Complaintsfor1st Electric Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  23/02/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I reached out to 1st Electric for a free estimate, which they advertise as “free” on their website, business cards, company vehicles, etc. Much to my surprise, several months after receiving the estimates and not proceeding with any services, I received an invoice from this company with a demand amount. With confusion, I reached out to the owner who threatened to send me to collections if not paid. I attempted to resolve this confusion with the owner directly and had not received any response. This week, I was contacted by a third party collections agency demanding payment. This company has fraudulently invoiced/sent me to collections for something they promote as a “free” service they provide. It is my understanding that this is a direct violation of the Canadian Competition Act to promote misleading information for business gain. As such, I am reporting this company to prevent further hardship to other individuals/business as a result of their false advertising for “free estimates”. My credit as a business owner is now in jeopardy. It is my hope that the BBB can provide support in the rectification of this situation. I have been given a deadline of March 5, 2023 for payment before it impacts my credit score.

  

  Business response

  27/02/2023

  Dear *****,
  
  I’m sorry that you felt the need to take your complaint to the BBB and that despite our efforts we couldn’t come to an agreeable resolution before you took this step.   For clarification, no threats were made, and as stated, we provided several opportunities for you to settle the outstanding balance before taking the step to involve a third-party collections agency. Involving collections is always a last resort, and certainly not a path we want to go down.
  
  You are absolutely correct, we do provide free estimates to our customers who are looking for solar, generators or general electrical work such as ETS installations and renovations. A free estimate would typically involve a phone call and perhaps one site visit. You had approached 1st Electric requesting a quote for a sawmill that involved a significant number of hours developing estimates for the project, including several phone calls, emails, in person meetings and site visits. This went on for a period of time, so much so that we were under the assumption that we had been granted the work. The time and effort that I and members of my team put in consulting on this project while working with you was well beyond what we would provide as part of a “free” estimate for our other customers. Furthermore, you used our planning and resources at our cost to give the project to someone else.
  
  You were provided with four quotes between July and October 2021 with multiple revisions to each quote for different variations of the work. At your request, we made three additional site visits and accrued extra consultation and design fees. In addition, there were multiple calls to the manufacturer of the sawmill in the US that were made as part of the process. We reached out to you several times requesting that you settle your bill, and your resolution was to pay the NSP plans review portion only. We reached out to you again on December 14 and 22, 2022 with another request for payment, and unfortunately never heard back.
  
  *****, you didn’t even let us know that you had another electrical company do the work, and when I reached out to you, your response was: “…you are lucky you didn’t do it because I don’t think I have enough cash to pay the guy who did it”. This is a resource issue, rather than whether our time and efforts developing comprehensive quoting and design estimates should be deemed a “free” service.
  
  You have an outstanding balance with us of $1,121.25, and in order to settle this matter I would agree to a final payment of $1000.
  
  *****, I would welcome the opportunity to speak with you directly on this matter, and I look forward to arriving at a mutually acceptable resolution.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ****

  Customer response

  01/03/2023

   I am rejecting this response because:
  
  Hi ****, 
  
  I received your reply. Although I appreciate your efforts, it does not change the fact that we never entered into a contract. I am not an electrician and therefore I have no way of knowing the time/effort you take to prepare estimates. My understanding, based on your advertising, is that estimates are free. It was my understanding that I was working with you (as well as many other electrical companies) to obtain a free estimate. If only certain estimates are free, your advertising should be more clear as should you be with prospective clients. Because we never entered into any contract, it was my understanding that you were providing me with free estimates. If at any point what you were providing to me was more than an estimate, I would expect that as a professional business owner, you would have communicated this to me and disclosed such costs so I could have made an informed decision on whether I wanted to proceed with your business or not.
  
  As a business owner you must be able to appreciate “shopping around” for the best price. I had spoke with a number of electrical companies regarding the same job. I was not charged by any of the other companies for the estimates they provided or the conversations we had. 
  
  
  

  

  Business response

  02/03/2023

  Hello *****,

  Thank you for your reply and the additional information.

  We did provide you with 4 free estimates. The invoice was for additional fees that were well beyond the efforts included in the free estimates as outlined in our previous correspondence. We want to see this come to a resolution as soon as possible, and in an effort to meet in the middle, we will reduce the invoice amount to $560 which is half of the original amount (including taxes). If payment is remitted by Thursday March 7\9, 2023 we will rescind the request to the collections agency.

  Sincerely,

  ****

   

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