My favorite customer sayings

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POWER_PIG

Senior Member
Lol!!

Lol!!

How bout this one........your minding your own business, just doing your job and some smart ass sneaks up behind you ( usually a customer) and says "bzzzzzzzzzzzzt" LOL!! Id like to have a miniature air horn and keep it my tool pouch and just blast em'
 

mdshunk

Senior Member
Location
Right here.
POWER_PIG said:
How bout this one........your minding your own business, just doing your job and some smart ass sneaks up behind you ( usually a customer) and says "bzzzzzzzzzzzzt" LOL!! Id like to have a miniature air horn and keep it my tool pouch and just blast em'
That's usually accompanied by the old question, "What's the most you ever been shocked by?", to which I typially respond, "Why don't you tell me about the time you could have died first?"

And if I had a nickel for every time someone said, "...and let there be light". :mad:
 

The Iceman

Senior Member
Location
Florida
Why am I getting shocked

Why am I getting shocked

I had a costomer on a service call ask "why is it when I'm doing dishes and I flip the counter light switch with wet hands I get shocked" :confused:
 

mdshunk

Senior Member
Location
Right here.
The Iceman said:
I had a costomer on a service call ask "why is it when I'm doing dishes and I flip the counter light switch with wet hands I get shocked" :confused:
Because they're imagining things. That just doesn't happen.
 

jjhoward

Senior Member
Location
Northern NJ
Occupation
Owner TJ Electric
I always have to bite my tongue when I here this:
Oh, you want a check now?

There are so many things that just want to blurt right out, but I just say, yes that would be nice, thank you.
 

jjhoward

Senior Member
Location
Northern NJ
Occupation
Owner TJ Electric
After having 3 electricians at the customer's house for 4 hrs...installing 200 amp undergrond service upgrade, fixing non functioning GFIs, repairing flying splices in the attic....etc....
OH, you I did know you wanted a check today!
Yikes........I just can't figure what some people think. Not to mention not reading the contract they signed!
 

brian john

Senior Member
Location
Leesburg, VA
It passed inspection.

It worked before you got here.


(When I find some real screw up that is causing a problem for an electrical contractor or his customer).
I am a licensed Master electrician.

Maybe we need to drive a ground rod.

(Power quality issue on the 12th floor no one else in the building is having any issues.)
I think this is a utility problem or did you test the ground rod.
 

goldstar

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
mdshunk said:
Give me a good price on this one, and I've got some other projects in mind.
This is my ALL TIME favorite. I must admit, when I was a novice and worked for someone else I fell for this numerous times. Nowadays when I hear this I look at it as a red flag and I walk the other way. This has NEVER worked out where I (or my employer) got more business.

I also like when you go and do the work (or service call) and they tell you "Oh, I don't have the $$ right now"!! Well why the **** did you call me !!!?

I had one customer (and BTW a friend of the family) tell me after dunning him for payment for 2 months that he doesn't get to the post office to mail out payments more than once a month. Meanwhile the PO is around the corner from him. Then he says "Come by and pick up the check". (he lives 65 miles away). Needless to say I drove out and picked up the check and now I haven't seen him in 10 years.
 
Pesky customers

Pesky customers

I had a customer that wanted me to "help them". He said he was a retired master electrician , and that he would mount the meter, tub, and all cables, just allow me to connect them. Im a Journeyman in WV, i can surely handle mounting tubs and SE. I told him to do all that, then disappeared. I dont want what screw-ups he might have done on my license.
 

acrwc10

Master Code Professional
Location
CA
Occupation
Building inspector
goldstar said:
I had one customer (and BTW a friend of the family) tell me after dunning him for payment for 2 months that he doesn't get to the post office to mail out payments more than once a month. Meanwhile the PO is around the corner from him. Then he says "Come by and pick up the check". (he lives 65 miles away). Needless to say I drove out and picked up the check and now I haven't seen him in 10 years.

