KARMA....let me vent please

[cowboyjwc]

My thoughts on things like this is why spend so much money on something you can't use? I like to live in my home not live in a museum where you are trying to preserve everything. If something wears out that means it got some use, and hopefully was a pleasant experience for the users, now it needs replaced:happyyes:

I had a friend, who's mom spent months searching for the right sofa for the living room and then put a slip cover over it so that it wouldn't get dirty.:happysad:

 

[cowboyjwc]

i had a gal just lay into me about wasting her time because i was an hour late, it was a service change estimate! i still told her to pound sand.

i had a "loyal customer" have me come over to wire a trailer his son could live in. talked me down to $65/hr instead of my usual $75. i had wired a one room apt above a barn for him once, it was for about $500 to rough in and a couple hun to trim out, last year this.

as i walk up to the trailer the plumb-bob says i must be one of those XXXXX electric boys. i said No, why? he said because they had a crew of guys rewiring my customers other house down the street. i jacked him up about it when he came back with some wire and he said he didnt even ask me because he 'thought i was too small'.. i packed all my tools and told him not to ever call me again. ps..he is a multi millionaire. a.h.!

i could go on forever with people who had me tell them how i would do something and ended up them doing it themselves. its part of being in biz. thats why i dont get into specifics anymore, lesson learned.

btw, i totally agree with the Flat Rate thing. i bill for worst case scenario, then I get the fruits of any saved labor. and as for wood floors? if i have to take them off for a customer that's one thing. but they are put on the floor for ONE REASON and that is to WALK ON THEM.

Had a guy, that was a suit, where I used to work, that fancied himself a handy man. Asked me if I would come by one day and help him lay out a three way switch and a plug in his garage. After awhile of explaining and reexplaining and reexplaining it again, I finally asked him if he wanted me to do it for him. He said no, why? I said, because I'd have probably been done by now.

 

[jeremysterling]

Had a guy, that was a suit, where I used to work, that fancied himself a handy man. Asked me if I would come by one day and help him lay out a three way switch and a plug in his garage. After awhile of explaining and reexplaining and reexplaining it again, I finally asked him if he wanted me to do it for him. He said no, why? I said, because I'd have probably been done by now.

The owner of a Chinese restaurant asked me, "How do you change an exhaust fan belt and what factors do you consider?"

I was polite and told him to use a wrench, but in the back of my mind I thought, "How do you make rice not sticky?"

 

[__dan]

I got paid with a 1lb bag of popcorn, twice.

Second time was sometime last month. A friend, someone I would like to call and hit for a favor, calls and asks if I have any electrical parts laying around. He wanted boxes and covers for outside use. He only wanted parts laying around, nothing else. Tried to get a picture of what he was doing so I could help him, but it was no go. All I could get was power to the cow fence from the chicken coop.

OK, I have to see it to understand what you want to do. Let me scoot up there and take a look.

I look and the new location for the electric fence is 400 ft with the chicken coop at the halfway point. He has the trench open and is sleeving cable in large, 1" or so, PVC. He did not have one piece of wire long enough, so he was running 80 ft of RX in PVC, splicing, running 80 ft UF in PVC, splicing, running RX direct burial. 10-2 RX to 14-3 RX DB to 14-4 UF in 1" PVC.

His progress is like 75% this way and he calls me because he wants some boxes and covers. Nothing else.

Oh yeah, the PVC penetrates the foundation and RX flies out of it and he has a plug cap on the RX to plug into the outlet. I am so trained to not look but I still saw it.

I kept saying the GFI will not hold and he kept saying (he knew this) "I want to plug it in with no GFI".

This man is a true straight arrow, someone solid I would like to call a friend and ask for help.

I told him there was nothing about it I could touch and he was scaring me more than anyone else in the last ten years. This did not cause him to hesitate or notice anything. He seemed to think he would be the only one getting the shock.

So I made him a material list for Home Depot, PVC FS boxes and covers, he still wanted mine and I had to back away gently. His splicing, he had swapped the black and white, but he says he knows it so he can make it right down the line. Tell him NO, when or if you switch the neutral, the device will go off but the hot voltage will still be everywhere. I go over this many times, do not put the switch in the neutral because you reversed the color of the wires, check it with a meter.

I know how I am, I do not let people work for me without paying them. I had to let him offer what he wanted and it was 1 lb of popcorn and a dozen eggs.

Trust me when I say this, literally, there are not many men who are better.

 

[kwired]

I got paid with a 1lb bag of popcorn, twice.

Second time was sometime last month. A friend, someone I would like to call and hit for a favor, calls and asks if I have any electrical parts laying around. He wanted boxes and covers for outside use. He only wanted parts laying around, nothing else. Tried to get a picture of what he was doing so I could help him, but it was no go. All I could get was power to the cow fence from the chicken coop.

OK, I have to see it to understand what you want to do. Let me scoot up there and take a look.

I look and the new location for the electric fence is 400 ft with the chicken coop at the halfway point. He has the trench open and is sleeving cable in large, 1" or so, PVC. He did not have one piece of wire long enough, so he was running 80 ft of RX in PVC, splicing, running 80 ft UF in PVC, splicing, running RX direct burial. 10-2 RX to 14-3 RX DB to 14-4 UF in 1" PVC.

His progress is like 75% this way and he calls me because he wants some boxes and covers. Nothing else.

Oh yeah, the PVC penetrates the foundation and RX flies out of it and he has a plug cap on the RX to plug into the outlet. I am so trained to not look but I still saw it.

I kept saying the GFI will not hold and he kept saying (he knew this) "I want to plug it in with no GFI".

This man is a true straight arrow, someone solid I would like to call a friend and ask for help.

I told him there was nothing about it I could touch and he was scaring me more than anyone else in the last ten years. This did not cause him to hesitate or notice anything. He seemed to think he would be the only one getting the shock.

So I made him a material list for Home Depot, PVC FS boxes and covers, he still wanted mine and I had to back away gently. His splicing, he had swapped the black and white, but he says he knows it so he can make it right down the line. Tell him NO, when or if you switch the neutral, the device will go off but the hot voltage will still be everywhere. I go over this many times, do not put the switch in the neutral because you reversed the color of the wires, check it with a meter.

I know how I am, I do not let people work for me without paying them. I had to let him offer what he wanted and it was 1 lb of popcorn and a dozen eggs.

Trust me when I say this, literally, there are not many men who are better.

At least he buried it, I once had someone that wanted to know where the line went bad - similar situation - long run to pasture well and electric fence - conductors were never buried, he knew it wasn't a safe installation but wanted it fixed anyway, tough to make decisions in these cases in a rural area where everyone knows most everyone else, if you get him PO'd he bad mouths you to everyone else.

 

[Fulthrotl]

is it a good thing, or a bad thing?

is it a good thing, or a bad thing?

i have a customer that has had me over more than once, asked me about something
they needed to do, picked my brain, and then got someone else to do it.

once, i worked out a solution to a problem they had, quoted them a price to fix it,
and they took my idea, gave it to the contractor who butchered the work in the first
place, and paid him a little over double what i'd quoted... and in his repair he utilized
a plastic paint tray instead of a junction box... i was more than a bit annoyed.

since that day, i've done over $100k worth of work there.... with the same treatment.
this week, my invoices there was $4,100.

it's business, not personal.

they call me up, ask me about something, i quote over the phone, send an email with
the quote attached, off the ipad. if they want it done, they reply with an email to please
do it, and i do. i send the bill the instant the work is done, and they pay promptly.

i'm not here for the deep emotional reward that comes with snaking pipe above t bar.