We all need quality electrical contracting service. With electricity rates as high as they are, no one wants to be stuck with a bad electrical contractor who will make problems worse, or even an unscrupulous electrical service that overcharges and avoids giving you real help in how to improve electric bills or find useful energy solutions. How can you find a great electrical contracting service: one you know you can trust?
Ask Around
Your first source of information about a trustworthy electrical contracting service should be friends, family, people at work, other parents at your child’s school, people at your local church, neighbors, etc. Any electrician can claim anything online or in a newspaper ad, but if you start by getting recommendations from people who are satisfied with their electrician, you’ll be on the road to getting a good one.
Check Out Reviews
As with anything else, check trusted review sites online; but do so with a grain of salt. Remember that people are typically quick to complain but not nearly as quick to talk about a good experience. Look for reviews that give details and also look for responses by the electrician. If there are only a couple of reviews that are glowing and general, be alert for the possibility that they’re fake. Conversely, if there really negative reviews that seem irrationally angry or describe behavior unlikely in a modern business context, be suspicious of these, too.
Use Established Local Contractors
In some things it may seem safer to hire large national companies, but in the area of electrical work, you may regret going with a big, faceless conglomerate. If a company is local and has been around for a while, you can be sure they’re offering quality service. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t have lasted. You can also assume they’ll probably be interested in keeping their good community reputation, and that means giving you good service.
Check References
If you can’t find any references or don’t know enough people in an area to get recommendations, ask an electrical contracting service directly for some recommendations. Follow up on them. Ask whether people would hire this electrician again, what they liked about working with them, and what they didn’t like about the relationship.
Look For the Right Qualifications
You want electricians who have all the necessary training and local licenses. Look for companies with NICEIC approval. It’s also important that they have the necessary insurance to cover their work as well as their employees. This keeps you safe in case there’s an accident on your property.
Look for Specializations
Not every electrical job is the same, and one electrical contracting service may have a specialization that another does not. Some electricians specialize in new construction projects, while others do most of their business in appliance hookup and repair. Find out details of your project and make sure the electrical contracting service you’re looking at has the people you need to do your project well.
Ask for An Estimate
Unless it’s a very straightforward project, like switching a 110 plug to a 220 to accommodate an electric stove, don’t be satisfied with a quote made over the phone. Quality electricians will want to come take a look and give you an estimate when they’ve seen the issue first hand.
Go to Their Place of Business
If you’ve found an electrical contracting service you think you want to use, there’s one last check to make. Make sure they have a real physical presence. You should never be happy with just a phone number. Look for one with a real fixed place of work where their license numbers are on display.
Whether you need lighting retrofits or help for how to lower electric bills, make sure you’re getting quality advice from a local electrical contractor.