Bennett Electric Todd Bennett Misleading Verbal Estimate and Final Bill Four Times what was agreed upon Sunrise Beach, Missouri

We utilized this company for electrical work. They quoted us $2000-$3000 for the work. They billed us over $8000. They refuse to adjust the bill.

In late January 2012, we enlisted Bennett Electric to rewire our lake house. The owner, Todd Bennett, came to our house and walked through with us (he was there about 20 minutes) and understood that we were wanting the entire house rewired with can lights, one ceiling fan, flood lights outside. He suggested we replace the main electrical box, so we agreed to that. During this time, he wrote notes on the walls indicating what we talked about. When asked about the cost, he said "in the $2000-$3000 range" and it will take a couple of guys 2-3 days to complete the work.

They did not start on time, and there was clearly no communication from Todd to his workers as we were responsible for communicating to his employees what we had agreed upon. The project lasted for over 2.5 months, instead of 2-3 days. There was no communication from Todd regarding the timing or that any costs had changed. Also, when we called Todd to get an update on when they would be back to complete the work, his employee would return the phone call.

When they were done, they sent us a bill for $8000. Significantly higher than the "quote" that Todd gave us. When pushed on this, he stated that the quote was only for a portion of the house and we had changed what we wanted done. We disagreed with this as he was there for the initial walk through and knew what we wanted. Also, there is a claim of nearly 120 hours of work that was done... This would equate to one person working non-stop for three weeks. We have webcams installed and were at the house on a regular basis and we find it difficult to believe that they were there that much. Especially when Todd originally assured us 2-3 days with a couple of guys working. That would mean to me a range of 48 to 72 hours (3 guys, 8 hours a day, 2 or 3 days).

We exchanged a number of emails and Todd refuses to acknowledge that he mislead us on his quote and will not adjust the billing.

We have sent a letter of settlement offer to him for $4000 (still more than we had agreed to) and he has refused that.

I feel that he is using intimidation tactics and is holding us responsible for his poor estimation capabilities. We are not willing to pay for his mistakes. Had he given us an honest quote to begin with, we would not have agreed to the project.

As we spoke to his worker Bob after we received the invoice, Bob stated that "Todd does this all the time, makes an low estimate then the bill comes in much higher and the customers are upset." This seems like a business practice that Todd has adopted to pad his business income and we are unwilling to be scammed in this manner.

We are happy to pay a fair price, however, we feel that this is an unreasonable increase with no communication from Todd on the project.