Word of Mouth!

Last spring we had a power outage. After some investigation by the Electric Company, they announced that the main breaker of ours needed to be replaced. 

I called the guy that did the construction work and also had added outlets in the basement so we could plug in a freezer. 

He came out looked at the box and then said he'd get back to me. I texted him 3 weeks later and he said he'd get back to me. In July he came out with the Electric Company while we were gone. He'd told me he would do that. When we got back from Rich's appointments, I saw where they parked and left tracks.

And.

I never heard from the Electrician again.

The power stayed on after that so basically I let things drop and didn't think about it. Then when the plumber was out fixing the sink for me I asked him casually if he knew of any electricians I could call to fix my main breaker. The plumber wrote the name and number of a fellow called Dan on the back of an envelope and handed it to me. He told me that Dan didn't like new construction jobs, he was a Fix-It Guy.

With the sudden warm weather we started losing power intermittently again. So I called Dan the Fix-It Guy. I left a message and then figured like anything else, it would be days or he'd never call back.

Ten minutes later he called back and told me he'd be right out. He opened the box and showed me the issue. The box was 40+ years old and the frost heave had probably moved the wires just enough to cause an issue. He snapped the box shut and said he'd get the parts and fix it. It would take him a two or three days.

I was floored. Wait....what? Whut???
An electrician who in this day and age would/could actually do work? 

As it happened we had a week of rain, sleet, cold, winds, snow, and nasty weather. But our electric problems got worse. Half the house would go out, then come back. I ended up unplugging the Fire Stick as it would blink off and on and reset multiple times. I checked the breakers and nothing had tripped.

I was beside myself all weekend with worry. Monday morning I texted Dan the Fix-It Guy and told him about the odd electric behavior. Would it cause a fire?

I got an answer in 10 minutes. 

"I'll be out this morning after I make some calls and rearrange my schedule."

An hour later he was tearing things apart and working. He showed me the wires that had burnt on their ends and the thingy [I forget the technical name] that was melted. His comment was, well, it is 40ish years old, time to give it a face lift. He smiled and explained quietly what he was going to do.

I asked him if I would have a fire from all of this. He said most likely the fire would have been in the breaker box. 

I left him to it.

He checked on a few other things for me and was done in 2 hours.

He even took time to explain to Rich what he had done when Rich stepped out on the porch.

Dan works solo, he broke off from another company to be his own boss. He says he doesn't advertise but uses Word of Mouth. 

He was amazing and kind. Just like the plumber that had come out this winter.