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The bright side of the scammers is that some of their duff work will need attention in the future by more competent ECs, so long as no one is hurt by it! Would be better without them though.

Explanation is in order here.
This may get winded, so bear with me.

These "scammers" that I refer to are this:

These are the EC's, I have friends (ex) that own these business and also have friends that work for them. It seems they all originated after one idiot who changes his company name every 2-3yrs. Maybe you have the same type in your area.

The scam goes something like this:
A call is placed. The electrician, who is a subcontractor, is dispatched. He is instructed to locate the residence, drive around the nieghborhood, and put a call back in with the following info:
1. Condition of homes in the area.
2. make and model of cars in the residence driveway, and surrounding driveways.
3. Appearance of homes, ie landscaaping and such.
Then comes the confrontation with the homeowner. They are instructed to listen to the problem, and watch the persons reactions to a series of resolutions. The "banger" being an emergency service upgrade.
The electrician is to notice everything in the house included what type of TV's, jewerly being worn, and you name it.
However, the electrician is trained to act dumb, never to answer any technical questions upfront.
He then, calls his "supervisor" who really is the closer of this arangement, and the closer talks to the customer, only after the electrician divulges secretly to the closer the above info on cars, homes, ect.

This is where it gets good.

Women and the elderly are most often told of "fire hazzards" and "electrocution" hazzards, with regards with personel safety,
and how children are vulnurable.

It is the scare tactic.

The whole idea is to get the customer to sign the release form. The majority of people never read the whole form. This "release form" as they call it is actually a contract, worded in such a way, that you almost give up your house in court.

Once the closer, proposes a price, upwards in the $5-6K range for this emergency service, and the release is signed, the first thing the helper does is kills power to the house, now work has begun, this is called the point of no return for the customer.

If the customer doesn't sign the form, or is sceptical of $5K for the service, the electrician, who was trained on what to do next, states the following:

Hey look, I know my boss may be a liitle high, but I have the materials on my truck, and I can do it $3k if you want.

Either way, the sub gets 40% of the job. The closer keeps 60% of whatever the job gets sold for. And the sub gets paid cash, no taxes, nothing to report.

This practice of "banging the elderly", women with kids is appaling.

The idea, "that get every penny that you can", is wrong too, or maybe I have higher morals, I don't know.

Maybe, I am disgusted with these guys, and hate every one like them who tend to give the rest of us a bad rap.

But thanks for reading...


Dnk.........

I hear ya growler, I've had those days too. I can say this - Anytime I am aware a non-licensed EC is working, and it's a rare find, I immediately call the local inspector and file a complaint. We have a large national company based in another state doing work for CVS/pharmacy. Not only are then not licensed in MA, they are not licensed anyplace, and are not competent electricians. Of course they can't take out a permit so they seldom get caught. But CVS took the lowest bidder and they got the work. I will/have reported them every time I see them working. So, if any of you guys see exterior fluorescent lighting going up (it's actually replacement) on any CVS store in the MA/RI/NH area those guys with the OH plates are are unlicensed.

Dnk... I'm sure I didn't understand what you were talking about before. I thought that you ment flat rate from a price book as opposed to hourly rates. What you are talking about sounds more like some sort of con game. It sould be illegal and if it's not I'm sure that a talk with a local inspector would make sure they don't pass too many inspections. The poeple that I suggested getting money from don't need to sign over a mortgage to get work done. They live in multimillion dollar homes and have servants. I don't see any reason to help the rich get any richer. My childhood hero was Robin Hood and I haven't changed much in my thinking. I don't find many homes that need a service upgrade unless they have a big addition or a large hot tub and not many poor people go in for that sort of thing. The last old granny lady I worked for used to own an insurance company and lives in an exclusive neighborhood across from the country club. This is why you can't go around quoting prices on the net. We are talking about completely different worlds. If I see anyone scamming the poor I would at least report them . You don't scam the rich, you just charge them according to the effort it will take to get the job done. If anyone wishes to do a service upgrade on the mansion for $1500.00 they can have it. Many of the upper class spend that and more on a night out.