It was just a matter of time before Home Depot is tring to squeeze in the residential service market. Today in the electrical section every other shelf had signs advertising using their electricians.


http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

Leave Your Electrical Needs To The Home Depot

Call 1-888-480-9500 today to get your electrical project professionally completed!

Services provided by authorized independent installation professionals

Don't take chances when considering an electrical project. Trust a hand-picked, licensed* and insured electrician from The Home Depot to do the job right! Our team of electricians meet all the professional standards and applicable building codes necessary to ensure that everything will be done safely, on time and on budget. No matter how big or how small your job may be - from wiring an outlet to wiring an entire house - you'll never have to worry because The Home Depot electrical professionals will take care of all the details at a competitive price.

* Installers are fully licensed where applicable
** See contract for guarantee details
We Make Financing Easy, Too

**************************************************

After looking at the HD Home Services website I found the License numbers are misleading or a lie.

Example under electrical contractor license # the 1st one is:
AK #25084
HVAC liciance#
AK #25084
Landscaping:
AK #25084

Evey one I looked at was the same contractor license # except plumbing. So it's not a trade license #. Maybe a GC license? In my state of IL their is no GC or landscaping license but they have the same number listed for everything from paver installer to generator service.

I been told from customers that they paid HD to provide an electrical install of a generator but the contractor could not pull the permit because they were not licensed. If it was not for the customer requiring the permit they would not have been caught.

http://renocheck.com/hire-a-contractor/category/contractor-licensing/
Home Depot caught without a home improvement contractor license - again

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/09/24/Tampabay/Who_s_on_the_roof.shtml

the home improvement giant, it turns out, has repeatedly found itself under fire and saddled with fines from local and state construction regulators for permit and inspection problems and use of unlicensed subcontractors.

Atlanta-based Home Depot is the world's largest home improvement retailer. The company says it performs 11,000 At-Home Services jobs each day

http://consumerist.com/consumer/con...finish-single-womans-cabinets-262335.php
Not only that, it turned out that the man wasn't even a licensed contractor

There was an article in the Courier Times the other day about scammer contractors, in other words taking the money and running. (Which is an issue around here with two brother contractors going before a judge recently.) I don't know which is worse, paying some independent guy who rips your roof off then runs or paying a corporate giant then having the guy get refused permits/putting on a leaky roof!

Ian A.

Interesting accusations .... since all the ad material I've seen at HD stresses their use of licensed contractors - and they have supposedly had, for several years, an exclusive contract with one franchised chain of licensed electrical contractors for their electrical work.

In this town, at least, that franchise has an impeccable reputation, and did quite well, long before HD even came to town.

Now, this is not to deny the damage that may be done by an errant employee. While I have not personally heard HD employees give bad technical advice, I have had employees find ways to mention firms that their friends, families, etc., work for (hint, hint).

The problem here is a lot of companies work under a license of someone you will never see. They just use the number to pull permits.
I sometimes wonder how the state even knows if these people are still alive. It might be like "weekend at Bernies" with a dead guy propped up behind a desk and the business going on.

It is nice how HD sets the price for you and you take all the risk. If the customer is not satisfied (whatever that means) you are supposed to continue to go back until the customer is happy.

Few HO's will realize that the install prices are just a come-on for all the higher priced extras when the books conditions are not met.

home depot should sytick to selling a product, and let us work on selling the service,

The way that message will get to HD is when their shelfs build dust, because electricians are buying from local suppliers.

and we should be at the distributors, buying the quality materials,not the lower grade produced for the big box.
home depot is convenient for the weekend emergency calls, to get the little nuts and bolts for offhour service calls, even providing temporary patch parts, until monday morning.

funny part? outside of the loss leaders that HD is pushing in order to gain market share, their pricing is way more than the average local EC...they charge, and get, a dispatch fee for every job...they offer financing and many payment options...maybe we should learn something from HD

Or from Best Buy and the Geek Squad.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8353952&type=product&id=1177112313877
Note the hundred dollars they get for an in home consultation. (Also known as an estimate)
Electricians are running around giving free estimates while trying to see how much lower they can be than the other guy.

Electricians need to quit giving free estimates and start charging for in home consultations. I think I'll quit calling them estimates and start telling people that I have an in home consulation fee. However the in home consultation fee does include a free estimate.