Lying Customers or a set up.....?

[chris_k]

Evening,

Ive just come back from a job that just didnt feel right.

I was called the house by a polite guy asking if i could have a look at his shower switch. I called round to find the guy not in but his wife.

Went up to the bathroom to find this



Yep your eyes dont decieve. The pull switch is directly above the bath in with the shower (sorry for poor pic. had to take it on the sly)

The switch was locked tight in the on position. Had a look at the teminals, no overheating on switch or cables. Mechanism gone.

Fine, supply and fit new Crabtree switch in a safer area of the bathoom. Go to operate shower.....nothing, a bit embarrasing infront of client.

Cue... "well it worked before". Pop the front of the shower off.

There is no way on gods earth that shower worked before i arrived (should have tried it before i removed orig switch). The ends of the cables wernt stripped back at all, neutral and sleved earth were in wrong terminals. Very odd.

Anyway sorted it all, happy days working shower.

"While your here couldnt you...."

Go on then.

The client had a problem with half the lights on the ground floor not working. I asked all the usual questions. When did it happen, what were you doing when it went off, have you been doing any building/altering of anything? No came the answer.

Took light-fitting down (brand new by the looks of it), nothing. Popped a switch off (not new) had a nosey around. Lighting had been wired looped at the switches. The live loop in/out had been seperated in the switch, thus isolating the rest of the circuit. Again i asked if they had anyone in working on the electrics? "....no. It just went off one evening."

Yep that wire just jumped out of that terminal jumped into that terminal and a piece of wire dissapeared.

Anyways sorted it, client happy.

This job just seemed odd from start to finish. A bit like a set up you see on the television. Either that or they were lying sods embarrased at their crap diy.

 

[Robin Spark]

Now that you're gone is it safe for me to come into the house lol! :run

I think really we all know why hubby was nt there, just revel in the fact he probably got a right bxllocking of his Mrs to face up to you!

 

[Doc Hudson]

they were lying sods embarrased at their crap diy.

I think you have hit the nail on the head there. Or you have just been to Canoeboy or Sidewinders house, as neither of them do much domestic from what I gather from their posts.

Doc H.

 

[steptoe]

I think you have hit the nail on the head there. Or you have just been to Canoeboy or Sidewinders house, as neither of them do much domestic from what I gather from their posts.Doc H.

:slap

 

[SLIPSHOD & SLAPDASH]

I had one recently where the guy kept repeating & repeating that his brother had mucked up all the lighting whilst connecting the new fittings for him. When i saw the person who put us in contact later on they told me he didnt have a brother & it was the husband :^O

 

[Theorysparky]

I wish they would just say.......

we thought we could do it but made a mess of it (something along those lines)

you can then just crack and do it quicker

So how many of you have had the customer come clean ?????

 

[chrisg1979]

It's just a shame that people won't own up quicker to having a fiddle sometimes.

If they've got it wrong we'd no doubt think far more of them for having a go and getting it wrong but owning up than letting us hunt a fault out only to find an accessory has been incorrectly

connected.

How many times have we heard 'it was working fine' only to find someone has mistook a switch wire with a neutral at a light fitting?

While I'm ranting I've found more sockets with r/p in the last few weeks than I have in years, all appatenty fitted by sparks (but conveniently always a friend of a friend).

 

[Technician]

...Had a case of illegal abstraction. He swore blind it had

always been like that AND there had been a recent read by

the DNO and he had said it was OK.

:innocent

 

[ProDave]

Actually I find most times the customer does come clean.

The usual one is a new light fitting (loop at light) "there seemed to be too many wires. I put all the red ones together and all the black ones together...."

I bet you were waiting for the rogue traders team to come screaming round the corner on their bike as you left the house?

But if you sorted it out quickly, and for a fair price, it wouldn't make good tv would it?

 

[SteveT]

Same, usually a new light fitting is involved, all reds together, all blacks together - 'it keeps tripping' no way Sherlock! Nice and easy

 

[sprocketflup]

Prodave - thats exactly what happened to me and gort me interested in electrics in the first place. i tried to swap a bathroom light fitting and did just that....a lovely fella called Dot came round to sort it, after I had scratched my head for a couple of hours, so i made him a brew and asked if hed mind me talking to him whilst he worked.

Id booked my first college course within a week.

 

[betty swollocks]

"there seemed to be too many wires. I put all the red ones together and all the black ones together...."

Red to red black to black blue to f...

Gotta love those on your way home jobs

How hard can it be? Lol

 

[M107]

So how many of you have had the customer come clean ?????

Me last night.................

"we have lost our lights in the bathroom/landing & bedrooms"

ok I'll come out now for you.........

I get there & first thing the hubby says is

"I have to come clean I have changed the bathroom light & have probably C***** something up, I thought it would be easy ...I now know different"

Anyway he'd tried putting all the line conductors into a small terminal strip, over tightened & cracked the bottom of the strip & the supply conductor had fallen out when he'd pushed it all up into the ceiling void.

Some wagos & an enclosure later all sorted.

 

[sprocketflup]

"there seemed to be too many wires. I put all the red ones together and all the black ones together...."Red to red black to black blue to f...

Gotta love those on your way home jobs

How hard can it be? Lol

Only when you know what youre doing. My previous business was making bouncy castles, done it for nearly 20 years, can pretty much do it with me eyes shut i find it that easy. Can you? And does it make me smarter than you coz i can?

Had an AA guy scoff loudly at me when I was a teen coz I knew nothing of distributor caps. "everyone knows that" he says " If everyone knew that mate, youd be out of a job"

Remember, teh questions are easy when you knwo the answer

 

[betty swollocks]

"there seemed to be too many wires. I put all the red ones together and all the black ones together...."Red to red black to black blue to f...

Gotta love those on your way home jobs

How hard can it be? Lol

Only when you know what youre doing. My previous business was making bouncy castles, done it for nearly 20 years, can pretty much do it with me eyes shut i find it that easy. Can you? And does it make me smarter than you coz i can?

Had an AA guy scoff loudly at me when I was a teen coz I knew nothing of distributor caps. "everyone knows that" he says " If everyone knew that mate, youd be out of a job"

Remember, teh questions are easy when you knwo the answer

You misunderstood my 'how hard can it be ' m8 I was thinking of the homeowner looking at light and saying to himself ' how hard can it be?'

 

[sprocketflup]

Ah bless me, someones obviously lit my tampon fuse today

my humble apologies Betty

time for a drink, my round I think mate

 

[M107]

Mines a pint of bitter & none of that smooth flow ****e........

 

[steptoe]

billacks to that cold tea english water,

I'll have some proper girly lager if you dont mind!

ah, sorry, I forgot, you cant get proper lager in England.! :|

 

[M107]

After my recent visit to family up Swansea way, my current stock of Bitter is a Welsh brew BRAINS just had my last bottle of Brains | The Rev. James

 

[a1]

Brains S.A was mine. (we have christened it Brains Skull Attack down here).

When I used to drink - We used to go "The paint Shop" in Skewen to watch the rugby. We'd have pints and pints of the stuff, and not feel a thing - UNTIL - we went to the toilet. (that was out doors_ and boy, did it hit us.

It was actually on offer in Lidl Sunday last. I went the Just before dinner time and they'd sold out. The chap that works there said that they'd had a massive queue first thing in the morning and they'd sold out straight away. He then said that they had only had hal a pallet of Brains S.A and the reason that they were half price is because they were the left overs from the rugby world cup.