electrician overcharged me!

I disagree.....as with auto repairs most people have no clue as to reasonable cost and materials. In fact, that is why the automotive flat rate manual was born. So we relie on the interigity of the contractor or repair person. The company I work that manages 34 apts bldg...has a saying. We want or contractors and repair persons to make money so they stay in business and are around when we need them... but we are not going to be ripped off. We have paid for rental of airless paint sprayers when one failed in the middle of a job which wasn't our responsibilty...but hey, it's $60 or $100 worth of goodwill.... but inflating prices to that degree is wrong.

professional

Reply to
Terry Cano
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Even worse are the "bellies" off of a softshell crab...they go ripe in hours. :D

If you want to be a mean SOB toss something in that will juice a bit first...that way it will seep in the cracks. Cat urine is a nasty one.

Reply to
ryeish

Wouldn't that make him liable for damage to other customers property?

Reply to
Adam Russell

if you think it was too high, why did you sign the autoriztion paper and let him do the work... yes, it was too high... it should have been like about $200 if it just took one hour to do the job..... $150 per hr. and $50 for parts....

Reply to
jim

yeah, but in the end its not really a 'criminal' offense. you wont be going to jail. at worst you will pay a small fee, and maybe hurt your credit rating a little. plus it will take the guy forever to press any civil charges, and cost him money.

if you want to go this route, its a little better to drain your account so the check bounces. then it doesnt legally appear so purposeful as stopping the check. depending on what has happened the last week this may cause some other check to bounce too, but normally you dont have 3-4 700$ checks floating. this is also why you need at least two checking accounts. one for normal use and one for when you feel like you are taking it up the ass....

but let me tell you a story.

when you were a little kid, you were threatened with 'this will go down in your permanant record". as you know by now, it was a lie.

as an adult there is somewhat of an equivelent. your credit rating. business and banks and the government love to toss the ole 'oh but it will hurt your credit rating" out there to keep you in line. well im going to tell you a little secret. dont play this game. screw your credit rating. nobody is really expected to have 'perfect' credit and the banks have their own definition of it and guess what, paying all your bills on time isnt necessarily a perfect rating. insurance companies also use it as an excuse to jack your rates. its all part of the matrix.

credit rating is just another scare tactic used to keep you in line as a normal average american peon. plain and simple. the best way to avoid this is to buy a house. buy it while you're young and while your credit is still ok. once you've got a little bit of equity in a house, your credit rating matters very little. you can ALMOST always borrow what you already have.

ok rant off...

randy

Reply to
xrongor

he doesnt have buyers remorse. he has expected ignorance that the electrician was counting on. he had a guy standing there handing him a bill for 700+ for installing 3 gfi outlets and no wiring. he didnt know what to do so he paid it. now he has found out how badly he was purposefully screwed.

at some point, the ramifications of not making your car payments and simply turning the car back into the bank are less than being screwed outright. if you got ripped on the car bad enough it is probably worth it.

see my other post if you want to know what i think about credit ratings.

randy

Reply to
xrongor

just for the record, ya the guy made some mistakes. probably even learned from them. but thats no excuse for the electrician to royally screw him.

randy

Reply to
xrongor

Reply to
Jim85CJ

Reply to
Jim85CJ

Reply to
Michael Shaffer

He probably can't win. He was given a contract to sign.

professional &

Reply to
HeatMan

Everything depends on state/jurisdiction you are in. Also it would be very difficult to

prosecute somebody, who got cheated, "felt bad" and cancelled the payment....

Laws were written to target individuals, who open new account and write number of

bad checks, with knowledge of insufficient funds.

This sounds like civ dispute case.

Don't get me wrong attorneys can always send threats, but this would not be an easy

for her/him case to win. Call 10 electricians get average price. Show that charged price was

unreasonable. File complains, document, document, document....

( And never, ever, ever again sign w/a, w/c if you don't agree with it )

Offer $300 - $400 settlement. Write "full & final settlement payment" on the check. move on.

Reply to
Mike J

Go back and read the original post. That's not what happened. The short version is that the electrician presented him with a quote *before* doing the work, he thought it was too expensive, but signed it *anyway*.

Reply to
Doug Miller

For WHAT?? Did you read the post? He authorized the work, _in_writing_, at the quoted price, _before_ the work was performed. See below:

You see that? "before I signed the work authorization"

Reply to
Doug Miller

Yes. I think he should sue. Tyhen, after he gets through paying that bill (and the attorney's fees for the electrician) perhaps he will have learned something.

RB

Michael Shaffer wrote:

Reply to
RB

This is a learning experience. Why do you think someone else will fix your problem?

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Most people have bad luck with contractors that drive paint flaking and beat up 1/2 ton pickup truck no name with a ladder rack Those trucks sometimes have religious bumper stickers.

The sum total of their work usually is shoddy in workmanship to say the least.

I too have been overcharged by religious zealots that claim the Lord helps them everyday.

Their maligned Christian belief system may make them think their way is the only belief system for ones reverence of the Lord.

When you (the customer) ask about their work-in-process, they tend to buffalo you with BS anytime thinking you maybe questioning their competence by changing the subject to about the Lord.

It sort of gives you an idea while they are talking about the Lord they try to convince themselves by using their customer as a sounding board. Instead they just continue bending their customer's ears about the Lord.

You do quickly develop a skepticism about anyone that tries to induce anything about the Lord into a conversation unrelated about work.

Snip

Reply to
charge

Passing a bad ck , one where you dont have the funds to cover it is different than stopping payment because you found out you were overcharged. Passing a bad ck you can be open to 3x the ck penalty. Stopping payment you argue your case. I have 3 times, I showed the judge that my account could cover it. The person just says they felt intimidated by the contractor and thought it was a days job and after completion reviewed it with a friend. Bottom line is who has the money, The contractor probably cashed it the minute the job was done.

Reply to
m Ransley

Dont forget beat up 20 yr old dodge vans with a Mormon bumper sticker, they are worse than old pickup drivers . They even get on TV

Reply to
m Ransley

[...]

I was wiring my basement as it was being finished and when I opened up the main service panel I notice a neutral all burned up. All connections were tight. So I figured I'd call in a guy and ask him his opinion on the matter

- cause mainly.

The guy showed up, in a spiffy nice jumpiest, and after discussing the issue of the neutral (and deciding it wasn't an issue), he asked me if he wanted me to have him cut and reterminate the wire. Note that he was called also to give an estimate on installing a ceiling fan box and switch. So I figured that since the guy was here (we were paying for him to come - charges to be removed form any future work done) and in the box already, I would pay a small fee to have him cut and terminate. He whips out a pack of slickly prepared laminated 8.5 x 11 sheets, all nice with colors and pictures (obviously prepackaged) with the rate sked. Let's see, cutting a wire and terminating, $90! They literally had an entry for this. The main reason, the ceiling fan estimate, was over $700!

Needless to say I told him to bolt.

The whole operation had the look and feel of some sort of franchised outfit with some parent corporate entity pushing all the materials and pricing and stuff. It was pretty sad. _________________________________________________________________ JG... Jeff Givens mailto: snipped-for-privacy@comcastXX.netXX

"My hovercraft is full of eels."

Reply to
Jeff Givens

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