P D Electric

I phoned Pete Dunbar to take a look at some work another electrician did. I gave him the background and he told me he would call back with a day/​time to come by and take a look. He phoned the next day and stated that he was busy for the next several days but if he had some free time by Friday he would call me. He said he charges $ 85/​hour.
He called on that Friday and said he had time and could be by in the morning. I agreed. He then called back and said he was sending his assistant, Drew, over to take a look at the issue. I agreed and Drew showed up as promised.
Drew is personable and was clearly competent for the job. He knew immediately what the issue was and said he could fix it in less than an hour and had all the tools needed. He got to work and about 40 minutes later finished, I check the work and it was perfect. I offered Drew two glasses of water (17 oz each!) and chatted with him about other work. He then realized he lost a tool and asked to climb in the attic to look for it. This went on twice and before he finished the second search my next appointment arrived and I left Drew to see himself out.
I offered to pay prior to him leaving but he stated that Pete handles this. Several days later I received a bill in the mail from Pete. It was for $ 181!!! I called Pete to find out what the breakdown was since it wasn’t on the bill.
This made for an interesting conversation, because it started with him stating Drew spent 2 hours fixing the electrical issue, to the charge for driving to our home. Hmmm. We live in Larkspur and it’s less than 7 miles between Petes location and ours!!! Then the conversation was about him not only charging for the drive but the time that the person leaves their location and then arrives at the customers home. HUH??? There was no mention of this.
After listening to his story — that changed mutiple times — he offered to lower the bill to $ 106. This was $ 85 for the «hour» that Drew spent fixing the issue and included $ 21 for the cost of Drew to drive to our home!
Yes, the job was done well. However, the lack of information upfront on the charges, the fact that Pete sent his assistant (since when do assistants make the same $$$ as the owner?), and the delayed billing are enough for the review — I can’t recommend anyone that operates their business this way and therefore cannot recommend this company. So much for hiring local.

Pete Dunbar from PD Electric is an outstanding electrcian with expert skills and reasonable prices. I encourage Larkspur, Perry Park and other surrounding residents to support PD Electric and other local business. Dan M.