Mark Twain wrote:
I understand all that and I've lived here
going on 14 years and I've never been shocked
and grew up in 2 prong houses and never was
shocked although I think it's kinda of weird
to have both 2 and 3 prong outlets in the same
home.

It still doesn't answer the question of whether
I should cancel the electrician. I tried calling
him several times to let him know he's dealing
with 2 and 3 prong outlets and that alone should
tell him what we've been discussing that there's
no ground and no way way he can turn a 2 prong
into a 3 prong.

Interesting you've never seen an electrician test
for grounding so how is this guy going to check?
He's charging $350.00 to replace (16) outlets.

Is this a waste of time? As you pointed out if
there was a ground on the 2 prong outlets then
why dind't they make them 3 prong? It doesn't
make sense to have 2 and 3 prong outlets in the
same home.

Again, I checked with the testor and screwed down
adapter they came out OK. I understand the difference
but I'm just saying from my side and from what you've
told me about being grandfathered in they appear to
work correctly.

I'm not understanding what the electrician is going
to be able to do since he can't make all the outlets
3 prong.

What do you think?

Robert

I don't know how those three-prong got there, like maybe
a previous resident put them there ?

Most trades I know of, want to size up the job first
and give a proper estimate. The guy can't charge you
just $350 if he has to pull wire for the whole works.

I can't even tell a roofer how big the roof is - they
have to come out and measure it with their tape measure,
then give an estimate.

How does the guy propose to run a business, by running
about with only phone estimates ? You as the customer
will have no cost control, and the "final bill" will
be something entirely different than this phone estimate
you got. Estimates in writing are preferred. And for
businesses in the same town, the estimates may be
done for free.

If there is a BBB listing in your area, you can
check that too for red flags (guy has bad rating).

You know you're dealing with scum, when they start
asking for money up front, before the job begins.
Eventually, those trades or "contractors" get written
up in the newspaper, after they've defrauded a few people.
We have a lot of trouble around here, with "snow removal"
firms that mysteriously "go out of business" while
holding customer pre-payments. And they're "oh-so-sorry"
they couldn't make the payments on their snow blowers
or whatever. When it looks like they had no intention
of doing anything.

Paul