how wonderful....

[Fulthrotl]

i discovered a brand new electrical contractor in the LA area.

with a name almost identical to mine.
and a web site that comes up on google right next to mine.

before that there were two similar names, one in nevada, and
one in portland... both reputable EC's.

the one near me?

no license or insurance.
free web site off yolo or whatever.
operates in bakersfield, and LA

no real world contact information whatsoever.

i did find the registrar of the web site, and it seems to be the
guy doing the work. his cellphone is also the business phone
of the EC, and his home address in an apartment in pasadena
seems to be the place of business.

comes across as a level ten trunkslammer. can lights "starting at" $65,
and he does a serious push on KVAR "energy saving" units.

and he had to pick a name almost identical to mine... lovely.
can ya all feel how thrilled i am?

 

[Ponchik]

I guess one thing you can do is report NO LICENSE activity to the state board.
http://www.cslb.ca.gov/Consumers/ReportUnlicensedActivity/

I don't know what else you can do.

 

[MikeyRob]

Just curious how you know he is not licensed and Insured. There a lot of those kind of guys in my area as well. When customers say contractor so and so can do it for a price that I wouldn't even cover my material costs, permits and inspections I always reply that they probably are not licensed or Insured but really have no way of telling them for sure.

P.S. my business phone is my cell, and my address is my apt., not sure what that has to do with the quality of work you perform or if you carry a license and Insurance.

 

[Hv&Lv]

Just curious how you know he is not licensed and Insured. There a lot of those kind of guys in my area as well. When customers say contractor so and so can do it for a price that I wouldn't even cover my material costs, permits and inspections I always reply that they probably are not licensed or Insured but really have no way of telling them for sure.

P.S. my business phone is my cell, and my address is my apt., not sure what that has to do with the quality of work you perform or if you carry a license and Insurance.

Many states have a searchable database to check on the license and whether or not they have insurance.

 

[ritelec]

Just curious how you know he is not licensed and Insured. There a lot of those kind of guys in my area as well.

??? should not the rules (laws) be the same on the east cost as the west coast. The contractor has to display his license and business permit number on trucks, advertisements etc...

 

[MikeyRob]

??? should not the rules (laws) be the same on the east cost as the west coast. The contractor has to display his license and business permit number on trucks, advertisements etc...

We have state contractor license numbers but they are real easy to get. In September one of the GC's I do a lot of work for had me help him do a take off on a huge 1800farm house with 2 detached rentals. The job was to gut the 2 rentals completely, rehab the farmhouse completely while keeping all original plaster, wood work, hard wood etc. and also do everything in accordance with the local historical society. His total GC number was $185,000. The property owner is an acquaintance from church so our numbers were extremely fair for him. He got a few other quotes that were lower but also had less quality work specced (mostly a shingle roof when the historical society was making us re do the old tin roof with copper caps and gutters). HE got a card from a contractor he found posted on a wall at WAWA. The guy came in at $85,000 all in. The HO had us review his numbers to try and match it. His electrical number was less than what I was going to have to pay for permits and inspections, let alone my material cost was triple his. We told him we couldn't touch it and that he should beware. We couldn't find his license online listed in PA's site but when he started the job he provided it, with a good insurance policy. He decided to go with the guy and believed he could do it so cheap because his company was one of those companies that does everything in house not like my GC who subs out all the trades like electric, plumbing, hvac etc.. We just met with the HO again this week. Apparently the guy started the job and planned on finishing it without ever getting a single inspection or permit for any of the work. None of the work was being brought up to code (his number for the service was less than what I would pay for AFCI breakers), which didn't seem to bother the HO at all except the guy couldn't finance the job any more and needed his material costs upfront. The money is in esgro account and can only be released after certain amounts of work are finished. The HO asked us if we could finish the job with the remaining $65,000 left. We walked away.

 

[infinity]

i discovered a brand new electrical contractor in the LA area.

with a name almost identical to mine.
and a web site that comes up on google right next to mine.

before that there were two similar names, one in nevada, and
one in portland... both reputable EC's.

You might be able to go after him for the name but that depends on a number of factors. For example if you're a Corporation then your name may have protection for the entire state. If you're just a sole proprietorship then the guy in the next county might be able to use the same name. Out of state forget it. Might want to check with an attorney to see if you can at least get him to find a new name.

 

[ritelec]

The HO asked us if we could finish the job with the remaining $65,000 left. We walked away.

:thumbsup:


"and when I nod my head, you kick it"

 

[GUNNING]

Torpedoes away!

Torpedoes away!

I had a similar problem here. I added the line "20 yrs experience" in my advertisements. Then those that knew the name knew which one to hire (or not).

You might have to look up the legals, business registrations, licenses, zoning, taxes, etc. Might have to go to a private eye and get all the information you can then submarine the guy. Or wait it out. Sounds like he wont last but it does make ya mad.

He knows what he has done. It's business.:rant:

 

[Fulthrotl]

P.S. my business phone is my cell, and my address is my apt., not sure what that
has to do with the quality of work you perform or if you carry a license and Insurance.

it doesn't have anything to do with it. my personal residence is listed on my contractors
license information, and my cellphone is listed as buisness phone on my website.

in calif. you have to use your license number on everything. work trucks, letterheads,
biz cards, invoices, and *all advertising*.

no license number anywhere. just a cellphone.

california has a searchable database and you can search by number, biz name, or
employees. so, the name didn't come up in the database, so i did a /whois on the
domain name, and it came up as blocked, which is common, but a search of google
cache information showed who registered it before the block went into place. it's a new
domain, so that information had not been purged from the cache.

then i searched the database for that person's name, and got no hits. so, he's not licensed,
and neither is his biz name. all this took all of five or ten minutes.

then, two days later, on his home page, it says "licensed and insured", call for details.
no license number. so maybe he's working under someone's license, or he's pulling one out
of thin air, and doesn't want to post it on the internet.

either way, he's flying low and cheesy. so, i could file a report with the state, and i have to give
my contact information, and i have little reason to think that will remain confidential.

and it doesn't make much difference to report him or not. if he's got a $8 a month web site,
he might change it, or he might not.

it just sucks having him decide to pick the name he chose to pick.

