Remember this thread ?

The lady of the particular home just called, says: "you wired my home (I had merely installed a service to a mobile home) and some outlets don't work. You said you would insure the electric for a little over a year..."

(I did?)

So... after trying to explain what a service installations encompasses, and where my work stopped, and the fact that the feds only make me warranty for one year, I diplomatically tell her that I could not warranty the whole trailer in any case.

Her: "Well, you'll charge to come out here and look at it then?"

Me: (75 mile one way)"Yes I will."

Her: "Can you tell me what the problem would be?"

Me: "There's no way for me to know without looking at it."

Her: "Do you know someone I could call that could tell me?"

Me: (silence)

Me: "No... Look, it's likely to be a bad connection in a receptacle. Probably back plugged. Have you checked all the breakers?"

Her: "These outlets haven't worked since you did the work here. You should fix it."

Me: "You should have called me as soon as you knew! No, that was not under the scope of an electrical service installation."

Her: "Well, one outlet works in the one room, but the rest don't."

Me: "That tells me that either the receptacle that works, or the next one in line is probably the culprit."

Her: "OK, thanks"

Me: "Yeah, bye"

<click>

Me: Oh crap... what have I done?

Well....if you charge and she pays....I don't see the big deal.

You're right, she should have called someone as soon as she found out about the non-working receptacles. How long ago did you install the service to the trailer?

And aren't most of those receptacles used in trailers really crappy ones? I think in one mobile-home accessories website they were selling "self-contained outlets" that apparently don't need a box to be installed.

Hey Virg, long time no read....
I know what you mean, been there; done that..

Doing one now (a "favor") about 60 clicks to the south...
"While your guys are here, could they put up this paddle fan??"
Yes, no problem
Well, we put it up, it lasted one day (24 hrs)...damn thing don't work.
Being a nice guy, I sent 1 guy back...found out the piece of xxxx fan was n/g. They went to get another one, which we put up.
The second one lasted two days.....
Turns out that there was/is a bad batch of fans at the big box store.
Sent the guy to a local supply house in area, put that fan up, no problems.

They paid for the time, but not the agravation.
How ya doin' buddy????
John

The "tone" of her voice told me she was trying to get a free ride, and wasn't interested in paying me to come out... Only if it was part of the warranty.

Sorry if that was unclear.

-Virgil

(Sorry I haven't been around as much... I discovered flight simulator online multiplayer and I'm addicted!)

the 'last electrician' syndrome alive & well, works for anything remotely near the problem source because well....we were there and did something to the electrical system.

Had a call one day from an elderly gentleman who couldn't figure out why all the receptacles on one side of his kitchen stopped working.

He was referred to me by the guys at the big box store down the street.

After talking with him for a while, I asked him if there were any GFI's on the circuit, and if there were, he might need to reset it.

I then had to explain to him what a GFCI does. And what it looked like.

After hanging up and getting back to my real work, the gentleman called back. I'm thinking "Oh, no! What now?"

He says to me "Thank you, it was the one behind the toaster, now it all works."

So now I hang up thinking "What a nice guy to call back."

It wasn't till later I thought about what could have tripped the GFCI. Oops.