Ever get the feeling customers think your out to rip them off?

[timo]

Hate it when you go to do a simple job and then somthing pops up and you go to tell the customer and they look at you blank. Like your making it up or tying to get more work out of them. Some times could do without the hassle of finding faults that need to be sorted out just too busy.

 

[acat]

At least all you got was a blank look, big improvement on it was working ok until you started



Chris

 

[bugsy]

Depends on your attirude , your customer will make his mind up aboutyou in the first 30 seconds of meeting you
So be nice have chat and instill confidence, don't oh **** your in trouble installations **** but rather
IM alittle bit concerned about blah blah blah , come and have a look , - i think WE should check the reg's and out pop's the little red book -- boom boom

 

[timo]

Cheers fellas

Yeah i know what you mean when you say it worked before. I've had people say well its been working all these years, but trying to explain there was no RCD to protect and detect the leakage from the fault.

I never tell them bad things like your installtions is ** or such, normally just explain what i have found and why it wasnt picked up before. Noramally all is well but normally 1 or 2 i just get a feeling. Suppose im too much of a careing kinda guy lol

 

[lockhes]

all the time

i did a job for a friend of a friend somebody had took down 1 of her lights down to put in a loft hatch and since then only 1 of her lights has worked

i made daft mistake of saying oh they must of got loop and switch wire wrong or wire poped out oh how wrong was i

they had boarded out the loft and had trapped or screwed through wires and all brittle when stripping them i said it really needs a re wire as cables were nakered said she will think about it

then i come to put the landing light up and it was the type were you screw the hook to ceeling then hang fitting on the hook (fancy crap) the hook was missing from whoever took it down and i asked where it was and said there wasnt 1 and i was ripping her off

iv learnt my lesson and will NEVER work for family or close friends as here to much trouble

 

[Deleted member 9648]

I turned the power of to a lighting circuit at a family friends house to put up a couple of fittings in the kitchen for them as a favour,that evening got a call that the security light outside wasnt working. Turned out the sensor...an expensive german 'watchdog' one had packed up. Of course first thing was , 'well it was working before you came'....tried to explain that all I had done was turn that circuit off....hadnt touched any of the wiring to the sensor at all...it was pure coincidence that the thing had failed at that time.
To cut a long story short I ended up coughing up for a replacement just to stop the whinging....they are no longer family friends.....moral?...dont do favours.

 

[cbw]

I did a CU change on a house of someone I know VERY well.

Did it all by the book, detected shared Ns on landing light, no main bonding to water etc...

Did a really pucker job.

Now I know the fancy induction hob was working before the change.

Owners wife went nuts that I had killed the induction hob.....................................................................................................................................................................

How can you explain it, its my house, my hob and my wiring I did nothing unusual and it was a clockwork CU change, I did not fry the hob with 500v or anything like that???????

Coincidence???? It was a stoves, renound for poor quality????

Could you imagine if that had been a customers, I still maintain I did nothing wrong or diferent £600 lighter though!!!!!!!!

 

[Notsosmart]

Lifting a tongue & groove board onthe landing (cut nails) I was met by Ppsssssss Oh $#!? who-ever had put the board down last had punched two nails through the boiler circuit pipes. By the time I had managed to find & turn of stop cocks etc & get the full board up the ceiling was destroyed.

I know they didn't believe me that I wasn't putting nails in if I was lifting the floor board, I paid for the repair to the pipes, luckily the mate who had got me in to alter the circuit was a (excellent) plasterer

 

[cbw]

Oh, I can just imagine that helpless feeling........

 

[Des 56]

I t
To cut a long story short I ended up coughing up for a replacement just to stop the whinging....they are no longer family friends.....moral?...dont do favours.

How right you are
The thing is, many people would have put two and two together and come up with that conclusion

Very annoying
I suppose trying to explain whilst thinking"they dont believe me" would be irritating to say the least

 

[cbw]

My own wife didnt and still does not believe I didnt 'blow up' the hob!!!!!

 

[Des 56]

My own wife didnt and still does not believe I didnt 'blow up' the hob!!!!!

......

 

[offshorealex]

I was doing work in a house when the customer complained that a whole outfit including shoes and bag had gone missing. what does she think, that we were rewiring her house while wearing her gear?

 

[lockhes]

I was doing work in a house when the customer complained that a whole outfit including shoes and bag had gone missing. what does she think, that we were rewiring her house while wearing her gear?

iv seen the pictures

 

[Deleted member 9648]

We were working in the house of a couple we knew well...lifted a carpet in their bedroom and came across a considerable stash of tenners underneath...clearly the husbands secret supply hidden from her ladyship. When the carpet went back down the stash was resited to the opposite corner.....when hubby gets home and finds we've lifted this particular carpet first thing he does is check his wad is still there...cant ask his missis 'cos she doesnt know of i'ts existence and we denied all knowledge of seeing it...(Wot money mate??).
The fun lasted several days till we put him out of his misery

 

[cside]

did anyone see that bit in the paper a few years ago where someone wired a single socket under the floorboards of some customers house who kept messing them about over money, they then went to tescos and purchased a cheap mobile and plugged it in and rang it randomly for 6 months

 

[5-Week-Wonder]

Quoted a bargain price to do a rewire of a flat that was wired in VIR and the insulation was totally screwed. Customer started moaning how expensive it was before I'd even explained what it cost and what was involved!

