Gill's Electric

As the manager of the apartments at 6216 Antioch St. in Montclair/Oakland, it was an awesome experience to have Lazzaro (sp?) come and do some outstanding work for us today. He arrived even a bit early, friendly, efficient and a super guy. Thank you Gill's for an excellent job, very well done! Also the receptionist, Megan, was a very helpful, cheery employee too.

If you want professional, expert service all the way around, Gill's is your answer to residential electrical work needed. I was very happy to work with Gill's and I know the apartment owner will be pleased as well. Thank you Gills for a great experience today - Kevin O'Rourke

I will never use Gill's Electric again. This company preys upon customers who are unfamiliar with their tactics of hidden expenses and needless overtime charges. Our exterior lights would not turn off. I thought it would be a simple fix. The workman who came to our house seemed confused by our system, spending hours trying to figure it out and charging overtime for his slow progress.

Our system of exterior lights with motion sensors has worked for 25 years, protecting our safety and security, until Gill's told us there was no way they could fix a system like this and charged us $1550 to leave the system inoperable. In the process of doing this they also damaged the plaster in the entryway. Be forewarned Gill's Electric says it considers damage around switch plates common, so this is something a customer should expect.

No workman has ever left us with damaged walls after working on our house. You will be told to repair your damaged plaster at your expense. Additionally, this company charges $200 for travel and an additional $60 for fuel. We live locally. Gill's obviously prioritizes profits over customer service. We are sorry an old reliable family business has come to this sorry state.

They have been in business a very long time. They do great work small or large. Old or new.

Gills are straight up criminals. They thrive on 1st time customers and will over charge you to the fullest! Minus the overcharging they also did work we did not ask them too and instead of installing a Tesla car charger l, they put in a Fiat car charger. They will charge you for calling to ask questions. And we you have an issue them being straight up criminals with how much they charge they will sick there lawyers on you. DO NOT HIRE GILLS!

Waited 10 days for service, which in our case was ok. Electrician showed up complaining about how he doesn't want to do service calls anymore. Showed electrician the issue and he said he didn't have a circuit tracer so he would need me to help him, ok, but isn't that a basic piece of equipment for an electrician? When I questioned him about this he told me that I would need to request that 'one be put on the truck' and that he didn't like doing service calls.

Not helpful. I reminded him he was the electrician and he was doing a service call for me. I thought about sending him away but since he was here I allowed him to continue. He fixed what needed fixing but charged me an extra half an hour for labor that he didn't actually use. I gotta say there are better electricians out there, his van was a complete mess. Parts just thrown everywhere, I'm not even sure I got a new fixture - pretty bad. My advice - don't hire them, they don't appreciate the customer and the service lacked any professionalism.

Gill's Electric is consistently reliable, fairly priced and their electricians do quality work. Shout-out to Gill's.

Gary and Ernesto were fabulous! Great bid -- great work -- lovely to work with. Gary bid the job and scheduled, Ernesto did the work with the help of Lazaro. They were all great. Although they were swamped with work, Gary fit us in for the many days of work required. Very adaptable. I kept changing/adding things and Ernesto didn't hesitate. He came up with creative solutions, added tasks to his day and was truly a pleasure to work with.

We had our two electrical panels replaced, increased the total electricity coming to the house, and added many outlets, circuits, switches, instruments to the house. I strongly recommend them.

Quick response & super professional! Megan listened to our issue, got someone here same day who resolved our electrical issue in a matter of minutes. Technician Ernesto was very knowledgeable, nice & professional! Highly recommend!

This is one of the saddest reviews I've ever had to write. Gil's has been an institution in the area. Sadly, they have devolved to a finger-pointing, non-responsive, flat-footed entity. We hired them to install our generator and while some things were done to specification, they were faulty in so many essential components. They failed with permitting.

They failed at customer service. They failed at follow-up. No one there will take the lead on anything. From the owner's daughter to the customer service point person. No return calls. No return emails. I for one don't like to hound and hound. Do NOT use them for generator installation. Sour taste in our mouths.

Critical: Responsiveness Called to make an an appointment for posdible EV installation. Ywo fays and no tesponse. Don't know how they stay in business.

We recently had a major electrical upgrade to our basement space. Lazaro from Gill's Electric came and did a very professional walk-through with us to plan the work. Lazaro was very knowledgeable and gave us excellent suggestions about the lighting and fixtures. He came back a couple of weeks later and did the work. The work was excellent. He was careful in his work and his cleanup!

