When the brown hits the fan - Worst bloopers

[highspark]

Whats the worst bloopers you have done in regards to customers possessions.I've done many but probably the worst was when I was sent to look at an alarm. Got up to the bellbox un-screwed it then casually placed it hanging on the leg of the ladder...Gust of wind ....smash..... damn that isn't good. Couldn't get a direct replacement (none the same shape) so had to replace the whole bellbox.

 

[Paul.M]

Rockingit how much is your PLI? I bet its not £45M! Close call mate.

 

[Plonker 3]

Just remembered this one, don't know how I could forget it.

A shoe shop that the company I worked for fitted out, had Air Con units fitted, one slight problem though. AC units are 3 phase and shop only has single phase supply. So the fun begins.

The shop ask us to fit a 3 phase supply, not a problem we are electricians and do this sort of thing. I cant remember the exact details but it was something like a 4 core, 240 SWA needed it was also about 90 meters long to the switch room.

We get the spec of our boss on the first day, builders have dug up some of the roadway where cable will be run, then through another unit next to the one we are pulling the cable into. Off we go and commence the work.

Cable pulled in and ready to be terminated, thats tomorrows job.

In the office first thing the next day our gaffer looks a little annoyed and peed off. Turns out the unit we ran the cable through weren't happy that we had done it without there permission. So we have to pull it out and re route it, which took about 2 days as most of it was buried already.

Roll on a few days later and time to terminate the cable in the switch room. Off 2 off us go gland in hand and ready to wrestle the cable.


The switch room set up isn't very good with 4x4 galv trunking with notches in it which pass single insulated cables to meters mounted on the wall.

Hole drilled, armourings stripped, gland in trunking we start to feed the cable into the gland which was a right fight. Anyway struggling away all of a sudden the cable straining into the gland it pushes the trunking away from the wall and produces a almighty bang and fire work display off sparks. Jumping back looking in I though WTF, other spark working with me says lets push the trunking back and re fix it, I was going no where near. He pushes it back only for the same thing to happen again.

I got told to go and find out which units it had affected with the power cut we caused. As you can imagine it was the one we had annoyed a few days earlier and they were mightily annoyed and giving me a round of abuse when I told them what had happened. Needless to say I couldn't give them the office number quick enough and get the hell out of there.

 

[DNS1]

Not me, but this is a mistake I witnessed by a plumbers apprentice who was fitting our new boiler...

They'd needed to lay a new 4 core from the boiler in the utility on the ground floor, to the control unit in the airing cupboard on the floor above and the other side of the house.

Apprentice sent upstairs to jemmy up the floorboards in a back bedroom and drill the holes for the cable.

Unfortunately, 30 seconds later he'd somehow managed to forget that he'd lifted the boards, so strolled back into the room and straight into the hole...

I was in the living room below at the time and was suddenly covered in dust and bits of plaster and looked up to see a leg hanging through the ceiling and hear the noises made by a plumbers apprentice who's just received a joist in the nuts!

 

[Rockingit]

Rockingit how much is your PLI? I bet its not £45M! Close call mate.

Oddly enough, that was one of my first thoughts, too! The military are exempt from both PLI issues AND health and safety if they choose to be, but I wasn't planing on finding out exactly how it works!!

 

[BillyTheSparks]

My biggest oh Sh#t moment happened last Thursday. Was working at a flat above a shop where I had completed a PIR a couple of months before, and in the rectifications was to bond the old gas pipes under the stairs next to the CU. One of the pipes already had a bit of 6mm on it, and I thought well if I'm doing one I might aswell upgrade the existing one while I'm at it. At this time it's about 16:45/17:00 and I thought I'd just take the 6mm out of the CU for tonight put it in a MET block with the ME and new CU earth. I didn't turn the CU off as I know now that I should have. Anyway whilst pulling it out the bottom of the CU it touched the busbar! A small-ish pop and flash of light and everything went off.
I pulled the main fuse and checked to see that the supply was still live, but it wasn't! So i headed down to the Spar shop below and explained the situation to them and they said that they had lost power to some of their fridges etc. So I opened their DB and found that a Phase had gone down...(didn't think about the main cutout fuses at their head)
So I said I'd sort it, and went up to see my client. When I got to her she said she could hear a hissing under her hall floor. I said it's probably the shops down stairs or the neighbours using the water.
It wasn't, and turned out to be a burst pipe. By this time I went down into the hair dressers also below and they had a puddle of water on the floor, I started searching for the stopcock but couldn't turn it off so phoned a plumber I know to come and sort it. In the mean time I decided it would be helpful to start digging up the concrete hall floor to expose the water pipe. (Bad idea!!) As I took the last bit of floor out a torrent of water gushed up into my face and started to flood the flat! The client had to call the fire brigade to help me to turn the water off at the road whilst I was on my knees in the hall with every conciveable towel around the hole to hold back the water as much as possible while I scooped up what I could with a jug; with my hands in the hole to stem as much of the water I could!! (I felt like the little boy whith his finger in a dyke!)
At last the fire brigade came and sorted out talking to the shop owners and finding the stopcock in the road, while I was on the phone to the electricity board (by now it's around 20:00)
The main cutout fuse in the Spar shop had blown and so I replaced it.
The reason for all of this was that when the earth touched the busbar and went pop, it did the same under the floor between the old gas pipe and a nail which was holding the water pipe in place when the place was built (about 50/60 years ago) and blew a hole in the main water pipe in to the flat!

