You broke it!

[SEO]

I was talking to generator tech the other day about the saying that "all good deeds never go unpunished" we traded stories . He said that he received a call to service a new customers generator. He finished the service request and noticed a light that an electrician had installed to let the homeowner know when the generator was running had a bad bulb. He asked the homeowner if she had a bulb and that he would change it. She gave him a bulb and as he started to unscrew the globe it broke. He went to the lady and explained what had happened and where she might be able to get a new globe. She told him that you broke it you fix it! You have to be careful doing anything outside the scope of your job.

 

[brian john]

YEP:

When I was doing residential, I completed changing some single poles to 3 ways and was leaving when the home owner asked me if I could look at the door bell. The back button did not work. I looked at it and the button was broke as was the chime itself. Later my boss called me on the radio to tell me the home owner said I looked at the doorbell for no reason (she never asked me too) and broke it.

I was in deep DooDoo for trying to help, she also told him I was rude and when we came back to install the new pieces I was not to come.

 

[ohm]

I was talking to generator tech the other day about the saying that "all good deeds never go unpunished" we traded stories . He said that he received a call to service a new customers generator. He finished the service request and noticed a light that an electrician had installed to let the homeowner know when the generator was running had a bad bulb. He asked the homeowner if she had a bulb and that he would change it. She gave him a bulb and as he started to unscrew the globe it broke. He went to the lady and explained what had happened and where she might be able to get a new globe. She told him that you broke it you fix it! You have to be careful doing anything outside the scope of your job.

Actually you & Brian were in trouble before you started the jobs. You were going to get blamed for everthing in or out of the scope.

You can't let one incident change your attitude, keep up the good work those people are the ones who will have to live with themselves.

 

[djohns6]

I occasionaly have industrial customers that need advice or assistance with
high voltage equiptment . You have to be real careful what you tell them .
The other day , a customer had a 230kv circuit breaker that wouldn't close .
It appeared to be a synchronizing problem . He asked me if it was ok to go out in the yard and manualy close the breaker . I told him that I didn't want any part of that . It was right after Hurricane Gustav , and our transmission system was real shaky . I called my supervisor and he told me to get the heck out of there before I got blamed for something .

 

[JohnJ0906]

Tuesday I replaced a lighting contactor at a warehouse. (277 volt) The next day we got a call, "The office A/C hasn't worked since you were here"
The office rooftop units were 208v. It took 10 minutes to explain that there was no way I could have affected the RTUs without shutting the entire office down.
One of the 4 wasn't blowing air as cold as the other 3. Of course this was were they were all sitting, AND had the front door propped open all day. :roll:

 

[ultramegabob]

Once I was changing batteries and bulbs in exit signs in a bowling alley while they had daytime leagues going on. The building lost power and everyone was yelling "WHAT DID YOU DO????" picture the towns people with torches and pitchforks... I just told everyone to get serious, your not going to shut down the entire bowling alley with an exit sign bulb. a minute or so later it came back on, turned out the power company lost a grid, and that entire end of town was out.

 

[Buck Parrish]

On the other end of the spectrum

On the other end of the spectrum

I went to a house and reset a gfci outlet. This lady had just taken a chocolate pie out of the oven. Her and her daughter we're putting whip creme on it.
She said my daughter sure would be happy if you had a slice of this pie.
So I said sure. I sat right down and while they watched I had a big slice of pie. hmmmm.
An other service call I just had to trip a breaker back and explain what appliance caused it. The guy gave me a $50 tip.

I esspecially like the service calls around Christmas. One lady baked and gave me a whole batch of cookies.
I had one guy pay me double.
I'm not even going to tell you about the young lady getting out of the shower while I was installing a cieling fan in her bed room. Let's just say she was very generous.

 

[Minuteman]

I'm not even going to tell you about the young lady getting out of the shower while I was installing a cieling fan in her bed room. Let's just say she was very generous.

Okay Buck, you killed this thread. How's anyone gonna top that?

 

[ohm]

We have a saying in South: "The last fibber wins":smile:

 

[DanZ]

A friend of mine is the mechanic at a used car lot. He had someone with a GM they had just bought come back and tell him it was having starting problems. He crawled under the car with on wrench, metric, between a 4mm and 6mm, if I remember correctly, and turned the brass connector on the starter around 180 degrees. It took all of 5 minutes. It started fine after that. A week or so later, they had the car towed back to the lot and blamed him for loosening all the bolts on the tranny, and causing it to fall out...

 

[DanZ]

Oh, I forgot to mention, when you do your billing, detail everything! In this case, take a separate line to include "customer asked me to check door bell at back door","found x to be problem"

edit to add: Hopefully, you make them sign something showing they received the statement, and agree that the work was done.

