OutToday Home Services

Roman B.

The electrician came fast and was nice and knowledgable. However the service will cost you dearly. For apprimately an hour of diagnosing and replacing a circuit breaker they charged me $550. The price apparently depends on the neighborhood and type of car in your driveway. One of those companies that rely heavily on advertisement and first time clients. Pure robbery.

Grace J.

Quick response, good customer service and technician are very friendly. We had a problem with kitchen sink and called on Sunday and they have someone answered the phone on Sunday. I had a technician came home on Monday and fixed the problem. The technician was very friendly and took shoe off when he entered the house.

T J.

Had them come out to see about repairing our a/c. Big surprise, they say it needs to be totally replaced. They came out for a 2nd appointment with 6 options to choose from from $5k-$22k. Talked thru the options but when we asked what brand/model the options were, the guy wouldn't give us a straight answer. Compared a/c's to motorcycles, you got your Honda & your Harley. Whatever! I wanna know exactly what I'm supposed to spend thousands on! AND the guy said it was against policy to leave me the piece of paper where he had my handwritten 6 options to choose from. What?! I'm supposed to just remember all 6 & pick the no-name $5k one? No way. We will NOT be using these guys EVER.

Sofia L.

Stay AWAY from this company -- they will overcharge you beyond belief! I lost power in my home office over the weekend. I was absolutely panicked and was calling everyone I could google. OutToday.com was the company that could come out immediately first thing Monday morning. Chris N. showed up right on time and was quite professional and quite personable (note, Chris N. is referenced in other negative reviews on this site). I felt so relieved that my electrical outlet problem was going to be fixed asap and I was going to be up and running in no time! He took a look around and then quickly came up with a ""job site diagnosis fee"" of $361.00 that I was to sign off on before he could go any further. In hindsight, this was a sales tactic to make me think I was really getting a deal ... and if I didn't sign off on job, I would still have to pay $361.00! I did authorize him to proceed. Sure enough, he presented me with 5 options: Band Aid, Economy, Basic, Standard, Premium ... ranging in price from $625.00 - $3300.00, respectively. The names of the options should have been another clue. Basically, the problem was old, electrical outlets that had worn out and blew the line of outlets that were hooked together. At the time, I did not realize how elementary and easy to diagnose this problem actually was. I was clueless and I own that. However, I feel that Chris also presented it in a way that scared the daylights out of me (safety issue, hazardous, could catch fire, etc.). So, I selected all the outlets to be replaced. This amounted to 23 outlets. I selected the Basic Option for $2,073.00. He completed his job in 4 hours. I will admit after he left, I had serious ""buyers remorse."" I was sickened that in 4 hours I had just spent $2,000. After he left, I called another electrician to verify the dollars I just spent. I read him the invoice Chris N. left with me to have the exact wording so he would know exactly what I was charged for. The outlets themselves cost approx. .93 cents each and he spent about 4 1/2 hours of labor: For $2000! Now, I understand making a profit on a job ... but who can justify over $400/hour? According to Bel-Red Electric, another company I called after the fact, they would have done the job for approximately $700.00! I might add that Chris N. was extremely high pressure and used scare tactics to really seal the deal -- and I totally fell for that. When I realized my mistake, I was enraged that not only had I paid too much, I was literally taken to the cleaners, so to speak. In hindsight, I should have relaxed and sent the job out to bid. I also should have stuck with Bel-Red Electric, the company I normally use. I panicked and OutToday.com could get out to my home the fastest. After figuring out that I had absolutely paid an outrageously inflated bill, I called the OutToday.com office manager and voiced my extreme dissatisfaction. She understood and asked me what I wanted. In the end, they refunded me $800.00. However, they stand by the rates they charge and could care less that I threatened them with negative feedback, calling the Attorney General's office, etc. Even with the $800.00 refund, I still overpaid terribly. Three lessons: #1 Get bids no matter what, #2 have your work broken down into hourly labor and materials, and #3 know the terminology of the work to be done. The invoice sounded very complicated as far as labor and materials, yet when you put it in ""normal, non-technical"" words the scope of the work became very easy to understand. I hope someone can learn from my mistake. Good luck! Oh, yeah ... and check Yelp.com for negative reviews! I wish I had.

Catherine P.

