I'd like to hear from the members some of thier memorable service horrors.

We have all had them, the homeowner who has remomoved both three way switches and the fixture before you got there. When you look up and see 15 conductors sticking out of the ceiling lighting box and both wall switch boxes with 4-9 conductors pokeing out and wonder just how long it will now take to ring them all out and put them back together.....Replaceing the idiot DIY efforts of people who seem intelligent enough to have known better....

Anyway...I will start with one of my favorites...

The year was 1983 and I was a lowly and semi-trained apprentice working in St. Petersburg Fla. Now in those days apprentices were used for two very important activities in florida, these were commonly referred to as DITCH DIGGING and ATTIC CRAWLING. As anyone who has lived in florida knows attic temperatures can easily hit above 140 fahrenheit. Therefore prolonged "attic crawling" pursuits usually lead to complete and utter saturation of one's clothing due to the phenomenon known locally as "sweating". Also because of the local inhabitants fondness for massive amounts of insulation to be present in said attics, (usually reffered to as blown insulation), one would end up literally swimming and or pushing his way through massive piles of this insulating material.

Normally this might not be a problem of any consequence, but when one is soaking wet the insulating materials show an obstinate proclivity to stick to ones face/hair/clothing/shoes and any other parts that I have forgetten to mention. The end affect is that when you finally leave the hellish confines of the said "attic" you tend to resemble a wookie that has seen Darth Vader from too closely and turned prematurely grey as a result.

Anyway enough background, you have the idea....

My trusty journeyman and I have an install job for four ceiling fans, we know this will be a new install and therefore stock up with lots of romex and fan support boxes before leaveing the shop. (note that we only sold the 52 pound cast iron pigs also known as hunter fans in those days so that ceiling fan support boxes or cribbing a support between the joists was mandatory and not optional.)

We arrive at the job site, the customer is on-site and smiling that we have arrived on time....all seems fine. Then the horror descends, all four fans are to be installed in a "great room" with a cathedral ceiling.......

An investigation of the attic shows that this is indeed "possible" since the scissor trusses have an approximatly 12" gap at thier peak. The entire space is completely filled with blown celluose insulation.... (shudder)

My trusty journeyman has no problem thrusting me into this hellish constricted excuse for an attic where the sun is now beating full force on the black shingle roof inches above my back. I compliantly drag cable from box location to box location as my trusty journeyman cuts them in from beneath. On my third backwards claustrophobic trip back to the attic access I imagine fleeing to the hugh backyard pool and immerseing myself....I imagine myself as a aardvark...I am starting to hallucinate from the heat exhaustion.

Finally all four boxes are set and wired now I only have to tie all four cables to the switch legs from the cable I have helped fish....the end is in sight. Alas, I giddy from the heat and everything seems to take twice as long as it should....my coordination is shot. I perch in the attic above the entryway trying to make up this last box, my head swimming, wondering if I pass out what will occur. Will my trusty journeyman actually come get me or will my dessicated bones grace this houses entry forevermore?

The sweat drips off my chin in a steady rivulet, my clothes are soaked to the point that water is dripping from my jeans onto the drywall below me. There is a growing puddle beneath me on the top of the drywall but my only concern is to make up this last box with the light and fan leg seperate and then to escape this hell. At last I blank off the box and woozily make my way to the attic access.

Outside the garage hose is wonderful relief as I hose myself down from head to foot and my fevered brain begins to cool. My trusty Journeyman collects a check and wants to go on to the next call....I am sick out the window of the van....."no more today" I tell him.

That night at home the phone rings....It is my employer wanting to know "what did I do to the customers ceiling?". Since I have no idea what he is talking about and since I am still goofy from heat stroke I flippantly tell him to take to aspirins and call me in the morning and then hang-up.

To make a long story short (well...errr shorter anyway) My sweat puddle had actually stained the ceiling of the customers entryway....it cost us $900.00 to have the entry hall and ceiling repainted....ouch.

Wow, that's a much better story than mine. The company I used to work for did a LOT of attic fans, so I have surely endured the hell that you have described more times than I can remember.

My most memorable service call was when I replaced a 60 amp lighting main breaker for a gentleman who didn't speak English very well. Our company charged $21.60 for this breaker; a little bit high at the time, but they were paying for the convenience. That, on top of the service call added up to less than $100.00. The "gentleman" refused to pay, so I went to the truck and radioed to the shop. My boss instructed me to go back and remove our breaker, reinstall his and get out. Not so.

When I attempted to re-enter the garage, he came after me with a baseball bat, cursing me and threatening to kill me if I entered his property. I explained what I was going to do and he chased me out into the yard with the bat, knocked me down and hit me with it several times. He then banged several large dents into the side of my van, then went back in the house. Again, I mustered my way to the van to call for backup, only to be told to leave the premises, which I did.

