California Guys....

Status
Not open for further replies.
E

emahler

Senior Member
Anyone have more information?

Scam? ? the California Contractors State License Board perpetrated a statewide sting that led to the arrests of seven electrical contractors, according to the Associated Press wire (5/8). Heart of the investigation: A company that advertises in the Yellow Pages and operates a call center near Glendale. When customers respond to the ad, ?the call center then dispatches often-unqualified electricians, who try to sell homeowners repairs they don?t need, the licensing board said,? according to the news item. The ?sting? went forward after the license board received 65+ complaints in the past 18 months. Example of the kind of scam underway: ?One contractor . . . offered to replace every circuit breaker in a house for $1,600, when the only work needed was to reset a breaker switch that had tripped,? according to a spokesperson for the board.
 
I don't, but I will look into it and see what I can find out.

My guess is it's one of those that we talk about from time to time on this forum.
 
"One contractor . . . offered to replace every circuit breaker in a house for $1,600,"

I can see it now when it hits the court, Judge, my client noticed the homeowner had a FPE loadcenter, and after reseting the breaker, offered to replace a panel with known problems, he was trying to protect the consumer. Your honor, I would like to submit findings from the consumer safety reports as evidence.
 
satcom said:
"One contractor . . . offered to replace every circuit breaker in a house for $1,600,"

I can see it now when it hits the court, Judge, my client noticed the homeowner had a FPE loadcenter, and after reseting the breaker, offered to replace a panel with known problems, he was trying to protect the consumer. Your honor, I would like to submit findings from the consumer safety reports as evidence.
Click to expand...

How big is the house? Sounds more than reasonable to me.

Often wondered if I was being "tested" or have missed something when I do reset a circuit breaker and found nothing obvious.
 
LarryFine said:
There's a big difference between replacing breakers and a replacement panel.
Click to expand...

There sure is, the question is, what was the consumer offered, we were not there, when we reset a breaker, we check the panel for other problems, and inspect the tripped circuit, if during this process we find any problems, we will write it up, and offer a quote, could it be what the consumer is calling 16 breakers replaced, was in fact, a panel change out?

The Electrical Boards have a record of enforcing contractors of record, fishing in the bowl so to speak, when the largest number of violators are the underground operators, it's easy to shoot fish in a bowl, seems the scales of justice have to balance, if your going to enforce business practices do it across the board, or don't do it at all.
 
I know a guy who was invited to bid at a sting - nothing happened as he was always on the up-n-up. Personally, I would love the job of doing it.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top