Charles L. Salemis

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• By Pamela G.

  October 12, 2020

  Years ago, after another electrician was hired to do our job but never showed or returned calls, I saw Lou’s truck. He immediately assessed the situation, did the job, and several more thereafter. We were pleased.

• By Amir F.

  January 20, 2019

  Summary: No-show. Irresponsible. Over-promised and under-delivered. Not compliant with the contract. Poor communication. Ending up in so much hassle and court potentially.

  Full:
  Bought a new house, and decided to do some renovations before moving in. The work included some construction, electrical, plumbing, plastering, painting, etc. We had a fixed deadline to move-in since we had to leave our rental apartment for new tenants to come.

  During this 2-3 months period, I hired and worked with more than 10 contractors. One of my main responsibilities was to make coordination between them and make sure no one blocks the other's work. There are certain milestones for each contractor, and their work heavily relies on each other. Delay or failure of each piece would delay the other party and the overall progress.

  I have found Mr. Salemis (also called Lou) as a mutual contact with my real state agent, whom I worked with for a few months and trusted at the time. Personally I did not have the best first interaction with Lou, but I finally decided to hire him since:
  - He had a referral
  - I was in a very tight time constraint, and budget

  The scope of the work was to:
  - re-wire part of the house
  - add new outlets
  - add ground wire
  - redo the electrical panel, and
  - miscellaneous activities around the house
  Was a relatively a small job, as he called it a "2-3 day job".

  He did not finish the job in the given period, and did not show coordination with other folks in the house. Finally I had to fire him and hire a new electrician to finish his job at twice the cost.

  Over the 4-week period of his work, our relationship tend to become me calling him repeatedly asking to come over and do his job and him over-promising, procrastinating and under-delivering. He found it very difficult to explain to me the reason for the delays and the details of his work. Every time I asked him about the status and delay he would make high-level promises and asking for time and more chances. This became the main reason I had not fired him earlier. I also have asked him a few times if he is interested or has the time to finish the work where I always received his attitude of over-promising.

  This situation finally got to the point that I had no more time to waste with him. I had painters in the house with suspended rough electrical work thanks to Mr. Salemis. The painters stopped the work and left the house due to unfinished electrical work. They repeatedly complained that they had to redo so much work every time Lou shows up. I finally decided to fire him and hire a new electrician who later told me about the low quality of the work done and the fact that he had to redo all Lou's work. He told me there are missing wires and even unsafe connections.

  Lou did not like signing a contract. On day one, he asked for full payment up-front. I insisted on signing a contract and agreed only to 50% payment. Currently I am in the process of filing a legal complaint. There were also other damages and extra cost due to excessive delays by him.

  My recommendation is not to hire this person AT ALL.
  And in general when hiring a contractor, write down a very specific plan about milestones and dates. Don't pay more than 1/3 or the work done.

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