U

ultinator

Belated seasons greetings,

I just wanted to ask what others would do..

installed a cat 5 cable to run to the bottom of a garden for a log cabin in summer, approx 30metre run.

the bloke that organised the work was called back as their internet no longer worked and the clients had moved their router and assumed this was the issue.

I was called after the bloke went after work and spent an hour fiddling with the terminations in the cabin, and who knows what else for that long..

he said it doesnt work and he couldnt test anything in the cabin (internet only for PS3 at the moment) as he didnt know how to switch it on.

I, assuming it was potentially an installation issue headed over, purchasing an ethernet testing thing from screwfix on the fly. well i got there and firstly plugged it on to either end of the cable and it showed it was cushty, so then i looked at the ps3, and it wouldnt sign in...strange if the internet works in the house, the cable is fine and nothing has changed, or so i thought.

looked at the settings and it was on wireless, which dumfounded me how the PS3 could go from wired connection to wireless all by itself. so low and behold changed it to wired and it worked...hurrah.

I told the lady of the house, who said 'oh what did you do, my husband spent hours trying to fix it?'
i told her the sitrep and she then said 'hmm ok i probably should've asked my son first, as he moved the playstation inside for a while' where he obviously lacked an rj45 connection in his room and preferred to use a wireless connection..

pain in the ---, as it is something so simple but the finger is pointed at you without hesitance!

didn't charge as expecting some more work from this lot and would consider adding it on the works then.

damn, i seem to have written more than this story justifies...sorry!
 
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No right or wrong answer really, I would have warned them before I went that they'd be charged at least to cover my expenses if it wasn't a cable installation fault.
 
If they were nice respectful people they would have offered to at least cover your hour and travel.... There are such differences in peoples attitudes to payment, I have a lady at the moment who delights in mentioning she'll be "writing a cheque" each and every time I go. Brilliant.

and others that still haven't paid from October (Jill if you're reading)
 
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If they were nice respectful people they would have offered to at least cover your hour and travel.... There are such differences in peoples attitudes to payment, I have a lady at the moment who delights in mentioning she'll be "writing a cheque" each and every time I go. Brilliant.

and others that still haven't paid from October (Jill if you're reading)

most customers respect what you do and for them to even ask sometimes , I quite often put it down to customer relations
but its good when thy do respect what you do .
 
I just got back from manchester a full machine down .... the normal guy who runs it was off so they had other guys trying to start it.. normally not an issue but because it had been E-stopped and the reset light didn't work they couldn't get it running ...i even said has the reset been pressed over the phone to which he was adamant it had ..... 3hr round trip to press reset KerCHing !!! Sunday rates....
 
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I just got back from manchester a full machine down .... the normal guy who runs it was off so they had other guys trying to start it.. normally not an issue but because it had been E-stopped and the reset light didn't work they couldn't get it running ...i even said has the reset been pressed over the phone to which he was adamant it had ..... 3hr round trip to press reset KerCHing !!! Sunday rates....

The little red mushroom of much delight !
I have to admit I have had very similar experiences on a several occasions , due to people just not listening to me over the phone !
It is normally on grain driers at the height of the season and our client is so stressed , they just do not take in a word of what you have just told them . The worst one was in the 2012 season and that was a 420 mile round trip , just for a simple reset !!!
Having said that I had a 260 mile round trip this year all because one of our lads had knocked of the e stop at the base section of our tracked cherry picker while on site , but had forgot that he had done so when they could not get it started again ( I was Not impressed , by literally a very long way !!! ).
 
Lost count of the number of times the IT network bods blamed the WAN radio links we had installed when the network went down
On one occasion I spent the best part of a day trying to work out why a radio link which according to the contract network guy was down but was testing out ok for me but was not accessible on the network eventually I decided to contact the customers IT people and get the IP route from the kit I was working on back to the main server as the contract guy was adamant it was our radio kit and nothing was wrong on his side after some pings across the network it was quite satisfying telling him that he had got us on a wild goose chase and that it was a programming error on one of his switches that was causing the problem the fact he wouldn't help us out with info and we had gone back to the customer to resolve it made him look like a right *****

These IT guys always seem to blame everybody else's kit and not their own and then find it difficult to accept they get it wrong
 
and others that still haven't paid from October (Jill if you're reading)
I feel your pain, I am in the same boat, it is about time the law changed so the customer has to pay within 21 days from date of invoice if no issues arise from the works, can you imagine going into Tesco and buying a weeks shopping and making them wait 2 months for payment?
 
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I feel your pain, I am in the same boat, it is about time the law changed so the customer has to pay within 21 days from date of invoice if no issues arise from the works, can you imagine going into Tesco and buying a weeks shopping and making them wait 2 months for payment?
it already is the law for payment within 30 days of invoice unless agreed differently in advance
 
it already is the law for payment within 30 days of invoice unless agreed differently in advance
um no, I have had several run ins with companies who pay late and it can take eighteen months in some cases to get your money.
 
No right or wrong answer really, I would have warned them before I went that they'd be charged at least to cover my expenses if it wasn't a cable installation fault.
i have done this with an immersion heater element saying it was ok but would go back (30miles to the job in central london ) but said i would charge to cover diesel if not my fault. **** me a major arguement started i am all the horrible things under the sun, if thats my attitude then dont come at all etc etc and never used me again .
never found out what was wrong;though if it was my fault i am sure they would have got me around !
 

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