Barker & Son Electric

We’ve used Barker & Son twice for some wiring at our house. Both times, the service was outstanding. However, the second time, Tony spent several days completing the job for us. He was nice, professional, honest, and helpful. Tom came and oversaw the work going on several times during the job too. I highly recommend them.

Terrific service from Tom Barker and technician Tony. Tony got called away during my exhaust fan replacement job for an emergency call and, to make up for that, did not charge me for going to the supplier and getting the new fan that they discovered I needed. In addition, Tom Barker himself came the next day to make sure the installation was correct and discovered that the fan had not been exhausting to anywhere but into the ceiling joists — there was no flue to the outside! For no extra charge than the regular hourly rate he and Tony drilled a properly sized hole through the 2×4 joists and outside wall, installed ducting to the fan unit and voila! perfect exhausting of the damp shower steam (and all the other gases produced in a bathroom, ahem)! The fan is reliable and comes on with the light switch and no more worries about mold or moisture buildup. They also checked for that in the timbers inside the ceiling, by the way, luckily all was dry and good. Tony also installed dimmer switches in two rooms for me and a surge protecting outlet. Terrific work, two days of effort by the team and all under $ 350! Highly recommend. I’d have given five stars except that Tony left on day 1 in the middle of the job due to that emergency call, and did not call to tell me he wouldn’t be back that day, so I sort of waited around all afternoon to hear from him. Minor quibble, but if I had had other things to do it might have been a problem. I didn’t, and it wasn’t, as it happens.

Really exceptional service from Tom and his team. He took the time to come out personally after a small snafu in electrical service to my A/​C unit. He dug into the issue beyond what I expected to help me try to understand the problem. Very professional service.

Great couple of guys. Came to finish a job on three different days. Very professional. Very friendly. Reasonable price. This was my second experience with them and it’s been great. They’re officially my electricians for my restaurant.

I’ve had random power surges in my house for the last few weeks and it had gotten so bad that at any point, day or night, electricity in any room might go off. Or only the outlets would go off, or only the lights in the kitchen and bedroom. Random things. I checked the breakers but because of the randomness of the power I knew the problem wasn’t inside the house
Santa Monica Power was no help as they told me I needed to hire an electrician to come out and diagnosis the problem before they would come out — even though I would have to hire someone to tell me what I already knew.
Unilocal had decent recommendations for Barker & Son, plus referrals from Carlson’s so I gave them a call.
Turns out Barker & Son is a small outfit from Santa Monica. Tom Barker went to SM schools and they are really nice people. Even better, Tom Barker told me that he knew exactly what the problem was, that he didn’t need to charge me for coming out, to call the power company back and tell them it was a bad connection at the pole.
I did, the power company came right out, Tom was right, and I now have full-​time electricity in every room.
I’ll give them my business from now on

I’ve had Tom (owner) and Tony over for several small to medium sized projects the past few months. I recently bought a house and Tom has been very engaged in ideas on how to «adjust» the 75 year old electrical situation — original, very limited power panel. To be honest he could have been like others and suggested an expensive project but instead worked with me on options, allowing me to choose based on where my journey with improving the property. They’ve not only done quality work but have been punctual and excellent at communicating. How may contractors do you know respond by text within minutes? Good real-​time communication in an age where it should be mandatory for all contractors. I now have heaters, the new washer and hair dryers working pretty much all at once with no issue — all with the existing service. I’ve got many more projects ahead that involve electrical upgrades, replacement of older fixtures, etc. to bring the property into the 20^th Century and I will entrust this work to Tom and his team.

We have used them several times over the past few years and are always very happy with Barker & Son Electric. They’re prompt, professional, courteous, and very neat. And Tom will always go the extra mile to do the job right. They are fairly priced too and we recommend them highly. Will definitely use them again for all our electrical needs.

Seriously professional. Punctual. Everything explained fully. They leave you with no doubt that the quality of their work is top notch.