 

[Sierrasparky]

Report him, There is no such thing as under someones license. Either he is a licensed contractor or a licensed salesman. Don't feel any regrets for turning someone in.

 

[ritelec]

Report him, There is no such thing as under someones license. Either he is a licensed contractor or a licensed salesman. Don't feel any regrets for turning someone in.

Yeah that...........................or maybe not.
After your posting here and if you turn him in, he will know it's you and may try to retaliate. People are funny that way.

Maybe you could hire the "ice man".................oops , he died.


It suks his name is close to yours (but it's not the same). Maybe suk it up and let the potential costumers (and authorities) weed him out. If he's no good or shady, he will fall by the wayside.

(maybe you could also have someone else turn him in......a friend......your wifes friend......your wifes friends friend.........just throw up them red flags)

 

[cadpoint]

In another life; I went out and met a lot of the other drafting services. One service had the word triangle as part of their company name, they were in business as a DBA, sole proprietor.

Another company came in and with a State Incorporation forced my now friend to drop their active name totally. Needless to say they were totally bummed! Yes they were legally notified to descist or legal matters would follow if they continued under their own name.

As advised the only way to totally cover your name is to incorporate, then you have a strong leg to stand on.

 

[Fulthrotl]

Yeah that...........................or maybe not.
After your posting here and if you turn him in, he will know it's you and may try to retaliate. People are funny that way.

Maybe you could hire the "ice man".................oops , he died.


It suks his name is close to yours (but it's not the same). Maybe suk it up and let the potential costumers (and authorities) weed him out. If he's no good or shady, he will fall by the wayside.

(maybe you could also have someone else turn him in......a friend......your wifes friend......
your wifes friends friend.........just throw up them red flags)

i'm not turning anyone in. first and foremost, it creates a problem where there isn't one, for me.
you can't stop people from doing what they are going to do, but you can annoy them and give them
a reason to hit back. i learned that in second grade.

i get few hits off the net anyway, and most of the ones i get, honestly, aren't much different
than posting on craigslist. the last one, that was a direct google hit, was a train wreck just
needing a conductor... i showed up, looked at this guys disaster-in-the-making, it was an
involved industrial control situation, left a card, and suggested that the electrician who started
the project should be cajoled or coerced into finishing the work, and to call me if he needed help.....
all the while thinking "escrow account... this one needs to be paid out of an escrow account..."

however, i just redid my website, and was going to googlebomb it a bit to get it up in the search
results, and i didn't want to float his web page up with mine, but what i do really won't affect him
at all, and conversely, what he does really won't affect me at all.

if any messes he makes spill over on me, 'cause of the similar biz names, i'll address it in whatever
manner seems appropriate. i pulled all the guys information off the web. most of what he does
seems to be home theater, and his facebook page hasn't been updated since 2010. he has a twitter
account, that hasn't been tweeted in a long while.

one of my wife's favorite sayings is "don't cry before you are hit".

 

[Pullnwire]

I looked at your site and his. No comparison. Nice site BTW. It lookes like he cut and pasted his from one of 100 others just like it. 99$ platscreen install? Really??
He just wanted the A in front of the name so that it would get top billing in the phone book.

Hacks!!!

 

[kwired]

??? should not the rules (laws) be the same on the east cost as the west coast. The contractor has to display his license and business permit number on trucks, advertisements etc...

Why would that stop from displaying an invalid/misused number? The most important location is on file with the AHJ.

 

[ritelec]

one of my wife's favorite sayings is "don't cry before you are hit".

So the original topic was alittle off?

Did alittle turn around in a couple days?

So you're good?

No need to call "the ice man"?

 

[ritelec]

Why would that stop from displaying an invalid/misused number?

Absolutely Nothing.

 

[Fulthrotl]

So the original topic was alittle off?

Did alittle turn around in a couple days?

So you're good?

No need to call "the ice man"?

i'm not thrilled with his choice of name...

i'd just spent some time this week sorting out all
my online stuff, personal and business...
3 domains, half a dozen cloud services,
and a change from PC to Mac platform

so when i got the rats nests out of syncing all this
stuff, duplicate files moving from one pooter to the
next, and a quick scratch rebuild on my biz web page,
when i googled, and his came up right next to mine,
i got a bit tweaked.... sort of like the last straw.

like getting your house all tidied up, and then
finding out they are gonna put a walmart, a costco,
800 apartments, all within 1/2 mile of your house.....
might twizzle ya a bit? (i didn't make this up, btw)

 

[ramsy]

no license or insurance. ..can lights "starting at" $65, and he does a serious push on KVAR "energy saving" units. (SCAM PRODUCTS) ..he had to pick a name almost identical to mine

Prosecuting license law requires due process. Violations must be reported, and Notice to Appear "NTA" served. While Orange County seems absent from our license board's "Press Releases & Consumer Alerts", illegal operators were harvested in Riverside & San Bernardino, and original whistle blowers are irrelevant when jokers screw themselves during on-site stings.

However, unless working with fire systems & Fire-Marshal enforcement, licensed contractors are leading the industry's high-profile catastrophes that point squarely to regulatory failure. Regardless of whistle-blowing efforts, this case is a beacon of enforcement failure for a readily exploitable industry.