I left that night at about 21:15 with my head in my hands and some unhappy people, I went back on the Friday to clear up and finish what I had started. My client said that Sh#t happens it's how you deal with it that makes it better and she would always ask me back to do more work.

 

[Paul.M]

Ok more a blond moment than the brown stuff hitting the fan.

Estate agency sent me to an unoccupied flat to renew a light fitting which they supplied to match the wall lights. Off I go, nice simple job at the end of a long day. Went into the living room were they was just a blanked off ceiling rose, took it off and installed the new crome fitting that matched the 2 wall lights. Re-energized the circuit, turned on the light then I saw this next door in the dinning room

DHO, I've changed the wrong light!

I went back to the estate agents and told them that the fitting they gave me matched the wall lights and that they don't give off enough lumins for a room of that size so it must have been for the living room and not the dining room (blag, blag, blag). No it wasn't but they agreed with me (lucky) and rebooked for the other fitting to be changed.

Moral of this story kids, always check what your changing over so you don't have a Del boy Trotter moment like me.

 

[highspark]

My biggest oh Sh#t moment happened last Thursday. Was working at a flat above a shop where I had completed a PIR a couple of months before, and in the rectifications was to bond the old gas pipes under the stairs next to the CU. One of the pipes already had a bit of 6mm on it, and I thought well if I'm doing one I might aswell upgrade the existing one while I'm at it. At this time it's about 16:45/17:00 and I thought I'd just take the 6mm out of the CU for tonight put it in a MET block with the ME and new CU earth. I didn't turn the CU off as I know now that I should have. Anyway whilst pulling it out the bottom of the CU it touched the busbar! A small-ish pop and flash of light and everything went off.I pulled the main fuse and checked to see that the supply was still live, but it wasn't! So i headed down to the Spar shop below and explained the situation to them and they said that they had lost power to some of their fridges etc. So I opened their DB and found that a Phase had gone down...(didn't think about the main cutout fuses at their head)So I said I'd sort it, and went up to see my client. When I got to her she said she could hear a hissing under her hall floor. I said it's probably the shops down stairs or the neighbours using the water.It wasn't, and turned out to be a burst pipe. By this time I went down into the hair dressers also below and they had a puddle of water on the floor, I started searching for the stopcock but couldn't turn it off so phoned a plumber I know to come and sort it. In the mean time I decided it would be helpful to start digging up the concrete hall floor to expose the water pipe. (Bad idea!!) As I took the last bit of floor out a torrent of water gushed up into my face and started to flood the flat! The client had to call the fire brigade to help me to turn the water off at the road whilst I was on my knees in the hall with every conciveable towel around the hole to hold back the water as much as possible while I scooped up what I could with a jug; with my hands in the hole to stem as much of the water I could!! (I felt like the little boy whith his finger in a dyke!)At last the fire brigade came and sorted out talking to the shop owners and finding the stopcock in the road, while I was on the phone to the electricity board (by now it's around 20:00)The main cutout fuse in the Spar shop had blown and so I replaced it.The reason for all of this was that when the earth touched the busbar and went pop, it did the same under the floor between the old gas pipe and a nail which was holding the water pipe in place when the place was built (about 50/60 years ago) and blew a hole in the main water pipe in to the flat!I left that night at about 21:15 with my head in my hands and some unhappy people, I went back on the Friday to clear up and finish what I had started. My client said that Sh#t happens it's how you deal with it that makes it better and she would always ask me back to do more work.View attachment 10551View attachment 10552

And the moral of this story is always have an apprentice with you to blame!!!

