Another reason

[ceb58]

Got a call this afternoon. Customer said he had trouble with well pump. Plumber installed new pump but it kept tripping the breaker. I get there customer said plumber told him to get an elect. something was wrong with the wire in the ground which caused the old pump to go out. Plumber gets check and runs. I looked at new pump, which is identical to one I install at my own home about a month ago, it plainly states on the top of the motor " Factory wired for 240 volts". I pull cover off of pressure switch. Black landed on one term. on switch, white and bare grnd. landed on ground screw. Go in house to panel, dp20. Rewire switch every thing good. I ask customer where the old pump was,I had a gut feeling, "oh, the plumber said he would dispose of it for me". I am sure he did. I didn't have the heart to tell him it probably was the pressure switch on the old pump that went out and the plumber was nice enough to screw him out of some money.

 

[AV ELECTRIC]

Well this can be a problem when plumbers are troubleshooting electrical . Electrical does overlap with plumbing and hvac at times these trades do electrical and may not have the qualifications to do it. I would let the customer know he might be getting a story from the Plumber. It gives the customer a chance to call the plumber back to see if this pump is any good and paid for something he didnt need. I think the customer would appreciate your honesty.

 

[Sierrasparky]

I agree . Just be kind and tactful not just a tattle tale.

 

[ultramegabob]

I would let the customer know he might be getting a story from the Plumber. It gives the customer a chance to call the plumber back to see if this pump is any good and paid for something he didnt need.

I would just do my job and mind my own business, you didnt see the old pump, just a miswired switch. If the plumber is dishonest, the deed is done and he will not fess up anyway. The only thing you will accomplish is making an enemy that will bad mouth you every chance they get.

 

[Charlie Bob]

Maybe he honestly didn't know and assume pump was bad.After all he wired it wrong himself.
Am i being too naive?

 

[ceb58]

I would just do my job and mind my own business, you didnt see the old pump, just a miswired switch. If the plumber is dishonest, the deed is done and he will not fess up anyway. The only thing you will accomplish is making an enemy that will bad mouth you every chance they get.

This was my thoughts also. Had it been some one who truly could not afford to be taken advantage of then I think I would have insisted on them getting the pump back so I could look at it.

Maybe he honestly didn't know and assume pump was bad.After all he wired it wrong himself.
Am i being too naive?

I have to go with naive. From my experience with these deep well pumps is, unless they take a lightning hit they usually dont give much trouble. As I stated in the OP the new pump was the same as one I replaced at my own home. The old pump I had had been in for 19 years and other than a couple of pressure switches it gave no problem. The reason I had to replace it was because the pump seals failed nothing wrong with the motor.
I think he saw an opportunity to sell a new pump and in the process he screwed up. So blame it on something electrical to justify replacing it and in the process he gets his mistake corrected. He still got payed and the customer had to spend more to get it fixed.
Or am I being too cynical?

 

[nhfire77]

Was the pump old anyway and replacing a 20 year old pump was "passing the savings onto the customer". :grin:

Thats what my boss tells me anyway.

Im normally cynical, but I am aware that plumbers are also not always too swift with wiring. (no offense to plumbers)

 

[AV ELECTRIC]

I would just do my job and mind my own business, you didnt see the old pump, just a miswired switch. If the plumber is dishonest, the deed is done and he will not fess up anyway. The only thing you will accomplish is making an enemy that will bad mouth you every chance they get.

The customer didnt see the pump either. I ussually leave parts that i replaced for the customer to inspect. he took it with him and said the new one doesnt work because of an electrical problem . There is many charlatans out there doing work they shouldnt be doing. somebody could get hurt. To bring up a possible problem to a customer is good buisness like the other post said you can be tactful doing it.

 

[ultramegabob]

The customer didnt see the pump either. I ussually leave parts that i replaced for the customer to inspect. he took it with him and said the new one doesnt work because of an electrical problem . There is many charlatans out there doing work they shouldnt be doing. somebody could get hurt. To bring up a possible problem to a customer is good buisness like the other post said you can be tactful doing it.

