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Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 31
Member
Latest update on this situation.

Thank you everyone for your help and advise and suggestions.

Problem is solved. After spending 5-6 hours troubleshooting and determining that it was probably the neutral coming to the meter from the pole (which I had originally told the plumber) it turns out that he convinced the homeowners that the panel had to be replaced. He got $1,200 for that and I got pushed away. The plumber told me the homeowners were not convinced it was the panel originally but he talked them into it. Here is comes. He told me what he did and I got pissed off because I should have got a cut on that. He said no because it was not the powercompany neutral. I said "XXKKFJJCFC&%%%" and a few other words to him. Now the kicker, when I went to the house with my partner we found thr strap from the neutral wire connection on the pole laying on the ground next to the pole. He finally admitted he did call the power company and they told him it was their issue. So caught him in a lie. I hate dealing with people loike that. The panel was a mess to start with and should have been replaced, but by a plumber?? He said he would give me a few hundred for my time though, still waiting on that. Life Sucks!!


Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 7,381
Likes: 7
Member
Hopefully a lesson learned.

Sounds like the part of PA you're in is 'anyone can do anything'; no lic., no permits, no inspections??



John
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 613
M
Member
That so sucks
If he did that here we could have fined the plumber and made him hire you to fix it. Worse is the customers believed the plumber about an electrical problem? A good liar is far more convincing than a bad truth teller. Did anyone tell the customer about the lie? I mean they are going to perpetuate the lie by convincing their friends that their plumber is the best electrician around. Why states allow anyone but certified electricians to do electrical work is beyond me. Tke a guy with 1200 hours of school and 6000 hours of pratical training and say a carpenter or plumber knows enough about electrical work to allow them to do it?
If I ran the world.

Originally Posted by AFJES
Latest update on this situation.

Thank you everyone for your help and advise and suggestions.

Problem is solved. After spending 5-6 hours troubleshooting and determining that it was probably the neutral coming to the meter from the pole (which I had originally told the plumber) it turns out that he convinced the homeowners that the panel had to be replaced. He got $1,200 for that and I got pushed away. The plumber told me the homeowners were not convinced it was the panel originally but he talked them into it. Here is comes. He told me what he did and I got pissed off because I should have got a cut on that. He said no because it was not the powercompany neutral. I said "XXKKFJJCFC&%%%" and a few other words to him. Now the kicker, when I went to the house with my partner we found thr strap from the neutral wire connection on the pole laying on the ground next to the pole. He finally admitted he did call the power company and they told him it was their issue. So caught him in a lie. I hate dealing with people loike that. The panel was a mess to start with and should have been replaced, but by a plumber?? He said he would give me a few hundred for my time though, still waiting on that. Life Sucks!!


Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 7,381
Likes: 7
Member
Unfortunatley, that scenario happens, and what is shocking to a lot of us is that there was no 'rules' broken.


John
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 9,923
Likes: 32
G
Member
Yup, even in right to work land Florida that would not happen here unless nobody knew about it. The only way someone can work without a license is if they are owner/builder in their own home. You still need a permit to get FPL to reseal the meter.


Greg Fretwell
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 1,273
T
Member
I'd say the OP talked too much.

NEVER spell out electrical theory to plumbers, et. al.

=====

Beyond that, where was your contract with the plumber?

Fix it.

It's defective.

We're in a low-trust situation -- even with home owners.

NEVER present ANY conclusions to GCs or other trades.

Instead: you fix everything like it's magic.

If you can't shut up: just say that you've had to ring-out all of the daughter circuits, recheck all bonds and back check the insulation.

Then hand them the bill.

They wouldn't know EM theory if it bit them.

Your story is ALWAYS what you HAD to do to square up the system. Never dwell on this or that defective part/ connection.

======

Example: I was called in to fix a troublesome industrial circuit.

In an unloaded state everything checked out okay.

ONLY when the contactor pulled in did the control circuit, from time to time, fail to hold.

Lousy labeling, wide spread corrosion sent me on many a wild goose chase.

So when I wrote up the tab all that I focused on was just how brutally difficult it was to find the fault -- and that it took all of my trick test equipment to find it. ( in that rat's nest )

We got our money -- and the customer's maintenance man ended up looking pretty good, too. After all, it took an absolute expert half a day to track the beastie down!

Let that be your style.

Last edited by Tesla; 04/03/12 02:18 AM.

Tesla
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 31
Member
A LESSON learned the hard way by me.

In this area anyone can get a license. At least I am certified by the NCCER by taking the courses. When the guy at town hall first issued my license he asked me if I took any school for this. I showed him the NCCER card and he grabbed it and said, "at least someone in this town knows what they're doing now". So does that say anything.

This past weekend I had an emergency call. Someone's ele panel burned up. Replaced the entire thing; it was a burning bird's nest. Now it looks picture perfect and passed inspection. Best news was the owner had planned a birthday party for Saturday at 6pm and I killed the power on Friday at 3pm, ran to town hall, got a permit and did the work Saturday and "lights on" at 4:30pm. The customer was thrilled that I saved her party. They have a lot more work for me to do also in the future. That kind of made me feel good.

Monday I have an rough inspection for a three family house I wired by myself. First house I wired myself. No plans nothing! Just my quick drawing to the permit issuer that I gave the owner to present. "Approved" was stamped on it. So let's see what happens.


Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 8,443
Likes: 3
Member
One thing IMO,
I never use a DMM for voltage indication while fault-finding.
You need something that draws a fair amount of current, like either a Wiggy tester or a Duspol tester.
I use the Duspol N type exclusively and it draws 240mA when you push the button, if the neon goes out and the plunger doesn't move, there is nothing there to be measured.
That way you can be sure, you aren't getting a "ghost voltage" as can happen with a high impedance DMM, otherwise you're just chasing your tail trying to sort things out.
For anyone that is asking what the Duspol is, Google "Benning Duspol N", they aren't that cheap, but they are very rugged and I've had mine for about 20 years, they have saved my life at least 3 times when doing LV lines work.

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