I drove down the street and parked, just trying to regain myself and make a phone call. No sooner did I do this than the radio chimed. It was the office calling to tell me that they worked things out with the customer on the phone and that he said he would pay and that I could come back to pick up a check. I did so, with the escort of a police officer. He was arrested and charged with assault and battery plus destruction of property. I never got the check. I don't know whatever happened to the customer either.

Mine's a good one..to start with, for those who didn't know, my primary trade is in cinema service..projectors, sound systems, etc. although I have worked as an electrician for about 5-7 years total.

A particular drive-in theatre (remember those?) in Riverside County was home to some of the the most bizarre equipment and the most horrible projectionist. This projectionist was an old-school ham radio guy, which of course meant that he knew everything about everything.

Two horror stories of repairs stand out:

First was the sound system. Five screens, all with the old "speaker on a pole" setup. The radio craze for drive-ins hadn't peaked yet (and the early systems were all AM, a great idea around lots of arc lamps and spark-producing equipment.) This theater had some very unique (and robust, if treated properly) audio amplifiers. Those amps had integrated circuit pre-amps, transistor drivers, and tubes (!) for the output stage. Each weighed in at 45lbs. and was rated for 300 watts of audio power out mono. (My tests revealed that output rating was conservative. I got over 450 watts at 1khz into 4 ohms. Burned up my dummy loads in the process.) Each screen had three of these amps.

The only real problem with them was they needed fresh tubes to work properly. If you let the tubes go bad, the magic smoke would be released from a strange part referred to as the "scorch guard" which was proprietary to that amp's maker and hard to get.

Well ham boy never threw anything away, and I would get frequent calls to come fix a bad amp. The problem was always the tubes, and they NEVER bought new ones. So we kept rotating the old ones around, randomly stumbling onto a set that would allow the amp to sort-of work for a few weeks or days.

Finally my boss ordered me to pull all the bad amps (five of them) and bring them to the shop for repair. I managed to fix four of them (one had a shorted output transformer and went up in flames during testing.) I called the theatre and told them to go to Radio Shack and order sixteen new tubes for the four I had fixed, and to call me when the tubes came in, then I would re-install the amps. I got the call a few days later, grilled the projectionist to make sure the new tubes were there..yes they were he said.

I go there, lugged those monsters up the stairs into the booth, wired them back in and asked where the tubes were. He said "let's just go over to the cabinet..." Groan. Out comes the used tubes again. No new ones. I called my boss and told him the warranty was now void on the repairs. Anyone care to guess what happened to the four amps I repaired?

The other horror story is something y'all can relate better to: each projector console had a self-contained subpanel for the motor, lamp, etc. and was fed with a 2p 50amp breaker from the booth panel. Our service contract covered those breakers in the booth panel as well as the subpanel.

Got a call that the breaker to the #3 machine was bad, and that our intrepid projectionist tried to fix it...he got the power back up, but had an issue he needed me to look at.

I get to the booth to find the booth panel deadfront off, and battery jumper cables!!! hanging out of the panel. I noticed that the projector in question was running o.k., so I asked what the problem was..other than the obvious deathtrap hanging from that panel.

Seems that ham boy had hooked up the jumper cables and got things going ok earlier, but had trapped the cables behind the deadfront leaning on the wall in front of him. So he unclamps the cable from the live bus to move them, and the cables pull the deadfront forward to slam into his knees. His reaction jams the cable clamps into the live bus, shorting them and burning the bus so badly the breaker can't be replaced (GE bolt-ons.) I still can't figure how he got those clamps to stay on the bus.

I told him to call an electrician to replace the panel, and told my boss to void their service contract before we got sued.

I'll add a few more gems to this thread later...

Well, its hard to pick just one or "favorite".

Ill try. I too may post some more later.

I sent an apprentice inot an "attic". BUT ! didnt check his entry in to the closet trap door. He later dragged down enough blown in insulation to blanket my customers wardrobe which hadnt been removed before leaning his ladder into the closet.

Only cost me $150 US. For "dry cleaning". Im glad the HO's wife wasnt home.

Then there was the time my right leg was plugging down thru a kitchen ceiling.

The builder had installed some walking boards in that attic above for remodel. Well he hadnt nailed them down. I
stepped on one and the next thing I knew/felt was a lot of pain in my right thigh. While my leg dangled below the ceiling below.

Didnt cost me a dime. Builder was apoligetic and embarrased. But that knot and bruise on my leg lasted three months.

I knew better, i should heve walked the joist like I had for over thirty years.

Sorry guys but here comes another.

