Board change - faults

[liam b]

I priced a job the other day and priced low as i had a few days free, part of it was to change the board, i didnt say anything about faults to the customer before i started but there is an open circuit in ring, neutral, i said id have a quick look in the back of the sockets for anything obvious but dont want to do too much without talkin money.

How do i politly say pay me for my time? Has anyone had a customer that 'cant afford' to pay for fault finding?
If it gets to the point that the customer doesnt want me to find the fault what can i do? Is it down to me to sort or a note on the cert?

Cheers

 

[ezzzekiel]

I priced a job the other day and priced low as i had a few days free

Pricing shouldnt be lowered just because you have spare time.

part of it was to change the board

requires a full I&T

there is an open circuit in ring, neutral

maybe testing before board change would have been a good idea

but dont want to do too much without talkin money.

horse bolted no point shutting the door.

this is a perfect example of why electricians have set prices or hourly rates (are you registered, do you have insurances etc in place)..
The fault is now in your hands and it is your responsability to correct it wether you are paid or not.

 

[swparksey]

The fault is now in your hands and it is your responsibility to correct it whether you are paid or not.

Is it, you could just isolate the offending circuit and issue a notification that there is a dangerous situation.
Then you have done your bit so what if it's the kitchen ring

I work in industrial maintenance and that's what we do if only being paid for an inspection. You need to put it in your quotes about additional faults. They won't thank you, but will they thank you when there home burns to the ground?

Then you do the PR thing and fix 4 faults explain them and charge for 2 or 3 making them think they got a deal

 

[lloyd1980]

mate I had a customer like that
It was my first board change after going self employed and was a bit excited when pricing it!!!
didnt test anything before hand just walked round like the big cheese saying you will hardly notice me being here etc
did the change in 3 hours
faults started
spent most of day testing and changing RCDs removing appliances,
at end of day cust insists on me stopping and refitting his re-wirable board
I did this
he ended up with a big bill and the same board he had, with a 17th board sitting in his airing cupboard.
Id have loved to get to the bottom of the bugger as well but hey ho
such is life mate

 

[Sparky Ninja]

Whenever I renew a fuseboard I always discuss with the client the requirement of a periodic prior to changing the unit. 9 times out of 10 they agree, however I can often tell if there wil be problems prior just by spending a few minutes in the unit when pricing.

Other than IR tests of course, you can visually check the bonding, do an end to end on the rings, and do a continuity between conductors to see if the RCD will trip, all on a low reading ohmeter. So all problems are normally picked up very early.

I have also puchased a danger notice pad from the NICEIC, the threat of having to provide one of those will often convince the client to allow you to charge a couple more hours faultfinding.

 

[sparkylad]

Similar type of post in Inspection & Testing-----C u change cert

Same advice--------P.I.R prior to board change....Saves all the hassle.

 

[chris gray]

mate I had a customer like that
It was my first board change after going self employed and was a bit excited when pricing it!!!
didnt test anything before hand just walked round like the big cheese saying you will hardly notice me being here etc
did the change in 3 hours
faults started
spent most of day testing and changing RCDs removing appliances,
at end of day cust insists on me stopping and refitting his re-wirable board
I did this
he ended up with a big bill and the same board he had, with a 17th board sitting in his airing cupboard.
Id have loved to get to the bottom of the bugger as well but hey ho
such is life mate

sorry to hear that but you wouldnt of got 1 penny off me.

 

[lloyd1980]

I see what your saying chris. but I priced for the board change, It is not my fault there were faults , I was in middle of getting to bottom of it, he requested I stopped and put his old board on., I did this, I had still spent loads on un-returnable materials and worked my arse off all day without a break
I tell you, if that had been your home and you had refused to pay me after all that hassle and you had insisted on the work stopping I would have either removed your cut out and left you in darkness or I would have taken the rewirable board off the wall and left you with it in your corridor
wouldnt have got one penny!!!!
its people like you who cause hardworking tradesmen no end of problems
time is chargeable unfortunatly
if you took your car to the garage and they fitted a new part at your request, then the car started playing up through no fault of the part or the mechanic, the mechanic is in middle of sorting it - you stop him working and order the old part refitted. your telling me you wouldnt pay the mechanic for his time??????????????????????????????
course you would you numpty and youd be paying about £60 per hour
some people!!!!