Byington Electric

Nan F.

Very helpful and responsive. I was ill and missed their call - they returned within 2 hours and took care of the problem. Thank you.

Dan M.

Why would you contact them...they'll never call or email back?

Just don't even bother.

David F.

While there were some real issues with customer service, some were overblown on my part after talking with the owner. He was forthright and honest about the situation and deserves some credit for addressing them with me.

Jessica G.

Totally unprofessional and not respectful of your time.

I was connected to Byington through my property manager after a light switch stopped working in our apartment. I spoke to Alan and, when he was unable to send someone out before we went out of town for a few days, we agreed upon a date for 2 weeks later. The day arrives and the electrician never comes. Odd and particularly annoying as I have two toddlers and keeping them both home to wait for someone is tough. After 2 hours of waiting, I called to see what was happening and am told Alan is ""out sick"" but that our technician is out in the field. The receptionist said she'd call me back. Several hours later, she calls me back to reschedule. I asked if it was possible for someone to come out that day (the light switch is in one of my kids' rooms and we'd really like it fixed!). She says that they cannot and that my technician is ""out sick"". Yikes. Sounds like there's a lot of illness going around. (Unsurprisingly, when reading the reviews, I read several other customers who'd had trouble with no-shows and when calling in, being told the techs were ""out sick"".

I agreed to reschedule for another day and she asks me if someone can come Monday. I'm unavailable during the time slot she has and I ask if we can do Tuesday. No. How about Thursday? Nope, but they can do Friday. I tell her I can't do that day and I hear her talkign to someone else in the office. She puts me on hold and then the man who she was talking to gets on the line. ""You need to give us some times that work for us so we can come out to do this"". I tell him I've given a few times the following week but can't do the days the receptionist suggested. He proceeds to berate me for not having more availability. I calmly told him that I'd speak to my property manager to see if she has any other electricians who might have more availability and he says ""fine, do what you want"" and hangs up on me.

So, to recap: Byington makes an appointment, does not show up for scheduled appointment time, refuses to send another technician out when their first didn't show up, and then yelled at me for not catering to their schedule when rescheduling the appointment.

No thank you. Luckily for me, my property manager has a thick rolodex and was only too happy to connect me to another company. She will no longer use Byington for any of her properties and if you want a professional company, I'd look elsewhere.

JessLeigh A.

It saddens me to write this review- had I written it 2 years ago when I first used Byington Electric, this review would have been vastly different. At that time, they were responsive and efficient hence why I trusted them again two years later...

I am a property manager here in San Francisco. At one of my buildings in the Panhandle, we received a request on Christmas Day that our fire panel was in trouble and sounding. Byington said they would get out the next day; its Christmas day so understandably we agreed. Then we received another request on December 27th to which Byington said they were going to take care of it again. Fast forward to January 11th, we received another complaint that the alarm was now going off on a daily basis. Called Byington, they apologized that they didn't know what was going on. Received an additional complaint on January 18th and then another on the 20th and 21st. They could not meet with me, even though I constantly called, until January 23rd!! Met the technician on the 23rd- on my way there I received a call and had an emergency at another building in the mission so, had to leave the technician at the property who was supposed to certify the panel. Upon investigating the building the next morning, the panel was still in TROUBLE. Frustrated, I called the office again who reassured me the certification took place and was not in trouble when the technician left. Again after constant calls, and constant excuses, Byington could not pick up the keys to the building to finish the project until February 1st which they returned the same day because they ""fixed the issue."" Byington said it was some smoke detectors that needed replacing. On February 2nd- I received an additional complaint that the panel was still sounding. I called again and they said they were going to go out again to investigate. No one came back to my office to pick up keys but some how the office called me to say it was taken care of? Apparently there was some miscommunication and the keys were not supposed to be returned to my office and (to no surprise) the smoke detectors had not been replaced yet. Again, after constantly calling the office. The keys were picked up again on February 8th but was it taken care of that day? No. Because I received a call from the Fire Inspector and we now had a complaint on our building. It wasn't until February 15th that Byington Electric informed me the fire panel needed to be replaced. It took them nearly two months to figure this out!! Furthermore, they had lost the keys to my building and needed new ones! They ordered the replacement panel and it finally arrived for them to replace on March 3rd. San Francisco has a new requirement- a form that needs to be filed out by the servicing party and mailed to the city. I filled out my portion of the form and emailed it (with confirmation) on March 2nd so it could be filled out during the certification the next day. The office informed me it would be in the mail. March 16th- still haven't received my form back. When I contacted the office I was told, I would receive it by the end of the week. March 24th, still no form and this time I get no response. March 29th, still no form but this time I am told the person who handles this is out sick....I call on April 3rd- still no form. It is April 13th- still no form.