I own a duplex and am always on the look out for professional and reliable contractors to handle the maintenance of my property. I had Barker and Son out to finish a job that my previous electrician left me high and dry on. Tom even worked around my sched. coming out later in the evening to take a look and give me a quote. Workmanship is top notch and needless to say they’re now my go to electricians.

We have had bad luck with electricians in the past but Baker & Son Electric arrived quickly and then efficiently took care of all of our miscellaneous issues in a very short period of time.
Definitely plan to call them if the need arises in the future.

Being lured in by their perfect Unilocal rating, I hired Barker & Son to install 2 ceiling lights in my house. All-​around AWFUL experience. They dragged this small project out over 3 – 4 weeks, let my dog out of the yard (who got into a fight they failed to tell me about), put holes in the wall without asking, straddled the line between rude & patronizing, then charged me $ 1600 (even tho’ we had agreed upon an overpriced flat rate of $ 1100) after they finally finished. I would never use them again. AVOID.

Take those other reviews with a grain of salt. It is simple enough for a company to generate fake users and reviews.
Barker & Son Electric is overpriced, rude, and unprofessional. At $ 140/​hour with a two-​hour ($ 280) minimum, and two electricians, you would think they could install a simple, lightweight chandelier in the minimum time. Instead, I was treated to a 4.5 hour ($ 660!!) bill, accidental disconnection of another circuit, failure to return my phone call afterwords, and a rude email. They did later reduce my charge to 3.5 hours, and I managed to reconnect my other circuit myself. But the high price and bad taste remain.
Other, more professional, companies have lower minimums, and will not disappoint you with false phone estimates.
Following is the last email I have sent to them.
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Barry,
I sent off a check, and you should receive it Monday or Tuesday.
I always wanted to pay for the service rendered, but first wanted my phone call returned, some help with the landscape lighting your company seemingly accidentally disconnected, and an explanation of why hooking up a chandelier took two electricians 4.5 hours when I was promised it would almost certainly be done in less than 2 hours. At this point, I have given up on having my phone calls returned. I managed to reconnect the landscape lighting myself, so because of this and your deduction the difference is not worth disputing.
However, you can count me as one extremely dissatisfied customer, who reserves the right to inform others about my poor customer experience.
Let me tell you why.
1) I do not know what your people told you, but I made it very clear that there was no existing chandelier, other than a ceiling fixture 10 feet away that could be tapped for power. No one was «led to believe» (as you accuse) otherwise. According to my notes and my clear recollection, it was acknowledged that a hole would be drilled, and a supporting brace may need to be installed — all before the phone estimate was offered. And this was read back to me, also very clearly. In fact, I was told that, barring any extenuating circumstances, the job would «almost certainly» take less than two hours. In fact, I was encouraged to offer some other tasks so as not to waste the two-​hour minimum.
2) The trade-​off between my patching, and being billed $ 140/​hour, was alluded to on-​site, and I agreed to do any painting and patching myself. I can do that for free, and already had the materials to do so. Further, there was never any question of opening up the ceiling, no matter what course of action was taken.
3) Your employees left my landscape lighting disconnected, and you never even responded to this point.
4) You never returned my call which I believe I placed to your associate, a good humored call during which I was promised I would get a call back.
5) I never collected the registered mail because a) I was told I would get a call back shortly to clear everything up, b) I work long hours far from my post office, and it was therefore rather difficult to pick up the letter, and c) I was trying to avoid going down a litigious path. It would have been far easier for you to pick up the phone. So telling me that I did not «bother» to pick up the letter is a bit unfair.
6) I have seen the wiring in situ, and you have not. You never bothered to call me. Therefore, the only information you have about the job was your employees’ say so, which it seems I myself am disputing. It simply beggars belief that this job should have taken 4.5 hours, or 3.5 hours for that matter. Two hours for two men at $ 140/​hour for a total of $ 280, plus $ 30 for materials, would have been generous for this job. But at least at THAT price point I would not be so upset.
7) My earlier email was not rude or personally attacking, but simply laid out my dissatisfaction. A good businessperson should be thankful for customer feedback, positive or negative, and you should not respond «in kind» as if you were having a personal discussion.
All and all, I am very unhappy with the high cost of this job, and your company’s poor customer service and rudeness.
I do not need a reply at this point, and do not expect or even want one.
Dan

