My favorite customer sayings

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LarryFine

Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
Location
Henrico County, VA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
acrwc10 said:
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.
Wouldn't that be more like robbing Peter to pay Peter? :rolleyes:

lpelectric said:
I itch everytime I go by there, even all these years later. :smile:
I got all itchy and oogie just reading your post. Ugh! :mad:
 

lpelectric

Senior Member
LarryFine said:
.........I got all itchy and oogie just reading your post. Ugh! :mad:

I couldn't have picked my tools up faster! I didn't bother lining the screws up identically on the receptacle plate. My parting words were something like this: "The boss'll send you a bill. I'm runnin' late for my next call....byeeeeeeeeeeeee" :grin:
 

sguinn

Senior Member
Location
Blue Ridge, Ga
What about when you get a call from someone who needs troubleshooting done and asks without you even being able to take a breath "How much would that cost"? One more, doing a job for a guy with a thick NY accent who comes up while we're working, just shooting the breeze and says"I don't know much about that electrical work, all I know is when you hit the switch BOOM ! the lights come on, and if not then we got problems!" This guy was a pretty cool character, I still quote him on this even today.:smile:
 

The Iceman

Senior Member
Location
Florida
Shocked with wet hands.

Shocked with wet hands.

mdshunk said:
Because they're imagining things. That just doesn't happen.

Maybe this girl was imagining things, and it doesn't happen, but it's still not a good idea to take your hands out of the dishwater and flip a switch.
 
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LarryFine

Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
Location
Henrico County, VA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
electricman2 said:
"My husband replaced a three way switch and now the lights dont work"
This is one we can usually fix in 10 minutes, like replacing a known-defective switch. What price would you quote? :-?

I once gave a 1-hour-minimum-of-$95, and said I'd even throw in the switch. It was way too much money. :rolleyes:
 

rcarroll

Senior Member
"Why do I need an inspection? XXX Electric did the work. You people just want to spy on me & take my money." That was my all time favorite. The H/O yelled at me the whole time I was in his house. :roll:
 
LarryFine said:
This is one we can usually fix in 10 minutes, like replacing a known-defective switch. What price would you quote? :-?

I once gave a 1-hour-minimum-of-$95, and said I'd even throw in the switch. It was way too much money. :rolleyes:


No problem here. Minimum to show up. If you fix it in that time,they made out.

Car dealer and others, minimum just to show up. Why should we be different?

We're not here for practice.
 

mayjong

Senior Member
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:

sheesh , i thought it was me. try being an inspector-
"my hvac is not working, my sink won't drain, my roof is leaking, why is my house leaning over???"
i've heard it all, people think i can build or fix anything!!!
 

DUCKMAN

Member
MAK said:
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


I replaced all of the system smokes in an apartment building. I was called by the manager, who asked me to call a tenant. The tenant was complaining about a noise. I called, and she turned out to be completely irate. Swearing at me, screaming at me, and generally carrying on, that the new smoke detecotors kept beeping. I explained that they did not have any sounders (system smokes). She screamed louder. I drove out to the house, and upon investigation, found that she had removed a battery operated smoke from her unit, and put it in a desk draw. THe beep was the low battery warning. This job would be a lot easier if it wasn't for the customers!
 

brantmacga

Señor Member
Location
Georgia
Occupation
Former Child
This is one we can usually fix in 10 minutes, like replacing a known-defective switch. What price would you quote?

I once gave a 1-hour-minimum-of-$95, and said I'd even throw in the switch. It was way too much money.

I had that call just last week. Fixed it on my way home; ten minute job, $85 in my pocket. Next stop was replaced a bad GFCI receptacle outside. Ten minute job, $105 in my pocket. Not a bad drive home that day.
 

danickstr

Senior Member
I had a person call me to complain about a problem that was in a panel that I had done for myself (my old rented shop) and left behind for free, of course.

They said maybe I had left something loose, and I needed to come by. Then they said that no one had touched it since I left, but they had forgotten that I had to come over and take a 120 breaker off of the high leg that a GC had tried to install, and melted an appliance.

