ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area how to handle this service call

I had some freak call me late night, asked if I could come out to fix her lights. I asked whats the problem. She said someone put evil spirts in the wiring that can only get at her when the lights are turned on. I told her I don't speacialize in evil spirt removal. I asked if she was mentally unstable. She said her doctor says she is fine now. I said "I think you need a second opinion on that".I ended up agreeing to show up, but just to get her to shut up. I did not dare show up (might misake me for evil spirit and shoot me).

I'm not sure I would have been bold enough to ask about her mental status, especially since it's pretty obvious that the frayed wiring is in other places besides her house .

Sounds like she needs those "special" electricians that wear the white coats .

In any event, I'm glad you got out of there. I have a gut feeling that things could have turned out altogether differently (i.e., badly for you). One of the first things I learned in EMS - "Don't let yourself become a victim".

Mike (mamills)

Sounds like drugs to me. Should've asked when was the last time she 'took a hit' of something. Stay away!!! Might want to change your number too!

What if she's right?

At almost 50 now i have met more fruit loops that got out of the box of cereal working in this trade than anywhere on the planet. You did the right thing. Spirits in the wire. Now thats something i have never heard of. What a nut job. I know people have mental illness but spirits in the wire. OH BROTHER ....

To appease her and play along with her, you could go on the service call and tell her that you tell her that this was not an uncommon problem and that you would be glad to adjust her service entrance panel to prevent those evil spirts from getting into the house through the power lines.
If she would like to pay for a trip charge you could inspect her service entrance panel, fiddle around some with the wires by straigtening them out, maybe remove a few from their respective breakers and magically reterminate them on the same breakers and say "that should do it." "You should have no more problems with those evil spirits coming through the electric lines now."

We find them putting alum foil over the outlets, they tell us this keeps the electric from leaking out, what is scary is, we have had a few of these calls, and sure eniough, when we do make the call, every outlet in the house is foil covered.

dave, i hope you are kidding....no matter what you do, the spirits will return, and now this kook will call you day and night for a refund, or to come back, or whatever. This is the same kook that will call the township, the newspapers, the local tv, etc and tell everyone that you ripped her off.

best bet, get the phone # on caller id, and never answer that number again.

You might suggest the AFDB to her.

http://zapatopi.net/afdb/

Many of us here in Southern California use them.

They seem to help

Best bet is to just tell them a reasonable reason why you can not help them. Like you don't do that kind of work, try calling the utility, etc..

Problem is I get ones that don't tell me their house is posessed until I show up. I don't charge if the problem is with the customer. I don't want them calling me every other day they think there's a problem.

One time we had a call like that. The older lady also kept saying how everyone would end up dieing in her house and it was haunted. Their was debre everywhere inside. It had cob webs all over just above her height of 5'. We agreed to look at the panel in the basement. When Lue was by the panel I slamed the door to the basement. Wiggling the door knob I said it's locked, she locked us in. Lue was ready to jump out the window.