As a (local) lighting designer I have seen my fair share of good and bad electricians. I have not used Phillip from BES although given the generally great feedback I would in the future. I have recommended Merlin Electrical and Richard Bell Electrical to my clients who have been very happy with their work however the jobs tend to be whole/part house rewiring. Both are NICEIC approved with many years experience.

I recently arranged for Philip from Balham Electrical Services to check an electrical problem ay my flat in Balham and couldn't recommend his services highly enough. It turned out that due a previous shoddy kitchen installation I needed some major rewiring. But Philip was efficient at fixing the problem, working around my work schedule to complete the job as quickly as he could with minimum inconvenience. He also was very fair on the pricing - I'm sure I was charged much less than most electricians would have. He's also honest and a nice guy. Highly recommended

Agree with Calaya

I've also used Philip and have recommended him many times over. He's polite, efficient and goes the extra mile.

I have been using Philip for years and is an amazing electrician who is always happy to help. I have recommended him to several of my friends who have all been really happy. I guess you cannot please everyone but we should be careful and mindful of the words we use when we review local businesses as it can really affect their trading.
I will definitely keep using Philip in the future

I used BES last week to change some lights in my house. The work was carried out well and the electrician kindly worked an extra 45 minutes to finish the job without charging me (although the total cost of the work was over £400 by this point). The problem then started for me. The electrician wanted immediate payment which I was unable to provide as I did not have that much cash on me/ or access to that much cash (its £250 a day on my card). I won't bore you with the details here, but in summary I forgot to make the transfer that afternoon/ evening as I said I would (my bad) and as a result I received a number of texts/ phone calls chasing payment, the tone of which I found unacceptable (being called a liar for example). My personal preference when getting work done on my house is to be sent an invoice and be trusted to pay within a reasonable time frame. My feedback here is be prepared to pay immediately or you will be chased and ranted at via text. If you book BES be prepared that these are the terms. Please feel free to PM me for more detail.

Balham Electrical Services Limited is run with Honesty and Integrity, we carry out 20 plus jobs a week and have Hundreds of Happy and satisfied customers every year with the excellent service we provide. we carry out a lot of reactive work and fault finding and often work in properties whose Electrical Installations are 40 plus years old and have had extensions, new kitchen, basements and loft conversions added to the original structure and alterations and additions to the original Electrical Installation, so it is inevitable in our line of work that you will occasionally get a customer who is not happy with our service.
The job in question was a one bedroom flat which and been converted to a 2 bedroom maisonette with new kitchen and other additions and alterations to the original Electrical supply which was over 40 years old. We installed a New consumer unit. The work was Tested and Certified an Electrical Certificate was issued for the work, Building Control were Notified of the works and a Completion Certificate was issued from Building Control. The work was carried out by Myself and another Electrician who have over 30 years experience in the trade between us and was carried out to BS 7671 IEE Wiring Regulations .
We received a phone call from the husband shouting and swearing down the phone telling us his Tenants had no power and we were to get over there immediately sort out the problem and that he would not be paying us for any work which was required.
If your car broke down and a new engine was installed and the car then broke down a few weeks later and needed a new gear box, the Garage would not fit a new gear box for free because they had fitted a new engine a few weeks previously.
The problem was a RCD which had tripped, the clients had been instructed that the new system had RCDs which pick up any earth Leakage and how to trouble shoot and identify a problem with an Earth Fault.
We did a job for a High Court Judge a few weeks ago on Nightingale Lane who had a local Electrical firm out to sort a problem with an RCD tripping and charged nearly £1000. We were called by the customer because after paying this firm nearly £1000 they still had not sorted out the problem. we were recommended to him by a friend and after the previous massive bill he did not want to use the other company again. We went in and sorted the issue out for the gentleman in a call out for £79 ! ! We had a job a few months ago where a an RCD was tripping, a local Electrical firm had come out charged over £1000 to investigate the problem and then told them £3000 worth of work was needed to sort the problem out. We were recommended to them by a friend and went in tested and identified and fixed the issue in a call out for £79 ! ! We went to a job in Tooting on Saturday where the Electrics to an office at the bottom of somebodies garden was tripping. Another local Electrical firm had been out for 4 hours on the Friday and not managed to sort the problem instructing them a new supply cable to the office was needed. Once again we were recommended by a friend and went in and identified and corrected the issue in an hour and a half.
We were more than happy to go and get to the bottom of the problem at the property in question, but were not prepared to go and agree to do what ever was necessary for free especially when we had received an abusive phone call from the husband. The installation was tested after the work was completed and I can say with certainty that if we had been allowed to go and address the problem the couple in question would have £900 more in their pocket ! I find it unbelievable that the lady in question makes unfounded accusations about our work and yet at no point questions the fact that another firm charged her nearly £1000 to sort out a problem ! ! Rather than making unsubstantiated accusations against our Company, I think she should be looking at a £1000 bill from another company to come and sort a problem out, something that seems to have gone completely over her head ! !
This work was carried out in June and yet the post is made at the end of November. The post is also not posted independently, but the lady has gone through the history of this site and attached her post to a complaint made by Gruffalos dad nearly 2 years ago ! Trying to create the impression of repeated complaints against my company.
We fitted a new Consumer unit recently and received a call a few weeks later that the RCD had tripped and would not reset. We went out and the problem was the boiler. The lady in question was a lovely Lady and I would not take any payment even though she was insisted as she was so pleased how quickly we got to her and identified the problem, but I insisted she called it a gesture of goodwill. If I had not received an aggressive phone call and been shouted and sworn at down the phone, I may have well wavered the charge on that call and perhaps the lady in questions husband should learn if you want someones help that shouting and swearing at them down the phone insisting the Electrics were fine till we had gone in and that we get out there straight away and he wouldn't be paying us for what ever needed to be done is not the best way to go about getting somebody's help !

