Universal Home Experts

I don’t often write reviews, but I feel compelled to this evening. I received some of the best customer service today from Universal Home Experts and their electrician, Daniel Perez, that I have received in Houston. I called Universal to repair my electrical service and surge protector, which had been severely damaged by last weekend’s weather and had resulted in loss of power. Daniel came to the house and explained in detail a variety of options and costs to meet my needs. The options were not cheap, but fair. He made the repairs efficiently and insisted on waiting for CenterPoint to come to the house and turn the power back on. Daniel was done at noon and, long story short, CenterPoint finally arrived at my house around 7:45 (after multiple promises to be there sooner). He wanted to ensure that the electricity was hitting all of my outlets properly and wanted to also ensure that I was comfortable with the work. I probably would have bailed at some point if I had been Daniel, but he stuck it out and checked everything out once power was finally restored. That insistence to make me feel that the job was done properly has made me a customer for life. I highly recommend Universal Home Experts.

These folks are totally above board and fair. Electrician Mike Gustafson could have done what I asked and charged me $ 300 but he explained why it wasn’t necessary and saved me a bundle. They answer the phone 24 hours a day. I called one night and they had Mike at my place the next day. He was able to get an a/​c professional (Marlo) over the same day to address the real issue. Very well versed in their trade. Highly recommended.

I am very impressed with this company. I had three technicians, Danny, Mike, and Marlo come to my house and every single one of them was great; friendly, knowledgable, and professional!
They told me where I might run into problems in the future and gave me a price without being pushy. I am planning on signing up for their maintenance plan based on my initial experience with the company and the employees who represent Universal. It sure is nice to deal with one company instead of three!

Thanks for the quick response. It was 99 when our A/​C went out. Yours was the third company we called but the first to respond. Marlo had actually returned our call, finish the repair he was on, came to our home and addressed our problem before the others returned our call. Marlo was pleasant, well spoken and took the time to answer our questions. We would recommend Marlo to anyone that asked. The equipment was delivered on time. Jay and his installation crew showed up as scheduled and did a great job with a difficult, cramped situation.

We needed our kitchen faucet fixed and Danny came out right away to perform the repair. He did a great job in fixing our problem and was very courteous and professional. He was also very knowledgable and took the time to explain the details behind the repair. We really appreciate having someone who is so customer focused and honest.

Wanted to replace a couple of plugs and install some can lights, When UHE arrived, they told me I needed a new breaker box, made it sound like it was an immediate safety issue, so I paid $ 6,000 for that work, including whole house surge protector. Later I spoke to an electrical engineer who has had several buildings both residential and commercial wired, who said he thought that cost was rather high.
The $ 6000 included a free one-​year service package. After the recent storms, the blower on my HVAC unit went out, UHE said that a control board on my furnace had been burned up by a lightning strike, and once they replaced that they said the motor on my blower had also burned out, totaling almost $ 2000 in repairs. I questioned why the furnace would be hit by a lighting strike when I just got a whole house surge protector. UHE sent out an electrician to check this. The very young electrician said the reason was the furnace had never been grounded. He then said that none of my outlets were grounded, the wiring was there to do so, they had just never been connected before (some partial renovations had been done before I bought the house). He described «open splices» in the attic and said the wiring in the attic and to all the outlets would need to be redone, if UHE had not replaced the breaker box, that things would be overheating and melting right now, but this needed to be taken care of immediately, made it sound like this was a major safety issue, and gave us an estimate for over $ 3000 dollars.
My electrical engineer friend, again said I was being taken for a ride, referred me to an electrician who has been doing both commercial and residential for over 40 years. He inspected and found no open splices. He said that young electricians like the UHE guy see ungrounded outlets and freak out, but don’t realize that this was the way houses were wired 40+ years ago, and most houses in Houston of this vintage have ungrounded electrical systems, and you don’t hear about them burning down. He said it’s something I might want to have done when I’m ready to sell the house as it might help sell it better, but it is not a safety issue at all, and he recommended only snaking in grounded outlets to about one outlet in each room that contained a computer or TV, and one in the kitchen for the microwave. He also said the furnace could easily be grounded to a water pipe in the attic. He quoted me $ 1200 for that work.
As part of the service plan I was given when I got the new breaker box, Universal Home Experts called me and scheduled a free annual plumbing service. I said, «oh good, because I need to have my water heater flushed out,» and the person on the phone said «yes, they will do that.» When their plumber got there he said that it would cost an extra $ 300 to flush my water heater. He admitted that the people who sell these service plans aren’t good at describing what they do and do not cover.
I have replaced all the hardware in the tanks of both of my toilets, and replaced the wax seal in one of my toilets within the past three years, and they have both been working perfectly. Plumber claims the toilets, which we have had no problems with, are flushing slowly due to mineral buildup, and should be replaced. He gives me a quote for $ 1600 to replace two toilets. I could buy two midrange toilets for $ 300 total, and replace them myself in the space of about 2 hours, considering I had to completely dismantle a toilet to replace the wax seal and replace the hardware inside the tank, I know I could do the job. But of course I don’t need to do this, because the toilets work fine. He also quoted me $ 700 to replace two bathroom faucets (if I provided the faucets, the $ 700 is just for their installation labor) — but again, these are two perfectly working faucets. Then he quoted me $ 4000 for a whole house water treatment system, after trying to scare me about the water quality in Houston and how it is a major health hazard and I should read the water quality report the city of Houston sends out this year, it’s hard to understand because it is very technical, but I could call Universal Home Experts and one of their people would walk me through it and help me understand how serious the water quality problem is here in Houston. I am a masters level environmental scientist, and I have read my water quality report, so I know this is just a scare tactic. The hour I took off work to meet this guy was a complete waste of time, and then of course just a couple days after he unnecessarily fiddled with the hardware in one of the toilet tanks (that I had replaced within the last three years), it started running all the time.

