3 On Your Side: Big Repair Bills From Thomas Edison Electric
By Jim Donovan
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- How can a flickering light lead to an $8,000 repair bill? 3 On Your Side Consumer Reporter Jim Donovan goes searching for answers.
It was a flickering light that prompted Jack and Jim DeWolfe's 91-year old mother to call an electrician to her Pennsylvania home. Since Jack lives in Wisconsin and Jim lives in Massachusetts their mother's safety is a big concern. Jack DeWolfe says, "If there's an electrical problem this far away we want to make sure there's no danger."
But when they learned that Thomas Edison Electric had charged her $8,000 for that visit, they were shocked. The company replaced her entire electrical panel claiming it was malfunctioning. Experts say it's a $2,000 job at most. Among her charges? $4,900 for a panel that retails for around $200! There was even a fee charged to access the panel. Jim DeWolfe says, "There's a $200 up-charge for inaccessibility of the panel, which is about as accessible as any panel I've ever had to deal with."
And that flickering light? It's still flickering! Jack DeWolfe says, "He never really addressed the issue. I think it's elder abuse quite frankly because if I had been here this never would have happened."
Thomas Edison Electric is operated by Joseph White. In a video that appears on the company website White says, "I promise we'll treat your family and property with respect and get the job done right the first time."
But Wayne Gable of Texas disagrees. He says, "Things done by Thomas Edison Electric were incorrect." The company was hired to repair electrical issues in his 91-year old father's Brookhaven home. According to Gable, "My understanding was that everything was going to be fixed." But after his father shelled out over $30,000, Gable found problems each time he visited. He says, "They told me things like don't run the air conditioning and vacuum. Don't turn on the microwave while the ac is running. Those were the kinds of fixes that I was told by Thomas Edison."
An independent inspection of the home found multiple code violations. Eventually Gable's father paid an additional $9,000 to another company to get things up and running just before he died. He says, "I would be worried about people that might be put in the same situation."
Its website says Thomas Edison Electric serves 22 counties, but good luck finding them. The address on their invoices leads to a vacant store front and when 3 On Your Side checked the Pennsylvania Home Improvement Contractor Registry, it listed a strip mall address that lead us to a mail box they have at a UPS store. We couldn't even find anyone at business owner Joseph White's home. Maybe they were out responding to another call on a flickering light.
Joseph White declined an on camera interview. By email he said that customers are provided written quotes and are welcome to shop around. After the work is done, customers sign the invoice, saying they're satisfied. In the case of the flickering light, after the DeWolfe family complained and 3 On Your Side started asking questions, $1,423 was refunded, in part as a senior citizens discount and the company says also as a gesture of good will.
White says the company charges by the job, not by time and materials. The electrician who did the work in both cases tells me he's one of Thomas Edison Electric's subcontractors. But there doesn't seem to be any costly overhead. In fact other than a website, we can't find any physical trace of the business.