I resently did a job for a "friend" one hoop after another to jump through. He thinks he is "throwing work my way" and I have to drive to his office to get paid as if getting paid is some grand gift to me ,forget the fact we did an outstanding job, payment is 6 months late and they want to stiff me for an additional $1,200 for repairs needed due to crap work by another contractor.
And out comes the all time winner of a comment " can you do this other job and we can pay you out of job B for the work already done on job A ?

Why would I fall for that trick something about robbing Peter to pay Paul doesn't sit well with me.
 

MAK

Senior Member
Had an elderly customer tell me the smoke alarm was going off in his garage at random and he would wait some 15 minutes before it would reset! Smoke detector in the garage? I was there a while trying to figure out what really happened. He was following me all over the place inserting comments like he would have to get a REAL company to fix it, then I bumped into his car in the garage and his car alarm started going off. The look on his face told me everything I needed to know!:D
 

LawnGuyLandSparky

Senior Member
Minuteman said:
Customer calls back:

"The toaster (or microwave, or plasma TV, or ceiling fan, etc) just quit working after you replaced that security light bulb (or fuse in a A/C disconnect, or a main breaker, or a GFCI in the bathroom, etc)."

Implying that you should warranty their appliance after a small service call on something totally unrelated.

Yes, which also just happens to be right after the lunar eclipse...
 

e57

Senior Member
  1. "Maybe there was some sort of 'surge' or something?" - Simular to 'short' but just as popular....
  2. "Oh it just stopped working" - come to find out that there is no way for it ever to have worked due to mis-wire or lack of conductors....
  3. "Oh it just stopped working" (* In addition to above) - come to find out Hubby wired it and has enlisted wife to lie through her teeth so he won't loose face.
  4. "Client/customer is an (Architect, Lighting Designer, big time developer, owns HGTV or whatever other BS) and he's got a lot of work he can feed us" - Often exagerated, and this person has no intent of feeding you anything - they name or title drop just to get you to kiss thier butt and move on to the next sucker to milk.
  5. "The job will be ready for you to start on (whatever)" - 95% of the time a complete lie....
  6. "They're moving in on (whatever)" - 25% Lies - 75% overly optomistic.
 

drbond24

Senior Member
acrwc10 said:
1) My husband is an electrical engineer, but he didn't have time to do this work on our house.....

A man after my own heart. My wife also doesn't know that being an electrical engineer doesn't make me in any way qualified to actually DO anything. :grin: "I'm too busy" always sounds better than "Actually honey, I don't know how to do that." :wink:
 

qcroanoke

Sometimes I don't know if I'm the boxer or the bag
Location
Roanoke, VA.
Occupation
Sorta retired........
drbond24 said:
A man after my own heart. My wife also doesn't know that being an electrical engineer doesn't make me in any way qualified to actually DO anything. :grin: "I'm too busy" always sounds better than "Actually honey, I don't know how to do that." :wink:

An Honest man! I love it.
When I tell my wife I don't know how to do something she thinks I'm kidding.
I'm kinda handy around the house but there are some things I leave to the professionals. One being plumbing and another being auto repair.
 

jason

Senior Member
Location
Georgia
"I need a bigger panel. This one is good for 200 amps but when I counted all the breakers they come out to be 600 amps."
 

lpelectric

Senior Member
Years ago, when I was finishing up replacing a defective receptacle in a ratty old apartment up on the 3rd floor in this dingy old bedroom in a welfare-type tenant building, I can still remember the toothless old gal saying "Them bed bugs was here. We didn't bring 'em." I itched all the way home and stripped in the garage and took a sponge bath before going into the house. I itch everytime I go by there, even all these years later. :smile:
 

LarryFine

Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
Location
Henrico County, VA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
POWER_PIG said:
How bout this one........your minding your own business, just doing your job and some smart ass sneaks up behind you ( usually a customer) and says "bzzzzzzzzzzzzt" LOL!!
Hey, I do that to my guys! You mean it's not funny? :-?

mdshunk said:
And if I had a nickel for every time someone said, "...and let there be light". :mad:
I say that, too. Now, that's gotta be funny! :D
 
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