Harmony Electric Co

Matthew S.

Got hosed by this guy whose simple rewiring to an internal fixture didn't hold up for even 6 months. When asked, he insisted on another $150 just to come admire their previous mistakes rather than at least agreeing to stand behind his previous work. Owner was also quite condescending on the phone as well, which never helps.

Sorry, I can tolerate incompetent-but-nice or competent-but-rude, but I can't tolerate incompetent AND rude... Fortunately, this was revealed on a little a little gig. Needing a new electrical box, downstairs wiring and with an addition four months away, I still have plenty of time to find competent/trustworthy pro with better customer service skills.

Chris K.

Cons:
- High 1st hourly rate
- If you don't choose to go with them, they charge you a full hour - very high price for a quote
- Very rude lady who takes billing info
- Contractor let me go to the store for him to exchange a product that he mistaken bought even though, in his mind, it was a flat priced job

Pros:
- Contractor they sent was nice
- Contractor did a good job

Full Story:
I called to get a quote for a 2 part job and the man who answered told me the hourly rates and that when the contractor got there, they could give me an estimate. The quick 10 minute estimate seemed fair and I asked how much the materials portion of the estimate was. Doing some quick math, it came out to be that the estimate was for 2 hours of work based on their hourly rates.

Now, the issues likely arise from miscommunication on both sides as I should have asked specifically but I had assumed that this estimate and work being done was on a time and materials basis based on the prior conversations. They assumed that now that they gave an estimate, it was a flat priced job.

The contractor that was sent was nice and did a good job but had no parts with him. Once he returned from the store, he realized he had gotten the wrong part. Thinking this was a time and material job, I offered to exchange it for him and get the right part. My trip took 40 minutes and he had been finished with the main, more difficult, part of the job for 10 minutes or so. He popped in the exchanged product and finished up within 5 minutes. Total time that the contractor spent quoting and working was between 1 hour and 1:15.

When paying, they initially were going to charge me for 2 hours. I had assumed the cost would be for an hour or at most an hour and half of the contractors time. After talking with the man I originally spoke with, we agreed to an hour and half which is still more than I would have expected especially with consuming my own time. Upon trying to pay with a credit card, the contractor called a woman on speaker phone to take payment details who immediately stated very loudly and rudely that they wouldn't take credit cards from me since I was getting a 'discount'.

I won't be using them again even though the contractor was pretty good.

Jessica C.

Anthony (eletrician) was an hour late to our house. His excuse was that his phone was out of batteries and that he didn't have GPS. Very unprofessional right off the bat.

He poked around the breaker box in the house and the meter outside. From what he saw and measured with the voltmeter, nothing was wrong. He said that there was no way he could troubleshoot. Then he said he would check the breaker box again with another gadget and miraculously found the issue. His solution was for us to call CenterPoint.

This whole process took less than 30 minutes and he ended up charging the full hourly rate of $148 per hour. Because he did not have a working phone, I went inside to grab my credit card to call the office to pay. I was greeted by the lovely Laura (wife of the owner). I asked her a few questions about the rate and why it was fair to charge customers for the full hour when the electrician only performed half an hour of work. She immediately started to raise her voice and yelled at me. She said that the rate was fully disclosed and that there was a minimum flat rate of $148 for the first hour (which was not mentioned at all in a previous call when we inquired about the rate). After a couple more rude exchanges, I ended up paying. She mentioned that the electrician would stay the full hour and inspect the house (i.e. change light bulbs), which I declined because I just wanted him out. I went outside to get the invoice from Anthony but he was no where to be found. Again, very unprofessional.

I notified Laura that Anthony had left. She said he would come back with the invoice, but he never did.

This was one of the most frustrating and worst experiences I have ever had and would never recommend Harmony Electrics to anyone I know. There are glowing 5 star reviews on Yelp, but I struggle to see how this company could deliver such service.

EDIT - 10/30/2017
The lovely Laura messaged me (or Ms. Parker?) today. Thank you for responding to me 2 months later.

