Fri, Jun 27, 2008
Electric Contractor
Posted to Miscellaneous category
I couldn't sleep last night, I was so upset about what they did to my yard, after all this delay and hassle.
I got up at 2:30 and wrote the note below, which I posted on both the 'Contact us' page on Mr. Sparky's web site, and also on the Tom Martino, Troubleshooter website. I am fed to the back teeth with listening to commercials where Mr. Martino (a consumer advocate) praises Mr. Sparky and its associated companies. I have heard them a lot because Mr. Sparky runs them on a loop instead of playing "On Hold" music.
I have had a horrible time with Mr. Sparky /Candlelight Electric. A major project that was supposed to take a week at the beginning of October 2007 remains an ongoing nightmare in the last week of June 2008, although it appears to be finally reaching a (fairly unsatisfactory) conclusion.
The original project was moderately complex. It involved moving my breaker box outside and bringing it up to code, as recommended by a Mr. Sparky inspector, as well as moving my power lines underground, which was also recommended, because the inspector said that the overhead lines were too low to meet code, and the pole in the driveay was too short to raise them high enough. Subsidiary projects included rebuilding part of my front porch to provide access to the new breaker box and grading and spreading roadbase on my driveway once the powerline trench was filled in.
I was assured that Mr. Sparky would coordinate everything with the power company (Excel) and the county building inspectors. That turned out not to be the case. The only reason the county ever inspected the new breaker box and closed the permit was because I kept calling both the Mr. Sparky office and the county for weeks several times a week, trying to find out what was going on. Mr. Sparky showed no interest or capacity for following through on the status of the project to bring it to completion.
The actual construction work was adequately done. They broke and repaired one of the pillars that support my porch roof, and cut th egas line while digging the trench for th epower lines, but I was happy with my newly expanded porch and the re-surfaced driveway, and the digging had carefully minimized the damage done by the trench to areas of my yard other than the driveway. The driveway itself had grown a bit larger than I expected, and there was some churned dirt running from the driveway to the house, but most of the places that had been grassy still were.
The only problem seemed to be that XCel had not yet switched the power from the overhead to the underground lines. I spent 3 months occasionally calling Mr Sparky to find out what the status of the changeover was, and getting the run-around from various departments at XCel. I eventually got in touch with the correct department at Xcel, or they got in touch with me.
At the beginning of March a representative from XCel informed me that the powerline project had not followed standard procedures and the trench would need to be re-done. They also were not happy with the location of the new breaker box.
I put XCel in touch with Mr. Sparky (which I should not have needed to do: Mr. Sparky should have been the ones dealing with XCel, not me) and the two companies spent several weeks arguing about what needed to be done. And then several more weeks trying to schedule the work.
I was assured that my yard and driveway would only remain dug up and unusable for a few days, when digging started on Thursday, June 13th. In fact, it was a week before the trench satisfied XCel and another week before XCel actually did the changeover, on Wednesday June 25.
A crew from Mr. Sparky arrived on the morning of June 26 to fill in the trench. I was working from home and available to answer questions, but they did not consult me. By the time they stopped for lunch, the trench was filled in, and they said they just needed to finish a few things. Those few things appear to include destroying my yard.
Before they left, they showed me the state of my yard, and I was too shocked to say much. Later, after my own workday ended, I pulled my truck into the place where my driveway is supposed to be and noticed a number of additions problems that had not been initially apparent.
Outstanding and problem items:
The backhoe crossed the property line onto my neighbor's property and the boundary is obscured at the end of the driveway.
A large drain pipe that was removed from under my driveway when the trench was being dug is still out of the ground and laying in my neighbor's yard.
Areas that were grassy even two days ago (while the trench and its dirt piles still existed) have been scraped down to bare soil, and probably to bare subsoil.
A 'berm' of subsoil (which I did NOT ask for) has been dumped on top of the topsoil directly in front of my house. Or possibly the topsoil was buried in the trench first. It is hard to tell. The visible soil is clearly not able to support life.
A ten to fifteen foot long section of an existing berm, which had been covered with grass and wild flowers, is just gone. There is a vertical cut in the berm as if someone had used a knife, showing clay and gravel under the grass. The berm was parallel to the driveway and several feet from the trench, and should not have been affected by the work.
The support post for the new section of porch built by the Mr. Sparky crew in October has been undermined, so that corner of the porch is no longer suported.
The holes through the porch roof where the overhead power cables came through are still open (and possibly inhabited by birds, which would not have happened if the changeover had occured last fall as previously scheduled).
I have ordered more roadbase to re-resurface the driveway. Mr. Sparky has promised to reimburse me. They said they would spread it on Monday (when it is due to be delivered), but considering the current state of my property after their most recent work, I am hesitant to let them do it.
I am very unlikely to renew my support contract with Candlelight, despite its convenience. And I will seek alternative electrical contractors for the interior electrical projects I have been postponing until the external project was done. I wish I knew whether Ross Munro was still in the area. He did an excellent job in October on the actual construction.
Two miles on the treadmill this morning even on basically no sleep. I guess being angry can be useful. 390 miles to Rivendell