It is difficult for me to express in words how DISAPPOINTED and how ASTONISHED I was to receive this kind of shoddy treatment from a local vendor I have been using for 30 years. To summarize, I asked them to perform a lighting exchange from fluorescent to LED In my home shop. They came out within a few days, did a nice job of assessing the situation and providing me with the raw materials, then they did about half the job (the easy half), then flat-out refused (nicely) to come back and finish it. said they had manpower problems. They charged me the full $1500 amount and their invoice reported that the job was completed. I spent $1600 and a lot of personal effort to complete the job myself. After failing to get any dialogue from them, I plan to pay the invoice to avoid further hassle. The price they pay will be this review! The following is a letter I wrote two months ago to the company that has all the details of timing and sequence. I never received a reply. I certainly will never ask them to do anything else for me. I waited a long time to write this review because I just COULD NOT believe that a reputable company would behave in this manner: Dear Nelson Electric: Please help me understand. Early December 2022, I asked you to to revise the lighting system in my shop from Fluorescent to LED. 'Twas a natural choice, because you wired and lit my shop in 2008 and did a really sweet job. The circuit box is a work of art. You sent a senior electrician and apprentice out Dec 13 and we had a good day. He surveyed the situation, did some research, gave me good advice, and brought all the bulbs needed. The difficult part was five 8-foot fixtures on a high ceiling that needed ballasts removed and circuitry restored before placing the 8-ft LED bulbs. Your team didn't have the necessary ladders/scaffold to reach the 3 difficult (16-ft high) fixtures, so they did the easier 2 and left me with the impression they would be back. I never got a call-back, so after about 2 months, I put a call into your general office, and eventually 2 calls to "Buddy," job scheduler? I emphasize all interactions were cordial and I think admirably honest, except for one thing: I THINK IT WAS JUST A DIFFICULT, LOW-PAY JOB AND NOBODY WANTED TO FINISH IT! Buddy told me during the first call that he would try to get the completion scheduled, but a couple weeks later during my second call, he was honest enough to tell me that he was having significant manpower shortage problems and he didn't think the job would be completed within 6 to 9 months, and when I asked if it would be appropriate for me to prep the work place and hire a friend independently to complete the job, he welcomed that option. I understand that. I've done my fair share of difficult jobs. But I don't really have a grasp on how a company with your reputation could start a job and verbally contract to finish it, then just blow it off. I got a bill for services invoice (attached) on December 17. It is my personal compulsion, my mission in fact, to pay such bills in full immediately upon job completion. But it is also my cautious character to avoid paying for jobs that have not been finished. The services and advice (and of course materials) that you provided were valuable to me. I'm not trying to get out of paying for that. But it cost me considerable $'s to buy and build a scaffold and hire a friend to complete the work and I think maybe some downward adjustment of your bill is in order. The invoice implies the work was completed. Thank you very much for your consideration. I'm sorry this is so long, but I wanted to make sure you had all the details. Invoice attached. Sincerely, Mark Taylor read more

Nelson Electric was courteous from the initial call. They got to us fast and only took less than an hour to resolve our issue. I will definitely be calling them for any future needs. read more

It's really tough to find a contractor you can count on in Ames if you're a small business or homeowner. As strange as it sounds, most of them don't seem to want your business because they don't bother to call you back! Of all the electricians we've called, in the end we've always gone with Nelson Electric. Every time we need something done, we call at least 5 or 6 contractors. Out of those, fewer than half of them ever return our calls, and we're lucky if two of them actually give us a quote. So far, every time we've called Nelson Electric, they've been the company that got our business. One of my friends also had a similar experience. He needed some ceiling fans installed, and Nelson Electric was the *only* company that would give him a quote. The other electricians he called just wanted to schedule a time to do the work, without giving him any idea what it would cost. Update 11/11/2014: For now I'm bumping my rating down by 1 star until my current issue is resolved. Earlier this year I had Nelson Electric do some work at my house and it originally took them a while to send the quote, but once they did, I gave them the go-ahead and they came right away and did great work. But then it took a while before they sent the bill. When I did finally receive it, it was more than 50% higher than the original quote. I immediately contacted them and the guy who wrote the quote asked if there was any additional work done (no, the work done was exactly the work quoted). He said he needed to talk to the electrician and would call me back the next day. More than a week passed, and nobody called me. I called again and he said again he'd look into it and call me back. More than a month passed, and I didn't receive a call. I get the impression that this particular employee is either severely overworked, or perhaps a bit lazy or too easily distracted from his work. Eventually I received a letter from Nelson Electric stating I had a past due balance, and that they would put a mechanic's lien on my house and would send my bill to a collection agency if I didn't resolve it immediately. I called and spoke to the person who sent the letter, and he said he needed to look at the records and would call me back the next day. He didn't call me the next day, but he did call about a week later to say he hadn't forgotten about me. He said he needed to find the box that had the relevant papers so he could refresh his memory about the job, and he would call me back again. I offered to send him copies but he declined. I asked if I needed to worry about the collections, etc., mentioned in the letter and he said since I had called and we had talked, I didn't need to worry about it. By now it's been a few weeks since that conversation, but they still haven't called me back about the final resolution. I still think Nelson Electric does great work and I probably still wouldn't recommend anyone else at this point, but I would really like to just pay what they originally quoted and get this bill resolved. read more