Even after all of this...I would have to say I have been pretty patient considering.... I gave them another chance and used them on another building...On March 31st, I received a complaint, same issue- panel sounding, about a building in the Western Addition. Byington said they would go out. Great! Left keys for them at office. No surprise but they were not picked up. I checked in with the office at 3:00 pm wondering if they were actually coming and the office told me they already went by the property and was given access by a tenant. Received an additional complaint on April 2nd- again called Byington. I was leaving town on April 6th so I called on the 5th to make sure everything was taken care of. I was reassured by the office that there would be no more sounding...And I quote...""All we need to do is certify the panel."" Here we are, April 13th, received another complaint about the fire panel sounding....When we called the office we were told to silence the alarm because this was on the schedule for tomorrow. Furious, I called and asked why they haven't already taken care of this and why they couldn't get out today- in my opinion this is an emergency and was told ""We've had emergency after emergency and haven't had time. It's not going to happen today."" Why am I constantly being pushed to the back burner?? This request was from March 31st!! And I was told it was already taken care of!! Furthermore, after a very unprofessional and heated response from Matt I was told he was going to ""take his sticker off my panel."" Big surprise when I went by the property 30 minutes later, his sticker was not on the panel. Never was.

Francoise F.

Again, the fire alarm went off. It is Sunday and ear-splitting. I called my landlord who said he didn't think Byington had anyone on call on Sunday. Fortunately he called someone else who walked him through what needed to be done. And now my landlord is leaving Byington and will use the new guy. That should make things much better. I've had 2 previous experiences with Byington and they are beyond awful

Aric W.

This place is a joke. I live in an apartment so I was forced to use them by my management company. Absolute terrible experience!

I had a basic outlet installed and the technician was nice and did a good job. Problem came when the bill arrived several weeks later much higher than the estimate with no breakdown of parts and labor. I naturally wanted to see why the bill was higher than expected so I asked for a more detailed invoice.

Long story short, they absolutely refused to be transparent and provide an itemized list of parts.
Their attitude and response was that I should ""just send a check and be done with it"". Very unprofessional and unpleasant people in charge of customer service. I mean it's laughable how bad it is.

Do yourself a huge favor and do not give Byington Electric your business. Trust me, they don't deserve it.

kristine a.

Horrible customer service.

When explaining a current electrical problem the response I got was: ""well, what do you want me to do about it?"" .....ummm, take a look and fix the problem! I was then transferred to another person who started asking me the voltage of the power source; I don't know I'm not trying to electrocute myself to try and figure it out.

Taking our problem and money to an electrician who is happy to help.

Amber W.

Updating my review now that the company has come to perform the service. They are worse than I could have imagined.

1. came unprepared without supplies
2. speaks very little english
3. claims that something ""cannot be done"" when my property manager, who is not an electrician, has fixed the same issue in the past.

This company is inconsistent and incompetent to say the least. I have yet to speak to a single person who is helpful or knowledgable.

Sarah S.

This company is an absolute joke. While Reggie who seems to handle scheduling, is a nice person, they clearly don't have their act together whatsoever. I first contacted them in November to schedule an estimate to add some outlets to my home. I was promised a call back that week with available times and never heard back. I tried them the following week, was again promised a call back with times and nothing. I let it pass, I was busy, the holidays came and then finally I just really wanted these outlets dealt with. So, I called back, they took two people to find my initial request from nearly two months prior and had to call me back twice to figure things out. Once they found my initial paperwork, I was then told they'd call in a couple days to finally schedule something. 2 days turned into 4 (I called in this period to follow up and was again told they'd get back to me with an appointment time in a day or two) and they finally called and after months of trying, we actually made an appointment. Brilliant!

Today was finally the day of the appointment. I worked from home and planned my calls and meetings around them in order to meet the manager/owner at my home between 10-12 this afternoon. 11:45 came and no word so I called and once again, Reggie was nice but had no idea who I was. Had to call me back after finding the work order and explained that it was actually his boss who was due to come to my home but he hadn't even come into the office yet. Reggie explained that once he does, they'll give me a call. This means clearly he'd be much outside the scheduled window we had.

Reggie calls me back to give another update and says that unfortunately they have to fully reschedule for another day. Unacceptable. I asked to speak to his boss, was put on hold forever and finally got a call back saying they'd be here between 2-3 today. In that time frame I called my landlord and asked that she PLEASE engage another electrician as this company is clearly a MESS. We are doing just that.

Such a waste of time.