October 2022 by Becky Helfenstein
Contracting with Evergreen Electric was one of the worst decisions of our new construction build. The owner repeatedly deferred work, causing us as homeowners to perform some of the work to keep our schedule moving forward. No less than 3 times, he called us to rant about scheduling concerns we raised with him and continuously deflected any responsibility for his role in ensuring communication was taking place, schedules were established, and adhered to. It was a constant battle to get work completed. However most egregious experience with this contractor occurred after we occupied the home. To start, the County electrical inspector identified an issue with the burying of an electrical line to the home, which was not completed by the contractor. The contractor was notified of the issue and his response was he would get to it when he had time. While waiting for the previously mentioned fix and 5 months into occupancy, the septic backed up and created a huge mess in our yard, requiring significant cleanup time and money to pay a septic company to help us identify the ultimate problem; the electrician, Evergreen, overlooked a fundamental responsibility to wire the septic pump, causing the backup. To add to the frustration, we had been previously billed and had paid the contractor for the wiring as if it had been completed. This experience also led to the discovery of a plumbing pipe that an electrician drilled through; the pipe had not leaked until the septic problem occurred. It was raining in our basement. In our brand-new home. When brought to the attention of the electrical contractor, he visited our home to confirm our issues, saying “it happens,” no apology, no escalation to fix the problem asap, no accountability. We spent more than a week with an extension cord from our house to the pump until the contractor got around to completing the work. When asked by us to pay for the plumbing fix, the electrician stated a fix was required to the electrical line to the house because the line was not buried deep enough; again, if he had done the work as agreed in the first place, this could have been prevented. It was his opinion that this was an equal financial trade-off for the expense of the plumbing fix. Such a simple gesture it would have been to pay the bill, providing him an opportunity for some level of redemption for his poor conduct, yet he remained consistent in his poor business practices. We would never have contracted with him if there were any hint of this kind of behavior. The behavior was bad enough, the quality of work was just as poor. Do your homework before contracting with this guy.
