Don't you like when customers blame you for something

[BluSparx]

Upgraded a CU on the 8th November, no fault testing fine before energised and all working correctly until........tonight.

Get a call at 12:30am (I do offer 24hour emergency callout). "Hi, my electric has tripped and I cannot reset it. I have friends around and they have said it has got to be something to do with the new fusebox".

My first question - "Before I come out what was switched on just before the electric tripped".

"Nothing" came the reply. - "Ok, if I come out and the fault is deemed not to be the board there will be my standard callout charge".

....Arrive at the property - torch in hand expecting all to be dark, however lights are on - I installed on RCBO rather than on the RCD's. My thoughts now are definatly what I presumed - an appliance.

RCD Has tripped, identify the kitchen sockets are causing it - Leave them off goes into kitchen and low and behold around the base of the kettle is wet. Unplug the kettle switch electric's back on and as if by magic all is working (apart from the kettle).

First question customer asks "So will I be charged as it is has only been installed for a couple of weeks"

My Answer - "Yes of course, as I explained if it was nothing to do with the board and was something else you would be charged my standard callout fee, however we both now know in the event of a fault your RCD is working.

Anybody had any other experiences

 

[Phil]

where do i start?
"that board you put in is ****e" why i ask? "cos that stupid rc whatever thing trips and it was fine before you fitted it" turned out to be a faulty toaster that could have made them toast. no thanks or ohh i am so glad it worked. just a "well it never bothered the other fuses"

 

[Phil]

ohh and there was the one that refused to pay the last part of the money on completion of a rewire because the outside light did not work after we re wired the house. that one turned out to be the lamp

then i go to loook at some inset lights that have stopped working, 25 or so in the lounge. 6 had stopped working. turned out after testing and a couple of boards up a little rodent had had a nibble on the wires. the hubby would not believe it. "our house is a detached and we are too clean to get mice" ???? my reply was well buckingham palace is not exactly a frigging terraced is it? and i would have said the queen is maybe a little more house proud than you.

 

[Phil]

ohh i so much prefer commercial

 

[accordfire]

Commercial here too!

Much more civilised!

 

[Hawk81]

industrial for me even better than comercial.

 

[Festerfly]

did a board back in july, got a call from the customer last week complaining that she had no power and i had better do something about it as all the breakers were switched to on.. it must be the board she told me.. insisting i attend the property immediately.. had just finished another job local and to keep the peace headed over.. get there.. POWER CUT! thought so.....

Sheepish madam????

 

[Deleted member 9648]

Installed some lighting years ago in a kitchen and got a call from the customer saying fuse kept blowing...he had friends round and was not happy.
When I got there he was abusive,showing off in front of the friends,talk of trading standards,cowboys etc.
First thing I noticed was the new picture hanging on the wall,right above the switch!....."that a new picture?" I enquired...."yes put it up this morning" he replied "Why?"...............didnt take long to double check my suspicion with the meter and suddenly he wasnt quite so cokky in front of the friends..........."Will I be charged for this"?....."Well I doubt you work for nothing,and I expect an apology as well" I told him.......He turned cokky again,so in the van and away,his problem.....dont need customers like that anyway.

 

[mogga]

Problem with commercial is the "I know a bit" guy who insists that its XYZ at fault and has been turning breaker on n off like the switch on his Mrs Rabbit
or the resteraunt/pub/cafe where Jimmy said it is the XYZ n shouldnt take 5 mins to sort "Why didnt Jimmy do it then?????"

 

[rocker]

Did a board change, and before I did it I gave them the usual info about how their current rewirables won't pick up faults on appliances, and once the RCD is in some faults may come to light etc etc. They agreed as they always do, and I saw the words going in one ear and coming out of the other as I always do.

Board change. All holding. Testing fine. Lovely jubly.

2 days later.... 'It keeps tripping' 'is there anything you are doing when it's tripping?' 'No it's just random' 'OK well do us a favour and unplug everything, I'll be over now'. So I go out there.

Testing comes back fine... are you sure it doesn't happen when you do anything? 'No, well, it did first happen when we used the dishwasher'. Oh okay, I've just spent 45 minutes testing for no reason but never mind...... let's have a look at the dishwasher.

First thing I notice is it's nothing like level... the kitchen's been tiled with thick tiles up to just under the front of the appliance, but the rear hasn't been tiled so it's leaning backwards. I pull it out and notice that where the water jets down into a little drawer thing, where it's not level it's all dripping down the back.... the drip drips onto the cowling, which runs down inside and, yes, you guessed it, right onto the incoming connection terminals. So this is dripping once every hour or so and tripping the RCD. Fine, I explain the situation, no charge but explain that this sort of thing will happen, and that he needs to level out the floor before using the appliance again. 'OK thanks Rocker, sorry for wasting your time. I do have another job for you, can you put a few more sockets in a few places?' No problem.... set a date, do the job, bish bash bosh.

Next day, the phone's ringing. 'The RCD is tripping after you put those sockets in' So I'm there within the hour. What's happening? 'it's just tripping randomly, it's been doing it all through the night, about every hour and a half' Well this sounds familiar. Have you leveled out that floor? 'No but I havent used the dishwasher'. Ok, tested the wiring again, all fine, apparently the boiler man has been round so I do a little pat test on the boiler and various other appliances, all fine.

'So you're sure the dishwasher isn't plugged in?'
'Oh it's plugged in but I haven't turned it on so it can't be that'
'it's your dishwasher'
'it can't be'
'it's the dishwasher'
'it can't be'
'OK well do you want me to do a proper PAT test on the dishwasher to make sure it's safe? No charge.'
'Oh yes please'
'But you realise if it's not safe I need to make sure it can't be used. I won't charge you, though'
'Oh yes that sounds good, thanks Rocker'.
Test, big red sticker, snips out and four foot of flex and a moulded plug to in Rocker's toolbox. He hasn't had a fault since.

 

[Festerfly]

Rocker - love that last little bit about the snips. Made me chuckle.

 

[UNG]

Chased a builder for payment on a commercial job years ago to be told that payment was being withheld because the new wiring and CU I had installed has caused a major fault on the irrigation system on the adjacent garden centre that was on the same supply and the garden centre were claiming for the repair costs as the engineer had said it was our fault

I politely pointed out that as this occured some two months ago and this was the first I had heard of this and that no claim would be entertained as we were not given the opportunity to view the failed components or appoint an independant engineer to investigate this at the time, the cheque arrived the following morning and nothing more was heard from the garden centre in fact it closed down not long after

While you get fewer complaints with industrial and commercial work it's not totally moan free