I wish I could be more generous in my rating since everything started so well. I was sure that when Daniel (owner) came out and found the problem, we had a 5-star provider fixing our electrical problem. So why 1 star? Read on...
THE PROBLEM: We had a series of wall outlets that were no longer working in our living room. None of the circuit breaker were triggered on either the main panel or the sub-panel. There were no GFIs associated with this circuit. We are in the process of putting our house on the market so there was some urgency on our end. It was obvious to me that I needed the help of a professional. I spoke to a couple of electricians and Zair was responsive, offered a reasonable value, and low risk ($75 for the assessment). I accepted Zair's offer and Daniel came out to make his assessment.
VISIT #1: Daniel came out personally. He checked the obvious stuff anyway (e.g., circuit breakers) because that's what pros do. He opened every outlet and found a poor splice in one of the boxes. He demonstrated to me that he found the problem and would install a superior connection that should fix the problem. He came, found the problem and (supposedly) fixed the problem in under an hour. Bravo! I was a little miffed when he asked for $150 ($75 for the assessment and $75 for the repair), but I was happy to have the problem solved and out of my hair.
Later that night, I needed to vacuum in the living room and was shocked to find that the outlets were dead again. As before, none of the circuit breakers popped. I contacted Daniel and he said he would have his guys come out the next day to investigate.
VISIT #2: Two electricians from Zair showed up to troubleshoot the problem. They could not see what the problem was. When I showed them the outlet where Daniel discovered the problem the day before, they said that wasn't the problem. They asked for access to the crawl space under the house (Daniel never went there). They found a hanging wire that wasn't tied to anything and they suspected that it was part of the problem. I objected because how could it be a part of the problem when (1) the outlets were working fine up until recently despite the hanging wire, and (2) Daniel got the outlets working without involving the hanging wire. Nevertheless, I deferred to the professionals because they know more than I do about such matters. They got the outlets working again by stringing an entirely new circuit and installing a new circuit breaker, so problem solved... right???
Later that night I found that the lights on the front of the house were unexplainably on, so I went to turn them off. To my surprise, the switch that powers the outside house lights couldn't turn off the lights. The lights were now on 24/7. Somehow the electricians made changes that overrode the switch to the outside lights. I contacted Daniel and he said he would check it out again.
VISIT #3: The same two electricians came again, went under the house, as before and worked their magic. They asked me to see if the switch would turn off and on the house lights as before. You can see one of the four lights from the switch so the test was a simple one (or so I thought). The switch seemed to work so they guys packed their bags and left.
Later that night I noticed that the 4th outside light (furthest west light) was on when I thought they were off. I went to turn them off and noticed that 3 of the 4 lights WERE off, but light #4 was on. The switch now operated 3 of the 4 house lights and #4 was on perpetually.
I tried to contact Daniel, but he was unresponsive. After repeated attempts, he finally responded and essentially punted, saying that he and his guys were too busy to fix the problem (see attached text conversation). I reminded him about his one-year warranty, which he says applied only to the outlets. All of the other problems WHICH THEY CAUSED, were not covered.
A couple of nights later my wife and our house stager turned on ceiling lights in the living room and 20-30 seconds later they heard a loud pop and the outlets died AGAIN. Since the outlets were under warranty, I contacted Daniel. He explained that he was traveling the next day and he would see if he could get his guys to come take a look.
When I didn't hear from Daniel or his team near the end of the next day I opted to find a different electrician. The new guy found the wiring confusing and didn't want to mess with what he didn't understand (as Daniel's team did). He got the outlets working again and suggested we put the corner light on a photo sensor so that it was on at night for safety (next to a driveway) and off during the day. It was an imperfect solution, but it made sense. I wish Zair Electric would have tried to make lemonade when they are the ones who brought the lemons to the party in the first place.
I have been giving out many 5-star ratings during our moving process. I would have loved to give one to Zair, but honestly, 1 star aptly describes the service we received. read more