Mistakes that cost you money?

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SIRSPARKSALOT

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We are all human and, therefore, all make mistakes. Let's talk about some of them (violations or other) that cost us money. I'll go first:

Showed up to a job to do a 200A residential service change. It was a nice easy job. I told my helper upon arriving, "We'll be out of here just after lunch." I was told the garage was open, panel was in the garage, water meter was in the basement just off the garage and all was true. I took the inside and my helper took the outside. Two hours into it, (service totally stripped) the homeowner pulls in the driveway, gets out of his car and asks what the %*ll we were doing?

Well, needless to say, we worked late that day doing two service upgrades. The one we were contracted to do and his neighbor's.:lol:
 
SIRSPARKSALOT said:
We are all human and, therefore, all make mistakes. Let's talk about some of them (violations or other) that cost us money. I'll go first:

Showed up to a job to do a 200A residential service change. It was a nice easy job. I told my helper upon arriving, "We'll be out of here just after lunch." I was told the garage was open, panel was in the garage, water meter was in the basement just off the garage and all was true. I took the inside and my helper took the outside. Two hours into it, (service totally stripped) the homeowner pulls in the driveway, gets out of his car and asks what the %*ll we were doing?

Well, needless to say, we worked late that day doing two service upgrades. The one we were contracted to do and his neighbor's.:lol:
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That is funny!!!!

Not my screw up, but my X hired a mover to come get a piano she had sold and asked me to hang around until the movers got there. About an hour after they were supposed to be there, my X calls and asks if they showed up. Nope. No movers.

When the buyer of the piano called up my X and said 'I don't remember it being in this good of shape', and I had told my X that our piano was still in the family room, I got a long silence followed by 'Uh-oh'....

To make a long story short, the movers got the address wrong and went across the street and took the neighbor's piano. No paperwork, they got the address over their radio from the dispatcher.

I thought it was hilarious. The lady that bought the piano and the across the street neighbors didn't see much humor in it.

WLS in Chicago thought it was funny, though. The story got on the air a couple days later.
 
SIRSPARKSALOT said:
We are all human and, therefore, all make mistakes. Let's talk about some of them (violations or other) that cost us money. I'll go first:

Showed up to a job to do a 200A residential service change. It was a nice easy job. I told my helper upon arriving, "We'll be out of here just after lunch." I was told the garage was open, panel was in the garage, water meter was in the basement just off the garage and all was true. I took the inside and my helper took the outside. Two hours into it, (service totally stripped) the homeowner pulls in the driveway, gets out of his car and asks what the %*ll we were doing?

Well, needless to say, we worked late that day doing two service upgrades. The one we were contracted to do and his neighbor's.:lol:
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Ah, the price of a continuing education, the kind of real life experiences that should qualify for some college credits.
I sold and shipped (4) 800A Westinghouse type DS air circuit breakers to a customer that shipped them to Singapore which amounts to about ? way around the world.
When they received them they asked "where are the motor operators?" Yes, I went through the check list carefully but missed the most critical modification which was not field installable. I had to get replacement made with a very short lead-time (thank goodness I had friends that could pull strings) had the others shipped back and imported to Atlanta, Ga. After all of the cost involved I was able to sell them to engineering service and was able to cover the cost of the replacement breakers please a few extra dollars.
I lost a weeks sleep over that fiasco.
 
Like Marky, not my mistake.

Electrical contractor doing high end stereo store. Wire all of the outlets on what they called the wall of sound, plug in all of the recievers and watch as all of the smoke leaves them. Forgot to hook up the neutral in the panel. I was told that was about a $20,000.00 boo boo.

Never really made a mistake that cost me money, made a few that cost me time, but nothing major. Did have a service change for a church that I could only work on two days a week that took me almost six weeks to do, Everything that could go wrong, did, but again mostly time.
 
Boy you (OP) got some timing!:( I'm doing a job right now using Wiremold. I had to order it because the SH didn't stock white. I got the quote/price from them for it and all the fittings. The Wiremold comes in 5' pieces and I asked them just to make sure. "These are 5' pieces right?" They said they were and I said, "ok so, $?? for them right? 5' pieces right?" Yep that's right.
So I came up with my estimate for the customer and waited for the Wiremold to come in.
When I went to pick it up my bill was way more than I figured. The Wiremold itself was the reason for the high total. I asked them if they made a mistake. They looked and said no, 100' of Wiremold at $? a foot, that's what it comes up to.
I take most of the blame but I did ask more than once about the length and price. Problem is they were quoting me per foot and I thought it was per piece since they only come in 5' lengths.:rant:
I had already told the customer the total price and couldn't back out on what I told them, so I guess I'm eating $200+, not good!:cry:
I won't lose on the material, but I'm basically installing it for free.
Why do they charge per foot for something that only comes in one length?
I've only used Wiremold a few times, and then only a piece or two. Also bought it at Lowes and didn't think about it being priced that way at the S/H.
 
