Customers from hell.

[pritch]

I wired an extension for some very posh customers recently.I put the first fix in which included loads of spots throughout the house.I left all the cables for the spots above the plaster board ceiling and made a drawing telling me where to drill my holes. After i finnised i took less than half for the job leaving me with most of the money for the second fix. I brought all of the spots and sockets ready for 2nd fix then i got a call telling me they have found another electrician who will 2nd fix it for a cheaper price(not surprising because still money on from 1st fix).I told them this is very unfair because i still have money left in the job and I bought the 2nd fix gear,"oh well" they said
Dont know if any one's spotted it yet but I held the trump card. I had all the positions for the spot lights on a drawing and it would be impossible for them to find the cables because there was no access above the ceiling upstairs and would mean getting up the new laid floor for downstairs spots.
After a few days the customer called me up and asked me for the drawings and that they were his property,I told him to get his new sparky to find the cables. After about a week I recieved a complaint from the customer via the NICEIC and in the end I had to send him the drawings back. You live and learn I guess.

 

[malcolmsanford]

Hope you did another drawing for him ...................one that may not have been so accurate!!

 

[BigBreakfast]

And what about tests? Why are the nic not taking your side on this with regard to tester doing the whole install or being there at key stages to see work? Is this new spark going to do an eic for this install?

I know they are there to mediate but we are paying them to assist us too!

Sorry you lost out on this one.

 

[Dayo]

you should have made them pay for the drawings. you could have said the time wasnt paid for when you did them, sure they would have paid up. dont worry about the NICEIC i am a member and they would have been backing you. i would have said i shredded them when the job was given to another electrician, what could they have said or done. you had the upper hand and let them win, customers like that make me mad, anyway lesson learnt i guess allways be happy to walk away if they get another to finish job you have started. what about cert was it a notifiable job you could drop them in it with building control????????

 

[i=p/u]

i wouldnt of sent them... and contract would of been good with price agreed

 

[SMB]

Humans.

We have been bi-pedal for about 3 million years.

This type of tale disgusts me.

Humans.

I think we are getting worse.






Money has only been used in Britain for around 2000 years.

Look at the state of it.

Awful.









ive got a pig if youve got a goat.

 

[tonys]

You didn't have to send him any drawings.

 

[Phil]

i would have sent the drawings in as a good gesture. after all its only a few hours and your money.

oh forgot to ad hell would have had to have frozen over first!

not a chance they would have gotten any drawings off me without payment for goods or my time.

 

[DurhamSparky]

i would have destroyed them and went round and removed MY equiptment if had not been paid!

 

[Octopus]

So the 2nd sparky is going to sign off for the job? How does he know that the 1st sparky has done a correct job with the cables he can't see.

Madness on the part of the customer. You're probably better off without this customer.

 

[durhamspark]

No way would they have got my drawings, unless they paid up for them which would have covered what I had lost. Very surprised at the nic stance as this customer has no right to your design information if they are getting someone ele to finish the job off.

 

[millwall ken]

Humans.

We have been bi-pedal for about 3 million years.

This type of tale disgusts me.

Humans.

I think we are getting worse.






Money has only been used in Britain for around 2000 years.

Look at the state of it.

Awful.









ive got a pig if youve got a goat.

SMB, I'm getting really worried about you!!!! Were you a Space Cadet in a previous life mate? LOL

 

[saveloy]

Can't make my mind up as to who I would have told to foxtrot oscar first- the NIC or the customer.

 

[Guest123]

Thats outrageous to be fair.......I wouldn't have given them anything!

 

[mogga]

You took your TIME to draw up plans and your time is valuable NICEIC should be more interested in the fact that another spark is finishing your notifiable work they could SWING for the drawings if it were me

 

[telectrix]

i'd have eaten them before letting them have them

 

[Adam W]

I would have said I'd lost them/destroyed them/thought the new sparky was going to do his own drawings/they might have been in the box with all the other stuff I bought for the job which went back to the wholesalers etc.

If the doodie hit the fan I'd have sent them back after postage was paid for, within 28 days so it holds the job up a bit, if only out of sour grapes - screw me over and I'll screw you over, that kind of thing.
I'd have told the NIC the same - I'll find them but tbh it's not my number 1 priority.

 

[gpz900jim]

that is awful, but you should have said the drawings were thrown away. Shame on the other electrician for taking your job off you too.

 

[millwall ken]

that is awful, but you should have said the drawings were thrown away. Shame on the other electrician for taking your job off you too.

Yer, like he'd give a **** about nicking work.

