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We had a power outage yesterday and called Christopher John Electrical, who’s been recommended by others on this site. The technician diagnosed the problem as a Con Ed wiring fault from the street. He charged the “standard” Con Ed fee of $295 in addition to their regular emergency service call fee of $266. This morning Con Ed arrived on the street to fix the electrical distribution box which was, by now, smoking. When that was complete the Con Ed guy came in and rewired the jump that Christopher John had temporarily put in place yesterday. During my conversation with him, he asked why we hadn’t called Con Ed in the first place, saying there wouldn’t have been any charge for anything because clearly it was a Con Ed problem. He ALSO said he had never heard of any such Con Ed fee charged by any other independent electrician. So here are my QUESTIONS: What is the deal with this Con Ed fee? Has anybody had any similar experience? Did Christopher John rip us off, or did the Con Ed guy not understand billing procedures?