TexasElectricians

I want to inform people about Drew Mitchell Contracting (or D. E. M. Electric or Drew E. Mitchell in Texas who is an untrustworthy electrician with no integrity. He is not to be trusted and my hope by writing this review is to inform the world not to use Drew Mitchell Contracting in Texas. Also, I found out his license to perform work as an electrician expired on 11/7/2015. He performed work on 11/24 and 11/27 after his license expired. I filed a complaint with the Texas license and Regulations department regarding his expired license.

I asked Drew to look at an electrical problem in my home where the lights in certain areas of the home were not working. We tried flipping the breaker but it kept popping and some of the outlets worked in the areas of the home where the lights weren't working. He came over later in the day/early evening to take a look at the problem and try to solve it. It was made clear on the phone verbally before he came over that he will charge $50/hr to diagnose the problem and that the $50 would be applied towards the 1st hour of work to be performed if I hired him with additional hours set at $60/hr. We agreed that it should not take him more than an hour to diagnose the problem and it was verbally stated on the phone very clearly. Well, since Drew Mitchell is a very young guy just starting his own business, it took him almost two hours to diagnose the problem. I don't know if it's his lack of experience or not, but he told me verbally that he would not charge me for the extra time past 1 hour for diagnosing the problem. I said fine believing that he wouldn't charge me more than an hour.

Since it was late at night, he wasn't able to fix the electrical problem and had to come back at a later time. I asked him that night, how long it would take him to fix. He verbally told me 2 hours and that he was confident he could complete it in 1 hour. We made arrangements for him to come out a few days later to fix the issue. Before he came over, we spoke on the phone and I asked him again, how long would it take for him to fix? He again told me 2 hours. I said fine and my expectation was that he would fix the problem in 2 hours. Well, what was supposed to be a 2 hour job to fix the electrical problem which turned out to be a short in the dining room, turned into a 6 hour job and he had to purchase parts. I have no idea how that happened. Is it because he is inexperienced and young? He is probably between 25 and 27 years old. In any case, since I wasn't home while he was working on the job, he never once called me to tell me that it was going to take him over 2 hours and he never once told me that parts were needed while he was fixing the problem. I didn't know that parts would be needed, and he should have told me that from the very beginning or at least let me know that parts may be required. A true professional will be transparent, honest, and clear from the very beginning because a client may not know anything about electrical work and what is involved and it needs to be very clear from the beginning.

He ended up charging me 6 hours total plus price of parts. I complained to him about the 6 hours and told him that's not what we verbally agreed to over the phone. That's when his assistant got involved and according to her (name is Andrea), he shaved off 1.5 hours because he "didn't want to inflate the bill" because it was going to be high. Not only that, Andrea also told me that he didn't charge me "after hour fees" to come by and diagnose the issue. After hour fees? This was never disclosed to me and he never told me this verbally over the phone before he dropped by late in the day to diagnose the issue. Not once was this information given to me regarding after hour fees. Also, according to Andrea, he lowered the price on parts so as not to inflate the bill and told me that other electricians would easily charge me over $500 for the work performed and "implied" that I'm so lucky to have Drew Mitchell as an electrician because he "lowered" the hours worked in order to not "inflate" the bill and "help" me out. I couldn't believe it. Does this really happen? Do people tell you one thing then turn around and charge you extra hours and then try to justify their hours by implying that they tried to help you out by lowering the bill and shaving off hours? That does not make sense to me at all! What business does that? When I wanted an explanation, Andrea was very defensive and her "justification" of the hours was explained in a very hostile tone over email. She demanded payment for the 6 hours even though our verbal agreement was something else. He did not keep his word and lacks integrity.

My biggest issue is that they are untrustworthy and lack integrity. It takes years to build a business with integrity and seconds to lose that integrity. Drew Mitchell Contracting and Andrea is not to be trusted. If he tells you something verbally, don't expect him to stick to his word because he won't. He will turn around and do something else and will change his story. He completely lacks any integrity.

One of my mistakes was not having the hours, estimate, and total price for job in writing but my other mistake was also not finding out more information about him, his business, and for trusting his word. I can't find anything about him online. After googling his name, his phone number, his address, I found nothing! The address he provided me to mail the check for the job is not found on Google. The closest address to his address is a plot of land! I can't find any reviews on him, no website, no social media accounts, nothing. I tried googling his phone number too and couldn't find anything. In fact, he was calling me from several different numbers, not just one number. When I realized that I could find no information on him and that there was no other way to inform other people about the way he runs his business, his lack of integrity, and his untrustworthiness, I had to come here and write my story and my review. I had to tell people about Drew Mitchell Contracting (Drew E. Mitchell, D. E. M. Electric). When you can't find any information about a business (even if it's a fairly new business), and that business has several different names, that says a lot. Not only that, when an assistant is hostile towards you and defensive, then something is not right with that company so be warned! Don't hire Drew Mitchell Contracting in Texas!