What if the plumber correctly replaced a crusty old pump that was burned up due to a stuck bad switch, and the only mistake he made was in the electrical connection? and then he thought he would go the extra step and dispose of the old junk so the customer wouldnt have to handle the dirty thing. Now you come along and assume he is a crook and make him out to be a bad guy without any real evidence.... and like I said before, if he is dishonest, he wont admit it. either way he is going to say the old pump has been disposed of, so what is the point in upsetting everyone?

 

[RH1]

Could be there was no plumber. Could be a DIY job.

 

[AV ELECTRIC]

Its all speculation the only thing we know is the switch was wired incorrectly. Thats a problem in itself .Ive been to a few houses where a garbage disposal was replaced because the old one wasnt working the plummer says the problem is in the electrical they call me and i replace a bad switch. Ime not saying the plumber is dishonest hes doing all he can do to get something working.I think plumbers should do plumbing. thats one reason are wages are going down and were home twiddiling are thumbs. It starts with the phone call who does the customer call first?

 

[growler]

it plainly states on the top of the motor " Factory wired for 240 volts". I pull cover off of pressure switch. Black landed on one term. on switch, white and bare grnd. landed on ground screw. Go in house to panel, dp20. Rewire switch every thing good.

This tells me the guy didn't have any idea what he was doing. How can you possibly check out a motor without knowing the correct operating voltage and how to hook up correctly. To check out the system you would even need to know the correct overcurrent protection.

My opinion is that anytime a person goes around charging cutomers for work that they have no idea how to do, that person is a crook. When you charge for service it's allright to charge a reasonable fee ( considered outrageous by some ) but the customer is paying for a professional.

I would have asked for the plumbing contractors name to make sure he was a licensed plumber. If he wasn't then I would report him. For some reason there are lots of people that like to pretend to be plumbers and electricians.

 

[bradleyelectric]

Speaking of removing the junk, I recently took an old fuse disconnect that was laying in water in the bottom of a pit and replaced it with a water proof switch. Yes I actually mounted it on the side of the pit, not thrown in the water in the bottom of the pit. At the end of the job my helper asked the owner if he wanted us to get rid of the old disconnect. We always get rid of the debris as part of our service. The owner was surprised and asked if we wanted it as if I was going to reuse it for something. I explained I didn't want it but we do dispose of all job trash. For all we know the old pump had a hole in the side of it.

 

[Karl H]

I've been doing service for a very long time. I don't bad mouth hacks,or
other unqualified people performing electrical work to the customer.
I express those opinions when speaking to other electricians.

What I do, is tell the customer the facts, this is why this doesn't work,
this is a violation of this and can and will lead to this, this is what should be
done,etc. I've achieved a very high "Hire" rate with this method.

 

[MarkyMarkNC]

I've been doing service for a very long time. I don't bad mouth hacks,or
other unqualified people performing electrical work to the customer.
I express those opinions when speaking to other electricians.

What I do, is tell the customer the facts, this is why this doesn't work,
this is a violation of this and can and will lead to this, this is what should be
done,etc. I've achieved a very high "Hire" rate with this method.

I agree. Never bad mouth the hack. You never know when the hack is the customers husband / brother / favorite nephew etc.

 

[bradleyelectric]

I agree. Never bad mouth the hack. You never know when the hack is the customers husband / brother / favorite nephew etc.

I called a hack 1 time and told him he needed to stop doing electric work. It was the second time I fixed things behind him and told him so. The first time it would have taken less time for me to do the job in the first place. He asked me what was wrong on the second job and I told him he did it, that was the problem. He just replaced outlets in a house and when he got to the switched outlet he broke the tabs on both sides of the outlet. He kept asking what he did wrong and I kept telling him he was doing things he wasn't qualified to do was what was wrong and this was the second time I had to fix his screw up. He hung up on me.

The owner said he didn't understand why he would do things for pay that he wasn't qualified to. I told him it was because you paid him to. He was charging by the hour so as long as he was getting paid he'd keep working no matter what it was.