verified email -
25 Jun 2023
They deserve minus 10 for Price.
Maintenance Sydney City Pty Ltd trades as Gordon Powers Electricians - their prices are much too high.
Doing an ABN Search shows they also trade as Graham & Sons Plumbing, sutherlandshireelectrician.com.au, Lukes Plumbing Gas and Hot Water, Plumbing Express Sydney Maintenance, Tom and Jerry Electricians, and LOCAL PLUMBERS SYDNEY NSW.
We are in a block of home units and were given their number and the secretary spoke with them.
We have 3 phase power and one of the 200 Amp service fuses and its base (holder) had burnt out. A short length of the cable had also overheated and needed replacing. Ausgrid were called first and Ausgrid isolated and 'made safe', but are not able to perform repairs. Half of the units in the building were now without electricity and we needed a Level 2 electrician licensed to work on switchboards.
Maintenance Sydney City came out promptly the next morning and quoted $3,200 plus GST to replace the service fuse. They advised that the other two service fuses were showing signs of over-heating and if we replaced them now they would charge us $1,800 each, plus GST. That would have been a total of $7,480 incl GST.
The secretary was going to go ahead with the work and the electricians left to obtain parts.
The secretary asked me for advice and I said that it was much too expensive (having had some experience with electrical and other repairs in a previous job). I searched online and found that a 200 Amp service fuse and base complete is about $165.
I called the electrician to ask some questions. I asked how much a service fuse costs and was told $720 plus GST. I asked what the hourly rate was and whether one or two people would be doing the work. He said they don't work on an hourly rate and its a quoted price.
I wanted to discuss the $1,800 charge, so I said if the service fuse costs about $700, there is about $1,000 of labour. Let's say you guys charge $150 to $200 per hour, would you be taking 5 hours to replace each of the service fuses? 'No, it won't take 5 hours.' I said that the price seems quite excessive.
He decided not to return to the job.
I called and sent photos to another (Level 2) electrician who said that the whole job for 3 fuses and bases would cost less than $2,000 if they were in stock - we needed them urgently! If we needed new types of circuit breakers, these would cost more but he was not able to provide a price until he visited the wholesaler to check what was in stock.
We ended up having a new steel enclosure with circuit breakers installed for $3,300 incl GST.
Compare this to Maintenance Sydney City price of $3,520 incl GST for one fuse or $7,480 for 3 fuses with parts that would not have been as good as the circuit breakers, long term.
Advice - Find an honest electrician. Send photos to two or three electricians for an estimate. Don't pay too much by calling Maintenance Sydney City Pty Ltd or Gordon Powers and check who the companies are that leave fridge magnets and advertising in your letter box. Ask for an hourly rate (June 2023, it should be between $90 to $130/hour for a domestic electrician, Level 2 electricians will charge more).
Approximate cost:
$7480
