I live in a condo, and the breaker in my living room/dining room blew, hence leaving me without power in those rooms. I called Hi-Lite on the Sunday and could come out on the Monday. They were wishy-washy with the prices, not willing to give me a straight forward answer with regard to the hourly rate, but speaking about diagnostic fees, which your common person does not understand. However, as they were able to come out next day, I went with them. The gentleman who came was polite enough, however, the prices he quoted me were something else. He showed me 3 breakers which were burnt, and could have caused me problems down the line, and as this is all well and good, their prices were not. They were highly inflated. In his glossy book, he showed me an array of prices used for levels 1 through 10, none of which I understood, fancy credentials, and fancy chit chat. He knew I did not fully understand and took advantage, and used it against me. I am very disgusted with that. At a price of 3,352.65 to replace 3 quad breakers and a bus bar. Being in a state of panic, for some reason I agreed (he made it seem like nobody could do the work he did - plus I was just upset). He did some work, got my power up and running, except for the dryer. With an agreement to come back 2 days later. I paid them for the work they did that day - apparently 1,200.00 worth of work, with parts, labour, and the permit - the rest to be paid on completion. I had someone kind enough to intervene on my behalf. Learning that this price was crazy, I utilized my 24 hour cooling off period and cancelled my agreement with them. In calling other companies, I learned that this was about an 500.00-800.00 job! Hi-Lite is having a hay-day with my money, and they should be ashamed with themselves. It was really hard to tell if George (the electrician) was ashamed that he was working for such a shady company, or was part owner and was greedy to grab every penny he could....he had quite the stone cold poker face. Stay away from these guys - Far away.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $1,200.00
- Company Response
Dear Consumer
It is unfortunate that your feelings towards our company are unsatisfactory. We feel that when you placed your service call into our office we responded immediately and we were in contact for quite a while, due to the fact that your electrical situation was an intermintent problem and we advised you to call us when this problem was occuring to save you on the dispatch/travel fee. We sent out our licensed electrician when this problem was occuring and did find that you had a serious electrical code violation which was a safety concern that was pointed out to you. We also gave you an upfront/straighforward price to correct this issue legally - permits pull, ect. which you agreed to proceed with. After speaking with your condo super your feelings changed towards getting the work done and he placed a call into our office expressing this work did not require permits and could be done at a lower cost. He also expressed he did not want any inspectors visiting the condo building, and called and tried to cancel the permit we had already pulled. When our electricians visit any condo's or rental properties it is the law to pull permits for any electrical work being done, simply because of your own safety and the safety of all the other families living in the Condo Corporation! Regards, Owner ~ Hi-Lite Electric