""Comment from Laura V. of Harmony Electric Co
Business Owner
10/30/2017 Dear Ms. Parker,
We cannot identify you as a customer. Please respond with the name you were billed under, otherwise we will advise Yelp that this is a false claim.""

Who is Ms. Parker? My last initial is C and Yelp doesn't require me to identify myself by my full first and last name. I *was* a customer and I am going to post the invoice I received to the pictures as proof.

To Yelp - Please do not delete this review or any of the other bad reviews for this business. As you can see, Laura has gone through all the bad reviews and either (1) tried to make an excuse as to why they are not in the wrong or (2) invalidate these people as customers. Just look at reviews by Tracey S., Matthew S., Andrew L., etc. I have not seen any other business do this. If anything, the owners are more than apologetic and have offered me gift cards (i.e. businesses that are restaurants) or other remedies.

EDIT #2 - 10/30/2017 (I'm going to have to start time stamping these - 10:37am)

""From Laura - UPDATE: Thank you for sending the invoice. Now we cannot identify that you and Andrew are related and identify the job. Please refer to our comments. We cannot respond to a review if we cannot identify the customer. I don't know if you are aware that we had a hurricane in Houston and responding to social media has not been a priority. We already did give you a discount but there is nothing we can do to help you further. Posting two reviews from the same household is misleading and an attempt to hurt our image.""

If Andrew and I are not related, then how do I have an invoice (which was sent to my email directly by the way) to the job for his house? I am not asking for a response from the business owner since I already know how that goes (i.e. more yelling, condescending remarks to try to cover their tracks). I want to share my experience with future customers so they are aware of the type of service they may receive.

Thank you for mentioning Hurricane Harvey. Laura also reprimanded us because she had more important jobs, for example - those affected by Harvey, and I totally agree. But she was the one who provided the time slot of 11:00am on 8/31/2017 to come out and we accepted it. We did not ask her technician to come out as soon as possible and she did not have to schedule us in the midst of the Harvey chaos.

The $20 discount does not even begin to remedy the feelings of being robbed. I accepted it because it's better than giving the business $20 more than they deserve. How is posting two reviews misleading when both of us interacted with you and had the same, rude experience? That's like saying two people of the same household couldn't post 5-star review if they had a good experience. I bet you didn't tell Yelp to take down those duplicate reviews.

Andrew L.

I'll start by saying I had a terrible experience and would not recommend Harmony Electric to any of my friends or colleagues.

1) The electrician gave me an hour advance notice call and arrived an hour and 45 minutes later.
2) I was given the company's hourly rate but was not notified that it was a flat rate with a one hour minimum (no prorating). The work performed by the electrician took 30 minutes and when it came time to pay, we called the company's office to provide our credit card number. This is when we were notified that although the work only took 30 minutes that they will be charging me for the full hourly rate. When I tried to explain to the company that this was not previously explained to me, the lady representative (Laura) began raising her voice and yelling at me (talk about poor customer service). She flat out called me a liar (again, poor customer service) and said that the company fully explained to me their hourly rate policy prior to performing their services (which they did not and was the reason I was surprised in the first place). Reluctantly, I had my girlfriend call the company and pay them over the phone.
3) When my girlfriend called to pay, she (girlfriend) also tried to get an explanation of why we were being charged for a full hour's work when the electrician only took half an hour. The representative of the company (which repeatedly kept saying she was the owner's wife) also began yelling at my girlfriend (for a third time, poor customer service) telling her that things were explained to us beforehand.

We ended up paying the full rate partly out of frustration and partly due to the yelling of the company's representative. I'd also like to mention that the company's findings were ""to call the energy company"". It seemed very unreasonable to pay full rate for 1) half an hours worth of work and 2) to get a ""call the energy company"" answer.

I would never EVER recommend this company to anyone.