I just wish he had a shade for an exposed bulb. Oh well. Minus zero for that! Also, on the walk through and for the work, Lazaro followed all protocols for COVID interaction! I also want to give shout outs to Victoria, the customer service manager for assuring the scheduling moved ahead and to Megan, the business manager, who was very helpful on the billing side. This was our third major project with Gill's and we have always been very satisfied and will call them only. Thanks Gill's!

Hired Gil's for a new main panel and a Tesla charger. They handled all the permits and coordination with PGE as well as scheduling with my tenant for their convenience. They completed the whole job in 1.5 days, charged a fair price for the work (I got 4 bids and they were right in the middle). The work was fast clean and 100% what I asked them to do and what they committed to. Very pleased with this company.

I am writing this review to compliment Mike, Electrician, employee of Gill's. He is efficient, knowledgeable about home's indoor lighting and provided excellent customer service and experience. Mike maintains covid precautions and wore a mask at all times, kept a safe distance from my family members and washed his hands. Mike thoroughly cleaned the job site. We asked for Mike to complete some additional work in the near future. Mike has been assigned to this future work. Way to go Mike!

Consumer beware! Called for an estimate and electrician came out and spent 15 minutes to view situation and then said job would take about 3 hours and quote would be sent later. Quote was later sent with hourly estimate of 5 plus hours. When we questioned disparity, we would told that electrician never said 3 hours, but they would be happy to bill based on actual time and, by the way, they already had 1 hour of time in providing estimate. Further, they claimed that they told us at time of initial phone call that they would charge us to provide estimate, which is patently untrue. Then, we received a bill for 1 hour. We used alternative electrician and job took two hours.

Great place of employment! Brad Gill is a master electrician. In fact, a tidbit of Oakland lore, Gill's Electric is the contractor for Lake Merritt's Necklace of Lights.

Gill's treated us right. Great service, the outlets and porch light they installed work very well. The person who came out was knowledgable and very willing to talk me through multiple options for the work they provided. I'll be using them again. Thanks Gill's!

-Too expensive for small jobs -Work seemed mediocre I hired Gill's Electric a few months ago. The biggest issue here is that I allowed them to come in and work when I was not home. I came home and found a job that was not to my standards. I was billed over $3k and this was literally a simple quick job. I complained and was discounted $300 as a convenience fee or something. Too expensive for mediocre work. Thankfully it was not an important job, I ended up using a different company for a big electrical project and was extremely satisfied.

The owner of the company sent a technician to fix the meter and offered a partial refund. The company apologized, and the new electrician was prompt, efficient, and fixed the problem.

This is my first, and possibly last, Yelp review. It appeared to start off well. I had a list of small jobs and wanted to get an estimate for 2 larger jobs. The woman that I spoke with at Gill's asked me to send her photos of a fan switch and 2 dimmer switches that needed replacing so that the electrician would bring the proper replacement parts with him.

I sent the photos, but the electrician (who seemed competent and pleasant) did not arrive with the parts. He said he would complete those tasks when he returned to do the larger estimate jobs. I wondered about that at the time and several days later wrote the CEO to question it. Below is an excerpt from our e-mail exchange: "Also, I have sort of a basic question.

When I called to arrange for an electrician to come out, I went through the parameters of the work with whomever returned my call. She was proactive and asked me to send her photos of the dimmer switches needing replacement and the fan switch, which I did. When the electrician showed up, he said he had no dimmer switches or covers for the fan switch with him and would do it when he came back to do the outlet etc.

I found this surprising, but said nothing at the time. Why did I send photos in the first place? if I decide not to go ahead with your estimates, will it require a completely new service call to complete the work I expected to be done on the initial appointment?" The CEO responded: "Hi Peter, My apologies, I am out of town for a few days and didn't get a chance to find out what happened there.

When I return, I will speak with Victoria to see what transpired and get back to you." He never did get back to me or follow through. When I, ultimately, facetiously "thanked" him for his follow through, he responded that I was welcome. Gill's Electric is expensive ($169.50/hour which includes travel time), and while I do not know if this kind of suspicious business practice is normal for this company, I will be choosing other electricians in the future.