I would not recommend Philip from BES for any electrical work. After using him for a small job which went fine, we then employed his services for a much larger piece of work (costing in the region of £1000). A couple of weeks after the work had been carried out we lost all electricity in the home and when we called and ask that he come and look in to the issue, he informed us that he would be charging us to come out and for any additional work required to fix the problem!!

We had never lost any power in the house prior to this, so can be reasonably confident that the issue was a result of the unprofessional work he carried out. It therefore seemed completely unreasonable that he wouldn't even come to look at the issue without charging us more money and as we needed swift attention due to the complete lack of power in the home, we used an alternative company to fix the issue which cost a further £1000.

I saw this thread and thought I'd recommend Geoff who I found through this site. Over the years I have used a number of electricians (some of whom I found through this site) but Geoff was thorough, courteous and did a great job. I understand he also does other general building jobs but works independently. We were really pleased with his work. His number is 07951 125 040.

Hi, I'd be interested in finding out who you used in the end if you can recommend them? Thanks

Hi Gruffalo's Dad,
Would you be able to tell me who ended up doing your electrical work in the end? Philip from BES has been doing some work for us but what was a simple job turned into a long and complicated one (not his fault, just a bad installation) and he is unfortunately unable to complete it as he has been unwell.

We basically need someone reliable, professional and tidy to finish fitting some downlights and then investigate some faults which have been uncovered with our electrical installation. It may not be simple so we need someone with plenty of experience and who will stick with us to investigate and resolve the issue, for a reasonable price! If anyone else can recommend someone who fits this profile, I would love to hear from you!

Thanks very much

In reply to the above post from Balham Electrical/Philip:

- My wife has never posted anything on this forum as far as I am aware. I have never previously posted anything about Balham Electrical on this forum.

- Philip did not choose to stop working for us. We chose not to have him continue doing the work because we were not happy with the delivery. It was stop-start, no commitment to specific times, arriving then leaving again immediately. As I said in my earlier post, he did not seem interested in doing the work so I have no idea why he agreed to do it in the first place. Foolishly, because of recommendations here, we took him on to do work by the hour, which I would never do again with any tradesman.

