Enlightening

[dingbat]

What would we do for work without DIY, eh? Got called out this afternoon to a, "my bathroom light's just stopped working," scenario. It was old-ish single core wiring with a neutral loop, but just a live feed from the switch.

Lamp okay, connections old but sound. No live to switch, hmm... "Have you disturbed any other fittings?" I asked, not unreasonably. "No, not a thing." I couldn't help but notice that there was a dustsheet down in the hall, so I followed the sound of heavy pasting to find a decorator in the adjacent bedroom. Sure enough both the ceiling rose and the switch were dangling. Let's have a look...

Live running to L1, switching to Com... "What's this other wire in L2 then?"
"Oh yeah," says the decorator, "when I took the switch off there was a wire loose, so i put it back." Naturally, bless him, he'd assumed that as there were three conductors and three terminals...

Dingbat smiles, sorts it out, takes the money and disappears into the night. Heh, heh, heh.

 

[securespark]

Yeah happens a lot to me.

Whenever I get called to fault I ask

Have you drilled/had a decorator/ put up pictures etc......??

My friend asked me to change a Cu

one circuit tripped rcd on switching on

Didn't have proper tool kit so went round connecting each leg 1 by 1 till it tripped

he'd drilled thro a cable putting up kit cabinet.....

another customer:

can you come and sort me out my power has gone bang all of a sudden.

asked same questions. Then saw diy in kitchen. Sure you haven't done any drilling?

No, no, no. Looked for fault, there hours.

Turns out they had put a picture up thro a ring cable.....

Because they didn't point me in the right direction by being honest, it took me longer and they grumbled at the bill. So I said OK, get a spark of your choice to decide if that bill is fair and if they think not, then you pay what they think.

If they think more, you can pay me more.


She paid up pronto. Grumbling ungrateful *********!!!

While I'm grumbling, here's my last.

Called out to student land in manchester to fix no supply in bedsit.

9 miles there, 9 back, replace blown 30A main fuse, send bill for (i was stupid!!) £20.00

Landlady writes back saying here's a cheque for a tenner, I thought 20 was far too much.

My blood boiled, but did not feel like going to court over it. Lifes too short but hell, what a &%%** cheek..