R
rocker
I don't know if any of you remember a while ago I was going off on one about some contractor on a rewire taking ages with stuff so I couldn't get on with 2nd fix, taking a hefty cut of the money the customer was paying (like 20%, after beating me down on price), always telling me to move things, extras which he said he ordered when he knew full well he didnt etc.....
Anyway he rings me yesterday. 'The lights keep tripping'. 'OK' I say, astonished that this place still wasn't finished (the woman was meant to move in about july 20th), grab my tester and go over there. When I get there the contractor, as usual, is nowhere to be seen, but the labourer informs me that after he rang me, he rang the boiler plumbers to see if they have noticed anything odd happening. 'Um, yea, well what happened is when we were plumbing the boiler in, a load of water went into the electric box thingy'!
They didn't have the prescence of mind to leave a note or anything (because we have already determined they are a theiving, lying, laurel and hardy double act who put pipes out the side of knock-out box holes so the pipe is resting against the side of the box [no I'm not joking, and yes guess who had to move their first fix. Muggins, that's who] and stand on downlighters and don't tell anyone what they've done) they just left it like that. And the contractor didn't have the prescence of mind to call me, so it was lucky I saw the labourer before I started chasing a non-existant fault (even removing all the bulbs and halogens in that place would have taken me a good 30 mins).
So I pull the N and L out of the lighting RCBO, try turning it on (with a screwdriver, I might add) and it's still tripping. Tripping and dripping. The thing was soaked, as was the main isolator, right next to it. I pull the RCBO, dry it up and dry the isolator the best I can, but the RCBO is knackered, so I get another from the van, pop it in and it works fine.
When the contractor turns up, I say 'your plumber owes me twenty quid, and I should be charging call-out as well' and everyone just laughs. Now I've got on well with the team on that project, they're a good laugh even if they couldn't organise a calendar in a date factory, but I think I may have been better being unfriendly because this is the response every time there's been something above-and-beyond that I've had to do. 'Oh, don't be so silly' doing multiple little jobs that I would charge anyone else 30 quid each to do.....
So am I being over sensitive or greedy about this? I don't see why, after the job's been finished for weeks, I should go and replace parts damaged my some pipe moron free of charge. If I'd have gone through one of their pipes I'm sure the shoe would have been on the other foot, I can tell you.
Anyway he rings me yesterday. 'The lights keep tripping'. 'OK' I say, astonished that this place still wasn't finished (the woman was meant to move in about july 20th), grab my tester and go over there. When I get there the contractor, as usual, is nowhere to be seen, but the labourer informs me that after he rang me, he rang the boiler plumbers to see if they have noticed anything odd happening. 'Um, yea, well what happened is when we were plumbing the boiler in, a load of water went into the electric box thingy'!
They didn't have the prescence of mind to leave a note or anything (because we have already determined they are a theiving, lying, laurel and hardy double act who put pipes out the side of knock-out box holes so the pipe is resting against the side of the box [no I'm not joking, and yes guess who had to move their first fix. Muggins, that's who] and stand on downlighters and don't tell anyone what they've done) they just left it like that. And the contractor didn't have the prescence of mind to call me, so it was lucky I saw the labourer before I started chasing a non-existant fault (even removing all the bulbs and halogens in that place would have taken me a good 30 mins).
So I pull the N and L out of the lighting RCBO, try turning it on (with a screwdriver, I might add) and it's still tripping. Tripping and dripping. The thing was soaked, as was the main isolator, right next to it. I pull the RCBO, dry it up and dry the isolator the best I can, but the RCBO is knackered, so I get another from the van, pop it in and it works fine.
When the contractor turns up, I say 'your plumber owes me twenty quid, and I should be charging call-out as well' and everyone just laughs. Now I've got on well with the team on that project, they're a good laugh even if they couldn't organise a calendar in a date factory, but I think I may have been better being unfriendly because this is the response every time there's been something above-and-beyond that I've had to do. 'Oh, don't be so silly' doing multiple little jobs that I would charge anyone else 30 quid each to do.....
So am I being over sensitive or greedy about this? I don't see why, after the job's been finished for weeks, I should go and replace parts damaged my some pipe moron free of charge. If I'd have gone through one of their pipes I'm sure the shoe would have been on the other foot, I can tell you.
