ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area What's the Strangest or Funniest Service Call?

Old house. Old bathroom being remodeled. Removed the medicine cabinet and started to reach down the hole in the wall where the cabinet was. Fortunately, looked down there first. Thousands of razor blades! Medicine cabinet had a slot inside for "Blade Disposal". Using a magnet on a string, we pulled enough blades out to fill a 5 gallon bucket. Who EVER thought that was a good idea? I now understand that thousands of these medicine cabinets with this feature were sold in the 30s.

Fred,
That's a shocker!.
It makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up reading that.

On a service call one time;
The Homeowner was remodelling the den in the back of the house and had just unscrewed the Baseboard heat from the wall when someone noticed that Lights and outlets in the next room didn't work.

When I got there and tested the outlets there was no neutral. Everything looked OK at panel, started opening up outlets and got to one where the Neutral feed (from the panel) was not hooked up. And it was Capped!

I asked the man if he had changed anything he said no. (??? - huh?) I did a bunch of head scratching and a little more digging and I figured out that the person who had originally hung the Baseboard had used very long screws and had made contact with the white wire in the cable between outlets.

For all these years that circuit was using the Baseboard Heat enclosure and water pipe as a return (neutral) wire. It's obvious that the 'Electrician' had known something was up because he capped that wire. - More of that 'can't see it from my house' attitude I guess that gets my goat sometimes.

Bill

[This message has been edited by Bill Addiss (edited 08-23-2003).]

Wow, good thing you look first, eh, Fred? All those razorblades, yikes! Could have been worse, too, not knowing how old or rusty they could have been, thats some serious business there. Wow.

This is not from a actual service call but rather a phone call. A friend of mine who is a roofer gave my name and number to someone who was having some electrical troubles and encouraged him to call me. This was a real potential horror story. All names have been changed to protect the innocent . . .

Caller: Hi this is Harry Homeowner. I just talked to Rodney Roofer and he told me that you are a pretty fair electrician.

(FAIR!!???? Only fair???? I think I need to have a talk with Rodney!)

Me: Well, Rodney tends to exaggerate sometimes.

Caller: Um well yes. Well I was calling you because I am having a problem with my washer. Sometimes it trips the breaker when I'm washing clothes. I had to reset it four times last night to wash a load of laundry.

(Uh oh. Time to shift to trouble-shooting mode)

Me: (In a wise tone of voice) Hmmmm.

Caller: It's only been doing this for a week or so. Sometimes it works OK but other times it trips right when I start the washer. After last night I'm tired of resetting the breaker all the time so I thought I would call somebody.

(Oh. Only a week? And here I thought it was serious)

Me: When you have a breaker tripping like that, you should try to find the problem before resetting it so many times. Usually it's trying to tell you something when that happens.

Caller: Yeah

Me: Is there anything else on the circuit with the washer? Does it go to any other rooms?

Caller: Yes it goes to a yard light but I unhooked that last year because it stayed on all the time.

(I'm still thinking overload so I ignore the comment about the light)

Me: Has your washer been working ok? Making any strange sounds or anything?

(This is leading up to a suggestion to try the washer on a different circuit to see if the problem follows the washer. I hate to charge someone for a service call just to diagnose a faulty appliance.)

Caller: It's been working ok but I have heard a popping sound sometimes when this happens.

(Super Sleuth is on the case. This is definately looking like a problem with the washer.)

Me: Where is this sound coming from? The washer?

Caller: No, actually I have heard it outside.

(Ooops)

Me: Outside? Is this directly outside where the washer is?

Caller: I don't know. It sounds like it is coming from overhead near the garage.

(Ok, ok. Maybe I shouldn't have ignored the part about the yard light)

Me: Tell me more about that yard light.

Caller: I unhooked it because it didn't have a switch and it bothered my wife because it stayed on all night. I took the light down and taped up the wires.

(Ohhhhhhhhhh boy)

Me: Where was this light? Was it on a metal pole or on the garage?

Caller: No it was on a tree.

Me: Oh I see. Where did you unhook it?

