told me one thing and ended up doing something else. He clearly told me he would take 2 hours to fix the problem twice and told me it would take him an hour to figure out the problem. He said this to me verbally. This was clear from the very beginning. He ended up charging me additional hours (whether its from lack of experience or something else) and it was not verbally agreed upon. Even if parts are almost required for fixing a problem, this should have been communicated clearly from the beginning by him or sometime during the work. The whole after hours fee for going onsite "after hours" was never mentioned to me and I didn't know about it. They mentioned that they didn't charge me for "after hours" fee to justify the fact that they were shaving off 1.5 hours off their work in order not to inflate the bill. Does anyone even do that - shave off hours in order to not "inflate" the bill as if they are doing me a favor? What's in question is their integrity. Not many business have integrity these days. People behave dishonestly enough to profit but honestly enough to delude themselves of their own integrity.

 

[Silverplum]

Don't be testy with the volunteers.

 

[justalayman]

If you read what I wrote, I never said that I expected the estimate to be free. Did you see me state that anywhere? In fact, it was agreed upon in the beginning that it would take him an hour to look over the issue and figure out the problem. The hour turned into 2 hours and he verbally told me over the phone that he would only charge me an hour. My main issue is the electrician told me one thing and ended up doing something else. He clearly told me he would take 2 hours to fix the problem twice and told me it would take him an hour to figure out the problem. He said this to me verbally. This was clear from the very beginning. He ended up charging me additional hours (whether its from lack of experience or something else) and it was not verbally agreed upon. Even if parts are almost required for fixing a problem, this should have been communicated clearly from the beginning by him or sometime during the work. The whole after hours fee for going onsite "after hours" was never mentioned to me and I didn't know about it. They mentioned that they didn't charge me for "after hours" fee to justify the fact that they were shaving off 1.5 hours off their work in order not to inflate the bill. Does anyone even do that - shave off hours in order to not "inflate" the bill as if they are doing me a favor? What's in question is their integrity. Not many business have integrity these days. People behave dishonestly enough to profit but honestly enough to delude themselves of their own integrity.

here you say you didn't expect it to be free but you are complaining about being charged for it. Make up your mind. Now you say he told you it would take an hour to diagnose. You didn't say that originally.


Yes, some people "shave off" time. I have done it myself. When work took longer than I thought was fair I shaved time from the bill.


A couple things here;

Did he actually quote you for the work or was the time an estimate? If a quote, you have a valid complaint but it sounds more of an estimate. Given no materials were in the estimate of time, it obviously can't be a quote for the work.

If you wanted an actual quote you needed to ask for one (but expect to pay the hour or two hours to diagnose the issue if you did not approve the quote). When people want quotes, I do one of two things;

Tell them service work generally cannot be quoted so it's a time and material job

Or;

I make sure my quote is more than adequate to cover all possibilities I can imagine. A quote may end up considerably higher than a time and material billing because I do consider those odd possibilities.

The probiem I see is if I quoted you 6 hours labor and did it in 2 you would be upset because I would still expect you to pay the quoted price. Too bad; that is the customers downside to quotes. You agreed to the quote so that's what you owe.

Did he actually work the amount of time you were charged or not?


Again, if he did not charge you a premium for after hours, it's a moot point.

So what would you have said if he was 3 hours into the job and then said; I have to replace this part. The part costs $200 plus another hour to finish the work. You complaining about materials costs is really being unrealistic on your part. Sometimes you don't know something needs to be replaced until you are in the middle of the job. I have no idea if that is what happened but it does happen regularly.