Sattler Electrical Service

I had an emergency electrical problem and Sid was very accomodating to fit me into the schedule to get this fixed. Thanks!

The first time I worked with Sid his price was fair for a relatively simple job, not cheap, not expensive. So I called him again. This time his price seemed very high for what I thought was another relatively simple job. He said he the work would take an entire crew all day to do. He showed up with one worker and they were in and out in a little over an hour; demanding full payment.
Some time later I spoke to a woman who related that the same scenario had happened to her with Sid: fair price at first to get in the door, then gouged the second time around.

We contacted Sid after I had a concern while I was installing a wall sconce on our living room. What I thought was a ground wire seemed to register that it was carrying live current — and since I had installed the circuit (not wishing to tap into existing knob/​tube circuitry) I figured maybe I had done something wrong. So I wanted a seasoned pro to look over what I had done and either fix the problem, point out the possible source, or verify that no problem existed.
Sid was happy enough to talk to me, shared his opinion that most of the older homes in our area with entrenched knob and tube circuits in place are probably better off being rewired from scratch, then scotch taped and jury rigged together. He quoted $ 300 for him to come over and take a look, and give a written evaluation/​opinion of the situation.
Sid came over, I met him at the driveway, by the time we were at my door we were already talking 30k for a total rewire — twice I reminded him that really I was most interested in the ground issue that had inspired me to seek him out. In the hour he was in the house, Sid spent less that ten seconds looking at the errant circuit — he spent most of the time showing me where the new electrical boxes would go — and a fair amount of time telling me that I had no business touching anything to do with our electric system.
I’m writing this more as feedback to Syd — no malice of any kind intended. I’m pretty sure he is a master of his craft and has seen so many of these old Oakland houses that. he probably doesn’t even need to look to see what is lurking behind the plaster.
That said, I’m a NEW ClIENT with a very clearly articulated question/​concern gladly agreeing to pay 300 dollar for a one hour consult with a professional in the field — my expectations were mismanaged when I received a proposal for 100x the cost of the consult, to do a huge project, and nowhere was the original problem I enquired about in the firSt placed even mentioned. Basically I spent 300 and ended up with a bid for 30k and no answer to my original question.
I guess I expected to be shown WHERE the danger lurked inside my attic — WHY it would be neccessary to rip out stuff that has been working for decades — shown stats of local electric fires caused by similar accidents waiting to happen that finally happened: I needed to be TOLD — not SOLD. And finally, my original concern, about the ground wire, should have been looked at, measured to verify, and at least some consideration and conversation around why it could be happening. Anyway, the things above are simply what happened, I’m not presenting them to cause Sid any problems — just a reflection of how it felt to be a potential customer for that brief hour we spent together and why I decided to go in another direction. I don’t know how many stars here — he is a pro — no doubt — It may be that he is just too much of a pro and that he sometimes forgets what it feels like to be customer on the other side of these conversations.

Sid came by and gave us an hour and half estimate that came to triple what my normal electrician charges. According to Sid, The solution to our question was a complicated and expensive fix. We declined the proposal at the initial meeting and waited for our regular guy, who effected a much simpler fix for ¹⁄₃ the cost.
What really bothered me about Sid was that he charged us $ 150 to stand there and listen to his hour and half bid for over $ 1800 for a small run of conduit. Won’t call him again!

Sid and his crew are great. Very professional, great communication. They did the work in a timely manner and were a pleasure to have around the house.

Our hero — Sid might be the nicest guy ever. The outlet our water heater is plugged into went out, which resulted in no hot water on a Sunday morning. On top of that, my baby daughter is sick. Sid picked up his cell phone, even though he is on his way out of the country, and talked us through how to get things working again. SO GRATEFUL.

I appreciated the very professional service. Sid Sattler took the time to trouble shoot with me over the phone to see if we could avoid the trip out, and when it didn’t do the trick he worked with my schedule and came within the timeframe agreed upon. I didn’t meet Sid himself, he sent his very pleasant and capable electricians out– Mic and Mica. They walked me through where the problem was, and what to do next time. The cost of service was sent beforehand, so no surprises. I highly recommend these guys.