Caller: I climbed up on the tree and took it down and taped the wires real good.

Me: Ummmm is the wire in conduit where it goes up the tree?

Caller: No it is just stuck to the tree.

(I wasn't brave enough to ask how it was stuck to the tree)

Me: Ok. What about from the tree to the house? Is it underground? Is it in conduit?

Caller: Yeah it's underground but I don't think it's in conduit. There are a few places where you can see the wire and I haven't seen any conduit. It's real rocky here and it's hard to dig very deep. There's one place where I keep tripping over it.

(I'm beginning to wonder if this call is for real. I proceed to tell him that this wire might or might not be part of his problem with the washer but it could be VERY dangerous and should be disconnected at the house and removed immediately. I also explain that a "mysterious" tripping of a breaker is not something to be ignored and he should get this all checked out. In addition, I suggest that he leave this breaker off until the problem is found. Naturally I offer my services for this. )

Me: I'm busy up until Friday, but I know you don't want to do without your washer until then. I believe I can run by there tomorrow evening and take a look at this. Hopefully it will be nothing serious and we can get you fixed up quickly.

Caller: Well, Rodney said you were pretty good. I was hoping you could tell me some things I could look for myself so maybe I could fix it.

(Oh, so now I'm not just fair, but GOOD? I guess it's never too late for a little flattery)

Me: Well . . .

Caller: I've done electrical work before.

(Translation: I don't want to pay anyone to fix this)

(Unfortunately for me, I'm a sucker when it comes to situations like this. If someone was hurt because I didn't help, even for free, I wouldn't be able to live with myself. From all indications, it seems as if the problem could be with the old yard light wiring, but that does not explain the popping sound from near the garage. I decide to ask a few more questions to try to chase this down.)

Me: Normally these things don't just happen by themselves. Have you had any work done around the house lately? Hung any pictures? Been driving any nails?

Caller: Yes. I've had a lot of work done this year. Last fall a tree fell on my house and almost the whole house had to be redone.

(When he says this, I recognize the guy. I visited this house with my buddy, Rodney Roofer, the day after the tree fell. This tree fell across the room that housed the main panel and appeared to have taken out most of the home runs from the branch circuits in the house. The damage was extensive and when I saw it, I was sure that at least half of the house would have to be rewired not to mention rebuilt. This was a big insurance job and one of the "Insurance Specialty" companies from a neighboring city did the repair work. This company does all of the carpentry, drywall, and finish work, but they usually contract out the electrical and plumbing. I drive by this house occasionally and I knew that the work was completed only a couple of months earlier so I began to see a way for me to get out of this situation.)

Me: Do you know who the electrical contractor was?

Caller: Yes, it was Electricians-R-Us.

(This guy needs help and really needs a qualified person to look at this problem. My goal now is to try to make this happen. Even if it's not me, it will help me sleep at night.)

Me: I'm not saying that your problem is related to the work that they did, but I believe you should give them a call to come look at it. There's a chance that, if it's related to what they just did, they may fix it for free. I know if I did the work, I would want you to call me.

(All he hears is fix and free)

Caller: That's a great idea!

Me: Now if they don't take care of you, or if you have any other problems, you call me right back. In the meantime, leave that breaker off that goes to the washer.

Caller: I will. Thanks a lot Jim!

Me: Thanks for calling.

(Sigh)

I got a good kick out of that one, lol. Especially the part about 'fix.....free...'.
But it sounds like it could be dangerous and hopefully, this guy will take your advice and NOT run that washer until everything is checked out. Remember in the old days, how places were run by fuses? And when the fuses went, well, there was always aluminum foil to keep things going?? Ouch.

1. Service call at night... Complained that her house was "GlOwInG" orange. Sure enough all the vertical seams of the aluminum siding were glowing orange. Touching the siding and being grounded could have been painful. "I didn't try it". She lost her ground and since the service outside was screwed through the aluminum it found it's path.

2. A tv antenna of a house struck by lightnig. Every nail in the aluminum siding was blown out of it's hole.

jb:
Almost sounds like psychiatry...