I arrive at a lady's home in the dead of winter. Her furnace is not working. As I enter the basement I find a "gas company" service IDIOT who has totally pooched the wiring OEM style of the unit.

This idiot walks over to the load center and "wiggles" a breaker and then looks at the HO and declares it an "electrician/ground" problem {how many times do we hear that one}

Then this moron walks off the job.

Out of concern and curtosy I call the Utility and have to fight the supervisor to send back some real serviceman to fix what the said idiot did.

He yells at me and says its an electrcal problem and says "YOU FIX IT!.

I call a local HVAC contrator I trust and he comes over and rewires the OEM back to spec.

I didnt make a dime. Why? No it wasnt reversed polarity. It wasnt the" bad ground".

It was the perception of the HO that the electrician was the problem when I hadnt even done any work. I verified the circuit and polarity but the damn unit was butchered by the gas utility.

Of all the single most sayings to haunt an electrician and more used by morons and idiots its got to be:

Its not grounded properly, or its got a bad ground.

GAAAAH!!!

This one is kind of funny.

We did a service upgrade for an elderly couple of WW11 generation.

I get the call from the irate HO. I go over and ask what the problem is. He chides me that a light in the upstairs hallway is "NOT WORKING" then he points to the new service and says"WELL IT WORKED BEFORE" you built that box.

I sent a man up top and he changed the lamp in the fixture and everything was well with the world.

Just had to laugh.

That was easy. Customer service can be/is a bitch.

OK, Im not making this up.

I did alot of work for the "City" for awhile. I get a call to the Library and there is some concern about "voltage".

The E Inspector is present and mentions boosting the Xfrmr.

After a pause the Librarian says" Cant you just lift/prop it up some with boards.

I know, a bit off topic, no horrors but.

Alright.

Another service upgrade residential.

Sometime after I get another angry call. The man of the house is screaming in the back ground . " I paid X dollars for the damn thing and I got no service.

Well I drive over and he is in the kitchen melting down. I talk to the wife and go below and do some instrument reading.

Turns out my job install is good. I examine the Utilty Xfrmr on the pole. It has a nice lighting blast thru its case. Yeah, the hood is without power too.

You can do perfect work and or be the best but you will still have to defend it against something.

Landlords.

Two notches below a lawyer.

In my early days I contracted a simple exterior security light insatll for a landlord prop.

I verified location and all specs prior.

This shister calls me and says diffrent after Im done.

I go ballistic and he apoligises and agree to pay. Later he calls me and says no he will not pay.

I spent $12 for a court date ,small claims.

The idiot brings pictures of my work to the judge for inspection. He changes his story about a lag bolt not being "right".

Judge sees thru his BS and orders him to a bank or ATM and bring back CASH to pay me.

30 minutews later he retutrns as ordered and I go home with money for work served.

I would call that a service call horror but a battle won.

I was working in one of our big glass house government computer centers in DC (4 water cooled systems, national network of users). We had a new 60a 3p Russell Stoll that was phased wrong. This customer insisted that we not change our equipment, they wanted everything phased the same at the plug so they called the GSA "electrician/handyman". He dragged himself in there several hours later. He looked at the wiring in the panel and all the colors lined up so he said it must be wrong in the plug. We asked if he knew what to do and he said "sure, just swap two of them". We went back to what we were doing and let him work. After a while he said we were ready. He matter of factly flipped the breaker and fire shot out, smoke and such. The whole room went black and the emergency lights came on along with several alarms. They managed to abort the Halon and get the alarms reset while he went downstairs "to check the main". In about 20 minutes (not bad for government work) the lights came back and the systems started powering up. Operators on all the consoles were furiously trying to get all the systems back up. Everything seemed to be working except the stuff on that 400a panel where the fault was. Mr happy showed up with a cup of coffee about 20 minutes later and asked how it was going. The data center manager was hollering about the 10 boxes that didn't come up and Mr H walks over and says, "No Problem it's just the 400a breaker tripped". He flips it. Boom! Fire smoke and darkness. By now we decided we better jump in there while he was on his quest, so I started working the original 60a breaker back and forth until I broke loose the welded contacts taped it open with a do not operate tag and flipped the 400 back on. In a few minutes the power came back on and we had everything but the original 60a going. They started IPL'ing again and Mr happy shows up again feeling very proud of himself that everything is working. I told him about the bad breaker and he says he had never seen anything like that before. The DC manager was still steaming watching this all transpire. When the handyman reached up to flip the 60a because he didn't believe me they tackled him and dragged him out!
The next morning when the real electrician showed up, we found the guy had swapped one phase with the EGC!
I am still not sure why this also tripped the main but I am guessing they were probably at about 99.8% of the rating.

