A Custom Electric

Michael seems knowledgable and was patient with me while I decided what to do. He took time to explain the potential consequences of what I wanted to do.
However, once he had my business he stopped answering and returning my phone calls in a timely manner.
He was late all three times he came. For the estimate, he showed up almost 3 hours late and didn’t call to say he would be late. He said he lost track of time so I let it go.
Then, the day the work was going to get done, he showed up at 11:30 instead of 9:00. I had specifically had my housekeeper there early that day to let him in. He stayed until after 7, when the job was supposed to take 2 – 3 hours. He left a giant hole in my wall and chipped the paint in another place not even close to where he was working. I called him numerous times that day and he never answered or returned my call. He finally called me at 7:30 that evening, but I was not available to talk. The next day when I called him back (8:30am), it took him until 5:00 to return my call. At that time, he told me he hadn’t been able to explain what happened the day before because I didn’t answer my phone… even though I had been trying to reach him all day.
Finally we decided he would come back the next week to patch the hole and fix the paint for no charge. We decided on a day and I told him I would call him if plans changed. I told him somebody would only be home until 11:30 so he had to come in the morning. The morning of, I called him three times before he answered. He told me he was waiting for me to confirm our appointment… even though that is not what we had discussed and I had called him twice already that morning. He finally showed up at 11:40, after he was already supposed to be finished. Luckily, I was able to have somebody at the house. It then took him several hours to finish this simple clean up job that should have been done the week before.
Bottom line: he is unreliable and unprofessional. I would not use him again.

I just want to give credit where credit is due. Michael is a genuine guy and people within his service area are lucky to be living there. Back in 2011, his company installed a main panel to my house at a very good price. It is all up to code and all done on the same day… still going strong with no problems. I should have given him a great review on here for that back then but I didn’t and I feel bad for that now.
Fast forward to today, I called upon his services again to install an additional outlet in my garage but unfortunately, I’m no longer within his service range. He offered advice as to calling other electricians and told me to call him back if I wanted to talk to him about other estimates to safeguard me from getting screwed. I took him up on his offer and we talked about other electricians’ estimates for 15 – 20 minutes, knowing full well that he wasn’t getting my business.
Michael just wants to help and he is not out there to screw people out of money. From my experience with him, he is very honest and does great quality work. He’s as good as it gets if you are looking for an electrician. Do yourself a favor and give him a call if you’re in need of his services. I highly recommend him!

I had a partial power outage recently. For those of us who’s had this happen before, it is not fun. I was lucky that Michael was available to come check it out for me. The power miraculously came back on just before (simultaneous?) with Michael’s arrival. He took no credit for bringing the power back on (see: honest) and proceeded to conduct a through examination of everything, trying his best to identify any potential problems or causes.
Michael was helpful, knowledgeable, and honest. I would definitely recommend him for anyone who’s in a bind and needs an experienced pair of hands or even just an expert opinion. He’ll be my go-​to electrician from now on.

Be careful about giving this guy a bad review. He will contact you and accuse you of being a liar.

It is so refreshing to work with people who treat you like a human being rather than just a «customer.» I also really appreciate a creative person who can design and give input to an entire project rather than just do «the job.» I am really impressed with this company. The owner (Michael) is extremely honest, I got the feeling he was looking out for me, trying to keep prices reasonable while keeping the quality of the job high and getting it done quickly and on time. He is not just an electrician either. He is also very creative when it comes to designing lighting, and has made several suggestions regarding lighting that have made a tremendous difference.
He also gave me awesome advice in designing my audio set-​up! This guy knows high-​end audio! He pointed me in the direction of what equipment to buy and helped me set up the system and speaker locations that made a HUGE difference in the sound quality from my system.
Michael will give you great advice and a fair estimate. I would not use any other electrician for my projects.

Talk about honest! As fair as they ever get, and the price is what you might expect to pay in, oh say… Nepal. He is so ridiculously inexpensive it feels like 1950 (even though I was not alive then). Just a fantastic man. If only plumbers and mechanics were this honest and affordable.

Great experience with Michael and his crew from A Custom. Rewired and hang some lights and swapped out a number of fixtures we were not happy with. Prompt professional service and the lighting is now perfect.
Just as described and a reasonable price for the work performed.
I will call them again with any future electrical needs.