Should've walked away but guy I was working with weakened and offered to wire up the shed in the price (the garage board & wiring was already in place, but I'd disconnected and condemned and supply cable, which was 2.5 T&E in a hosepipe).

We had to work 10 hour days to get it all done. When it came to getting paid, the customer kicked up a huge stink about the materials bill and resumed complaining about the agreed labour cost (which was a bargain).

Total loonies... thought they could get a sparky for £80 a day. If I get another one I'm going to tell them that my price has just doubled and they should get some other quotes. When they come crawling back they can kiss my feet and beg me to do the work for the original price.

Thankfully that's been the only one who thinks that they're some sort of charity case and tradesmen should work for free. Handing over the cash so begrudgingly when you've received the agreed services is bang out of order.

What makes me even angrier is the fact that I do lots of little jobs for poor pensioners, and I barely cover my costs on those ones because I do have a conscience and a charitable spirit. To be accused of being a rogue trader when you've cut your margins to the wire for some ungrateful ignorant fool... makes the blood boil

 

[DurhamSparky]

i know what you mean!! i did a PIR and found the rings to be open in 2 places one on Live other cpc only one intack was Neutal!!! after spending 3-4 hours finding the exact fault locations at customer request she then asked if i wil lbe charging her for the fault finding!!! eh!! wtf.. also told that garage was unusable and i made the isolation switch.. pitty because i wanted to isolate the supply but some clown tapped into the ring behind some wall tiles and took a spur off so that ment that the ring would be isolated and it was one of them daft rings that feed up and down!! also wired in a horrendous design so trying to find which socket folows what was crazy!!

when i agreed that i would include the 3 hours for extra 20 quid on top of my PIR report i got the evil eyes as if i had just robbed a Old Lady!!!

truth be know i enjoyed the up and down stairs stuff as it was some hand experience for if i ever go back ..! but i though extra £20 was nothing!!

 

[dufjax]

I turned the power of to a lighting circuit at a family friends house to put up a couple of fittings in the kitchen for them as a favour,that evening got a call that the security light outside wasnt working. Turned out the sensor...an expensive german 'watchdog' one had packed up. Of course first thing was , 'well it was working before you came'....tried to explain that all I had done was turn that circuit off....hadnt touched any of the wiring to the sensor at all...it was pure coincidence that the thing had failed at that time.
To cut a long story short I ended up coughing up for a replacement just to stop the whinging....they are no longer family friends.....moral?...dont do favours.

Someone pulled the same scam on me about 6 months ago. Doing a garage conversion didn't even touch or go near said security light. Got a phone call from main contractor he wasn't happy I'd "messed their light up". They decided they were going to tell the NIC, I still never coughed up and stuck to my guns. Never heard anymore.
I also don't work with this contractor anymore, my choice he was a cowboy. He ripped the roof felt on the porch (same job) and said "Well when it starts leaking we won't be here" Also their carpentry works dreadful, skirting boards didn't fit, door didn't fit etc.
Don't really want people like that bringing our name down.

Jim

 

[wattsup]

I know what you mean!...my elderly neigbour wanted a shower wiring (too old to get in and out of bath) he was 97! He got a grant from some scheme or other, he didn't even have to pay for it. We were good neighbours, no problems he liked us!...untill I priced for shower. Old porcelein fuses, all earths twisted and in a screwit connector above the plywood fuse board.

Err, I cant' wire a shower into that, you need a new board, in fact you need a complete rewire, the wiring is dodgy.

Accepting the fact he was real old and realising the disruption involved in a complete rewire, I said I could do the shower alone and quoted for a new board dedicated to the shower only.

The price was £75.00, he had to pay 50% of the cost (this was 10 years ago) he never spoke to me or my wife again, he told other neighbours I was a con man and was exploiting the grant scheme. He eventually got a full grant for other works 2 years later, ch, new roof, kitchen, rewire etc. The rewire cost was £2800...not bad even today for a 2-bed semi. He died 1-week before his 100-th birthday, we had been neighbours 20-years on good terms, I did a few garden type jobs over the years for him for free...but electrics I'm a con man

btw it was an rcd 1-way, even before mandority

 

[lloyd1980]

ive been there commercially
was in a shop replacing 24 flurecents
i undid the last screw on the last one with my battery drill and water starts to **** out all over the shop floor as in pools of it
im thinking ive nicked a pipe as ive unscrewed the last screw
the last screw was 3 inches long - yes 3 inches!!! god knows what muppet put that up!!
we chipped away the cieling to find that when the lights were put up whoever fitted them with the 3 inch screw had screwed straight through a plastic water pipe sealing it when the screw was in, as soon as i un screwed it psssssssssssssssss all over the shop floor!!!
that sinking feeling was horrible when it happened!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and I hate the am i being ripped off look!!!
i get it every time i get called to estimate for a cu change and for eg the water or gas isnt earthed and i tell them its a legal requirment so have to do this as well

people as in general public do not have a CLUE

NEVER do work for family or friends

they expect the earth for nothing and take the **** more than paying customers

 

[cbw]

Yep, agreed, 3 days work at a 'mates', total net profit about £70, waited months for payment............