On the matter of getting paid....well that has always been problematic with service calls hasn't it? I remember doing a large scale renovation/addition around 1985 for a specialist doctor and his wife. The guy a good seven figure income and nothing was too good for his early vintage "Mc. Mansion".

Right from the start of this job it became apparent to me that there would be some dispute at the end. The plans I had bid were altered and revised daily to the point of absurdity. The local AHJ knowing me and being a good sport allowed this nonsense to continue until the revised feild drawings had departed so far from the engineered ones that he finally had to put his foot down.

At each step I felt I had protected myself by writing out laboriously worded change orders and getting either the doc or his wife to sign them. I had to have the GC tear open the soffit above the kitchen cabinets twice so that more circuits could be routed thru it. (The wife had me install a bank of switches in the kitchen so that she could control...the front drive lights, garage lights, outside entry lights, foyer lights, foyer stair lights, dimming dining lights, kitchen lights, back deck lights, back yard security lights, back yard garden lights, pool deck lights, pool lights, and the newly added "Night light" sconces on both the first and second floors.)

My original bid was a mere $1800 because I was doing the work myself and the scope was a few wiring additions to the existing house and tearing off the garage roof and adding a second floor to it with two beds and a bath.(remember this is in 1985 dollars)

Really I took it as a "filler" a job that would drag on for months and not require my presence that much, but that would maybe result in some word of mouth referrals and additional work. (so much for wishful thinking).

The AHJ decided that a service upgrade was required after about half the revisions so I duly paid for the engineering and resubmitted the drawings. (after getting a signed change order)

My "filler" job had turned into something that had consumed my every spare waking minute for five months and I was ecstatic when the final inspection passed without a hitch. Because of the size of the original contract I had not requested nor recieved any completion milestone payments and the entire cost of this project had come from my own pocket so far.

With my copy of the final in hand I entered the home and presented my bill to the owner along with copies of all the changes and thier estimated cost. The total bill was still a more than reasonable sum, just over $9000.00. My profit on this computed sum was negligible to say the least, again I was still hoping for some positive word of mouth and future high dollar jobs with the doc and his friends. (yes...sigh...I know that was stupid I have learned better since then.)

The doc goes through my bill item by item without one word and then cuts me a check for exactly $4500.00 stateing "thats what I think the job is worth, now you can leave my premises." It takes me about 30 seconds to actually catch on that he is absolutely serious. "But you agreed to the costs on the change orders!" I stammer half coherently. "You and I both know that you only used those changes to inflate the cost of this job well beyond it's real costs" he replies seriously. "But I did about five times the wireing in the original bid and had to pay an engineer....plus replace the service....I'm hardly making anything on this job...." finally stuttering into silence I look at him expecting him to acknowledge the logic of my argument. He laughs and then says "come on I know how this works, if your billing $9000.00 then your costs were probably less than three, you can't expect to get rich just because your doing a job for someone like me."

Now the slow fuse in my brain has finally sputtered into life and an explosion is imminent....there are just too many things here to say to decide on one.

1. Five months of time...usually with six to seven calls to be answered per week?.....

2. Going back to the engineer and getting revised drawings includeing a new service oneline and load calc?....

3. Over 200 hours of my time by my best guess both on and off the site?....

4. Dealing with his ditzy wife and her ever growing switch bank....

5. He "knows how this works" meaning that I am a lieing cheating coniveing scammer and not a proffessional trying my best to give best value for the money.

6. I'm going to "get rich" by billing him $9000.00 WTF?....

7. "Someone like me" Well that says it all doesn't it...he imagines himself as Bill Gates or Warren Buffet apparently...as if I care or had changed my billing in his case other than to lower it as explained earlier.

I look down and realize that my hands are trembling, I am seriously scared that I will do something here that might momentarily feel good but that I will regret for a long time to come. Nodding to him I turn and exit the house...I don't trust myself to say anything....it can and probably will be used against me in future court proceedings....I leave his insulting check in his hand....

I make it to my van without committing any acts of mayhem and breath deeply and count to ten several times. On a sudden urge I call a friend who has been at this much longer than I. I explain the situation and am literally crying with frustration as I finish...I don't have months to recover the sum in small claims my financial situation is quite perilous at the time. "You put in a outdoor service?" my friend asks. "Yes a new 200amp" I answer. "Take it down"...."what?"...."Take it down, put it in your van and drive away".

Suddenly the sun is shining again and I begin to feel better...I understand the difference between civil and criminal...hmmm...this might just work!