My wife & I have used Sid and his team 3 times now, and they are great. The job is finished on time, the clean-​up is thorough, and he actually returns your calls! They have worked with us on a couple of tricky lighting projects, and we are very happy with the results. Recommended!

I’ve been talking to Sid about installing an outlet for an electrical vehicle at my apartment. He has been very helpful and walked me through my options. He is very professional, and it was great to talk to someone who was willing to explain things to someone who is new to this sort of thing. Definitely recommend calling them!

Sid quoted me a price of ~$ 3,500 when he came and looked at the work to be done. Then 10 days later, he sent me a formal estimate of «$ 4,500 to $ 6,000»; which would include: $ 115/​hour/​person to drive to the job site! AND $ 115/​hour/​person to pick up necessary supplies! AND Sid would charge me 10% more than he pays for these supplies! AND $ 115/​hour/​person to haul anything away! No way! A friend of mine had the same experience, Sid quoted her one price upon seeing the work to be done, then a price thousands of dollars higher in a formal estimate based on «time and materials» So don’t wasted your time and energy with Sid Sattler.
See Sid’s responses to all the other 1 and 2 star reviews (most of which have been removed since I originally posted my review). In each case Sid just denies and negates the negative, but valid, reviews. My conclusion remains: Don’t waste your time and energy with Sid Sattler.

We’ve used Sattler Electric multiple times over the years to get various electrical work done on our house. They are professional, prompt and reasonably priced. They gave me options for the repairs we needed and came up with a much lower cost solution that I anticipated. I’m very satisfied with their work and service and plan on using them again for any electrical work that we need.

After reading the rave reviews for Sattler on Unilocal,I decided to give them a try. It was a shockingly expensive experience, and while the men working in my house were polite and professional, the amount I ended up paying was WAY more than I ever anticipated. So far, their work has held up.
The bid I received gave me an ambiguous quote, for «Progress», attached to a list of all the work that needed to be completed in our house. I asked for clarification, and believed that the amount quoted would cover the jobs listed. In my past experience dealing with electricians, the bid given always fell close to the end amount due. If I wasn’t experiencing an outage that took out my internet and television, leaving me feeling totally disconnected, I would have waited for my regular electrician to be available. But, it was sort of urgent in my mind. I understand that much of the work reveals itself once a project is started, but my final bill came out to be almost twice the given number without any unanticipated problems, and without touching a couple of the jobs listed. Imagine 2.5 days of work substituting for a family vacation. Holy cow. Sid was very matter-​of-​fact, like, clearly, I had not understood his cryptic proposal. (???) His verbose explanation did little to bring light to his bidding and billing practice.
Also, without any notice, Sid expected to receive a check for thousands of dollars at the end of each day, and was aggressive in his follow-​up for final payment, as I was not home to write a check the last day of their work. I reluctantly paid the full amount due, and chalked it up to listening to my gut next time and sticking with the guys I already know. I wrote Sid a long email explaining my dissatisfaction, mentioning that I was left feeling duped and sucker-​punched, and heard NOTHING in response. So much for his concern for customer satisfaction. So, for the first time ever, I am writing a review on Unilocal,hoping to save anyone else from Sattler Electrical Service.

I hired Sattler Electrical in the summer of 2011 to rewire the attic in my 1944 Alameda house and bring it up to code, and to do some rewiring in the detached garage. Sattler said he preferred to work on a time and materials basis rather than quote me a price for the work. It was ungodly expensive.
Since that time I have had have now had two different electricians up in the attic again (in 2012 and in July 2013) to redo work that Sattler Electric was supposed to do in the first place. Sattler’s crew cut a lot of corners in the attic where I was unlikely to look, and where as it turns out the city inspector did not bother to look either.
There were six inches of exposed wire near where the service lines come into the house, the junction boxes were not done properly, and wires were stapled hastily to the joists and covered over with insulation to hide what had been done, rather than using stringers or running the line through the joists per code.
I was charged for time on the phone with Sid Sattler discussing the work to be done, charged travel time in both directions for the crew from their Oakland shop to my Alameda home, actually charged for time in Sattler’s shop when his crew was restocking their truck after my job, and I observed one member of the crew picking stray bits of wire up with his fingers on the clock one at a time rather than just using a broom to do the task quickly and efficiently. Unbelievable.
When I complained to Sattler about the most absurd of the above charges, he refused to compromise on any of it. I paid him off to be done with it, and have spent another $ 1,000 since then having work redone properly. Buyer beware.

