Ever get the feeling customers think your out to rip them off?

[timo]

Hate it when you go to do a simple job and then somthing pops up and you go to tell the customer and they look at you blank. Like your making it up or tying to get more work out of them. Some times could do without the hassle of finding faults that need to be sorted out just too busy.

 

[cside]

did anyone see that bit in the paper a few years ago where someone wired a single socket under the floorboards of some customers house who kept messing them about over money, they then went to tescos and purchased a cheap mobile and plugged it in and rang it randomly for 6 months

 

[5-Week-Wonder]

Quoted a bargain price to do a rewire of a flat that was wired in VIR and the insulation was totally screwed. Customer started moaning how expensive it was before I'd even explained what it cost and what was involved!

Should've walked away but guy I was working with weakened and offered to wire up the shed in the price (the garage board & wiring was already in place, but I'd disconnected and condemned and supply cable, which was 2.5 T&E in a hosepipe).

We had to work 10 hour days to get it all done. When it came to getting paid, the customer kicked up a huge stink about the materials bill and resumed complaining about the agreed labour cost (which was a bargain).

Total loonies... thought they could get a sparky for £80 a day. If I get another one I'm going to tell them that my price has just doubled and they should get some other quotes. When they come crawling back they can kiss my feet and beg me to do the work for the original price.

Thankfully that's been the only one who thinks that they're some sort of charity case and tradesmen should work for free. Handing over the cash so begrudgingly when you've received the agreed services is bang out of order.

What makes me even angrier is the fact that I do lots of little jobs for poor pensioners, and I barely cover my costs on those ones because I do have a conscience and a charitable spirit. To be accused of being a rogue trader when you've cut your margins to the wire for some ungrateful ignorant fool... makes the blood boil

 

[DurhamSparky]

i know what you mean!! i did a PIR and found the rings to be open in 2 places one on Live other cpc only one intack was Neutal!!! after spending 3-4 hours finding the exact fault locations at customer request she then asked if i wil lbe charging her for the fault finding!!! eh!! wtf.. also told that garage was unusable and i made the isolation switch.. pitty because i wanted to isolate the supply but some clown tapped into the ring behind some wall tiles and took a spur off so that ment that the ring would be isolated and it was one of them daft rings that feed up and down!! also wired in a horrendous design so trying to find which socket folows what was crazy!!

when i agreed that i would include the 3 hours for extra 20 quid on top of my PIR report i got the evil eyes as if i had just robbed a Old Lady!!!

truth be know i enjoyed the up and down stairs stuff as it was some hand experience for if i ever go back ..! but i though extra £20 was nothing!!

 

[dufjax]

I turned the power of to a lighting circuit at a family friends house to put up a couple of fittings in the kitchen for them as a favour,that evening got a call that the security light outside wasnt working. Turned out the sensor...an expensive german 'watchdog' one had packed up. Of course first thing was , 'well it was working before you came'....tried to explain that all I had done was turn that circuit off....hadnt touched any of the wiring to the sensor at all...it was pure coincidence that the thing had failed at that time.
To cut a long story short I ended up coughing up for a replacement just to stop the whinging....they are no longer family friends.....moral?...dont do favours.

Someone pulled the same scam on me about 6 months ago. Doing a garage conversion didn't even touch or go near said security light. Got a phone call from main contractor he wasn't happy I'd "messed their light up". They decided they were going to tell the NIC, I still never coughed up and stuck to my guns. Never heard anymore.
I also don't work with this contractor anymore, my choice he was a cowboy. He ripped the roof felt on the porch (same job) and said "Well when it starts leaking we won't be here" Also their carpentry works dreadful, skirting boards didn't fit, door didn't fit etc.
Don't really want people like that bringing our name down.

Jim

 

[wattsup]

I know what you mean!...my elderly neigbour wanted a shower wiring (too old to get in and out of bath) he was 97! He got a grant from some scheme or other, he didn't even have to pay for it. We were good neighbours, no problems he liked us!...untill I priced for shower. Old porcelein fuses, all earths twisted and in a screwit connector above the plywood fuse board.

Err, I cant' wire a shower into that, you need a new board, in fact you need a complete rewire, the wiring is dodgy.