Ten minutes later I am on an extension ladder against the side of the customers house humming merrily to myself as I use my cable cutters to cut the second ungrounded leg to the house. I am in the process of pulling the meter when the doc appears from the garage side door. "What are you doing??!!" he shouts in my general direction. In return I give him a big smile and a nod while laying the meter on the ground out of the way. "You can't do this, I'm calling the cops! Again I smile and nod to him and then begin removeing the new metermain from the side of the house and the riser.....

The hub is disattached, all conductors loose, grounding electrode conductor pulled out, and the last PITA toggle coming loose from the wall when the police officer showsup. "What are you doing?" says the police officer who is all of about 24 and probably doesn't shave more than twice a week. "I'm repossesing my property" I grunt at him as The last toggle comes free and the meter main come loose from the wall. "Thats theft" says the uninformed officer "we can arrest you if you don't put that back". "Uhhh actually I don't think you can legally"I reply still standing stock still so as not to give any excuse for the drawing of weapons.

I am standing in the side yard, a metermain clucthed to my chest hopeing it can stop bullets just in case....when Mr. doc comes out of his side door again...."Thats the one officer" he shouts..."he shut off my electric and now he is trying to steal my meter so I can't get it back." The officer looks at me expectently waiting for whatever tale might be forthcoming but I have no desire to give him one....I have said enough.

The officer frowns noticibly and then walks away to talk on his radio in private. I lay the metermain on the ground and turn to the homeowner. "I can have this back and working in an hour or so...if you'll pay me" "Hah!..blackmail won't work on me, there are dozens of contractors, your going to jail and I'll have power back in a hour or two" he replies confidently. "Ok" I say passively and then wait for the officer.

Soon enough the officer returns and spends some time trying to explain to the hime owner that this is a civil matter and not a criminal one....I confess I missed most of this lecture because I was carrying my tools and the metermain to my van....

almost exactly one hour later while looking at another call and checking my messages there is a message to call the home owner in question. I do so and recieve the news that he will pay me in full if I will restore his service with a bit of salt.

I drive to his home, insist that he give me a check for the full amount plus $125.00 for re-installation of the metermain, and then refuse to do the said job until I have driven to his bank and the check has cleared. During the conversation I remember saying saying something along the lines of "your just the type of jerk that would hand me a check and then put a stop order on it and I'm not taking any chances." The look on his face instantly told me that he had planned on doing that exact thing.

40 minutes later with his cash burning a hole in my pocket I re-installed his metermain and re-connected the drop. The utility later fined me $300.00 for cutting thier seal without authorization,(guess who started that?), but I got it waived once the entire matter had been discussed with them.

ANYWAY.....the moral to this story is simple if counterintuitive...it has been my experience that simple people no matter how poor will always pay if you treat them fairly and honestly. Even if this is a hugh expense out of the blue(thier service burning up)they will try thier best to pay. Poor people often even try to tip you for the work you done especially if it involves the crawl space or attic.

Rich people got that way by being complete...err...well you know....
No matter how fair you try to be they will think you are one of them and try to tell you that you are robbing them. It will never ever in a thousand million years occur to them that they could tip you for good fast clean service.

I accepted a couple of tips as an apprentice and then realized that the only ones who did it were the ones who could least afford it....I learned the art of diplomatic refusal after that.

Ausador,

There was a story similar to yours in this area a while back. A contractor installed a new service in a commercial building, was not paid, uninstalled the service, was sued by the owner, was ordered to reinstall said service.

Once the equipment was installed it became the property of the building. The contractor had to reinstall at his own expense.

Now, an electrician I worked with years ago did a lot of work for an attorney. At the end of the project he presented his bill and was issued a check for half the amount. The lawyer said, "This is what I think the project should have cost."

Ok, my friend soon finds out the lawyer is having a big "come see my house" party. While the party was in full swing my friend yanked the meter and ran. Good luck getting ConEd to come to your house on a moments notice.

Party ended early....

(ausador) -

Your post brings back bad memmories of a time when I did alot of retail chains in malls, etc.

But before I begin with that, I have to completly agree with you about poor people and those SOB's who are rich. Ive had old lady's reaching for their check books before I was even done with the job. And then leave me in there home while they went away to do errands. Now here is one job similar to yours. Man was it painful, but like you, I went for the jugular and made them ever so sorry for FMO.

I bid a Pier One Imports back in the 90's. It was a $6500.00 refit. When the GC Supt. showed up late, and then said, "I dont even want to be here, I want to do Target stores", a limit switch was acctuated in my head and I knew then and there that this job was no good.

It would have been much better if I had just walked away.

Right from the start this idiot was F-ing everything up. It took him THREE weeks to get some FRAMING started in the store room area. Like you I was boiling and I confronted him in that state of mind. He looked me in the eye and when he saw my wrath he blurts out, "alright by I want it roughed right away"

Gee, ya think. This same moronic behavior by this desease of a Supt wannabe carries thru the entire project. He;s got other trades SCREAMING at him. A total cluster for all subs.