10/30/17 UPDATE:

Response to my review from the Company:

Comment from Laura V. of Harmony Electric Co
Business Owner
10/30/2017 Dear Andrew,
Every customer is advised of our hourly rate and that the only time we can guarantee arrival time is first call in the morning. We cannot pay an employee to sit and wait for you to come home. I don't raise my voice or call people liars and I don't tell people I am the owner's wife because I am the owner. I will defend employees that I know are honorable if you falsely accuse them. Most service companies have a service rate and I'm sorry you didn't understand that. You did not pay the full rate as we gave you a discount to try to make you happy because you didn't understand the service rate. Our technician called you to inform you he was on his way but there was no answer, so he went to the next call and called you again when he was free to attempt to service you again. We found that the problem was a power company issue and advised you to call them. That saved you a lot of money. I'm sorry if you were unhappy with our attempt to service you.

My response to above:

1. I had someone at my residence the entire time. Your employee did not wait one second for someone to arrive at my residence.
2. You indeed did raise your voice and did indeed call me a liar.
3. I did not falsely accuse your employees of anything
4. I do understand that service companies have a service rate. I think what you do not understand is that it was not clearly communicated to me. You're starting to sound very condescending like you did when we initially interacted on the phone.
5. Your technician called me to tell me he was running late because he didn't have his GPS to input my address. There was no instance in which he called and I did not answer my phone. Again, sounds like you're making stuff up to CYA.
6. My only regret is not having our call recorded so that everyone can listen to the way you talk to your clients and potential clients. After reading all the reviews of your service company, it appears that all those with unfavorable reviews have the same thing in common: lack of communication on behalf of your company and lack of respect by you/your representatives to customers. I would not go out of my way to post this unfavorable update review but I will not tolerate a false statement posted by you/your company in response to my initial review.

Patricia T.

I chose this service based on Yelp reviews, and what I have learned is that I doubt I can trust that site again.

The electrician was not, in my opinion, particularly professional. He complained a great deal about the heat and other things, and did not arrive with sufficient wiring; he then had to make a second trip on another day, and when I expressed some concern about the hour he suggested (it conflicted with my work schedule), he said to me, ""If you want this kind of help, you have to make yourself available."" Really?

He made a huge mess in my office/study, and left large holes in my walls which he said would have to be fixed by someone who does sheetrock. I had not counted on the extra expense added to the nearly $500 I spent having two wall plugs put in. He also assured me on more than one occasion, ""I do not work nights or weekends."" Perish the thought.

Bottom line: I have other electrical work that needs to be done, but it will not be with Harmony. I am disappointed and a little angry, but life goes on. And so do I, without further ""services"" from this company.

Matt B.

As of last Thursday, I was in the midst of receiving the inspection report on our home that we are selling and given our fast close date, was very concerned about getting a reputable electrician to do work on the report to satisfy the buyer.

I called around, frustrated to line someone up, and then I called Harmony, who I had never used previously. They understood the work I needed to have completed and the importance of timeliness. They said they would be able to have technicians at my home the next day.

Anthony and James came out and not only did they execute the work well, but they took time to ensure I knew what the issues were and why they appeared on the report. They were very efficient and the charge came in less than I expected. Anthony and James were very personable, professional and diligent.

If I have any further electrical needs, Harmony is definitely whom I will be calling.

Gk W.

I needed help repairing my front porch light; it exploded unexpectedly. My house was for sale and I needed the light repaired quickly. I found reviews of several companies. Harmony Electric had the highest of all. I was nervous about picking a random company, but the lady I spoke to initially reassured me. I was able to get an appointment on the day I called - a lucky fluke. The gentleman took the light down, replaced the entire light with my replacement. From the start to the finish the process was quick and the electrician did a great job. I am so glad I went with Harmony and I recommend the company for your electrical needs.

Avi O.

Called them to find out some information about a master electrician and the older woman on the phone was VERY rude and combative.


I couldn't even get out what I wanted - she kept cutting me off!

Who operates like this??????


Really disappointing.

Melinda S.

Harmony fixed an outlet that wasn't working for me. They were prompt, worked quickly, and charged a more than fair rate. Highly recommend!

William N.

They came out on time and fixed a problem I had with the power going out in my island kitchen. Quick fix and no parts were needed. Price for the service call was pretty steep (almost double) compared to typical service calls from other companies in the area.