Ye have little faith

[LankyWill]

I was on site today and got called in to do a customer care in a lived in plot about 4 months old. I turn up theres a bloke there with a very angry look on his face telling me ive messed his life up. He had no power in his house(since 1am) and claimed i had done some dodgy work etc etc. In the middle of the night he claimed the power kept coming on and off suddenly and he was not touching anything. He claimed the fuse board didnt trip out and his heat detector caught fire( he is a fireman). So i immediately soil myself and start to get my head round things. He had turned the main switch off himself so i re- instated it and nothing happened, no power to the fuseboard. So i look outside and the meter is completely out so the seal fairy worked some magic and the cut out fuse fell out. It was fine the fuse was still in working order. I said the problems with the dno mate get on to them immediately. He starts saying its your fault etc etc. So i shrug it off and tell him ring them and get it sorted( my patience and this point is thin). 3 hours go by and the site manager collared me to go back and re-test the plot. I turn up as the scottish power bloke is leaving and he said the dno connections were loose and was causing intermittent power due to the live conductor being to short to make a screwed connection just left inside the collar- loose. Anywho i knock on the door to a very apologetic bloke singing my praises. He said it wasnt your fault etc but your look very young and inexperienced( im 22 in the body of a child) i was close to telling him to get F******. He said could i please re test his house, I did PFC,ZE RCD Test and zs on the smoke alarm circuit and all was satisfactory and he said thanks and i left. The heat detector either couldnt take the surge and the pcb melted or it was just a coincidence and it went faulty. I was left feeling agitated that i was initially blamed and he thought i was incompetent due to my age. This was todays dramas i guess its not just 5wws that cant tighten connections the dno blokes cant either. You lads had any similar situations where your work and age was questioned?

 

[Leesparkykent]

I was on site today and got called in to do a customer care in a lived in plot about 4 months old. I turn up theres a bloke there with a very angry look on his face telling me ive messed his life up. He had no power in his house(since 1am) and claimed i had done some dodgy work etc etc. In the middle of the night he claimed the power kept coming on and off suddenly and he was not touching anything. He claimed the fuse board didnt trip out and his heat detector caught fire( he is a fireman). So i immediately soil myself and start to get my head round things. He had turned the main switch off himself so i re- instated it and nothing happened, no power to the fuseboard. So i look outside and the meter is completely out so the seal fairy worked some magic and the cut out fuse fell out. It was fine the fuse was still in working order. I said the problems with the dno mate get on to them immediately. He starts saying its your fault etc etc. So i shrug it off and tell him ring them and get it sorted( my patience and this point is thin). 3 hours go by and the site manager collared me to go back and re-test the plot. I turn up as the scottish power bloke is leaving and he said the dno connections were loose and was causing intermittent power due to the live conductor being to short to make a screwed connection just left inside the collar- loose. Anywho i knock on the door to a very apologetic bloke singing my praises. He said it wasnt your fault etc but your look very young and inexperienced( im 22 in the body of a child) i was close to telling him to get F******. He said could i please re test his house, I did PFC,ZE RCD Test and zs on the smoke alarm circuit and all was satisfactory and he said thanks and i left. The heat detector either couldnt take the surge and the pcb melted or it was just a coincidence and it went faulty. I was left feeling agitated that i was initially blamed and he thought i was incompetent due to my age. This was todays dramas i guess its not just 5wws that cant tighten connections the dno blokes cant either. You lads had any similar situations where your work and age was questioned?

I still get it now Will...I employ 2 sparks and both are older than me. I turn up on some jobs with my sparks and the customer says to the older sparks " I see you have your apprentice with you". I tend to just go along with it haha.

 

[dansk]

along the same lines - on-site working away minding my own business and the plumbers chirps up "good firm to work for" (bear in mind its my firm) so i said "yeah not bad" "lads what do you think" they all started taking the mick "yeah great firm, good boss" to the plumber - the plumber then asks "is it your dads firms" - im 38 and as grey as Philip Schofield. Made me laugh.

 

[Dave OCD]

I'm 51 now but sometimes get a retired chap who's 68 to give me a hand, that bloke can out perform people half his age and has tremendous knowledge, also a great sense of humour which really helps on awkward tricky jobs.
But when he's about new customers always seem to assume he's the boss. :icon7:

 

[DuaneMHunt1976]

you got to look the part.. whey i went bald and trying to grow what little hair i have as side burns.. makes me look older.. plus this padding on my tummy so i look a bit fatter and older..

Next flat cap and whippet ..ill look the part .. if only they knew i had melted fingers (no finger prints on some of them)

 

[Paul.M]

I like this thread!

Q. As a "slightly" older spark working for the "younger" boss. How do you handle the customer situations?


Any thing from an extra socket in a domestic to a large developer on a office rewire? It would be good to know how others deal with the face to face situation.

 

[Hellmooth]

I used to work for myself when I was 18 doing landscaping, could do the job far better and with more pride than my previous boss, but trying to get work over someone who looks older and has more experience was a nightmare, customers will always go with the older looking guy!

 

[LankyWill]

I run a site atm with an apprentice who is 30. The site manager thought i was the apprentice until he saw him pulling cables in the mud and me stood there cleans as a whistle in the dis board connecting up. Sometimes its awkward when i have to give him a telling off im scared he will tell me where to go sometimes:rifle: He is there thinking about his kids and im there asking my mates what pub were meeting in.

 

[7029 dave]

It is funny, when I was 20 years old, had some laborers with me, well in their 50's, good one's, never got many comments. Long time ago now. (I am 51)

 

[jay sean]

I can remember once I had a call out at a pub, The landlord said to me 'when does the electrician get here',
I said you are looking at him, I was 25ish at the time