Courteous service. Fair and straight forward pricing. Diagnosed the problem and fixed it on the spot.
I would absolutely call them again.
Bravo to Unilocal

These guys are AWESOME!!!
I found these guys on Unilocal while searching for someone to help plan and install landscape lighting in our yard. I was impressed by their ratings and comments here on Unilocal and they definitely lived up to their rave reviews. Tom, Jake and Barry really are the cream of the crop. Very knowledgeable and gave us outstanding customer service to make sure that we were satisfied and happy from beginning to end.
I was especially impressed by their efforts to try and fix and use our existing equipment that we already had in place instead of telling us that we just need to start over and replace everything. I had received quotes from 3 other companies and they all wanted to take the easy route and just start from scratch telling us that we needed to purchase a new Transformer box, timer, etc…
Jake, who is one of their superstar electricians was our point person throughout the job and he is outstanding at his craft and very personable. He was able to utilize the existing equipment we already have and built us an amazing landscape lighting system around our yard. We couldn’t be happier!!!
Can’t say enough good things about these guys! Tom, Jake and Barry really are incredible and I highly recommend them!

Born and raised in Santa Monica, Tom Barker, runs a small crew that is thoughtful, hard working, and efficient. The work is of the upmost quality and the service is everything that you would hope for from a small family business. I highly recommend using Barker and son for any electrical work that you need done. I know that I will be using them exclusively in the future.

I found these guys on Unilocal and hired them to come install a motion sensor on the front door of the company I work for based on their good reviews here. I was not disappointed! From the gentleman to took my call to Alex, the electrician they sent, I couldn’t have been happier.
Everything in the store is white and we really wanted to avoid an eyesore and Alex did a fantastic job of hiding all the wiring for the unit. You can’t even tell that its there! We also had him install a new on/​off switch for a grinding machine we use to make shoe insoles. This is not a common machine but Alex had no problems with it and was able to install the switch without any difficulty.
I priced 5 other electricians in the area and found their hourly rates to be right in the middle of the other quotes I got, so I felt good getting such great service at a competitive price. These guys are awesome and I highly recommend them!

We have had Barker perform electrical work on our home numerous times over the past year. Jobs included adding all-​new wiring to support a tankless water heater, replacement of older wiring, adding service outlets, replacement of a ceiling fan and running in-​wall cabling to support wall-​mounted flat panel TV and stereo speakers. In every case, they provided a fair and accurate estimate in advance, showed up on time (and didn’t leave until the job was done), performed work of the highest quality and cleaned up after themselves. I especially appreciated their willingness to discuss details of the proposed job and consider alternatives that I had suggested, in several cases. This local, family-​owned business epitomizes professionalism. I am happy to recommend them without hesitation or qualification of any kind.

These guys are the ultimate in professional. We used them in our new home to install several lighting fixtures, repair outdoor lighting, and do some general electrical maintenance work. They’re fully licensed, seasoned, and trustworthy. I’d recommend them highly for any job and will certainly be calling them for any additional electrical work.

I used these guys for my company. Within 2 – 3 days, they had the department of water and power at my building. They had checked both inside and outside for an electrical issues and did it quickly and painlessly.
This may be the first time I’ve used an electrician because I rent instead of own, but these guys were great.

Professional, reliable, prompt. A client needed an electrical outlet installed into an odd place which had me doing some Unilocal research. I came across Barker & Son Electric. Barry returned my call in a very timely fashion. They are/​were very busy so we went back and forth a couple times to make sure my availability matched theirs, but they always called me when they said they would. I never had to pick up the phone to follow up on a «we’ll call ya back» retort. Tom and Barry were personable over the phone. Alex showed up to survey the potential outlet area; nice, knowledgeable (and cute!). At the end of the day, my client did not decide to have the outlet installed (too much work and effort for the end result) and they were fair with rate charges. For sure, I recommend.