Ever get a job you just cannot shake off?

I've had one or two  where lights keep failing etc  and you're obliged to keep going back .  etc. 

I was reminded of this this morning  .  My neighbour's  two doors down ,  I think  over about twenty years I've replaced his immersion heater  three times ,  one  was for the previous owners , and  replaced many stats.     So I replaced the heater  last August  2019  ,   then he announced there was a ticking noise  but not to worry about it .   I suggested it was expansion as the cylinder heated up , never went round .    

Last Monday its a cold cylinder ,  I was busy this week so described , switch off , try pushing the cut-out  button down ......  OK !  Great its working !       Tuesday  , its packed up again , ticking is heard all over the house :C .   Still busy  , I pick up a stat  and go round this morning Saturday,     yes the stat ticks like a demented time bomb  for 10 mins  , but full current onto the element ....then pops up again  ,  Brown on the new  flex  turned brittle  , connection sound .    

New stat  , new flex all is quiet on the Western Front .    For now .   I've spent hours in that airing cupboard over the years .     Will it ever let me go ????? 

I gained a fussy customer last year, who during the recent hot weather decided they wanted aircon ...... and despite me ignoring their emails and multiple calls wouldn’t give up 

so I sent them a polite email saying that there were too many questions and a distinct chance of getting it very wrong ..... not heard from them since

dodged that stream of bullets ...... 

(and their plumber who introduced me is really pxssed off with them too )

I find declining work really helps sometimes 

yep... had one a few month ago. looked at the job a few days before lockdown but didnt really want to do it (job was OK, the problem was the customer). then i had the ideal excuse to not do it a few days later

Murdoch said:

I find declining work really helps sometimes 

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there is always a time when this is a good idea , well worth remembering .

After a while you get a "feeling"

cant describe it BUT it's there

99% of it is the customer NOT the job....and when you look at it everybody in the area has had a go!

looked at a job.....customer was a W ️......said I was too busy so it would be a few months off

"but I have to have it done NOW!"...not by me tw@y

6 months later he is back on the phone having had 3 other sparks walk off the job, begging me to sort it out!

as far as I know it's still not fixed

if it looks like  

smells like  

feels like  

it ain't going to taste like Ferraro Rocher

For me the jobs I don't want are those with "plastered on the hard" walls.

Living somewhere were 95% of the houses have plasterboard walls and are usually timber framed, wiring has become so much easier.  I really can't be bothered chasing solid plastered walls with al the mess and making good afterwards.  I only rarely take those on now and only on the basis someone else does the re plastering and decorating.

SWMBOs best mate called me to look at her oven. Panels off, quick megger, coffee/chat. Bottom element had gone. On the phone & I found one on eSpares etc. Did she want me to get one? No she'd think about it. 

SWMBO then relays a message some days later. Oven is fixed, I was wrong. Turns out she had appliance cover all along and the "engineer" replaced the "heating coil".

Evans Electric said:

New stat  , new flex all is quiet on the Western Front .    For now .   I've spent hours in that airing cupboard over the years .     Will it ever let me go ????? 

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Just  stepped into my porch  ,  there,s a bottle of wine  and a  thank you note  .   

Evans Electric said:

Just  stepped into my porch  ,  there,s a bottle of wine  and a  thank you note  .   

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Yeah, sorry about not being able to stop but I was in a rush

:^O

around the time of the long overdue death of Father in law, a customer contacted me, yet again, about her solar panels not working - usually this is down to batteries in the wireless remote display, which I have talked her through changing several times., or some other simple non-sense that wasn't a real fault. I've spent hours sorting out non-problems for this person. "I'm not available and won't be for months" says I as we were emptying the house, arranging funerals and the like - FiL was a horder, so a lot of time was spent driving upto Stoke on Trent to get house cleared out. Now most people would have taken the subtle hint and got someone else in, but NO, said pain in neck persisted in contacting me for months afterwards, usually at about 2/ 3 week intervals depsite me saying I'm busy for weeks to come each time as need to empty house / redecorate / get house ready to sell.  She just wouldn't go away even after I said she would be better off getting someone else in.  Still didn't do the job, blocked her phone and email to get some peace and quiet! 

