Email from customer

[ggunn]

You sell a car to Customer X. A year later Customer X calls you up and says, "I took that car you sold me down to Paul the Mechanic because I wanted him to install a new distributor cap and while he was installing the new distributor cap the whole engine caught fire so Paul put a new engine in and now you owe me $4000".

And you say,
A) "Yea, that makes sense. Let me write you a check, or better yet let me Venmo you".
B) "Let me pay a lawyer to decide if I need to pay you for the engine fire Paul caused".
C) "Tell Paul I'll cover half of his bill. That seems the most fair way to handle it".

All of those choices seem wrong.

A similar situation happened to my daughter after she sold her old car. It was sold "as is" and the buyer acknowledged that, but a couple of months later he came back to her about a problem with the car and telling her that she either needed to fix it or take the car back and refund his money. I told him in the nicest possible terms to pound sand.

 

[kwired]

See an attorney
Ask attorney about the following:
Call insurance company
See if the added circuit was permitted
Call, or see, the customer
Ask customer why they didn't call you for the added circuit & for sure ask why they didn't call you for the repair.

They are free to call anyone for the added circuit, especially if OP was completed with what he had been there for. If they truly feel the OP is possibly at fault for what happened or at least feel the equipment was defective they should have at least called him when it happened and given him a chance to do something about it. He very well may have come over within reasonable time and come up with some solution, even if something temporary until they could get needed replacement parts.

Instead they appear to possibly be covering things up and looking for someone else to take the fall for whatever they had done. Replacing entire panel with something different- maybe was the fastest way to get it going, you still potentially destroyed some evidence of what really went on to cause the other one to fail. If you want a warranty claim that is a poor way of going about it.

Customer better hope "Paul" had filed permits and did everything proper on whatever he was originally there for should this go into deeper litigation.

 

[AC\DC]

A similar situation happened to my daughter after she sold her old car. It was sold "as is" and the buyer acknowledged that, but a couple of months later he came back to her about a problem with the car and telling her that she either needed to fix it or take the car back and refund his money. I told him in the nicest possible terms to pound sand.

Ya but as a bussiness you have to please these people —- one bad customer can make hurt your business—- as an individual i
Can tell many people to fly a kite, do that as a business and watch what happens

 

[kwired]

Ya but as a bussiness you have to please these people more—- one bad customer can make hurt your business—- as an individual i
Can tell many people to fly a kite, do that as a business and watch what happens

If they are truly deadbeat clients your name only gets tarnished within the circle of deadbeat clients for the most part which is probably a good thing.

If you do good work for good people they refer you to other good people for when they need your services. Still may get a bad one here or there but people they know have an idea of what kind of things they do to others and don't automatically take in what may be said. We all have that friend or relative that we have to be friendly with but know we shouldn't trust them with business type issues any more than we have to.

 

[TwistLock]

Others here have already inferred as much but I’ll just repeat:

…”and while tapping out a knockout sparks flew from the 200a breaker” …”The breaker in question was basically unscathed but the bus bars had arced with the metal backing”… That's a fairly accurate description of a ko etc falling behind the breaker like a coin through a gap.

And who writes “We’re grateful this problem was discovered when an electrician such as Paul was onsite and that he could step into action quickly to fix it.” (step into action ? He was already there, probably causing the problem). Yet prior in the email it states: “The panel replacement took most of the weekend as the only locally sourcable option was a Square-D 400a panel and we had to then wait to have the county inspect this new panel on Tuesday December 9 before getting SCE to re-electrify.” So they’re basically saying that they were informed on Friday that the cause of this arc was due to an improper installation or a manufacturing defect and never thought once to call the original installer during those five days until Tuesday (or later) after power was restored.

All I can say is that if I was the original installer, I would be sleeping a little easier knowing that Paul now owns that job.

 

[kwired]

Small towns- most people know who the bad apples are, even if they are so called prominent members of the community.

I find it is the guy that has operated a business for years and everyone thinks they are great. You go to their house or do work at their business and they want to nickel and dime you to death, not pay for this or that, find reasons to ask for discounts or freebies. Yet they won't budge on similar situations if you were buying goods/services from them. Everyone that ever dealt with them knows what they are like even if they are still nice to them. Then there is a group of say 30% of the community that won't deal with them at all if possible.

 

[ggunn]

Ya but as a bussiness you have to please these people —- one bad customer can make hurt your business—- as an individual i
Can tell many people to fly a kite, do that as a business and watch what happens

I get that, but I was replying to ActionDave's scenario

 

[roger]

We would have never considered paying this.

 

[Joethemechanic]

We’re grateful this problem was discovered when an electrician such as Paul was onsite and that he could step into action quickly to fix it.”

It sounds like they are sharing a bed

 

[JohnE]

No way I would pay this. I would talk to my lawyer to figure out how to best reply. With the repair/ replacement already made, they took some options out of your hands.