 

[Marvo]

I would have refused saying that I'm not a qualified draftsman and therefore not covered under my liability insurance to supply any third party with any types of drawings or sketches....end of story.

People in general just **** me off more and more the older I get.

 

[millwall ken]

I would have refused saying that I'm not a qualified draftsman and therefore not covered under my liability insurance to supply any third party with any types of drawings or sketches....end of story.

People in general just pi$$ me off more and more the older I get.

Well worth remembering this little tip, top one mate.

 

[Adam W]

I would have refused saying that I'm not a qualified draftsman and therefore not covered under my liability insurance to supply any third party with any types of drawings or sketches....end of story.

People in general just pi$$ me off more and more the older I get.

Ditto.
Don't even get me started on supermarkets....

 

[hopkins85]

This post just made me feel very angry.

People seem to take the **** out of this trade.

"Drawings what drawings. Oh yeah I left them on site"

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

 

[Marvo]

This post just made me feel very angry.

People seem to take the wee wee out of this trade.

"Drawings what drawings. Oh yeah I left them on site"

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

I didn't realise you could slip the urine word past the bad language filter. There's me using dollar signs 'urine' and there was no need, I could have just used the proper p word.

 

[DurhamSparky]

the urine word works does it lets try it!! urine... woooo wooo!!

expecting an almighty rath from lenny soon lol

 

[SMB]

People in general just **** me off more and more the older I get.

Humans...

 

[Marvo]

the **** word works does it lets try it!!... woooo wooo!!

expecting an almighty rath from lenny soon lol

Sorry Lenny.

 

[millwall ken]

the **** word works does it lets try it!! ****... woooo wooo!!

expecting an almighty rath from lenny soon lol

Sorry Moderators, there may well be over 250,000 words in the dictionary, BUT sometimes a posting just requires a simple anglo-saxon expletive to express displeasure.

 

[Adam W]

I didn't realise you could slip the urine word past the bad language filter. There's me using dollar signs 'urine' and there was no need, I could have just used the proper p word.

You missed one

 

[SMB]

giggle

sorry phil, laughter is the spice of life though.

 

[DurhamSparky]

oh well fun over!! the amount of posts edited by phil and lenny says some thing!

 

[SMB]

I really did laugh for a bit there...

Ha!

 

[tonys]

i got a call telling me they have found another electrician who will 2nd fix it for a cheaper price, You live and learn I guess.

Was it that cowboy with the smokey old transit lol

 

[SMB]

Van-ism

 

[millwall ken]

oh well fun over!! the amount of posts edited by phil and lenny says some thing!

1984... Me thinks, God bless 'em, they seem top blokes but even the lowest member of the Stasi/Gestapo started off censoring post in the mail room. Don't take offence fellas, NOT aimed at you as individuals BUT at censorship in general.

 

[SMB]

Moderator-ism

 

[pushrod]

What an appalling advert for niceic. That they should make a decision without even contacting their member for their side of the story. Surely the job was a single contract and the OP was just taking part payment on the total. Absolutely disgraceful imo and i would have gone back to the nic and told them the facts [and if they were still being useless i would have politely said that unfortunately the drawings had been lost when being put off the job!]

I would think OP needs to tighten up on his terms and conditions, unfortunately you only realize this when you encounter such scummy people. Hopefully other members can look at their T&Cs and try to ensure that the same thing can not happen to them in the future and then at least some good will have come of this.

At least this forum gives a chance for its members to learn from disgraceful episodes like this.

 

[Adam W]

It's certainly an eye-opener but not something I would normally expect.
At the risk of sounding unprofessional it sounds like the customer deserves a nightmare experiance with the new sparky which will hopefully teach them it would have been easier (and probably ultimately cheaper) to have the same electrician do the whole job instead of chopping and changing for the sake of saving a few quid.
I know from experiance that going in to finish off someone else's job can be a right PITA and may take half a day or so just to figure out what has already been done.

You can only imagine the reasons the customer gave the new sparky for having to come in partway through and what was said about the OP.

 

[Mr.Si]

Sorry to hear of the problem customer and the NICEIC's response too.

It's for reasons like this and the un-reasonable overbearing of the organisation that I'm NEVER going to join them when I do.

All I've heard is bad things about the organisation - they're only on the customer's side and don't care about the electricians who are members of their organisation.

Maybe that's a gross exaggeration, but it's the view I'm taking.

Also, regarding customers like that, is it always the rich / posh that are the tightest when it comes to money?

 

[Knobhead]

I’ve always been industrial not domesticated in any way shape or form.
On this occasion my feelings are screw him for what you can get!
I’ve lost A0 drawing when I didn’t want them found!