No here comes MY STUPID PART!. In walks an "agent/rep for Pier One. He has the Supt from hell at his side and they start dreaming and ordering extras, I write everything down and request AWA,s. They both wave me off and say "No we dont need to do that, just do the work. Second limit switch acctuates.

Well when your in the middle without any progress payment, for time served it is PRESSURE. I agree to do the work and order materials and provide labor for all extras which cost me an additional $8500.00. Check that figure against the original scope.

I call the PM who is alays someone out of state. I request some money and we end up in a fight. He then sends me [$6500.00] HMMM, sound familiar. the "doc and his bimbo wife"

Now comes the pain, I do all the extra work, we are 99.9% complete. Just two exterior lights on the columns at the store front. BUT the masons are still working on them AND they have to be painted. I ask the Supt as to when they will be ready. He says he doesnt know for sure and that he will call me. I agree and leave the site,

Later that afternoon I receive a call fromt the PM who demands that I have the lights mounted by 5PM. I explain that masons are still mudding the columns and that paint is scheduled first and that the boxes for the fixtures are not even finnished flush with trim material.

He threatens me and then a third limit switch acctuates. I know that they are setting me up. I and my men drive back to the job and masons are on scaffolding working on said columns.

We walked in and grabbed are tools and ladders , loaded up and drove away. When I got back to my office I called the owner of the GC and told him what was going on. He promised me that he would get his PM out of my way and let us finnish our work after the masons and painters are done. That same stupid ass loser PM calls me back and demands that I go to the jobsite and install the lights by 5PM.

I informed him that he was on his own and SLAMMED the phone down in his ear. Later I found out they had paving on the parking lot and that the opening date was still two weeks away from what they had told me.

During those two weeks the GC could not find any EC in my area to bail him out. They had to go over two countys to find "someone" to mount two lights. I had already got the GC a final CO before the "set up"

I hire a lawyer for $200.00 who files a lean on the property. All hell breaks loose. The property owner and Pier One are going ballistic. This is after I refuse to sign a waiver for the GC so he can get his final 10% of the $500,000 project. OH YEAH! now Im feeling good. Payback.

Two years of court and arbritation later I walk into my lawyers office and tell the girl that I WILL BE SEEN TODAY. An hour later after my pacing in front of his other clients I was cut a check for $2000.00 for doing $8500.00 worth of extras.

Trust no one except folks and poor people for money. Realtors, lawyers, landlords and GC's and rich people are scum do do work for along with retail chains. When your in the game you gotta be mean. I got much better at that game but I sure got kicked around some before hand. Such is the life of an EC. Ive got many more successes than these few horror stories, but thaty is what this OP is about. And has been said by others here besides me, if your in a pinch for money, then these things become nightmares.

Bottom line? This same DA GC kept sending me faxes and asking me to bid more jobs. Why? He was unable to cash in on the west Michigan commercial/retail construction boom that continues to this day. He couldnt find anyone to bid his work. The word was out on him.

My lawyer told me that this GC had "whined" to a judge that had already spent over $25000.00 in legal fees. They were ordered to pay me/my lawyer $4500.00 at arbritation. Well thats $30,000.00 plus the lost revenue future work in my area. Which could have been in the millions of dollars.

This job was probably my worst horror story.

But by God, they sure had hell to pay in the end, for screwing me out of $8500.00.

FK-M

See, we could never get away with anything like you guys have described. We have rights of repossession laws here in Virginia. The minute that you so much as install a wire nut, it's up to a judge to determine whether or not you should be paid for it. There's no gray area there whatsoever.

Ausador, I loved your story and Lord knows, we've all been in a similar situation. I do have to say, and I mean this in the most brotherly way: Anything written must include proper spelling, grammar and punctuation. If any of these are absent, the customer is going to assume that you are an imbecile and treat you accordingly. Right or wrong, being articulate is imperative in this day and age.

Doctors, lawyers, mayors, you name it. The minute that they feel that they are smarter than you are, you have lost your position with them. Maybe they did go to college for five+ years, but that doesn't mean that you lack the same common sense that everyone should have. I know that it was a long time ago, but the song remains the same.

EV607797....I doubt the rules are much different here than there...the point is that it is civil law and the cops can't do a thing about it. Then we get into the "possesion is 9/10ths of the law" thingie....etc.

The police cannot and will not stop you in the situation I related above. It is a matter for a civil court and not any type of criminal infraction. In this case the owner realized that he had signed change orders agreeing to the increase in fees beyond my bid. Since I passed my final inspection without a singal write-up or notation he had no means to claim poor work performance or malfeasance.

