Steady but small earners

[Evans Electric]

Steady earners over the years.

(1) The usual 3 plate thing when the phone call says "We bought a new light , took the pendant down ,but now theres all these wires, so we connected them together and now we have no lights at all. "

Must have done thousands of 'em.

(2) On Commercial work, recessed 600X600 fittings with 18W tubes in series " We've replaced all the tubes and starters but it won't work" They're fitting FSU starters and need FS2 s also if one tube is dead its partner won't work either .

 

[Andy™]

Steady earners over the years.(1) The usual 3 plate thing when the phone call says "We bought a new light , took the pendant down ,but now theres all these wires, so we connected them together and now we have no lights at all. "

Must have done thousands of 'em.

(2) On Commercial work, recessed 600X600 fittings with 18W tubes in series " We've replaced all the tubes and starters but it won't work" They're fitting FSU starters and need FS2 s also if one tube is dead its partner won't work either .

same here, go through loads of FS2's

 

[paul b b]

i was at someones house sorting out a problem with a immer and she asked me to look at the light her hubby had fitted, apparently it had a fault somewhere, so i put the s/l in the correct place whilst chuckling to myself. she said it had been like it for 2 years lol

 

[chrishaworth]

Intermittent RCD trips. You explain over the phone that it's almost certain that one of their appliances has a leak but they insist on you coming out. Having found the offending washing machine/dishwasher/shower/fridge/freezer, they almost always say "oh yes, there's been water dripping out/pooling under etc for quite some time". I take the money and wait to bang my head off the wall untill I get home.

Cheers, Chris

 

[ProDave]

How about immersion heater thermostats, the new ones with the little safety trip? I've been to reset those a few times with no apparent reason why they trip. If they trip again, I fit a new stat.

Yesterdays job was go and sort out "no hot water" for a tenant who had just moved in. They had no hot water because the switch in the kitchen labelled "water heater" was turned off. Wet Fish

Light fitting that stop working for no reason. You investigate and it's a shiny new fitting wired wrong. Why can't they just tell you they fitted a new one and messed it up? would save a lot of time.

 

[Andy™]

Light fitting that stop working for no reason. You investigate and it's a shiny new fitting wired wrong. Why can't they just tell you they fitted a new one and messed it up? would save a lot of time.

if they mess about with something, then get you to fix it, your going to find the problem anyway. and in some cases, it would cost them less if they did tell you

 

[paul b b]

i always point out that if they tell me they have messed with it i will find the fault quicker so they normaly own up.

the other funny one i went to was a nightstore not heating up, ummm best switch it on lol

 

[nsbs]

my best, slow earner is replacing lamps for a housing association.

ian

 

[NozSpark]

Probably my best small earner would be changing a BC lamp for a 20 - 25 year old guy,,, I started at the switch until he said "do you think it could be the bulb?" (his words, not mine),,,, erm "you mean you haven't changed it?", "no, I couldn't figure out how to get it out"

Bish bash bosh,,, that'll be

 

[Badger]

best was todays call out 2 x lamps :coat not working in fire surround, ''replaced lamps with new ones but still not working can you take a look'' went round found out that the new philips lamps were actually no good out of the packaging, changed for two others from a new pack and all working 3 minutes work cost them 20

 

[ProDave]

Of course the other one is people who have bought a pound shop bulk bag of light bulbs, ask you to change the light fitting because the bulbs don't last very long before they blow.

Somehow they have a mentality that does not connect cheap bulbs = short life, and somehow think it's possible for a faulty light fitting to actually cause bulbs to fail.

 

[Cirrus]

I had an amazing call out last Saturday. Customer called me to say power has gone off. I went round, lifted fuseboard cover and reset RCD! Amazing.

 

[Andy™]

I had an amazing call out last Saturday. Customer called me to say power has gone off. I went round, lifted fuseboard cover and reset RCD! Amazing.

done that many times. including through the night....

got a call to look at a stairlift last week (mate of mine was working there, gave them my number). stairlift beeping away and annoying everyone, and wont move. get there, and quickly notice the spur is turned off (i did ask them to check this before i went there)

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also, anyone noticed how most people will happily change a BC or ES lamp (and often have spares in the house), but they call an electrician when its a 2D, G23/ G24 etc

 

[Theorysparky]

quick earner today

my decorator mate was asked to put a new light fitting up,,,,,,,opened the ceiling rose and saw too many wires and called me

loop in/loop out/switch !!!!!!! what i think he didint like was the fitting he was asked to put up

 

[russ9898]

Oh yes...........

wait for it !!!!!!!!!

My storage heater wont work !!!!!!

switch them on then,

thermal trip,

etc........

The amount of thermal links i replaced last october time was incredible. Dust builds up over summer, heater comes on, runs hot and link melts. If only i was self employed id have earned a fortune replacing creda links. lol

 

[ProDave]

Well if you want money for old rope stories:

A couple of years ago I got a call from a company of shop fitters. They wanted an electrician to attend a food shop undergoing a refit. All I had do do was disconnect the old wine chiller cabinet, and connect the new one.

The catch was it was to take place from 10PM onwards on a Sunday night. They were offering

 

[M107]

I had an amazing call out last Saturday. Customer called me to say power has gone off. I went round, lifted fuseboard cover and reset RCD! Amazing.

I like the MK rcd has tripped fault "the rcd will not reset"

Go to address see MK push down push up & reset...

Having just read Canoeboys post about Estops....my best so far this month..

Call to a school design & technology class sockets not working, new teacher didnt know the class had 3x E stops & one was in :slap

 

[kerching]

I was paid 10 hours at double time and provided with food and drink to attend a site and sit there until I was required to 'do my bit'. My 'bit' took less than 10 minutes and happened 3 hours into the 10 hour 'time slot'.

Another time I was flown out BA Club Class to Amsterdam to do 1 hours work [ yeah, I know, LEAVE IT!]...Invoiced them 'quite a lot of money' paid it, plus a bonus for being so efficient.

Lots more, but its late and I have to get my rubber lube ready for tomorrow................ :coat

 

[Phoenix]

Called out to a local grocery store (10 mins up road) saying they'd lost power to staff room area and card processing equip. Turn up there and find an intuder alarm guy there they'd called out because the CCTV was not working (not realising that it was likely related to loss of power), who had found the tripped RCBO and reset it. I got my form signed and turned around and went home. I got payed for four hours.

I also went back there the next day for 'another' loss of power (took the pat tester, thinking that perhaps there was a dodgy kettle in the staff room), got there and there wasn't a loss of power... manager had read the log entry from the previous night and didnt realise it had been called in at the time!

 

[ProDave]

I got called to another food store to investigate total loss of power.

I couldn't do anything, it was the DNO's fuse gone, so I had to call them.

Sad thing was they had called another electrician first, and waited 6 hours before they realised he was not coming, By the time I got there, diagnosed the fault and got the DNO out, the whole shop full of freezer food was ruined.