Beacon Home Services, Inc.

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Outstanding service.  From the first telephone call to inquire about a back-up generator, through the entire installation process, and to obtaining the check by the county inspector, Bob and Victor at Beacon Electric did a superb service.  Beacon is truly a professional organization that understands its customers.  They arrived on time, did outstanding work, and left the area better than when they arrived.  Who could ask for more?  I will not hesitate to use Beacon Electric again and highly recommend them for your electrical needs.

Took until almost 10PM to finish because the extra thickness of my 2x4s meant that there wasn't enough space for the panel box in between the studs.  But everything is working fine.  The extra charges for things not included in the Angie's list coupon for the panel replacement were not out of line with what I was expecting.  A couple of weeks after the work was done Beacon sent a different electrician to inspect the work and my wiring.  He added a couple of breaker locks that he said are required by code.  I found the people at Beacon very easy to work with.  Beacon's technicians could get their work done more quickly if they kept their tools charged up, and had all the supplies that they need on the truck, but since they were charging by the job and not by the hour I didn't mind the delays.

Went well.

Our 1952 duplex in Alexandria is one where you couldn’t have two appliances running at the same time anywhere in the house without having to reset the breakers. Over the years, we learned to live with the shortcomings, but every time we talked about any type of remodeling, we kept saying that the electrical in the house would need to be redone and the 1967 breaker panel would have to be replaced. When a power surge fried the year-old refrigerator after the derecho, we knew it was time to get an electrician. After interviewing three electricians who were A-listers on Angie’s List, I chose Beacon Electrical. Beacon’s owner Bob Hanifin was the first electrician I felt actually listened to me when I told he the work I wanted done. Essentially, I was looking to make sure I wasn’t living in a fire-trap, didn’t have to run extension cords all over the house and could run the dishwasher, toaster and clothes washer at the same time. When I handed Bob my three-page wish list of electrical work, he took the time to explain what my home really needed and what it didn’t. He didn’t over-sell anything and suggested ways to save money. His honesty was so refreshing. Bob has exceptional communication skills. He broke my wish list down into three separate estimates. In doing so, the costs were broken down into what he saw as must-do items, secondary things and finally, those items that were truly extras. This really helped me prioritize and save money. I realized that I could hold off on the “extras.” Other estimates were not this detailed. I was able to take advantage of one Angie’s List Big Deal ($1,599 for a new 200 AMP panel), and Bob gave me the price of another deal - $1,440 to replace all the switches and plugs in the home and add two GFCI receptacles in the kitchen. While other electricians said there was no need to be home during the work, Bob said just the opposite and was able to schedule the work around my work schedule. Victor, the electrician who did the work, arrived early or right on time. He’s a friendly electrician who worked quickly and efficiently. The work was done over two days. The second day Victor had a helper and they stayed until 11 p.m. to complete everything. The one “extra” that I did opt to get was a $650 connection for a generator. I hadn’t considered it until Victor mentioned it, but think in the long run it will be beneficial. When I had questions after the work was done, Victor was quick to respond, either by email or by phone. Superstorm Sandy temporarily delayed the work Dominion needed to do after Beacon installed the new electrical panel, but it wasn’t a big deal. Two months after the work was done, I had Beacon come back after a GFCI outlet in the bathroom went bad. (I wish I had known it was the outlet and not my electric toothbrush before I bought a new toothbrush!) Jimmy, the electrician, arrived early and worked quickly to make the replacement. The days of extension cords are gone, and so are the frustrations of having to reset the breaker every time the coffeemaker and microwave were on. My experience with Beacon Electrical was completely positive. I’ve recommended the company through our neighborhood’s Facebook page and directly to others I know.

Great! Their service was excellent.  They called ahead of time, they were prompt and professional.  The young man answered all of my questions with enthusiasm.  I gave them high marks!  I won't be able to use the fan until the summer time, so I gave them "Good" with respect to the quality of the product.  I'm taking them at their word.  I was also able to have them install a remote control in my ceiling fan.  I was very pleased with their service.  I was also impressed that they cleaned up after themselves. They have my recommendation!

Victor and Steven were fantastic! They were not only prompt and professional, but very honest about what really needed to be fixed to things I could do on my own to save money. Both were very friendly and willing to take the time to answer questions and show me what they were working on. Both are also very knowledgeable and have been in the business for a long time. I highly recommend Beacon and I will always ask for Victor and Steven if I need more work done. I also recommend using Angie's list coupons from Beacon as they are so worthwhile as they save a lot of money!

Great company to deal with. Bob Hanifin and his crew very professional in every way. I responded to an Anglie's List ad for a panel upgrade and contracted with Bob for the work. When Victor arrived on the day of installation I asked him about adding on a break-out panel and outside jack for a portable generator I was contemplating. He smoothly reworked the program to get it all done that day. The final hookup of the reworked meter box and service drop cable by Dominion took forever. Dominion's pre-installation inspection was done by an engineer who approved a certain kind of service drop cable run method; that plan was negated by another Dominion engineer after the panel work was done which caused Beacon to have to redo a portion of the outside work to meet changed Dominion specs. Beacon's attitude through this all (it took weeks to get Dominion to finally inspect and decide on the service drop method) was positive, professional, and done with good cheer. Of note: the Fairfax County inspector of the electrical panel installation was most complimentary of Beacon's work. Additional note on the Dominion electricians who did the final service hookup: excellent and professional work. And, the Dominion people I spoke with over the phone and who came by the house were very friendly and concerned about doing the right thing. I most highly recommend Beacon.

In the end we were satisfied with their work but the process was not completely easy. It started with them not showing up on the day they were supposed to come out to discuss the work with us. My husband had taken the day off work, when they didn't show at the appointed time my husband called them, they said they were short staffed and apologized. They discussed the work over the phone but the day they came to do the work again they were short staffed and said the work was going to take longer than expected and I would was going to be without electricity for the day. This had never been mentioned to us and since I work from home this would have been a great inconvenience. After accessing the work a bit closer they said they would not have to cut the power for the day, just for a short period. There was some confusion about what work we needed to have done. After a number of phone calls between the owner and my husband everything was figured out and in the end all the work was done in one day. The owner tried very hard to make everything right and was very kind and professional. He sent 2 extra men to our house to finish the work. By the end of a long day they were anxious to leave and I don't feel the clean up was as good as it could have been. Plus they didn't put electrical cables/wires back where they belonged behind the insulation in 2 places and I had to ask for the 2 outside covers that we were to get and they didn't explain you had to knock out part of the cover to use it.  But the 3 employees that came to our house were also very kind and professional, overall they did a good job and we've been pleased with the results.

Great. Good communication and work was scheduled and done in a timely manner.