Indeed I had notes from both him and his wife saved from during the job praising my on-time performance and coordination with the other trades on their installations and the likely savings this had meant for them.

He knew he would lose in court and have to pay both his own and then my legal expenses....

Anyway....I was not in the least worried when I pulled his service...nor should I have been given current laws and the evidence.

Please don't mistake my choice to let a few typo's on a website go rather than correcting them for stupidity either here or in dealing with customers. I trust you will find that my communication skills are more than adequate when they need to be.

Thank you Ausador for the story. Your communication skills had my heart beating in anger over your well told story. Thanks for the ending comnments on tipping. That part made me feel good inside for in finishing my basement I tipped the sheet rockers $50 a piece, and when I caught the plumber on the phone complaining to his supplier that he was not getting paid what he thought he should because there was no mark up for him on the shower, though I had already paid him in full our agreed upon price, I pulled out my checkbook right then and asked how much more he needed, and paid what he asked.

My Brother-In-Law who does not believe in drinking alcohol told me afterwards, "if you want a good job buy the crew a case of beer" (he had done the same on his house addition).

It is a very good story for sure. It's a shame that people feel that they can treat contractors the way that they do. I know that it happened over twenty years ago, but if you are anything like me, your blood still boils whenever you think about it. I guess it's a good thing that you've moved on, but I don't blame you for harboring resentment. It just shows that you are a better man than he.

I got accused of polluting the labor market when I tipped the Mexicans who helped me clean up after Hurricane Charley. ($100 each)
It seemed like a bargain to me when I compared it to what my other neighbors paid for a "tree service".

ausador,

What a story. I'm afraid it happens too often. Unfortunately, there is a stigma against the trades caused by a few bad apples and by the general public's ignorance of what it costs to run a company. Many people think they are hiring you for the day/week/month just to cover your salary.
The truth is, you never know whose house/business you are walking into when taking a service call. The only way to protect oneself is to have everything documented and signed as you have.
At least it had a happy ending.

Not really a service call but it was one of those really bad clients that still makes me mad just thinking about him. At the end of a particularly nasty design build job, where my client lied, lied, lied through his filthy yellow teeth through the whole job, he decides to not pay my last draw or my retainage because as he puts it I am “guilty of several design deficiencies”. Things like he “thought” the switch bank for the warehouse lights were going to be on another wall, or he expected there to be more receptacles in his office…ect ect. Never mind I had a set of plans that he signed off on, he sat there in an arbitration meeting and said since he did not know how to read plans it did not mean anything.

Then in the arbitration meeting he as the Gaul to say, “It’s my job to make sure you don’t make any money”. Both the mediator and I were completely shocked, and then the mediator asked, “It’s the electrician entitled to a fair profit?” to which the owner said, “Not at my expense.” This was the point I walked out of the meeting and called my lawyer, it turns out he did have the right to hold my retainage until we worked out our differences but the judge was not impressed with him also holding my last draw and when the profit comment came out in the arbitration minutes, I got my money and legal fees, but I still lost money on the job.

The GC on the project took a different route and tried everything they could to please this jerk, and were out there for 3 months making changes and doing asinine punch list items like cleaning his roof, mowing the lawn and re-striping his lot 4 times. He even made them pay his electric bill for the last three months they were out there doing his never ending punch list. They finally had to cut him off and sue him too.

Hmmmm.....ok this story is from way back in 1981...as a new green apprentice with a shiny new pouch and tools. I had less than four months on the job when my employer accepted a labor only contract from (nameless government contractor).

(Nameless government contractor) had recieved a hugh increase in orders to deliver both communication and fire control computers for the navy. This would require an expansion of thier plant and a cure for the bottleneck of testing such systems. (they could build them much faster than they could go through the 7 step testing process.).

My trusty journeyman at the time was an air cargo pilot by trade who filled in sometimes as an electrician when things were very slow. Said journeyman worked everything hot by choice even when it was unneeded and expected you to do the same. His response when you got knocked onto your butt from current was not to inquire how you were but rather to ask..."well..do you know what you did wrong?"

I have to admit that this darwin style learning process definately motivated me to learn all that was possible about my job conditions as shortly as possible.

Anyway...I suppose I should tell a story instead of continueing on about my....err...glory days. (LOL)

The plant of (Nameless government contractor) had a master electrician and three journeyman on the payroll. During one part of the project we were to remove the feeds to seven 200a 480V compressors so that they could be removed and replaced with two 600a 480v centrifigal compressors of a newer more efficient type.

I remember being up on a manlift with a sawzall cutting two inch conduits with the conductors in them up into manageble lengths. I also remember yelling 35 feet to the ground to the master electrician in charge of the job...."this conduit?"

