Amy in Ottawa

I have used Ring Electric for several jobs at our older house. Our wiring is somewhat complicated and difficult after many years and many updates, and some electricians have had trouble working with it. Ring Electric has been able to diagnose and correct multiple problems and they have often given me quick no-cost solutions. They have fixed others' shoddy work and provided high-quality service on new projects as well. When some wiring got accidentally dislodged during their work, they came back quickly and repaired the mistake with no charge. Bryan (the owner) has always personally visited the site during work in progress. They aren't the cheapest, but I consider the cost to be a good investment in quality work.

We had to do an emergency furnace replacement in the dead of winter, on a weekend. We got estimates from several companies. The estimate from Reliance Holmes was about $100 higher than other companies, but they were willing to put the furnace in on a Saturday, when other companies could not do it until Monday - so we thought this was a reasonable extra cost for weekend/overtime work. Our sales rep, Vaughan, was straightforward and efficient, and came by during the installation to make sure things were going OK. The installers were polite and clean, and explained things clearly. Parts that we have to adjust, clean, or replace are clearly marked with labels (and even arrows!). The furnace has been working great for 9 months now. When summer rolled around we found our A/C wasn't working, and wondered whether something had happened to it during the furnace replacement. Reliance sent a tech out quickly and discovered a small error had been made with the A/C wiring during the furnace work. They fixed it right away at no cost. We were looking for service, and we found it. Although they are not the cheapest around, we are very happy with our new furnace and with Reliance Holmes in general.

Rojo was recommended to us both by our architect and by a friend. Unfortunately we had a terrible time with our renovation. The project was originally supposed to take two months; after eleven months it was not finished and we terminated our relationship with RoJo. We found many mistakes during the build, including serious stuff like crooked framing, sloping floors, misplaced electrical hookups and plumbing, and little stuff like badly painted windows, loose baseboards, and sloping countertops. It was often difficult to get these things corrected; on more than one occasion I was told that something was fixed, but when I checked, it wasn't. We are still discovering spots where the workmanship is faulty, and paying thousands for repairs. On the plus side, the owner is very friendly and pleasant. The job did come in on budget, more or less, if you don't count the money we are now paying to fix the mistakes. But overall, we are left very bitter about the whole experience. We never want to renovate again.