The supply houses I use quote by the foot for EMT and RGD although it comes in 10ft
 
cowboyjwc said:
Like Marky, not my mistake.

Electrical contractor doing high end stereo store. Wire all of the outlets on what they called the wall of sound, plug in all of the recievers and watch as all of the smoke leaves them. Forgot to hook up the neutral in the panel. I was told that was about a $20,000.00 boo boo.

Never really made a mistake that cost me money, made a few that cost me time, but nothing major. Did have a service change for a church that I could only work on two days a week that took me almost six weeks to do, Everything that could go wrong, did, but again mostly time.
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Ahhh Smoke...We had a guy that worked for us (until this) who wired an office full of computers and calibration equipment. After the rough inspection the GC closed up the walls, furniture was installed and the computers and equipment were plugged in. The GC called our guy and asked if everything was ready to be turned on. Our guy said yeah just turn on all the breakers that are off and you're good to go. Well, he had plenty of spare circuits to wire this place beacuse they were all the 'high leg'. Lots of smoke! :slaphead:
 
Had a very similar event at the company I once worked for. Luckily it wasn't me but one of our "more experienced" guys. He wired a small room for a dozen new computers. In a hurry he pulled off a convienient lighting circuit in the ceiling. Forgot all his prior "experience" I guess....lighting system was 277v....seems computers aren't. Cost the company a healthy sum.
 
Didn't really cost too much but I got on a streak of punching out j-boxes 1 size too large for a while:ashamed1:. It got rather funny after 3 or 4 in a row...got a little razzing from my co-workers. My helper was even kind enough to stock the gang box with reducing bushings...with my name on them.:slaphead:
 
Not trying to pick on anybody but all the stories of wrong voltage, open neutral, and similar problems are easily detected by actually testing for voltage before connecting loads - especially for receptacle circuits.

But a person has to learn the hard way sometimes. I don't always check voltage myself, but usually try to before allowing the load to run. When it is always correct is when you get lazy and don't check - that is when you will make some mistake even if you never make mistakes. One little distraction will make you easily switch the polarity of a device, a panelboard, disconnect, or anything and you don't notice until you either check voltage or turn the load on and watch it smoke.
 
I do fire alarm work. A long time ago one of my instructors told the class "the panel is not a meter". He meant do not connect field wiring until you checked with a meter for end of line resistors, opens, shorts and ground faults.

I try to use his advice in the higher voltage stuff. I normally check the outlet before I plug in a computer or whatever. But I usually check with my wiggy and not a meter that will actually tell me the voltage. At least most of the time with the wiggy I can feel the difference between 120V and 240V before I blow something up.

One of my co-workers years ago went to a house to install a ceiling fan. The customer was not home but the fan was on the floor in the living room. He installed the fan in that room only to find out it was installed in the wrong room. His boss said he had to go back and move it on his own time. Didn?t happen. He quit instead. There was more hate and discontent at that company than you could shake a stick at so my friend moved on.
 
cowboyjwc said:
And what does that have to do with making a mistake?
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I also spend a ton of time bidding. I believe what they are getting at is that one missed spec, drawings (hopefully not), measurement, addendum etc. and you've got yourself a job.

We always joke in the office. "Hey, how bad do you want this one?"..."We really should go after this one"..."Okay, I won't print all the drawings then.":lol:
 
SIRSPARKSALOT said:
I also spend a ton of time bidding. I believe what they are getting at is that one missed spec, drawings (hopefully not), measurement, addendum etc. and you've got yourself a job.

We always joke in the office. "Hey, how bad do you want this one?"..."We really should go after this one"..."Okay, I won't print all the drawings then.":lol:
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And that's possible, but bidding a project had nothing to do with the mistake that you were talking about. In fact that's the same kind of mistake that got me a new garage door for free.:happyyes:
 
Well, leaving the passenger side utility box door down, then pulling out of the garage got my wife new siding on one end of the garage, plus insulation and sheetrock on the undamaged portion. Less than $200 damage to the pickup IIRC. Siding, and house, were about 2 years old.

Explained to my young help about the hazards of MWBC then listened to a houseful of smoke detectors go "ping" one time. The only neutral not connected. He was smart enough to not noticably laugh outloud.
 
cowboyjwc said:
And what does that have to do with making a mistake?
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It's probably "read between the lines," such as doing stuff and jobs.
If you do job, if you work then $__t happens. In order to make mistakes you have to do something first in order to screw up. Could it be that all of us have been there and done that, stuff that can't be learned in school or as an apprentice but by experience?
Then it's how creative you are in correcting the screw up.
 
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