We had some minor electrical work that needed to be completed: a GFCI plug for the back porch, and repairs to a bad circuit breaker that controls the hot tub. Sid was very prompt in returning my initial call and then coming out to have a look at the work. He also noticed that our sub-​panel, which had been done by another contractor, needed some adjustments made. His made a reasonable quote for all of this and we agreed to the work.
It took a couple of weeks for a crew to become available, which was fine; we were in no huge hurry. It’s always a good sign when a business is busy and not idle. Sid sent a two man crew, Mike & Sam, who were very efficient, professional, and courteous. They knocked out the work quickly and cleaned up after themselves thoroughly.
We now finally have a plug for the back porch and juice to the hot tub so that we can start using it again. I look forward to working with Sid and his company again for future projects. I highly recommend him.

Just bought a house in Oakland from a flipper. While many nice details were attended to, the house had no cable lines and needed additional lighting and other electrical work to suit our needs.
Based on Unilocal reviews we gave a few shops a call. Sattler was responsive and prompt, and gave us a detailed estimate of a long wish list. We agreed on a first round of work, and again the crew were prompt, and as questions arose — as they always will — during the day they laid out the possibilities and we chose a way forward. The work left us with several nasty holes in the wall, and they arranged for a plasterer to come out the next day to patch them. They even called us that day to ensure the patches had been done.
Th bill squeaked in under the upper range — electrical work ain’t cheap! — but again they answered my nitpicking questions, it all made sense, and so we paid the final bill.
If you «know someone who knows someone» and can get a low rate for your electrical, I’d say give it a try; but if you don’t and you want prompt, professional work, call Sattler — prompts, communicative, professional.

We bought a hot tub and needed to have the wiring done. The first electrical contractor that showed up told us some wild story about needing to trench our backyard and costing a small fortune. The next contractor never even showed up for our meeting. Luckily, the third contractor was Micah from Sattler. He gave us a very reasonable quote and was able to do the work just two days later.
He showed up with his team ON TIME! They did amazing work. Above and beyond my expectations. The quality and attention to detail was amazing. And they came in hundreds of dollars under the quote that Micah provided. When does that ever happen?
Do not hire an electrical contractor until you have gotten a quote from Sattler Electrical.

I called Sattler and briefly explained my problem to the office manager. Micah, one of the electricians, promptly called me back. He helped me troubleshoot my problem over the phone and in this case was able to solve the problem without making a house call. I was very impressed and offered to pay for the technical help but he refused saying «just think of us in the future».
I surely will.

We are a rip off artist’s dream come true. And if some electrician told us we needed to rewire or do something drastic, we would’ve been hosed. We had three «electrical problems.» The lights would not come on all the way in our daughter’s room. The bathroom lights stopped working. And the living room lights stopped working. We flipped all the circuits and nothing helped. We called Sid, he explained their charging, and promised he would send someone out the following morning. They came on time and it turned out to be as simple as hitting the reset button in the bathroom, replacing a bulb in our daughter’s room, and replacing a dimmer switch. We paid the minimum and that was that. Thank you Sid.

Sid is great! He responded to my voicemail very quickly. We discussed my electrical issues and he gave some wonderful insight for trouble shooting before I call him for service to my home. He really knows his stuff and I look forward to using him for my next electrical needs. Thanks, Sid!

Quite simply… Sid is awesome!
While moving into our new home, one of the movers shorted out the clothes dryer circuit 6:30 Thursday evening. I called and left a message for Sid saying it wasn’t that important (we thought it would be nice to wait a few days after the move before worrying about laundry) and he could wait to return my call until Monday. 15 minutes later he the phone rang and Sid talked me through fixing the problem myself! The next time I need an electrician I’ll be calling Sid for sure!