 

[rmaynard]

not myself but another spark i used to work with extended a ring main on the first floor, long story short, all fitted and tested ok, floor boards back down, happy customer. had a phone call about an hour later saying i think you have trapped my cat under the floorboards, they went back and there it was scratching away, must of got in there when they had the boards up

 

[DPG]

I'd have left it there. Would that have been wrong? Daz

 

[a1guvner]

A few years back doing a refurb in old bond street, pricey, had to re-fit the picture lights in the antiques room, all going really well taking down the pictures as i go and re-fitting after, last fitting having a large cabinet in front of it all warapped up in a dust sheet, fit the base plate and conect the flex and get the securing screws in without incident, stand back and think jobbed jobbed, offer the picture back up and then doom kicks in and as the picture rests in its position the picture light's stalk falls apart sending the head of the double light swinging down into the nice oil painting which was lot 93 from sotherbys and causing a nice hole in the canvas

Really loved that day

 

[Des 56]

happy customer. had a phone call about an hour later saying i think you have trapped my cat under the floorboards, they went back and there it was scratching away, must of got in there when they had the boards up

My mate lifted the floorboards and found the skeleton of the cat that the poor old dear had lost about the time she had central heating installed

We became aware of that because my mate showed the woman the skeleton he had found, she put 2 and 2 together and was a little upset to say the least about the fate of poor Ginger
He must have been a quiet little soul or the plumber was maybe cat phobic and did the dirty deed himself,then perhaps hid the evidence

 

[Paul.M]

Not me this time but a workmate (and I still take the mic )

Few years ago he was sent on a job to renew one db skt and install two new skts. He knocked on the door at number 12 (or whatever house number it was) told the lady that he's come to do the skts and away he went. Chased in the 2 new skts extending the ring, job done and off he goes to the next job.

Gets a phone call from the gaffer "when are you going to get there, customer is waiting in for you and your 3 hours late as it is!"

"Ive done that job" he replied.

"Then why have I got an angry tenant on the phone who has taken the morning off work?"

"Ive done that job at number 12" he shouts back at the boss.

Boss says in an inquisitive voice "number 12? It should be number 21!"

He put down the wrong house number on the job sheet and the woman at number 12 just thought her landlord had requested this work to be done.

I take the p at any opportunity asking "have we got the right house this time". It never wears thin lol.

 

[grimysparks80]

LOL. Had the same thing happen to a lad called eddie at our old place. I was in the office on monday morning when eddies customer from satyrday phones up, asking why he never showed up to fit a central heating programmer.

They call eddie and hes outraged because he did go. lovely little semi with a blue front door. Exept our customer, it turned out, had a white front door. He couldnt remember where he went as hed used a sat nav to get there. Kids let him in to do the job as their mum was out.

Bet she was happy with the surprise job she had done. We never did find out where hed been.

 

[trev]

Not my cock up but a pretty good one from a council. Decent homes work is going on and the programme is in full swing. Sparks turn up at a house to start the rewire, lady of the house lets them in and goes off to work. Few days later plumbers go in and swap the boiler for shiny new combi, the day after in go the kitchen fitters and install a pretty nice new kitchen.
After a few weeks nothing more has gone in and the site manager rings the window company to find out what's happening with their new windows and doors. Well says the company's installation manager the guy who lives there is a mate of mine and he told me a few weeks back that they had the mortgage through and now owned the house so I cancelled it.
The guy was working away and his wife assumed he had arranged all the work.
Oops several thousand quids worth of work carried out with no authorisation. Don't know if the council ever got their money.

 

[trev]

Another one not mine.
Same decent homes job foreman spark sends me to a house to second fix a heating system. I told the old boy why I was there and he immediately offered me a cuppa which was gratefully accepted. He showed me to the cupboard where there's a brand new boiler all nicely second fixed already, now I'm confused.
His wife then comes out of the bedroom and asks me why I'm there so I explain again "Who sent you? that boiler has been in 3 months now"
"I was sent by the council" says I
"But it's not a council house" she shouts! then starts to berate her husband for letting me in. Turns out the old fella's mind was wandering.
So after apologising for disturbing them I went to sit in the car while on the phone to my gaffer, while in mid conversation I noticed a police car come round the corner. A couple of minutes later there's a big burly cop at the car window demanding ID.
Gaffer also got a rollocking from the boys in blue