- We got an alternative electrician (through a recommendation on this site) with whom we were very happy.

I was told by a customer today that there had been some negative feedback on this site. The comments by Gruffalo Dad, have already been posted by his wife some time ago and while I was not happy, I choose to ignore the comments. However now that a seperate post has been done by the same couple I feel I need to respond as they have choosen to make comments on a public forum. We did do some work for this couple, but were not happy working on the site and if the gentlemen in question would like to speak to me personally I will tell him exactly why. His wife made some negative comments a few months ago, but as I said although I was not happy and there was a very good reason why after starting the work we were not happy to continue I decided in that instance not to respond. However now after the husband and wife posting on this site as if these were two seperate jobs I feel I now need to respond. Both posts make speculative comments about a Business they know nothing about and there comments could not be further from the truth. We were not Happy working on the site for very good reasons and made our excuses and left. For both to post as if seperate jobs and make comments on how our company works when they have absolutely no idea is completely unacceptable. We have thousands of happy customers and it is sad that one couple can post reviews which questions our integrity. I will state now that Balham Electrical Services Limited is run with Honesty and Integrity with the customer at the forefront of our decesion making.
I would like to respond to the lady who says she was charged an hours call out for 15 minutes work. ALL Electrical firms in this area charge a minimum of an Hour call out.Our charges and the minimum call out is made clear when booking. How can anybody complain they were charged a call out when this is made clear and every firm has a minimum call out charge ! Our charges are not far off half what most of the other firms in the area charge. We offer the Nappy Valley Community a 10% Discount so there would have been a £62 call out. Like I have said that is not far off half what she would have been charged if calling out any other Electrical firm. I would also Like to stress that we work with Honesty and Integrity and tell it exactly how it is. After working in the Industry for many years and working for several Emergency Call out firms and seeing what other local firms have done on jobs we have been called to. I would argue that the Lady is very Lucky we came out and sorted the problem in just 15 minutes as there are a lot of firms out there that would have made the job a lot bigger than it was and she would have had a 3 hour labour bill and several hundreds pounds to pay. I hope in the future if anybody has an issue that they can ring and speak to us so it can be resolve rather than making what are bitchy comments on a public forum, Thank you . Kind Regards. Philip ( Director )

We used Philip too, very nice chap however we were charged a full hour's rate for 15 mins work which i found rather steep, so I don't think we'll be using him again.

french-tutor-clapham wrote:What a refreshing change to have bright, friendly, and adaptable tradesmen! Philip came round the same day and sorted all our issues out. On his own admission he is not a 'clock-watcher' so won't dawdle at the 55 minute mark meaning the job goes over into the second hour - a lot of other tradesmen would then happily charge for a second hour call-out fee. He also tells it how it is, and happily gave us advice on a tricky issue which in the end we decided not to go ahead with, as the upheaval would have far outweighed the benefits.

I want to say that we had an extremely poor experience with Philip. I have no doubt that other people have good experiences with one off pieces of work, but our perception was that he is interested in one of pieces of work for a couple of hours that he can charge a good rate on rather than anything more substantial. We wish he had been upfront with us at the outset and told us that he wasn't interested in the work.

I gave Philip a call on the strength of what I had read above and I was very glad I did.

What a refreshing change to have bright, friendly, and adaptable tradesmen! Philip came round the same day and sorted all our issues out. On his own admission he is not a 'clock-watcher' so won't dawdle at the 55 minute mark meaning the job goes over into the second hour - a lot of other tradesmen would then happily charge for a second hour call-out fee. He also tells it how it is, and happily gave us advice on a tricky issue which in the end we decided not to go ahead with, as the upheaval would have far outweighed the benefits.

A great local service, definitely in the house phone book and I would happily recommend him. Thanks for a job well done Philip!

Sarah.