Power outage at a lamppost call

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Michael15956

Senior Member
Location
NE Ohio
First of all I love troubleshooting and I requested this separate section from Dennis for a long while now, thanks Dennis!!!

I will never know enough about electrical troubleshooting and will be checking this section daily. thanks Dennis :)

I troubleshoot in the residential, farm and commercial areas.

Well I see there is nothing to read currently so I'll tell a story of a recent residential troubleshooting call.

Received a call of a front yard power failure of a lamppost. Customer said her husband replaced all three light bulbs and still no lights were working. She thought the photocell went bad. I arrived at the home and discovered that the said lamppost was in the middle of a perfect keeped flower bed. I told the lady that I really didn't want to walk in her flower bed to fix her power failure and would try to solve her problem without damage to one flower. Well she was all for that.

Well you guys all know that when photocells go bad they leave the lights on, so after finding out that the lamppost was not switched I went hunting for a direct feed to the lights. So I said to myself, myself where is the most lightly place for the feed to be to this post. Let see, front yard, front porch. Sure enough front porch receptacle out. Checked receptacle and had no power at the hot and no continuity between a good ground and neutral. Asked the lady what room was behind this receptacle, she said a laundry room. Well you guys know the rest of the story...........trip gfci, caused by what I think a recent lightning storm.

She was just delighted with my troubleshooting work and it just made my day! So, just for the hell of it when she asked how much I told her, since I only had to travel about 2 miles to get to her house and didn't do much and she really made me smile that the bill could be something more than 0 and less than $51 and she can make the decision.

Thanks guys for listening


btw: She wrote a check for $50
 
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qcroanoke

Sometimes I don't know if I'm the boxer or the bag
Location
Roanoke, VA.
Occupation
Sorta retired........
Get ready to be told you will never make it in business charging like that.
Personally I say good job. Sometimes the feel good is all I need.
 

Dennis Alwon

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
Get ready to be told you will never make it in business charging like that.
Personally I say good job. Sometimes the feel good is all I need.

Although I agree Mike doesn't charge enough he has been in business for some time and is happy with his life. Different areas of the country demand different wages. Here that would have been $130 service call but sometimes if it is a good customer I may drop it to $90.

Mike works by himself so it is his time only that he had to worry about on this job.
 
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