Crooks...

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Coppersmith said:
My impression was these guys were incompetent, not ripoff artists. My first step would have been to plug a self-powered toner into the outlet and then go to the panel to verify the breaker was good. I would have found the issue immediately and then wrote up a bill for my one hour minimum charge.
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Yep, when ever these kinds of stories come up it has not always been ripoff artist but as often as not, just plain incompetence.
Sadly our trade, and for that matter all the trades, the competence level today is appalling and getting worse.
 
Coppersmith said:
My impression was these guys were incompetent, not ripoff artists.
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texie said:
Yep, when ever these kinds of stories come up it has not always been ripoff artist but as often as not, just plain incompetence.
Sadly our trade, and for that matter all the trades, the competence level today is appalling and getting worse.
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"Incompetence is the worst form of corruption!" ~ Mitchell Ryan as Harve Poole in Electra Glide in Blue
 
a loose screw on a breaker would be far down my list when troubleshooting simply because so rarely is that the problem

and many or most of the time fixing circuit only takes minutes, but finding often takes hours
 
readydave8 said:
a loose screw on a breaker would be far down my list when troubleshooting simply because so rarely is that the problem
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Generally, as soon as I'm sure the issue is not withing the malfunctioning box(es), the breaker panel is where I check next, because it's centralized and easy.

and many or most of the time fixing circuit only takes minutes, but finding often takes hours
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That's why troubleshooting is the one job I always price by time, and say I'll either fix the problem as I find it, or price fixing it after finding it, if necessary.
 
readydave8 said:
a loose screw on a breaker would be far down my list when troubleshooting simply because so rarely is that the problem

and many or most of the time fixing circuit only takes minutes, but finding often takes hours
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Right. There's a difference between a contrived defect in workmanship and a real one; with a real one probabilities are a player.
 
I have used toners from the IT world for finding wires sometimes but is there a plug in self powered toner that can tone while a circuit is hot? Because most I would be afraid of breaking by using on live work.
 
Buck Parrish said:
A couple questions you ask when trouble shooting is this. "Has any body been here doing any work"? Second " How long has it not worked" What were you doing when it quit working''?

In this case the customer would have had to lie. Otherwise, 'tell you, yeah, some one just had the cover off the panel.
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And don't forget to ask, "are you recording this for one of those stupid youtube videos"?:D
 
Something interesting. Go back and watch the video and stop it when they show a chose up of the panel. There is a white wire double tapped with a red wire on one of the breakers. Did their electrician even question this to see what's going on? It's a 1:15 running time.
 
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