St. Joseph Scams and Fraud

Someone asked me the other day if Pinnacle Electric of St. Joseph is involved with the companies called Pinnacle who are listed in the Ripoff Report which is a leading website for consumer rights. Although I know someone who is trying to find out whether this is the case as far as I know at this time there is no connection. Even though some of the over billing practices may seem similar to some this could simply be a coincidence. Buchanan county authorities have investigated contractor fraud connected to some contractors, but the vast majority of cases are never reported to anyone. In the case of electrical work most of the time insurance takes care of these problems. Often only those who cant afford insurance are the most taken advantage of because insurance companies will fight unscrupulous billing practices if there is enough reason to suspect it.

The Buchanan county sheriff’s department has warned of shysters in our area who take advantage of people who need repair work done.  Alot of these repairs are done in the summer. If a person is without a fan or air conditioning that can be almost as dangerous as someone being left alone in the dark to freeze during the winter.

Usuallly a person can get a free estimate for work that needs to be done on their property.  Whenever possible you should get one.  However there are times during weather emergencies when a company may claim that they are so busy they can’t do this.  In such a case people will then ask how much the company charges for an hourly rate and hope the company completes the job in a reasonable amount of time.  I know of people who have had an electrical job done by one company at a reasonable price and then been charged over twice as much by another company that quoted a similar hourly rate but ended up sending out more people to do the same job.  In this way an unscrupulous company can charge the hourly rate quoted on the phone but send out extra people and suddenly your bill is two or three times what was quoted on the phone.  Actually the job done by the extra people required less labor than the one done at a reasonable price.  This type of practice is often done by some companies during emergency weather situations when people would freeze and can’t get around well.  On top of that the company will later bill you for overtime for each person.  These extra people are often trainees or worse friends who don’t actually work for the company. This doesn’t just happen in St. Joseph, MO but can happen anywhere.