I had to lean up out of the manlift standing on the lower gaurdrails and resting the left side of my lower chest across a 6" sprinkler to reach the conduit with a sawzall.

"This pipe?" I yell down again before starting cutting, I recieve an affirmitive from below. You all can guess what happened.....the conduit I was attempting to cut was live..

There is a fairly small visible flash but the noise is like a double barrel shotgun going off right next to my head. Enough current flows through me to leave bright red burns on the left side of my ribcage where I am touching the sprinkler pipe. The sawzall gaurd is welded to the conduit and requires a three pound hammer to knock it loose once I recover my senses. My ears ring for almost three weeks and I become 1st person famaliar with the phrase.."What?...say that again?"

Thus the importance of lock-out tag-out and verifying them yourself......

(it is a service call since it was a labor only contract right?) ????

I, and another electrician, were dispatched to a rental house, whose occupants complained that half the house was without power.

I arrived moments after the other guy ... who was with the rental agent, at the old-style fuse box. I got there just in time to see him remove a foil-wrapped fuse. "I love (bleep) fuses!" said he. A check with the meter showed all circuits were getting power.

At this point, the tenants came out. First impression: I always wanted to meet Cheech and Chong! "Chong" teels us that there's still no lights on the first floor.

Lighting was by switched receptacles. As I bent under a lamp, to turn it on, I was interrupted by "Cheech" coming down the stairs.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you (to Chong) ... I needed a bulb, so I took one from the front room, until I can get more."

Yup. The first floor had no lights because ... there were no light bulbs. And, yes, someone had wrapped a perfectly good fuse in foil in a repair attempt ... without even looking to see if there was a bulb, or the lamp was unplugged, or the switch was 'off.'

Ill venture another, and Ill try not to spell to badly or "thumb type". Yue cea watt I meen.

Back in the mid 8ty's I worked as a industrial electrician for a world wide aluminium giant. One night [2nd shift] I hear a call for an electrician on "press 12" over the intercom. Now "press 12" is an extrusion press half the size of a house, not including the billet ovens that feed it or the run out tables or the cut off saws or the heat treat etc.

There are alot of people invovled and many interlocked systems making extrusions.

So, I hurry down to press 12 and on the way I pass the break room which I see to have alot of people smiling and sticking change into vending machines. I quickly refocus on my job. Get the damn line up and running. I do the same thing as I always do. I get out the program book and start "working the problem". I even have what in those days we called a CRT. It is a monitor which lights up every circuit and sensor along with control panel start/stop, cycle, manual/auto, bypass, you name it. Should have been a piece of cake [now is that i before e after c] well anyway I wrestled this problem over and over with production foreman looking on.

Could not find where the CONTROL CIRCUIT was open! Then something happened I still cant explain. I got down almost reptile like a peered under alot of mechanical "stuff" behind the control panel that housed the PC's, etc.

Well low and behold there was a residential [ivory] 15amp SP switch mounted on a stub up 1/2 ridgid conduit, to include hany box and cover.

Real electricains dont use that kind of gear in hostile industrial applications. So I knew I found something. I trace the conduit back to the CP and notice two "red wires" that enventually end up with a yellow tucked back in behind a spagetti mess of wiring.

Well, I GOT IT. I FOUND IT. I close the SP ivory and WHOOOOM!!! Suddenly the whole line is ready to run. I hand it back over to prodution and go on my way. I said nothing to anyone.

This particular plant was a bastion [spell] of hostilty between trades, production, management, etc.

The very next night I hear the same call, "electricain, press # 12". What do I do? NOTHING!. 30 minutes later after repeated call for "press 12" my foreman plows in to our maint' room all agasht with a production foreman in tow.

"MACK what are you doing?"We need you down on 12. I calmy get up ask request that they both follow down to 12. On the way I point out the crowd in the break room. I then lead to a spot and have them kneel down to examine peculiar [switch].

I stretch over and close the afore mentioned switch witch returns the line operational. I tell them of the previous night which convinces them the the press operator is deliberatley shutting down production costing thousands of dollars per minute.

I then sternly ask the production foreman, "What are you going to do about it" His reply:

"Well, their [union], I cant do anything". He says to me.

Not long after, this plant which had operated since WW2 was closed putting myself and alot of other people out of a job.

I edited this thing once, I tried, so now I will just "ghoe gwrabb ae beeah".

Alright, twice, [Aluminum] not "aluminium". Its the damn "electrician" in me. Why am I trouble shooting grammar.

I need new glasses too. BUT as one electrician to all others, it is realy a waste of time.

WE GET IT!. We hear each other.