It was the first time I called and I really needed to get the lights in my bathroom fixed. They had shorted out a couple of days earlier and using the bathroom in the dark is no fun.
Michael came out in the rain at super short notice and fixed everything and then because there was still extra time and he charges a 1 hour minimum he fixed a couple more things for us too.
This guy is super nice, really professional, totally cool. I would recommend him to anyone.

Made two appointments and has either rescheduled or not shown up. Hasn’t even called to reschedule. I use Unilocal for all my recommendations and thought all the reviews were not clearly reflective of his reliance. Very unprofessional.

Talked to Michael on his cell. He didn’t service my area (which is totally understandable with LA traffic) but he was incredibly helpful, talked me through my issue, and referred me to another company. 5 Stars for trustworthiness and customer service.

I fully agree w/​the other reviewers who call A Custom Electric «the real deal». I called him after finding him on Unilocal to simply consult abt my situation and was so thoroughly impressed w/​Michael (owner)‘s helpfulness and knowledge that I wanted to make sure to write him a stellar review. Michael listened to my situation, educated me on basic electrical things related to my situation, and gave me suggestions on how I can resolve it, including giving me some references for electricians in my area. His mission is simply and clearly to help others w/​their electrical needs by offering his expertise. As another reviewer pointed out, money comes second to practicality: Ex1: he’ll recognize a job we can do on our own to save us money, Ex2: he kindly offered his time over the phone on several occasions to help me understand & figure out how to resolve my electrical issue which obviously gave him no financial benefit. I don’t know what technical terms to use to describe it, but in layman’s terms, this business is built on sound ethics, genuine interest to help and not the corporate/​money driven mind. Plus, he’s been doing this for at least 2 decades so he’s knowledgeable.

I called to get two outlets checked out in my kitchen, and the guy was like «you can do it yourself! just check the GFI, I don’t want to charge you for something so simple» and he was right! I love these guys and due to their complete honesty I would highly recommend them to anyone I know for electrical.
When it’s time for me to replace/​redo some wiring, I am definitely going to call them to help me out. Didn’t catch the electrician’s name but This company definitely kicks ass.
Thanks again Electrician man!
Reid

This (Michael) guy is unprofessional and a flake. We called to schedule a time for him to come out and give us an estimate to rewire our house… he comes, but tells my boyfriend that he «knows right away whether or not [he] wants to work with someone». Um. Okay? Is that a hint that he doesn’t want to work with us? What, he only does NEW houses on the Westside? WTF?
He proceeds with looking at our kitchen, garage and entryway, jots some notes down and tells my man that he will send a couple of different quotes (with and without recessed lighting). The quote never comes. My guy gives Michael a couple of follow-​up calls, and NO response. Not even a return phone call.
Three weeks have passed. So, I, as the determined woman say, «No, no… I’ll try. This guy had great reviews on Unilocal.He must just be really busy.» So, I call and leave a message. He calls me back the next day and leaves a message «Hmm.I don’t have you in my system anywhere. Your estimate probably expired.» We continue playing phone tag: I call back and say, «Try my boyfriend’s name». He calls me back again, and we actually speak. Yes, he remembers coming out, he’s not at his computer right now, but why don’t I send him an email and then he can just respond with the quote when he gets back to his desk. No apology, just «We’re really busy». I ask, «Are you taking new clients then?» He says yes and tells me to go ahead and email him. So, I did.
That was last week. As of today, there has been no response to my email, no call, and no estimate. So, therefore, he gets NO BUSINESS (from us), and if I could give a ‘zero’ star rating I would.

Michael is solid. He came by, suggested a few things I try myself before he put a quote together and for the rest a very reasonable price for the work. He also turned me on to Ray Ferra on LaBrea who deals in lamps and lamp repair. Ray was just as helpful, great prices and a good guy. I recommend them both.

+1 — Unilocal kills it again!

Prompt, courteous, professional, reasonably priced, and fast. Good vendor. I was able to set up my appointment via email which is a big help for me in terms of time saving and coordination. They showed up and estimated the job; I hired them and it turned out as planned. Done! Now I have light on my previously pitch black staircase. Good honest vibe from this company.

my bathroom light is on some kind of electrical menstrual cycle. sometimes the light turns on, sometimes it is off. i did what i could to troubleshoot before i called a custom electric, but to be honest with you, the best thing i could do was to check the light bulb and the fuse box. come on now! i ain’t no electrician… nor did the idea of getting electrocuted seemed appealing to me.
i spoke to michael over the phone and he offered a reasonable rate for the house call. he was able to show up the same day too which was great for me cuz shitting in the dark is not my cup of tea. anyways, it turned out it was a loose screw somewhere in the light fixture… ugh. a slightly unreasonable part of me was secretly hoping that it was a bigger problem than just a loose screw because MAN did i feel like an ass. anyways, it got «fixed.» the bathroom light has been faithfully on ever since.