I dont often post reviews, but I am kind of sick of this. First of all, it takes forever to schedule an appointment - half of the time my calls were not returned and I had to call and call and call. Then when the electrician came out, he did decent work, but apparently work wasn't up to code, so now I have a panel that won't pass inspection and there is noone to talk to.

James was terrific. Great communicator, friendly and he had things fixed in less than an hour (main breaker replaced). Oh how good it is to have electricity again!

James Hamilton from Gill's Electric was courteous, professional, knowledgeable and fast. It was a fairly simple job, and so didn't take anywhere near the minimum charge for an hour ---- but I was happy to be able to get him here so quickly. an appointment for the very next day. Since I needed the work done before an appraiser showed up. I needed that kind of fast, reliable service and got it.

Will NEVER use Gill's again! Fine scheduling of appointment, nice enough & qualified electrician sent to do inspection but never provided legible write up of inspection - once they got their payment (day of inspection) ALL bets were off on them delivering inspection report. A total waste of time and money!

I called in with half my kitchen appliances conked off. Not knowing much about household electric troubleshooting I ended up calling Gill's rightaway. Victoria guided me through finding and reseting my circuit breakers and probably helped me save some money by not calling in an electrician when not needed. She also helped me understand probable causes, remedies and permanent fixes. Great experience! Thanks Victoria

Last year I had a problem with an overheating light switch. I called Gill's Electric, among other companies, left a voicemail message with my name and address and never received a call back. About 4 months later, I received a telephone call from an employee of Gill's electric, trying to verify the time and date he should be at my house. I explained that this was an error, because my brother fixed the problem months ago.

They sent me a bill 6 months later for services rendered, in the amount of $159.50 and sent a second bill this month charging me interest on "my account ". I called this morning and said that they sent me a bogus bill. What I received in return was a snotty, full of attitude person, who cut me off in mid sentence. They never came to my house. Never did any work for me, but thought it ok to send me a bill for their phantom work and then had to deal with their receptionist/operator from hell.

She needs serious education in customer service. Addendum: at 11:00 am today, Meghan Gill telephoned and after telling me that they would have to charge me for a canceled appt., finally relented after I repeatedly said there never was an an appointment (didn't really believe me, because they couldn't possibly make mistakes) and cleared the non-existent account. Concerning the rude receptionist/operator, she said that I "came on strong", so that was why that person was rude.

Maybe in their book it's ok to charge someone $159.50, plus interest, for NO REASON, but I feel that it may give me a bit of latitude in "coming on strong". And no, I would never use these people for any electrical work.

If only there were 6 stars. I have used Gill's Electric for 6 years now, spanning two homes, and each time I have called on them I have been increasingly impressed with their skill, professionalism, reliability, and customer service (also: this review is long overdue!). I have used Gill's to install light fixtures in both of my homes--and still gratefully remember the patience of the electrician as he carefully unwrapped and hung each individual crystal of the chandelier I had ordered for my first home.

They have also come to fix faulty outlets, and just recently went over the top for me when I made an after hours consultation call. They talked me through my questions, even gave me a call back number after hours if I needed more help, and fit me into their booked schedule the very next day to resolve the issue. I mean, seriously. If you typed "electrician" in the search bar, congratulations! You're home. Call Gill's.

James Hamilton came to my home today to service a light issue with my panel that was not so easy to find, Professional from start to finish. I will call on him at the company should we have more issues. Lorrie F

BALINDA (the dispatcher) you're amazing! Soooo last night there was storm in Oakland and one my electrical wires blew out, snapped in half, and another wire was toasted due lightening striking the frayed wire. I had to call the fire department and PGE to come cut the wires so It won't be a fire hazard. After calling 15+ numbers on yelp. with no help in site I tried Gill's electric and BALINDA was able to answer right away and let me if they could do the repair work.

She was able to get Zech out to my location within an hour and he was very helpful and knowledgeable on what needed to be done. He and his team mate fixed the two wires and was able to restore power to my house :)! Thank you so much! I was quoted $199/ hour minimum 2 hours (labor only). I ended up paying for 2 hours and parts.

They don't call you back and then when you follow up with them they quote you $150/hr for 2 hours = $300 plus taxes plus other creative charges (I am sure) just to come to your house and take a quick look at something. Forget it!

I highly recommend Gill's Electric! They were on time, did a wonderful job, and were well worth the money for the knowledge, kindness, and availability! I had a question on the bill and their accounting department got back to me right away and explained everything in detail! We will deffinately be using Gills again! -Laura