 

[mthead]

You broke it

You broke it

Unfortunately ,experiences like these are what cause all of us to often work withe the"can of worms'mindset" work with blinders on because so often it may feel as if no good deed goes unpunished. It's a bad head to get into but we all know how easy it is to find yourself operating that way.
One day we were driving down a block here in L.B.,N.Y back when I was still wearin' my tools and a Pot up on the pole happened to blow out[don't know why but there we were as it was goin' down].The next thing you know--heads are out all the doors and windows up and down the block --and who are they pointing at-that's right-us in our bright company labeled electric vehicle--"Hey What did you guys do to the lights?,,,ever heard the line "Ain't no Luck,I learned to duck"...,Suddenly there was a van going down the street with no heads in it.

 

[electricalperson]

I went to a house and reset a gfci outlet. This lady had just taken a chocolate pie out of the oven. Her and her daughter we're putting whip creme on it.
She said my daughter sure would be happy if you had a slice of this pie.
So I said sure. I sat right down and while they watched I had a big slice of pie. hmmmm.
An other service call I just had to trip a breaker back and explain what appliance caused it. The guy gave me a $50 tip.

I esspecially like the service calls around Christmas. One lady baked and gave me a whole batch of cookies.
I had one guy pay me double.
I'm not even going to tell you about the young lady getting out of the shower while I was installing a cieling fan in her bed room. Let's just say she was very generous.

want to trade customers with me?

 

[mthead]

I went to a house and reset a gfci outlet. This lady had just taken a chocolate pie out of the oven. Her and her daughter we're putting whip creme on it.
She said my daughter sure would be happy if you had a slice of this pie.
So I said sure. I sat right down and while they watched I had a big slice of pie. hmmmm.
An other service call I just had to trip a breaker back and explain what appliance caused it. The guy gave me a $50 tip.

I esspecially like the service calls around Christmas. One lady baked and gave me a whole batch of cookies.
I had one guy pay me double.
I'm not even going to tell you about the young lady getting out of the shower while I was installing a cieling fan in her bed room. Let's just say she was very generous.

Oh B of D why does that last line remind me of a p/house forum story I read back in 1973--wait a minute Bof D/Buck of Durham? so that was you eh?

 

[K8MHZ]

I have managed to break 2 globes in my tenure, both of which I paid for. One was cheap, one was not. In fact, the expensive one pretty much ate up all the profit made on the small job.

In this area, customers are harder to come by than globes.

I am much more careful now.

Besides, two wrecks out of the myriads of globes I have worked on is not such a bad record if you think about it....

 

[LarryFine]

Who did T.A.edison contact to certify that his new \"electric system\" was safe to operate?

The New York Board of Insurance Underwriters.

 

[quogueelectric]

Whenever I do service changes I write a ledger of every breaker and I double mark the breaker to the wire 2 numbers and I cut betreen the numbers. I notate the position of every breaker as to on or off and It takes about an extra 10 minutes to do and a dollars worth of marking numbers. I cant tell you how many times I have had to work with other morons that ripped the service apart and call me in a panic because they have been letting the smoke out all over the house. Customers who are slick will try to blame anything that is broken on the work that you did. They cant get around my system tho. In a composition book so it holds up in court I can prove I put it all back exactly the way it was originally for an extra 10 mins work. PRICELESS!!! Never enough time to do it right but always enough time to do it twice. Not how the cow rolls.

 

[Brady Electric]

You Broke It

You Broke It

Ever went on a service all and the house next door that you never went in said you broke there toilet?
Just kidding
I have learned to be very careful about what I do and say
If I see anything broke or scratched when I get there I show the customer so I don't get blamed
34 years ago I used to sit the globes on the top of the ladder when installing a fixture and I would knock it off by mistake
After replacing a few globes I learned to do things a little different
Semper Fi Buddy

 

[DanZ]

I have learned to be very careful about what I do and say
If I see anything broke or scratched when I get there I show the customer so I don't get blamed

Pictures, man, pictures! That, actually, is another good one. Here's what I found, here's what I did...

 

[jrannis]

Ever went on a service all and the house next door that you never went in said you broke there toilet?
Just kidding
I have learned to be very careful about what I do and say
If I see anything broke or scratched when I get there I show the customer so I don't get blamed
34 years ago I used to sit the globes on the top of the ladder when installing a fixture and I would knock it off by mistake
After replacing a few globes I learned to do things a little different
Semper Fi Buddy

I hand the globe to the HO to wash the bugs and dust out.