 

[wattsup]

I must add I've dropped a -------...years and years ago rewiring houses for the then YEB on estates in south yorks (must admit worst job I ever had)
Screwing new pendant up in living room, I hear a loud hisssss, then smells gas, **** I thinks...I turn screw another turn, no hiss, undo slightly big hiss. **** I've hit a gas pipe.

Yep lead gas pipe to bedroom gas fire still live (although the gas fire is removed, the pipe just capped off under floor)

YEB tells me I should always b careful when rewiring, err you get ****ed yeb that pipe should not be live...end of yeb career

 

[DurhamSparky]

lol. i quoted for a full rewire, job and alone it was costing me £800 in parts for what the guy wanted .

woul dtake me 4 days i recon plus with a second set of hands so 2x labour i worked out £2250 ball park!!

this was 3 bed Victorian terrace!!

i never got job aparently i was well off the mark and he went with a quote for 1k??? i never asked any questions! goo dluck to mr Validmer or XQerrihikhukyhjhcnjkld ..

 

[lloyd1980]

hands up whos hit a pipe?!!!
we had an aprentice who was a bit too over enthusiastic with a wall chaser and would inevetably cut pipes when you werent in the room or would always seem to put his fut through the plasterboard ceiling!!
or a guy i used to work with we nicknamed greame gaspipe

ive done it on water pipes, when pulling through cable through joists pulling it up and kinked a water pipe psssssssssssssssss

its never intentional but always a pain in the ---

 

[wattsup]

My mate once did a favour for a neigghbour...pull cord in bathroom sticking...just change it, simple no bother...except several years of paint made it difficult to remove the pattress, it needed a tap with a hammer. So no bother, done it...except when all done the hammer falls off the step ladder and cracks the nice new wash basin...ooops

 

[lloyd1980]

hahahahahah ooooohhhhhh

you could just caulk the cracks and scarper

wasnt me guv!!!

 

[DurhamSparky]

except when all done the hammer falls off the step ladder and cracks the nice new wash basin...ooops

INSURANCE!!!!! thank god..!

so far no pipes!!!

 

[wattsup]

Don't think insurance would cover (look at small print) due care and attention....don't trust insurance

 

[5-Week-Wonder]

hands up whos hit a pipe?!!!

Yeah, I've hit a gas pipe. Last screw to fix a bit of trunking and then I was on the home straight. Bloody cowboy builder had built a lean-to extension with gas pipes hidden where they shouldn't be (according to gas engineer who put it right).

Bang goes the profit on that job.

 

[Des 56]

We bury anything in the wall and its do this, do that,or else

How can gas pipes still be permitted to be under the plaster unprotected
We cant get electrics taken seriously by the powers that be,( when we all know they consider gas much more serious an issue) yet they make our practices tighter than theirs

 

[MarcT]

Lets not forget the clients who leave a £20 note under the carpet that you lifted the day before as a test. The last guy who did it to me is probably still trying to scrape it off the floorboards, cyanoacrylate is a wonderful thing.

 

[rocker]

Lets not forget the clients who leave a £20 note under the carpet that you lifted the day before as a test. The last guy who did it to me is probably still trying to scrape it off the floorboards, cyanoacrylate is a wonderful thing.

Ha that's proper. Superglue going in the toolbox tomorrow.

 

[offshorealex]

We bury anything in the wall and its do this, do that,or else

How can gas pipes still be permitted to be under the plaster unprotected
We cant get electrics taken seriously by the powers that be,( when we all know they consider gas much more serious an issue) yet they make our practices tighter than theirs

because gas smells, electricity is invisible. If you burst a gas pipe you'll know before it kills you. Not the same with electricity.

 

[Risteard]

because gas smells, electricity is invisible. If you burst a gas pipe you'll know before it kills you. Not the same with electricity.

Natural gas actually has no smell. An odour is added to it for safety reasons so that it can be detected.

 

[sparks72]

lol. i quoted for a full rewire, job and alone it was costing me £800 in parts for what the guy wanted .

woul dtake me 4 days i recon plus with a second set of hands so 2x labour i worked out £2250 ball park!!

this was 3 bed Victorian terrace!!

i never got job aparently i was well off the mark and he went with a quote for 1k??? i never asked any questions! goo dluck to mr Validmer or XQerrihikhukyhjhcnjkld ..

I've had that before!
lucky though my recent customer (rewire) never flintched when I told him the price,
"go ahead" he said.
Mate also ended up intalling a new kitchen & bathroom for them, never had such a good customer,
brews & biscuits thrown in by the customer, why can't they all be like this!

BTW, love the anti Mr Electric avatar.

 

[DurhamSparky]

you had some dealings with Mr Unethical/Electric..!!

 

[sparks72]

you had some dealings with Mr Unethical/Electric..!!

Had one, don't see them much around the Chester area though.........thank god!