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February 24, 2008
Con Ed Fee?
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?
Comments
I knew an electrician in Manhattan who always charged a fee like this. To me it seemed like a rip off, but he said it was standard practice, cause Con Ed won't (and proabably can't) respond to everyone who says their power went out for some unknown reason, so they wanted people to call electricians first. He also said that Con Ed reimbursed that fee, which I think you should investigate.
In your case, had you noticed the box smoking before you called the electrician, Con Ed probably would've come, and maybe the Con Ed guy you spoke to assumed that that's what you'd seen; hence his question about why you called an electrician. Just sayin'. I don't know; I wasn't there.
Posted by: guest at February 24, 2008 2:04 PM
There's one born every day ...
Posted by: MrHancock at February 24, 2008 2:28 PM
2:04, no, it wasn't apparent that the box was smoking until the Con Ed technicians took off the cover in the street this morning.
We called the electrician first because the house needs electrical upgrades and it isn't uncommon for a breaker to flip. In this case, it wasn't the breaker, obviously, but at the time, we just assumed it was something else internal.
Regarding reimbursement, any more info on that? I'll definitely investigate.
Posted by: RFI at February 24, 2008 2:37 PM
It's very common for electrical service to be fried by the road salt and water after a snow storm.
Posted by: guest at February 24, 2008 2:41 PM
Sounds like a rip-off to me. More than $500 for how many minutes of work? Our power went off one night last year, and I called Guida Electric. It was in the winter, so the boiler wasn't working. He was over in an hour and charged us $100. It was something in the breaker box, but he fixed it right away.
Posted by: guest at February 24, 2008 4:33 PM
sound like you got ripped off. We've had similar outages and they were all from the street and the fault of Con Edison. you should always call con ed first to check if there is anything wrong on their end. we've lived in bed stuy for 2 years and it has happened 3 times. each time con ed comes out within a few hours and the problem is solved. we have never once paid. sorry to hear about you situation, at least now you know
Posted by: brolic84 at February 24, 2008 7:23 PM
Obviously you should have called con ed.
But why would you expect an electrician to perform work without getting paid?
For posters to call this a "rip off" is a little over the top. He got your electricity on didn't he?
Posted by: guest at February 24, 2008 8:30 PM
I would highly doubt that con ed will pay you $295 to reimburse your electrician. Just saying.
Posted by: guest at February 24, 2008 10:22 PM
I'm the first poster. I don't know the specifics on the refund process, but assume it must be a Con Ed policy, since I never heard any of my electrician friend's customers calling him to complain. (I should also add--and should've said before--that my experience with this dates back to the late '90s, should that be relevant.) I hope you will investigate the refund, and post your results. I don't doubt that Con Ed will reimburse you, since sending a truck/crew out to check every tripped breaker, shorted-out line or blown fuse would cost them much more--plus put half the electricians in NY out of business.
Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 12:11 AM
Whether they call it a ConEd fee or an emergency call fee or a full moon fee -- you got charged it. If you they didn't tell you what they'd charge to come over and you think it is excessive, then you could easily think it was a rip-off. I've had bad experiences with Christopher John, so I am biased to see it as a rip off, but a.) if you didn't ask what their fee schedule was in advance b.) they did get your power on and figure out what was wrong, then is sounds more like a lesson learned...
Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 8:28 AM
I recall this happening to our building in 2005 after the big snowstorm. We lost power and had to call an electrician who found the fault to be out at the smoking box on the street. He got power to the building, called ConEd from our apartment and gave them his lic. number and some other information. He charged us for emergency service and the repair, but ConEd sent us a check to reimburse us for the charge. The electrician said it happens a lot after snowstorms and if you have the repairs done by a licensed electrician who contacts ConEd about the repair they send a crew out to verify the fault, fix it, and will reimburse you. I would try to get the electrician to call ConEd about this. Good Luck!
Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 9:03 AM
There is no such thing as the "standard" Con Ed fee of $295 and I would be very supprised if you got a refund for this.
Posted by: guest at February 25, 2008 4:15 PM
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