Electricians damaging things?

[Mike2007]

How many of you sparkies get customers who say later on that you did something wrong, like not turn a freezer back on or damage to other electricals in the house??
My new job is strict about procedures of working(switching off/on) but you always get "chancers" that seize the opportunity to claim a wedge for nothing I did!

 

[Spark123]

The new CU must be faulty as everytime I plug the kettle/iron in the RCD trips?

 

[GaryMo]

The kitchen chair I was sat on. I said "pass us the biscuits" just as the chair collapsed (seriously, that exact moment!)
Now this is the funny thing - I'm not overweight, around 13.5st but considering the whole family were practically obese and the table and chair set was a flat pack Argos set put together by Mrs Go-lightly it was deemed to be my fault. I did mention I wouldn't sue them for the injury's I sustained to my pride though it did cost us for a new set

 

[mattysupra]

i get loads of this in the flooring trade, the best one i had is when i had done the work and when back at the office i get a phone call asking for the manager. When i replied your speaking to them they started telling me that the floorlayer we sent out was rude, messy, had damaged the wall paper and best of all when moving there B&W speakers ( worth 2k ) had damaged one very badly. Now i know a bit about steros and as it happens i have B&W speakers of my own, the speakers i moved clearly said AWAI on them ( something i always take note of ! )
So i said i would pop out and see them!

When they opened the door they said " i thought the manger was coming " I said " thats me " So they then said they want the owner to come instead! Guess what i replied " i am the owner " And then i asked to see the damage.

Now these AWAI speakers had been swapped for a completly different pair of speakers that where now a expensive set of B&W speakers, and yes one had bad damage! So i said , how come the ones i moved was AWAI and these are B&W??? All went quiet and they said i must be wrong, i then went to see the damage to wall paper, Guess what, it was in a different room to where i was working, and never entered and sat on the other side of the room was a pair of AWAI speakers! The same pair that i had moved and YEP, no damage to them!

So this person tried it on for new speakers and for the decoration of a dinning room! Worse thing is that if it was one of my employes i would of most likely belived them and paid up! I now know to always check properly and instruct all my fitters to take pictures before they begin!

 

[nozspark]

If I ever unplug any thing I always ask customer to make sure that I have plugged everything back in (especially fridges and freezers) - It's amazing how much steak and salmon people can get in a freezer!!

 

[NewOrder]

I get some of this in the computer trade. Just recently I removed some viruses and afterwards I got a phone call saying since I went round her phone is very crackely and it must be something do with what I have done. I went round looked inside the BT master socket and there was damp all over the terminals. I am not sure if she was genuine or not.

I also sometimes get people saying the sound no longer works after I had fitted a new PSU etc, but they just try it on as they know damn well that fault existed before I even turned up.

I just don't understand why some customers try it on, if I had a spark coming in my house I would tell them to make as much mess as you want but mind the JPW speakers!

Some customers just think you're out to con them the second you walk through the door, they ask too many questions, want me to give an exact price for a job which is impossible to know how long it will take, I usualy just tell them it will be £80 to remove the virus (that gets me out of a potentialy problem job).

On my receipts if fixing a computer and I find the hard drive is on its last legs (but a seperate fault to the one I fixed), the PSU is cheap (i.e likely to blow up) and they don't want me to fix it, I always put on the receipt the faults I found so they cannot say I broke and lost all their data when the HD finally siezes.

I have learnt to judge customers and if I don't trust them I will walk away, I am sure sparks to the same too. Alarm bells must start rining if you're asked to do something as cheap as possibly as it may mean the quality of the work you have to do would suffer and hence would not want the job.

 

[Bilioustrumpstaine]

I will move furniture etc but always get the client to move TV's, PC's, DVD,s etc as I will not take responsibility for them. Painter I know got caught out with a claim that the DVD wouldn't work after he had disconnected it, he ended up coughing for a new one
Now it could have been his fault but......

 

[Thermo]

i have a clause in my terms and conditions basically saying that once a lawn is laid its the clients responsibilty to care for it and we will only rectify a problem that is due to it being laid incorrectly, or if there was a problem with the stuff that was delivered. I had one we laid a year ago and they phoned up and complained that the lawn had bad drainage and was full of thatch. They wanted it all relaid. Went and had a look. After i had moved the pygmy tribe on from the long parts of the grass and moved the kiddies toys away, leaving bare patches underneath, i informed them they were on a chalk hillside with no drainage problems and they were basically taking the ****. A year ago i might well have coughed up, but ive hardened up a bit this year!

 

[ban-all-sheds]

i get loads of this in the flooring trade, the best one i had is when i had done the work and when back at the office i get a phone call asking for the manager. When i replied your speaking to them they started telling me that the floorlayer we sent out was rude, messy, had damaged the wall paper and best of all when moving there B&W speakers ( worth 2k ) had damaged one very badly. Now i know a bit about steros and as it happens i have B&W speakers of my own, the speakers i moved clearly said AWAI on them ( something i always take note of ! )
So i said i would pop out and see them!

Ah - if only you'd asked them to put the details of their complaint in writing while they waited, so that you could take it away and make sure it all got sorted.

So this person tried it on for new speakers and for the decoration of a dinning room!

Because then you'd have had evidence of an attempted fraud....

 

[wms]

Once had a guy ring me up after converting his kitchen. to tell me he had sewerage under the floors in the living room. and it was our companies fault and the house smelled of p..ss So when we offered to go round and investigate He flatly refused and said that he had instructed some one to rectify the defects and dig up the drain out side and was going to sue us for damages. my sujestion to him was lift up the inspection cover check if it was full if so try to clear it with rods he said my dads already done that and you must have put bricks down the drain as it was solid when I sujested a collapsed drain he ranted on that it was our fault and he was suing to which my reply was well f....ng bring it on then as even the most incompetent fitter could not collapse a drain out side and would like to see him bring it to court. needless to say heard no more.

The only p..ss he could smell was that he was trying to take.

 

[chappers]

I will move furniture etc but always get the client to move TV's, PC's, DVD,s etc as I will not take responsibility for them. Painter I know got caught out with a claim that the DVD wouldn't work after he had disconnected it, he ended up coughing for a new one
Now it could have been his fault but......

Ditto always make sure that customers move anything valuable and with regards to unplugging fridges/freezers, having left a customers freezer unplugged before, I now always plug it in somewhere else or into an extension lead.

 

[hairyben]

Very rare.

Years and years ago- working for the leccy board- had some worthless sponger in a council flat we rewired claim we'd taken the spout from his hoover- and we'd have to pay for a new hoover. We called in to the spares shop and bought a new spout, the disappointment on his face was priceless.