Accepting the fact he was real old and realising the disruption involved in a complete rewire, I said I could do the shower alone and quoted for a new board dedicated to the shower only.

The price was £75.00, he had to pay 50% of the cost (this was 10 years ago) he never spoke to me or my wife again, he told other neighbours I was a con man and was exploiting the grant scheme. He eventually got a full grant for other works 2 years later, ch, new roof, kitchen, rewire etc. The rewire cost was £2800...not bad even today for a 2-bed semi. He died 1-week before his 100-th birthday, we had been neighbours 20-years on good terms, I did a few garden type jobs over the years for him for free...but electrics I'm a con man

btw it was an rcd 1-way, even before mandority

 

[lloyd1980]

ive been there commercially
was in a shop replacing 24 flurecents
i undid the last screw on the last one with my battery drill and water starts to **** out all over the shop floor as in pools of it
im thinking ive nicked a pipe as ive unscrewed the last screw
the last screw was 3 inches long - yes 3 inches!!! god knows what muppet put that up!!
we chipped away the cieling to find that when the lights were put up whoever fitted them with the 3 inch screw had screwed straight through a plastic water pipe sealing it when the screw was in, as soon as i un screwed it psssssssssssssssss all over the shop floor!!!
that sinking feeling was horrible when it happened!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and I hate the am i being ripped off look!!!
i get it every time i get called to estimate for a cu change and for eg the water or gas isnt earthed and i tell them its a legal requirment so have to do this as well

people as in general public do not have a CLUE

NEVER do work for family or friends

they expect the earth for nothing and take the **** more than paying customers

 

[cbw]

Yep, agreed, 3 days work at a 'mates', total net profit about £70, waited months for payment............

 

[wattsup]

I must add I've dropped a -------...years and years ago rewiring houses for the then YEB on estates in south yorks (must admit worst job I ever had)
Screwing new pendant up in living room, I hear a loud hisssss, then smells gas, **** I thinks...I turn screw another turn, no hiss, undo slightly big hiss. **** I've hit a gas pipe.

Yep lead gas pipe to bedroom gas fire still live (although the gas fire is removed, the pipe just capped off under floor)

YEB tells me I should always b careful when rewiring, err you get ****ed yeb that pipe should not be live...end of yeb career

 

[DurhamSparky]

lol. i quoted for a full rewire, job and alone it was costing me £800 in parts for what the guy wanted .

woul dtake me 4 days i recon plus with a second set of hands so 2x labour i worked out £2250 ball park!!

this was 3 bed Victorian terrace!!

i never got job aparently i was well off the mark and he went with a quote for 1k??? i never asked any questions! goo dluck to mr Validmer or XQerrihikhukyhjhcnjkld ..

 

[lloyd1980]

hands up whos hit a pipe?!!!
we had an aprentice who was a bit too over enthusiastic with a wall chaser and would inevetably cut pipes when you werent in the room or would always seem to put his fut through the plasterboard ceiling!!
or a guy i used to work with we nicknamed greame gaspipe

ive done it on water pipes, when pulling through cable through joists pulling it up and kinked a water pipe psssssssssssssssss

its never intentional but always a pain in the ---

 

[wattsup]

My mate once did a favour for a neigghbour...pull cord in bathroom sticking...just change it, simple no bother...except several years of paint made it difficult to remove the pattress, it needed a tap with a hammer. So no bother, done it...except when all done the hammer falls off the step ladder and cracks the nice new wash basin...ooops

 

[lloyd1980]

hahahahahah ooooohhhhhh

you could just caulk the cracks and scarper

wasnt me guv!!!

 

[DurhamSparky]

except when all done the hammer falls off the step ladder and cracks the nice new wash basin...ooops

INSURANCE!!!!! thank god..!

so far no pipes!!!

 

[wattsup]

Don't think insurance would cover (look at small print) due care and attention....don't trust insurance

 

[5-Week-Wonder]

hands up whos hit a pipe?!!!

Yeah, I've hit a gas pipe. Last screw to fix a bit of trunking and then I was on the home straight. Bloody cowboy builder had built a lean-to extension with gas pipes hidden where they shouldn't be (according to gas engineer who put it right).

Bang goes the profit on that job.