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electromonkey

Following on from an earlier post today, I was reminded of a call out I had where my customer's alarm panel was "beeping". On arriving at her house, I quickly realised that it was in fact her freezer on auto defrost.

Anyone else had a daft call out like this?
 
Big sound install all working great when left for home. It was the opening night ...Got a call around 10pm This flipping (similar) things not working got there slightly embarresed had a cordless microphone thrust in my face Bla bla bla.
I thought this dont feel right , unscrewed battery holder, missing PP3, Owners son had it away with the batterys in all mics,............Drinks on the house if i remember ......for about 3 months.
 
years ago, i was working for rumbelow's as a TV service eng. the colour tv's of the period were as reliable as snow in the sahara. as rumbelows were owned by thorn, 95 % of the tv's sold were ferguson. a notable exception was a jap set called a pilot, might have been jvc. never had a fault with any of them till, one day, a lady phoned in saying her tv was dead. i went round to find the set unplugged. plugged it in and it was perfect. " oh" she said. " now i remember , unplugged it to plug the hoover in"
 
I had wired up a central heating system all complete but the gas had not been installed. Told the customer that when the gas engineer turned up all he had to do was switch on the isolator and it was good to go.

Two days get a call from the gas fitter, boiler won't fire up. Have you switched on the main isolator? Yes, have you switched on the isolator next to the boiler? Yes. Have you turned up the room stat, cylinder stat? Yes.

B*gg*r! I drive back twenty miles to find two plumbers and the gas fitter all looking forlornly at the boiler . "I have to be somewhere else" says the gas fitter, "I was told it was ready..blah,blah,blah"

I took a look at the boiler and said,"perhaps you want to turn the f******** boiler stat up then"

The look on three faces was worth the drive back.
 
I once got sent to Berwick on Tweed from Leeds to a forktruck battery charger that wouldnt switch on. It was turned off at the isolator on the wall.
 
I just thought of a quote where the customer behaved pretty daft. She had had a new washing machine delivered and had the old one taken away. The old WM was plugged in above the work top where the flex had been fed through a small hole and a plug put on the end of it. The guys who removed the old WM unplugged it and cut the flex. Her new WM came with a moulded plug and obviously would not fit through the existing hole so that's what I was there to take a look at. The lady told me what her old set up was and proceeded to plug in the old flex. Before I realised what she was doing, she flicked the socket on and got a belt from the end of the flex which she had in her other hand. The poor woman was almost crying, I however, was doing everything in my power not to laugh in her face.
 
I did a job at the beginning of the year, where amongst other things I disconnected an old intruder alarm and fitted a smoke detector in the hall fed directly of a light a few feet away, went away... happy days. Saw the client about a week later and he told me that since I had gone there was a beeping coming from his smoke detector. i remember I took the battery out because he was steaming off the wall paper at the time and it went off. so i gave him a new 9v battery and told him to put it in and it will be fine. Got a call a couple of days later... the battery was in place, he changed it anyway but its still chirping at him. By this point he was getting rather annoyed. Fine, says I. I will come straight over and sort it out. went over that night armed with a new smoke detector. i changed it over straight away without any investigation work... still getting a intermittent beep. I told him it was not the smoke detector, it sounded very close to it, but I was convinced it was not this. He started getting irate saying that I had disconnected the intruder alarm and changed the smoke detector therefor it is my fault. So im scrambling around in the loft tracing all the old alarm cables and anything else that it could be. after 3 hours of being there I had emptied out a nearby cluttered storage area and found an old battery powered smoke alarm that his wife had taken down many many years earlier and by some coincidence it had started going off the day I left!! He thought this was hilarious and we shared a joke about it though inwardly I wanted to shoot the guy :)
 
Got a call from a customer that i'd rewired her house maybe 2yrs ago, she said the Aico smoke detectors where beeping, so I said to change the batteries, well the beeping continued. Went round to find that indeed it was a smoke detector that needed it's battery changing... the one that i'd ripped out 2yrs previous that was still in the understairs cupboard in a bag lol
 
Customer rang to say the new socket I had fitted the previous week was 'buzzing'. Never had a noisy socket before so everything going through my mind. No idea what it could be - oh, it could have been a bee. Luckily only round the corner so go and manage to stop the buzzing by switching off his radio-alarm.
 
Once got called to a pub with np lights in a function room on a sat morning Travels the 50 miles odd to get there checks the fittings all wall lights no lamps
Tells mngr. he then proceeds to say I had a stag night in there last night the XXXXers must of nicked them. Was not impressed and he grovelled big time for me to make up a XXXXxxt job sheet for the job.
 
been called to 2 very similar recently, one was an absoloute emergency. 4 lights out in their dining room, apparently the boyfriend very good at diy has changed lamps. 4 "dead" lamps were sat on the table, took a "working" lamp out can could see it had blown straight away, turned out he had opened the four new ones removed the four olds and got confused as to which ones where which!

went to another one last night, a doctorv - very clever people, was angry that his 2 new wall lights he had changed himself were not working, thurned the energy savers he was using were too big at the bottom and were preventing the contact!
 
Had to investigate a fault on a Microwave radio installation that kept going down at 5.10pm every day Monday to Friday sat there waiting for it to fail in walks the cleaner unplugs the plug that feeds the rack, it had been suggested that it could be this before attending site but he was adamant it wasn't got a bit red faced when told
 
been out with the burd night before 7am saturday mornign phone goes "no power to microwave rack in Galashiels" 2hr drive there 2 hr drive pack So I phones the store asked manager to check the martin linele plug was in correctly he assured me it was in right as they had cleaners in last night and moved rack back n it was workin when they left Here goes I explained to the burd ( she was a bit of a "morning" person
but said she would keep bed warm awaiting my return ) Off I go in my wee company issue Escort van ( thankfully it was a quick wee thing) Gets to gala parks at front of shop in taxi rank:oops: ( just to cheese them off) walks in meets manager over we go to microwave rack in cafe ( loads of people
Pointless/Daft call outs. {filename} | ElectriciansForums.net
standing being told "We are closed due to power failure) locates plug easily as its on the wall turns plug around 5-10 degrees hears a click from plug n beeps from miocrowaves turn round n see people watching n a couploe of old geezers saying:90: "managers by christ ita a wonder he managed to get dressed this morning!" 1 redfaced
Pointless/Daft call outs. {filename} | ElectriciansForums.net
manager 1 full breakfast n a coffee later Iwas on my way back up the road to bed all in all 4hrs drive n 2hrs call +£50 visit fee AND as she had ben left waiting for a while 1 very very satisfying afternoon:biggrin5::vanish:
 
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Friday night, few years ago got a call out to go to swindon from coventry, some emergency lights were not working in a pub.
Went down saturday, only to find the key switch off, I was not happy
 
went to a immersion heater failure on a rental property last night.....

and switched the immersion heater on, the guy was adamant it wasn't that though, so I checked all connections and did Zs just to keep him happy,

all whilst being stood over, by him... in just a pair of tracksuit bottoms... all fat and hairy and sweaty.... whilst he ate his dinner (with his mouth open, I assume so I knew he was eating):sad:
 
I was called out once by a very irate woman saying she had no electricity , when i got there i found she was on a payment meter and she hadnt put any money in ,i did laugh
 

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