- Nov 24, 2010
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- If you're a qualified, trainee, or retired electrician - Which country is it that your work will be / is / was aimed at?
- United Kingdom
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- Heavily Qualified Electrician / Teacher / Tutor - etc
So a few weeks back I get called out to a guy who's RCD won't set. He's just returned from holiday to find this so not much idea from him when the initial fault occured. To be honest, I was expecting to turn up and find that he needs a new kettle as this is in my experience almost always the culprit however, on this occasion I was not so lucky. I quickly worked out that it was one of his rings that was causing the problem and spent the best part of an hour IR testing and faffing about finding sockets with things still plugged in in the most obscure places. At this point I'm still no closer to finding the problem. After a while I was 100% sure nothing was still plugged in however I was still getting a reading of zero between L-E, L-N and N-E.
I had now turned my attention to a few suspect sockets but after disconnecting them, I was still nowhere close. I was really reluctant to split the ring early on as this place was a mish mash of sockets and spurs and would have probably ended up confusing me even further as I had no idea of the route. Also, the place was wired in metal conduit with that as the earth so I very much doubted a rodent problem.
Time is now getting on for two hours and I'm still scratching my head so I ask the customer what his thoughts are about me continuing the work as it wasn't my intention to rack him up a huge bill for what must have seemed to him like nothing. He was obviously a bit miffed but basically said to do what had to be done, to which I replied "I'd like to rip the whole circuit out and start again."
I then told the customer that even though it makes no business sense for me to say this but he could always call another electrician in for a second opinion before deciding on any major work like this. Maybe I'd missed something, who knows? Anyway, he seemed pleased that I wasn't just trying to rip him off and said that he'd do just that and would be in contact in a few days. He couldn't pay cash so I left an invoice and bank details for transfer for the two hour call out. After returning home I get a call from an electrician who is at the job I'd just been to. He asks me about what I'd done and found so far and then we left it there. After a couple of hours, he calls again to tell me he's none the wiser either and has arranged to go back the next morning to rip out a bit more and is happy for me to come with and just split the bill. I was happy with this and so arranged to meet him before hand and then make our way there the next morning. He told me that for now he'd put the circuit on a non RCD protected MCB as a temporary measure but even that had tripped (no suprise there) and I casually asked whether he got paid ok as I was a bit sceptical about the customer saying he didn't have any cash on him even after popping to the bank whilst I was there, he said he had, which confused me a little but hey ho.
Next morning, I'm up and ready to go but he never shows up, won't answer his phone and after about an hour of trying to get hold of this chap with no success I decide to ring the customer to see if he turned up there but he hadn't??? The customer says that he's gonna have a little think about how to proceed and will get back to me in a day or two.
Now until last week I hadn't heard a thing and naturally assumed he'd found someone else but then I got an email from the customer asking if I had any contact details for the guy who turned up after me. I replied giving him the only phone number I had and was then shocked to find out that the so called electrician hadn't been paid cash afterall. It turns out that the customer had been asked to write a blank cheque as he was going to be away for a few days, which he did?!? And that it had now been cashed (no idea how much), the bank was involved and so were the police! I have not heard from either of them since however I have been paid.
This whole episode has really confused me, especially the way I feel so guilty for no apparent reason. Also, this other guy seems to have vanished off the map, not even a google search of his business yeilds any results whatsoever. Even though I know full well that I had nothing to do with this guy the customer had found after me, I can't help feeling like I played a part in this customers horrible experience. Is this normal???
I guess in the end this is just a random story about something that has really baffled me over the past few weeks but I can't help wondering whether anyone else has ever experienced anything even remotely similar?
I had now turned my attention to a few suspect sockets but after disconnecting them, I was still nowhere close. I was really reluctant to split the ring early on as this place was a mish mash of sockets and spurs and would have probably ended up confusing me even further as I had no idea of the route. Also, the place was wired in metal conduit with that as the earth so I very much doubted a rodent problem.
Time is now getting on for two hours and I'm still scratching my head so I ask the customer what his thoughts are about me continuing the work as it wasn't my intention to rack him up a huge bill for what must have seemed to him like nothing. He was obviously a bit miffed but basically said to do what had to be done, to which I replied "I'd like to rip the whole circuit out and start again."
I then told the customer that even though it makes no business sense for me to say this but he could always call another electrician in for a second opinion before deciding on any major work like this. Maybe I'd missed something, who knows? Anyway, he seemed pleased that I wasn't just trying to rip him off and said that he'd do just that and would be in contact in a few days. He couldn't pay cash so I left an invoice and bank details for transfer for the two hour call out. After returning home I get a call from an electrician who is at the job I'd just been to. He asks me about what I'd done and found so far and then we left it there. After a couple of hours, he calls again to tell me he's none the wiser either and has arranged to go back the next morning to rip out a bit more and is happy for me to come with and just split the bill. I was happy with this and so arranged to meet him before hand and then make our way there the next morning. He told me that for now he'd put the circuit on a non RCD protected MCB as a temporary measure but even that had tripped (no suprise there) and I casually asked whether he got paid ok as I was a bit sceptical about the customer saying he didn't have any cash on him even after popping to the bank whilst I was there, he said he had, which confused me a little but hey ho.
Next morning, I'm up and ready to go but he never shows up, won't answer his phone and after about an hour of trying to get hold of this chap with no success I decide to ring the customer to see if he turned up there but he hadn't??? The customer says that he's gonna have a little think about how to proceed and will get back to me in a day or two.
Now until last week I hadn't heard a thing and naturally assumed he'd found someone else but then I got an email from the customer asking if I had any contact details for the guy who turned up after me. I replied giving him the only phone number I had and was then shocked to find out that the so called electrician hadn't been paid cash afterall. It turns out that the customer had been asked to write a blank cheque as he was going to be away for a few days, which he did?!? And that it had now been cashed (no idea how much), the bank was involved and so were the police! I have not heard from either of them since however I have been paid.
This whole episode has really confused me, especially the way I feel so guilty for no apparent reason. Also, this other guy seems to have vanished off the map, not even a google search of his business yeilds any results whatsoever. Even though I know full well that I had nothing to do with this guy the customer had found after me, I can't help feeling like I played a part in this customers horrible experience. Is this normal???
I guess in the end this is just a random story about something that has really baffled me over the past few weeks but I can't help wondering whether anyone else has ever experienced anything even remotely similar?
