Greater Portland Electric

BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE. Stole $2250 from my cogntively-impaired, elderly parents and never fixed a thing. They come off as nice guys but communication is abysmal, the tech they sent out was incompetent (and I'm not sure was even licensed), and their strong-armed my parents into paying more than twice what another electrician eventually charged them to complete the work. For those interested, what follows is a very long police report that I had to file on their behalf: My geriatric, cognitively-impaired parents lost power, heat, and hot water after a major storm on Saturday, Dec. 19. I contacted “Ethan” at Greater Portland Electric on Dec. 20; he promised to arrive that afternoon but never did. Over the next several days, multiple employees (“George,” then “Fred”) repeatedly promised arrival times, failed to show up, stopped answering calls, or arrived very late at night. When “Fred” finally came out, he spent short periods (30–45 minutes at a time) performing diagnostics only. No actual repairs were completed. Despite this, an estimate of $5,100 was sent, later reduced to $4,500 after continued delays. “Fred” demanded half up front ($2,250) to return and complete the work after Christmas, despite the fact that only a few hours of diagnostic work had been done and no parts installed. Given the emergency circumstances (elderly parents without heat during a storm week), we reluctantly paid $2,250 on my father’s AMEX after being assured communication would improve and that they would return on Dec. 26. No one from Greater Portland Electric ever returned or contacted us again. Calls and messages went unanswered. By the afternoon of Dec. 26, my parents initiated a chargeback and filed a police report, believing they had been scammed. The following day, another licensed electrician from Casco Bay Electric completed the repair in under two hours using a single breaker he had on hand, charging less than half of Greater Portland Electric’s price even with emergency rates. We have call logs and text records documenting the missed appointments and lack of communication.

Not recommended. I’d give him a zero if I could. I hired Ethan through a Google search 6 weeks ago.he gave me an estimate which I paid a $1400 deposit on. I needed a smart smoke alarm system and thermostats installed. Over the following 5 weeks, he worked about 10-15 hours total while promising three times to get the whole job done over a period of 2 days. I had to chase him down daily to find out when or if he was going to show up. There was always a pile of excuses why he couldn’t, and a promise that he would get it together. It got progressively worse. He started the job and left open wires throughout the house. He kept promising me that he would show up with a crew and finally a month after he started, he sent a text saying he would be here at 10AM with a crew, and they would finish it. He never showed up, never called and even left his tools and equipment which are still here. That was November 17th—a month after I hired him. It’s now two weeks beyond that and I’ve been calling, emailing, messaging on Facebook and texting and he has totally ghosted me.

I hired Ethan to do a laundry list of electrical work on a house I had just moved into. Super nice guy, they worked through the first day, got a lot done but needed to come back to install another dimmer and fix the ceiling lights in the kitchen. They never came back. I’ve been calling and texting Ethan for months trying to get him to come back and finish the job. Totally ghosted. Never pay up front! Ethan if you see this, call me back. Thanks for the reply, Ethan! I totally get that people misremember things, I didn’t. I think you might be misremembering things because you did charge me for the recessed cans and labor. Attached is the mentioned items on the list, that I paid for, that you didn’t complete.

Ethan with Greater Portland Electric was awesome! He came out the same day to fix an issue with my smoker, even after getting a flat tire on the way — still showed up with a great attitude. Super quick, clear communication, and really friendly the whole time. You can tell he cares about doing the job right. Definitely recommend him if you need an electrician who’s reliable and easy to work with!