In looking for reliable electrical contractors to meet your electrical situations, there are some qualities you want them to have – and some you definitely do not want to run into. And, most articles on the subject do no more than touch briefly, on topics like where to find a list of contracting companies, or they give you the definition of what a contractor is, and a job description – but not much else. But, if you’re ready to educate yourself a bit, on what you should look for and AVOID when hiring repair men, keep reading for some more details:

Stay away from those contractors who think that performing electrical work means the problem can be solved by using electrical TAPE. OK, so this is a bit of an exaggeration, but what it really means is, stay away from those one-man operations in which the “contractor” isn’t an actual contractor – but is actually a friend of a friend, or someone’s uncle. There are a lot of well-meaning people who just want to stay busy, and have talked themselves into believing they can tackle something as delicate as electrical repair – when in reality, their arsenals consist of tools they still haven’t quite figured out how to use, and little or no knowledge of their subject matter. Having someone like this work on your wiring may turn out just fine if you’re both characters in a make believe story, but it doesn’t go down like that in real life.

Avoid any company that gives you a verbal – instead of a written – work estimate. It’s necessary to have a estimate in writing for many good reasons, but there are also reasons you may not be aware of.

For instance, your contractor may verbally give you an unheard of estimate price on the work you need done, and promise you “no last minute changes”. Yet, as the work is done and nearing completion, you find that suddenly what you owe, has gone up several thousand dollars – and with no forewarning at all.

Moreover, if you end up having to go to court over a problem with the services provided one day, you’re again at the contractor’s mercy – and if he was unscrupulous to begin with, you should really worry. You never know – he could produce a “contract” forged with your signature, agreeing to his charges – whatever they may be. Then, you’d find yourself in a huge mess for sure, as you never received anything in writing that could back up your side of the story.

Avoid those businesses where the contractor is known to drink on the job – and is also prone to taking 15 minute breaks every half hour. By refusing to hire a person with sloppy work habits, you will avoid facing an increase in billable hours caused by all those breaks in productivity, and you won’t have the worry about possibly being named in some expensive lawsuit filed against you, by a worker who was under the influence when he hurt himself at your home. And especially important – you will not have the concern that the work may have been done incorrectly – and will someday come back to haunt you, in the form of a dangerous electrical explosion.

So, when you are in the market for electrical contractors, remember that while many of them are great – some of them have undesirable character traits when it comes to their overall business practice. You do not want to go down in history as an electrical job-gone-wrong legend, just because something you could have avoided, happened while you looked away.

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