Way too expensive, I would recommend checking around to get at least 3 other bids, however, great customer service.

Excellent company. Had some wiring replaced in my home and a new breaker box put in. Called for service and got an estimate. They came out the same day, did the work and got everything up to code. When I asked that the outside wiring be concealed they sent a tech back to change the wiring. This business puts customer service FIRST. Many companies today just want to collect a fee and be done. This company really goes the extra mile. The personnel does a great job communicating with the customer. They will call you back! The technicians are professional and very polite. Will be using them again.

I had Universal Home Experts replace my exterior home and landscape lighting this past summer in Richmond, TX. To start with, when I first called them, they came the very next day to give me a quote and return the following day to do the work. The gentlemen that Universal sent out were very professional and polite. They went out of their way to accommodate my needs and very large yard. The job was completed in one day. There have been a few kinks since installation and I’ve had to have them back out twice. Each time I’ve called they were still very polite and happily returned to fix the issue the very next day after calling each time. I was impressed by this as they had already been paid and in my experience, companies are only prompt when there is a sale involved. Universal has far exceeded my expectations each time. I have recommended them to a couple of friends thus far. This is truly a company that stands behind their work!

I just wanted to thank everyone again for the excellent experience I had using your company for the 1^st time. I called another company initially who said it would be 2 weeks before they could come out. I then remembered seeing your ad in the Heights newspaper.
On my initial call I went over what I needed done (fix/​replace 5 under cabinet puck lite sets w/​3 easy to replace fluorescent type lites and 2 recessed lites).
UW set a time for 3 workdays later to meet me at my house; they called 30 mins. ahead of our appointment so I could meet them on our scheduled time (11 – 1).
My UW technician was very pleasant, prompt, not pushy, and patient w/​my questions. After our initial discussion of what I wanted done, he assessed everything and even provided a 40 pt. whole house/​electrical box inspection to further provided me w/​information of what he suspected may be problem areas in my home already — which I knew I had. After 40 mins. he wrote up 3 proposals and prices from his inspection and my to-​do list.
I selected one of the 3 on his list and he went right to work. Of course I did not pick the best proposal, which included possible problems that could arise in the future but again there was no high sales pressure from him, which I appreciated very much. And to UW’s credit they gave me a copy of the proposals for future reference so I may call them back and finish everything up at my convenience.
After 2.5 hours the job was completed to my satisfaction. On my drive back to work that afternoon, I received a followup call (to my surprise) and was asked how things went and was there anything else that they could do for me. I gave the caller a stellar report on his employees, thanked him for all of their help and relayed that in this day and age it is wonderful to find true customer service skills being relayed though out a whole company — all 3 people I dealt with were the best I’ve had the pleasure/​experience with in a long time.
Thanks again!
RAM — SPP