too much space between the contacts, yep because th ebreaker had opened from the wiring fault, AS I TWAS DESIGNED TO DO!

yes, you were scammed big time. replacement of the whole panel and all breakes should have cost less than what you paid to replace a perfectly good breaker and fix a bad spot in a wire.

I would have him write up the invoice. Was it 15 minutes he spent from the time he got their to diagnose the problem to fix it? He needs to be paid for the time that he spent figuring out what was going on, fixing it, etc. But, from the way you talk, it sounds like he was probably in your house for an hour--and he charged $1300 for it all. Have him give you the invoice to show what the parts cost, the labor, etc. That will give you the breakdown.

If he was there for an hour and did all the parts for it, I would think you would be at around $200 ($100 an hour + parts). I guess it could have gone up to $300, but that seems high. I would go back to him and talk to him about it and get your money refunded. If that doesn't work, each state has some kind of electrician state group that you could contact as well. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

There is a near 100 percent probability that you were grossly over charged, even at prevailing California prices.

Did he give you an invoice that breaks down the cost? It's hard to say without knowing exactly what he did, but I will say something does sounds fishy.

This is what he wrote on the invoice:

"Removing one bad damaged twin O.C.P.D and install a new twin O.C.P.D.
Service the main meter panel 16 step service. Calculated load and temperature of the breakers-piggy backed or any miswiring. Balance the load. Clean the bus bar and panel."

He was at my house a total of 45-50 minutes and spent most of the time working on the short in the dishwasher. On the invoice there was a flat fee. The cost was not broken down. I am usually very aware of people like him but during the first few minutes he was there I received a phone call telling me that my mother in law had just passed away so I wasn't thinking straight. I will check with the state laws and get advice from a lawyer.

In NC, the licensing board will investigate such blatant overcharging. Also tell us about the dishwasher. How old, what brand?

Here is a link that might be useful: California

It sure sounds like you were overcharged. Is this guy licensed? I know rates are higher in Cal, but if that was my service call and I was in and out in an hour or less you would pay $95.00 plus materials. Circuit breakers range from $4 to $30 each, depending on the brand, even at a 200% markup your bill would've been well under $200.00.
So for Cal, double? triple? But I can't see seven to eight times higher.
If what you say is true this guy is a crook and on behalf of all of us honest tradesmen I apoligize for his actions and hope you can recover some of your money.

I just checked out the California State Contractors Licensing Board website and looked up their contractors license. There were a few code violations all concerning workers comp but nothing consumer related. They have electrical businesses in severals areas of California. I'm not sure what recourse I will have since I signed the contract but I have to persue this

The dishwasher is a 6 year old Kitchenaid that I have never had any trouble with. Thinking back on the incident I can clearly see that I was scammed.

There are some companies that pay a commission to the workers to up sell a job. My son and daughter in law were almost charged $1,700 by a plumber for a backed up main line. He said there was no cleanout and they would have to dig it up and install one. He said he checked with the county sewer records thats how he knew there was no cleanout. They gave him a $300 deposit on their Visa. When they called me and told me the situation, I immediately called the county. The lady on the phone said, "that's funny, you're the second person to call on that address today". She faxed me the drawing, clearly showing the location of the cleanout outside the bathroom window. We called an independent plumber who took care of the problem for less than $100. He told us that he used to work for the other company, and that they were pressured to upsell all jobs and paid a commission for doing so.

We disputed the Visa charge, and the owner of the company insisted it was a mistake.

The other possibility is that the company your electrician works for doesn't know about this job, maybe he was working for himself that afternoon? How did he have you pay?

Sounds as if you were definitely scammed. As joefixit asks how did you pay? Since you posted initially today, if you paid by credit card I would call them & have them "deny" the charge. If you paid by check, I'd have the bank "cancel" it. If you paid by cash, well then, you are probably out of short-term luck but you should still be able to pursue recovery of the money you paid plus maybe some incindentals.

I paid with my American Express card so I know that I can call and dispute the charge. The guy I made the appointment with was not the same guy that showed up at my house. It was a lot of money but what hurts more is knowing that I fell for his line. If I hadn't taken that phone call about my mother in law passing I'm sure I would have been thinking a lot more clearly.

I truely appreciate all of your help and suggestions. You're a great bunch of honest caring people. Thanks

Call Amex now! Then call the company and have them justify their bill. Once they find you're pursuing other avenues of resolution, you might find a very amicable company to deal with.

Man, if you can get that kind of money for no more work than that, I need to move to CA....

I called American Express last night and told them that I wanted to dispute the charge. "No problem," they said they will help me throughout the entire investigation.

I am filling out a claim with American Express and the CSLB and it would help if I could say that I have discussed the matter with other licensed electricians. How many of you are contractors? I have consulted some of my friends also and every single person states that I was grossly overcharged.

Thanks,

Andrea

Yes, you were scammed. Last year we had a new, powerful, convection stove installed and we had to have all new wiring to support this. We had 2 electricians from the store here for 3 hours. Including materials, the final bill was about $325.00 We did not get any kind of price break because we bought from that store. Lucky that you charged it. We were just scammed $1500 a couple of weeks ago by a contractor who has fallen off the end of the earth without delivering goods or service. And, sadly, we had given him a check. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! You were smarter. Congrats.