I love being a home-​owner. It was tons of fun shopping for a house. It was even more fun decorating it. My husband and I are not handy. We don’t know how to fix anything. We’re incompetent to all things DIY.
I have 18 or 20 feet cathedral ceilings. The lights started one by one dying. We waited until we had to essentially move around in our living room with candles before we purchased a long-​armed light bulb changer. We try to avoid Home Depot as much as possible. So my husband tried to change this psycho-​high light bulb. In process of changing the light, he knocked the thing-​a-​majig that affixed to the ceiling and holds the light bulb in place. We tried to shove that shit back in place to no avail.
Plus, we have never been able to turn on the lights above the breakfast bar. I just assumed the lights had burned out. We replaced them and still they wouldn’t turn on. Fug me – what an electrical nightmare.
I started freaking out. My house is brand new and I can’t deal with these minor glitches. My home is my oasis and I need things to be in order.
Thank you Unilocal for leading me to A Custom Electric. I called and spoke with the owner (Michael I believe). He just seemed trust worthy on the phone. My initial telephone vibe from him was that he is an honest dude. He was so incredibly helpful on the phone. Let me quote him for you, «a lot of our clients had to simply re-​set their breakers, did you guys try that?» Of course we hadn’t. Where is the breaker located??? He advised that we do but reassured us that if they sent someone out and all that needed to be done was re-​set the breaker, he would not charge us. HONEST. This company is hella HONEST.
I told Michael that I was freaking out about my light issues. He told me he would call me back that evening. He actually called me back at 6 pm, the man keeps true to his word. He told me that he could send someone out on Saturday morning to help us out.
Saturday morning I took off to have fun and left this problem in my husband’s capable hands. According to my husband Michael was warm and engaging. My husband who isn’t as trusting as I am, immediately trusted him. They replaced all of our light bulbs in the living room. However, they need to come back with a scaffold to fix the thing-​a-​majig that we knocked out. By the way, the reason our lights didn’t turn on over the breakfast bar is b/​c my husband and I were not turning on the correct switch. We’re such stupid assholes. Michael didn’t laugh at my husband. I appreciate that. My husband told Michael that we needed the thing-​a-​majig fixed asap b/​c we’re throwing a party in 7 days. A Custom Electric is coming out at 7:30 AM on Thursday morning to fix the last issue.
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Thursday 8÷28÷08
Michael came with his service dude and a scaffold. It was the first time I got to meet him in person. He’s super cool and friendly. Totally, my kind of people. Such attention to detail!!! They laid down cardboard to make sure the scaffold didn’t scratch up my hardwood floors. Usually I’m a neurotic crazy person that sits there and essentially stalks whoever is in my house making repairs. With Michael there was no need to do any stalking. I felt immediately comfortable with him and left to clean my house. I didn’t need to watch him b/​c the man is a perfectionist. Even though the repair took less than 10 minutes, building a scaffold in my house is hard hard hard work. Luckily, Michael didn’t charge me that much!
Extremely prompt. Worked around our schedule. Reasonable as hell prices. Sweet and professional. Friendly. I trust them. A Custom Electric will be my electrician of choice for all future electrical problems.

They were great– prompt and considerate. The rates were the most reasonable and we were very happy with the work he did. I’d hire him again

After trying many electricians with mixed results, I finally stumbled upon a great one! They installed track lighting in my studio and did an outstanding job. Michael James owns the company, and Rojelio did the work. Both were courteous, hard-​working, and reliable. The rates were more than reasonable, and when there was a problem with the dimmer buzzing, they tried several things (at no charge to me) until they solved the problem. Michael stands by his work and I’d recommend him to anyone.
Also, I could swear I saw positive reviews on Michael somewhere else on Unilocal,but now I can’t. It may be under another listing. But I know he does have great reviews on citysearch. Just look up «A Custom Electric.»