So my donated panel was my problem, and the GC was "forgotten". Turns out that there had been a grid problem that day, with
three power outs.

love to take those calls.
 

Minuteman

Senior Member
The OP was "favorite customer sayings".

Today I was giving a hand with a kitchen remodel, when an emergency call came in. The guy that owns an assisted living center that we remodeled was having a dinner party at his home tonight. The caterers were fixing everything, when power went out in the dinning room. Turned out to be a loose neutral in a outlet that was backstabbed. (About an inch of the neutral was burned.) I charged him for an hour and a half and he wrote me a check.

As I was buckling my seat belt, the wife came out to the van and said, "Thanks for coming right over, this is for you" and gave me a fifty dollar bill.

Anything that is said with extra cash, would be my favorite! :D
 

electricman2

Senior Member
Location
North Carolina
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
Minuteman said:
As I was buckling my seat belt, the wife came out to the van and said, "Thanks for coming right over, this is for you" and gave me a fifty dollar bill.

Anything that is said with extra cash, would be my favorite! :D

Reminds me of a job I did the day after New Years. Install UF circuit to feed new outbuilding. I had buried cable about a week before, good mild weather. Called customer and told her I would come Wednesday morning and finish. Turned out that Jan 2 was coldest day of winter so far here. Temp was 24 degrees with wind chill 10. Had to put bell box on outside of building with pvc down into ground for UF, terminate in box. Also connect cable on other end all outside in what felt like 30MPH wind. When I finished and gave her bill, she wrote check for extra $25. Said it was because I came out even in the cold. :smile:
 

cowboyjwc

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Simi Valley, CA
Had a guy call one time and tell me that a bunch of his outlets weren't working. After he described it, I told him that he had a GFCI that probably needed to be reset. A few minutes later he called back and told me he didn't have one and I really needed to come out, I told him to look again. Again he called me back and said I was wrong and that he couldn't understand why I wouldn't come out. I told him that if I came out and pushed that little red button I was going to charge him $75 (20 years ago). He said I'll get back to you. Ten minutes later he calls back and says he found it.
 

acrwc10

Master Code Professional
Location
CA
Occupation
Building inspector
DUCKMAN said:
I replaced all of the system smokes in an apartment building. I was called by the manager, who asked me to call a tenant. The tenant was complaining about a noise. I called, and she turned out to be completely irate. Swearing at me, screaming at me, and generally carrying on, that the new smoke detecotors kept beeping. I explained that they did not have any sounders (system smokes). She screamed louder. I drove out to the house, and upon investigation, found that she had removed a battery operated smoke from her unit, and put it in a desk draw. THe beep was the low battery warning. This job would be a lot easier if it wasn't for the customers!

Reminds me of an elderly neighbor I had, I had my house stuccoed and she came over the next day saying that " the noise of the stucco drying keeped her awake all night" I don't think she appreciated me laughing, turned out they have a sump pump right under there bedroom that was taking excess water from the garden out from under the house.
 

jshaw

Member
Location
Idaho
Building inspector went on a building inspection on a detached building. There was electrical wiring every where. Customer had no electrical permit. When the inspector asked him about the permit he replied, "I'm doing it myself. I don't need a permit." When the building inspector told him he did, indeed need a permit, and inspections, he replied, "I've been doing this for people for 20 years and I've never needed a permit or had any inspections." The building inspector wanted to ask him for the addresses of these other installations. So, the guy comes in and gets a permit, complaining the entire time. Then he calls me, the inspector - not the appropriate inspection line - the next day and wants an inspection. I told him I would put it on my list for the next morning. He informs me that "he's been working on this building for awhile and he is putting in insulation so he hopes he doesn't have everything covered by tomorrow morning." I told him, so do I, because he will be removing any insulation that is covering any wiring.

Sometimes people astound me when they want me to feel guilty for incoveniencing them by requiring an inspection on their electrical wiring that they installed without a license or a permit and only enough electrical knowledge to get themselves in trouble
 
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