Won't sleep tonight

[Nolnoc]

A friend of mine asked me to call round to reroute an armoured cable in his shed.I wired the house about 5 years ago so no problem I thought.When I arrived he told me it was in his mums house next door. Called into his mums and saw she had a cu change recently.Tripped the rcd to pull out cable but was surprised to hear the fridge still operating.Removed cover to investigate and realised that the guy who did the cu change had bypassed the rcd. Sockets protected by a 20A mcb and whats worse electric shower just on a 40A mcb.

I informed friend replaced cover and warned that immediate remedial action required.Now if something were to happen I'm the last sparks that was there.

This is an elderly widow who also cares for and adult handicapped son. I am disgusted with what this guy has done.How can he sleep at night. I believe there is a strong argument against self certification.

Any advice on my next step.Please

( Apologies for use of word handicapped I know it is not the correct term anymore,but I can't think of correct one at the moment)

 

[Guest123]

Any sort of certification at all??

Any way of tracing the chap that did it??

 

[Nolnoc]

Lenny
I know the guy he is notorious in the trade.I live in a rural part of the country so all sparks know each other.He was thrown out of one of the certifying bodies for workmanship years ago,but he's with a different one now and he's obviously hand picking his jobs for inspection.

 

[kung]

As Lenny asked did he cert the job ? any paperwork ? reciept ? 2 choices really either trace who hes reg with and report or sort it and leave it to customer to give him a bad name ! id favour the 1st option but on a plus side if there is one is that if he's that bad word will get about and he wont last long in that area ! could get cowboy builders involved to speed it up ! at that rate it wont be long before the HSE pays him a visit when things go bad (HOPE not).

 

[Deleted member 9648]

Presumably he bypassed the rcd because it wouldnt stay in after his cu change?.........I got called to an old customer a while back,he had a fairly recent twin rcd board,I was there on an unrelated matter,but the client happened to mention that he'd had a problem with his rcd tripping one night so called out a well known emergency electrical service.....(why he didnt call us was a mystery)...anyway,curious,I asked what the guy had done to solve the problem. "Something in the CU" I was informed. When I checked the muppet had removed the tripping RCD and replaced it with a tatty old 60947-3 main switch!.....As the CU was relatively new I enquired as to whether he had left the removed RCD with the client...."Oh no....he said he would have to dispose of it as it contained asbestos"!!.....I suspect there is a strong possibility it may have joined his van stock,to be charged out to another customer.
It didnt take long to find a N-E on the drive lights caused by an ants nest...and reinstate a new RCD,client ended up paying twice.

 

[jar]

Report this to trading standerds and get the local paper to get involved.This is not the first time things like this have happened. In my opinion it is better to sit in the dark than risk being burned in a fire. This gets my goat up it is easier to do a job right and then sleep at night.
I used to sub to one of the call out first in yellow pages companies. I stopped working for them after going to an elderly person on call out. The lighting fuse had popped when a bulb had blown. Min charge 1 hour Sat night extreme verging on robbery rate. Tested cir as I was charging min of 1 hour all was ok. changed lamp had cup of tea ( I wouldnt have added extra time for this) then got a -------ing the next day for not charging for the lamp which came from my own stock in the van. Min mark up has to be 200% or dont work for us agian. I didnt I sleep at night.

 

[Knobhead]

Trading standards and the press would seem favourite. Trade associations won’t wash their dirty linen in public, bad for their image.

Don’t forget photographs!

 

[Nolnoc]

Tony
I had the camera in the van but forgot to take it out.I will stick up a photo when I get back to the job.
I started in this game when I left school 17 years ago and was always thought to take pride in your work.I would honestly say I was trained by some of the best men in the business and have always tried to adapt there attitude.

This to me is criminal,and yet this guy is flat out while I'm told I'm too expensive.This is not about the money either. I've had a few pints to help me sleep.Apologies.......

 

[pushrod]

I assume we are not talking about a high integrity board with a labelled, surface mounted dedicated radial to a just a freezer, and a shower of 8.5kW or less?

 

[Knobhead]

It galls me listening to you guys saying “I’m regarded as to expensive” when the rouges get away with under cutting and doing bodge jobs.
People must realise that quality costs. But it’s cloud cuckoo land to think it will ever happen!

 

[MarkieSparkie]

This so called electrician needs to be brought to book. It's the irresponsible like him that give the rest of the profession a bad image, particularly when the registration bodies do nothing but count the subscriptions. It also graphically demonstrates the folly of more than one registration body, when he's kicked out of one only to be taken on by another willing to take the money without due diligence. Some form of unification under an Elecsafe statutory certification system can't come soon enough in my opinion.

 

[Nolnoc]

I'm personally against self certification. The governing bodies are a money making racket and will not employ enough inspectors. I think every job should be certified by a government employed third party,and thats the only way to weed out the cowboys.If you do good work as most do then you have nothing to worry about.Unfortunately it will take a serious incident before something will be done.

 

[Silly Sausage]

Mam czynić to tanie

 

[kung]

Presumably he bypassed the rcd because it wouldnt stay in after his cu change?.........I got called to an old customer a while back,he had a fairly recent twin rcd board,I was there on an unrelated matter,but the client happened to mention that he'd had a problem with his rcd tripping one night so called out a well known emergency electrical service.....(why he didnt call us was a mystery)...anyway,curious,I asked what the guy had done to solve the problem. "Something in the CU" I was informed. When I checked the muppet had removed the tripping RCD and replaced it with a tatty old 60947-3 main switch!.....As the CU was relatively new I enquired as to whether he had left the removed RCD with the client...."Oh no....he said he would have to dispose of it as it contained asbestos"!!.....I suspect there is a strong possibility it may have joined his van stock,to be charged out to another customer.
It didnt take long to find a N-E on the drive lights caused by an ants nest...and reinstate a new RCD,client ended up paying twice.

Had one of those outside light ants nest causing tripping last year ! oh what fun ! and as you said if he would have called you to replace the CU in the first place this would not have happened ! RCD containing asbestos ? how gullible ? did he say what colour the asbestos was ?

 

[kung]

It galls me listening to you guys saying “I’m regarded as to expensive” when the rouges get away with under cutting and doing bodge jobs.
People must realise that quality costs. But it’s cloud cuckoo land to think it will ever happen!

Agree and it also costs us time and money getting qualified, tools, test gear, insurance, scheme membership etc etc not to mention putting our name to the cert we sign for the good and proper conforming jobs we do ! as the old saying goes you pay peanuts you get monkeys !