Last week, little old lady whose not so young son lives with her phones as new washing machine has a power lead about 4" shorter than the old one. So pops around Monday morning, son wants socket moving to suite new machine. "£50 and I'll be back this afternoon" says I. "That's fine" says he. So pop back that afternoon, no answer to doorbell / kocking loudly, or telephone on which I left a message to contact me. I hear nothing that night, or the next day. Following day get a call which I let go to answerphone - 'oh I really need the socket doing' . FFS. I suspect they decided £50 was too much, phoned a few other sparkies, got quoted bigger money and decided to come back to me - shame as I couldn't be arsed after that! 

binky said:

Last week, little old lady whose not so young son lives with her phones as new washing machine has a power lead about 4" shorter than the old one. So pops around Monday morning, son wants socket moving to suite new machine. "£50 and I'll be back this afternoon" says I. "That's fine" says he. So pop back that afternoon, no answer to doorbell / kocking loudly, or telephone on which I left a message to contact me. I hear nothing that night, or the next day. Following day get a call which I let go to answerphone - 'oh I really need the socket doing' . FFS. I suspect they decided £50 was too much, phoned a few other sparkies, got quoted bigger money and decided to come back to me - shame as I couldn't be arsed after that! 

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had similar to that before. dont go back, let them get someone else

Andy™ said:

had similar to that before. dont go back, let them get someone else

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Yep!

Block caller

as my late  Father often said..."they will need us before we need them"

Andy™ said:

had similar to that before. dont go back, let them get someone else

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I didn't go back and certainly wont be, I have better things to do with my life and just can't stand time wasters. Plus it was one of those smelly / sticky sorts of houses - probbaly been breeding covid in there!  :lol:

I had a guy who is honestly a multimillionaire, he's also a pain in the arse with it! He has a mate who works in IT, and 'knows about everything', it all started many years ago when he asked me to install some cctv at his house, he started off telling me what equipment to install, based on his mate's 'expert' recommendations, it was carp. I installed the gear I recommended and it worked, at least it did for a while, then it started going wrong.

He rings up to tell me the camera's are perfect at night, but all white in the daytime, would I go around at night and look at them, so I did, somehow although he swore nobody had alterred them, all the settings had mysteriously changed, so I reset them. This happened several times until one day I changed all the access codes, then he rings up asking for the codes, so I ask why, he says his mate can improve the imaging but needs to access the system, he then admits it was his mate messing about with them on previous occassions!

Next he buys a large generator, installs it wrong and blows the alternator, so myself and a mate go to look at it, the alternator is toast, we find a couple of brand new regulators very cheap, and tell him where to get the alternator rewound, he uses someone else! They make a complete hash of it and we have to sort it out again, anyway to cut a very long story short, we've put about 30 man hours into the job, he's paid for the parts so we charge him £300 labour, for cash, he moans it's too dear!

The next one his compressor fails which is the mainstay of his business, it cannot operate without it, he will buy a new one, so he rings up to get it installed, it turns out it's secondhand and has the wrong motor fitted, so I have to swap that, then he rings up to say it cuts out but won't cut back in unless you tap the 'box' with a hammer, so I tell him to pick up a new pressure switch and I'll pop over and fit it. He doesn't want to do this, he wants me to make a 30 mile round trip, make sure it is the switch then come back on another day and fit it, but he only wants to pay me for actually going to fit the switch, because on the first visit I won't actually be doing anything!

Finally midway through the covid pandemic he rings me, his secondary cctv monitor has failed and he needs it replaced urgently as he wants to go on holiday, he has some old monitors and thinks one of them may work! I tell him I have no intention of doing it, not unless he has a brand new in the box monitor, and it isn't urgent anyway as he cannot go on holiday during lockdown. He started to get upset and have a go at me, so I tell him to 'sod off' and hang up, the next thing I hear is he's been slagging me off to another bloke I do work for, he can't understand why I'm being the way I am when I go out and do jobs for others. "I never give him any grief" he tells the bloke. Unfortunately for him the bloke not only knows him well, but has also heard about the issues I've had with him, so he tells him that he's a complete knob and it is no wonder the spark won't help you when you constantly question him about his work and start penny pinching.

Anyhow, he has now fell out with the other guy too, and hasn't rung me for a couple of months, so it looks like my problem is over, oh happy days.

Andy™ said:

had similar to that before. dont go back, let them get someone else

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just been to see somebody about a job - I talked through the options, new board, bonding etc (1980 built all origin)

Her reply "I was looking for somebody who didn't care about the regs and would take cash"

My reply "you're talking to the wrong person

Murdoch said:

My reply "you're talking to the wrong person

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mine would have been 'you want a handyman for that. give me a call once he courgettes up and you need it done properly

Yeah, I've got this guy rings me every few months wants work doing....he's a bit of cnut but I just cant seem to get rid of him. I spanner up his jobs as much as possible, and even graffitied rude words on his bedroom wall, but he still rings 

sprocketflup said:

Yeah, I've got this guy rings me every few months wants work doing....he's a bit of cnut but I just cant seem to get rid of him. I spanner up his jobs as much as possible, and even graffitied rude words on his bedroom wall, but he still rings 

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It’s a relative of yours isn’t it