UNETHICAL business. Take your business elsewhere.
Electrician from Out Today came by the home Saturday. Claimed that we needed a new electrical panel. When asked the cost, his comment ""Will cost you thousands"". Asked for a firm number, he would not give us one. We told him that we were not in the position to pay that now, his response ""When will you be able to"". He also claimed that our panel would not pass inspections and not up to code.
Two days later, we now have a new electrician. 2 hours later, no new electrical panel needed, cost was not ""thousands of dollars"" but a couple of hundred dollars.
Chris N./Out Today- you are a liar & an unethical electrician. Look elsewhere- do not use this company.

Jay C.

The other reviews on yelp are accurate. This is a terrible company. They sent out a technician, Erin, who appeared totally incompetent. She asked the same question 3 times (any other electric problems in your condo), and after doing some initial tests, told me she need to go to her car to ""check some things"" and went to her car and appeared to make phone calls on what to do next for about 20 minutes. Obviously, this did not inspire any confidence. She then came back and offered my 6 options to replace my heater which ranged from $2000 to $3500 dollars (one option was to replace all the heating units in my condo even though the other heating units were working fine).

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. What a complete waste of time and money!

Dan M.

My experience with out today has been good. The salesperson was helpful; though there were a few other things I think he might have brought up to us, like convection floors and options for the water heater to accommodate that. Right now I'm not sure if I should call the service office to what, but the water heater is not keeping up with the two of us taking a shower at the same time. Also, I didn't expect the vents they put in the kitchen to be so deep in the floor, they could be closer to the walls, and I was really disappointed about that. The furnace is nice though. I didn't understand and I'm still learning how to control it, so there's a bit of a learning curve. Everybody was very professional and timely, and they appeared to work cleanly and effectively. I think one guy got the wrong parts sent for him. He had to stay longer because of it, but that didn't really affect us much, it was just frustrating for him. The only other thing worth mentioning was that when they were cleaning the ducts i expected them to use a brush, but they just vacuumed; that surprised me as well.

Squire T.

I really appreciated the way they handled my problem, by taking charge, sourcing the compressor and making it as painless as possible. Your guys have great people skills, and instill great confidence.

Lorraine B.

I felt all of them were excellent, that includes the office help. Since they rewired my home I can use my overhead lights in the front room without worry. I use them more than I thought I would.

Alan F.

In my opinion, Out Today is is a criminal enterprise. My parents' gas furnace died on a Friday, and early Saturday morning they called OT (their label was on the furnace). They arrived quickly, charged $200 (after a discount) for diagnosis, and said the furnace had to be replaced due to a broken chamber. Their quote: $13000 + Taxes. That is thirteen thousands dollars. I guess my parents' accent had something to do with the quote being that high. They were pushed really hard into deciding on the spot. When my brother told the technician that they needed more than 5 minutes before committing to such high expense, he said ""OK. Is 10 minutes enough? I'll wait."" He was then asked to leave. Based on comments here and on Google, it's clear that their business plan is based solely on scaring people and making them sign outrageously expensive deals.

Another company came in the same day and quoted them $6000, 60% less then Out Today had. That was still way too expensive, so they kept looking. The following Monday they had several companies come by and offer a quote for FREE, all of them in the range between $2500 and $4000. In the end, they went with the company that discovered that the old furnace had been recalled 15 yrs earlier for the problem they were experiencing. That got them a $950 refund by the manufacturer, plus a refund by Washington state (utility company), which brought the total to just over $2000.

Summa summarum, Out Today attempted to charge my parents $13000 for a job that another company did for $2000. You do your own calculation.



P.S. When my brother gave them an Amex card to pay for the diagnosis fee, they asked him if he had a Visa or Master card because Amex charged them high fee. Truly ironic. They rip you off on diagnosis charges, they attempt to rip you off on the installation, then have the nerve to ask you for a card that charges them lower fees.

Update: Criminals indeed. Read on.

Newer:

https://cases.justia.com/washington/court-of-appeals-division-i/65459-4.pdf?ts=1344356736

http://www.komonews.com/news/consumer/Local-plumber-takes-85-year-old-woman-to-court-in-plumbing-dispute-141268833.html?mobile=y


Old news:

http://www.atg.wa.gov/news/news-releases/attorney-general-settles-plumbing-and-electrical-business-over-advertisements

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/electrical-plumbing-customers-due-refunds-under-settlement-terms/

http://m.kirotv.com/news/news/victims-of-electrical-inspections-scheme-get-refun/nKnNR/