Mister Sparky

If a zero star assessment were possible through Unilocal®, this company would be most deserving. Mr. Sparky is sure proud of their work and this self-​respecting behavior is definitely passed along to the customer. There must be a huge franchising fee that the local company must recover for the national franchise before they tack on their own service charge. Their billing is in line if people were paying with Hasbro’s Monopoly® money.

I had 3 appointments in 10 days that they missed. (2 times they ran over the appt window they provided and once mentioned that they don’t see the appt in the system).
I went with a different contractor after that.

AVOID THESE GUYS LIKE THE PLAGUE. My father and grandfather were both in the electrical field so I know a little about electricity (although I am an accountant). But my stepdaughter doesn’t (And she doesn’t know about my dad and granddad.) So when the lights flickered and then went out in the kitchen and on into the bedrooms in her small house she called SWEPCO who recommended MR SPARKY (are you kidding?). So she called and Mr. Sparky sent a high pressure salesman without a single tool; just with a checklist. Right straight to the breaker box and «OMG lady this house isn’t safe and you are lucky the home hasn’t burned down». Reading right off the checklist this is what he found: «MAIN ELECTRICAL PANEL, Age 20 yrs, Type Westinghouse, (need to) Replace Breaker Box old Westinghouse» (fact: there is nothing wrong with a 20yr old Westinghouse Box). Next «Breaker Box Had No Surge Protection. Whole Home» (fact: the surge protector is at the main switch/​meter, beside the house, where it should be). «Are kitchen outlets GFI protected? NO (is marked)» (fact: all kitchen (and bathroom) outlets do not need to be GFI protected, just the ones near the sinks (/​bath) which are GFI). Next «Replace Two Smoke Alarms» (the batteries maybe; the whole unit didn’t need replaced). Next «Redevice Home All Plugs, Switches, GFIs» (!!ALL! So there isn’t one good plug or switch in the house?!!) Now the high pressure sales; «That’ll be $ 5,400 to fix everything-​you need to sign here». Well she didn’t have the money so the salesman figures out she has about $ 1,900 so he says; «It will be $ 1,900 just to fix the short and make the house safe to live in, guaranteed. Now sign here.» (FYI: I just helped her buy the house in June 2014 and had the electric, plumbing, roof etc checked-​it all passed.) What did she get for $ 1,900 and 7 hours of aggravation? A new breaker box that was wired wrong. Now not only didn’t the kitchen and bedroom light work; but the hot water heater didn’t work either. «Well lady, it is worse that we thought, do you have any relatives who can lend you some money? It’ll be $ 300 per circuit to check each circuit and you are looking at $ 600 minimum for the lights and the hot water heater». In despair my stepdaughter called me. I came out and saw the «electrician» (if you can call him that) testing a perfectly good circuit while ignoring the light and HW circuits. I chased the bum out. Next morning I called BenArk Electric 479−640−3008. They were there in an hour (lucky for me) and had the short circuit isolated and fixed in another hour. Also fixed MR Sparky’s mistake on HW heater wiring in 15 minutes. The real problem was years ago a nail was driven through the wire going to the kitchen and bedroom lights under the house within 6 foot of the breaker panel and over the years age and with recent rains the wire shorted out. They spliced the wire and all is good. I don’t have the bill yet but it is probably under $ 200 and not the $ 1900, $ 2500 or $ 5400 MR Sparky was after. I expect MR Sparky and I will be settling this in small claims court.

The technician was polite and seemed to know what he was doing (how would I know?). The problem was that there was a very high pressured sales approach and the prices were the highest I have ever seen. He wanted to add on a trip to Lowe’s even though I was told that the truck was very well stocked and a bunch of other unnecessary work. He seemed to spend more than half the time coming up with added needs for our house — all that exploration is stated as «free» but it absolutely is not. Don’t let them explore unless you think you have a problem.