Lying customers

[Englishman]

Why do customers deliberately hold things from you when it will only make your job longer which then costs them more?

Been to a place where the lights keep tripping 4 times now. There is no obvious fault when I get there and test, the IR readings are generally around 70 mega ohm, obviously something is wrong but nothing that should be tripping, been fixed all 3 times up to Friday (been finding numerous visuals every time I look, nicked insulation, loose terminations), put it on a 10a mcb last time I went.

Went back Friday and finally found a dead short between live and neutral at the board, track down the offending link (in the kitchen under the bathroom), ask again, "has there been a flood?" (Asked the first time I went there and was told no, both by tenant and then landlord twice) "oh yeah" she replies "ages ago, there was water coming through that light as it goes, I didn't think that was important because it was years ago"

Why don't customers just tell you what you ask?

 

[Octopus]

As long as they paid you for your time do you care? I don't!

 

[shay.sparky]

Nice little earner for you

 

[shay.sparky]

I got a call last week light not working in ladies toilet got there asked the manager the problem she showed me I pressed the switch there you go love she replied " I've never had to that before," I said £26.50 please

 

[KevinS]

Customers lie??????
Never!

remember the customers always right. We are just the daft ones fiddling about with the wires!

 

[oldtimer]

Repairs are my bread and butter so I have learned to ask all the right questions ie has it happened before, when does it happen, whats on at the time had any floods recently . Also these things are important to you but some tenants have the attention span of a nat and believe me I have had a few bingers as I call them where I would be better asking the bloke next door.

 

[trev]

I got a call last week light not working in ladies toilet got there asked the manager the problem she showed me I pressed the switch there you go love she replied " I've never had to that before," I said £26.50 please

Crikey you're cheap, fancy doing some subby work for me

 

[shay.sparky]

I only like working for people that deduct my wage and pay time and a third

 

[trev]

Tell you what mate, I'll pay you time and a half then deduct the lot from you....you're even cheaper than I thought you'd be

 

[shay.sparky]

Tell you what mate, I'll pay you time and a half then deduct the lot from you....you're even cheaper than I thought you'd be

I don't want to take advantage at least let me pay for my own fuel

 

[trev]

Aye Ok mate. you're hired

 

[Englishman]

As long as they paid you for your time do you care? I don't!

Nope! I'm just sick of the place and I just wonder why people don't tell you things because they "don't think its important" or purely because they don't want to admit to doing something wrong.

 

[Englishman]

Repairs are my bread and butter so I have learned to ask all the right questions ie has it happened before, when does it happen, whats on at the time had any floods recently . Also these things are important to you but some tenants have the attention span of a nat and believe me I have had a few bingers as I call them where I would be better asking the bloke next door.

It was one of the first things I asked both the landlord and the tenant. Any drilling recently? Any problems with rodents? Any floods?

Just a pain in the arse sometimes.

 

[Darkwood]

I often have to cover for ppl lying to their boss when machines go down... when they don't know me their lies can cost me headaches trying to fault find but once they realise ill cover their back they now tell me how they caused the issue .... operator happy boss happy and I get job done a lot quicker... the amount of time ive wasted through mis-information is unbelievable now I just assume all ppl I meet and don't know are fabricating the truth as I usually prove the cause of the problem to them anyway.

 

[oldtimer]

Yep I have lied to the landlord when I was called out to an old biddy who table light blew the 32 ring breaker she said the lamp exploded and then she had the loss of power found table lamp to have aluminium foil wrapped around the fuse (she bought it from a car boot sale.

Also there is a culture thing as well as one I recall was yes that spotlight over the bath was working yesterday "are you sure I said" Yes was the reply "well it was not wired up" I said

 

[Outspoken]

I know that many sparks and building engineers are just as bad, especially when they drop a bow lock and think they will get into trouble for it..spent many an hour fault finding something because someone lied or at least covered up the truth..Does my head in, we are all human, we all drop clangers from time to time, i wish they would just say "Oops, dropped a bow lock and it went bang, this was what I was doing!"

 

[GLENNSPARK]

Why do customers deliberately hold things from you when it will only make your job longer which then costs them more?

Been to a place where the lights keep tripping 4 times now. There is no obvious fault when I get there and test, the IR readings are generally around 70 mega ohm, obviously something is wrong but nothing that should be tripping, been fixed all 3 times up to Friday (been finding numerous visuals every time I look, nicked insulation, loose terminations), put it on a 10a mcb last time I went.

Went back Friday and finally found a dead short between live and neutral at the board, track down the offending link (in the kitchen under the bathroom), ask again, "has there been a flood?" (Asked the first time I went there and was told no, both by tenant and then landlord twice) "oh yeah" she replies "ages ago, there was water coming through that light as it goes, I didn't think that was important because it was years ago"

Why don't customers just tell you what you ask?

let em lie...it all goes on time...
more lies=more££££

 

[amlu]

(insert your desired rate here) per hour for fault finding. their business that finding the fault does not take days.

 

[monkeyelectric]

I feel like sherlock holmes after i test, investigate, find the problem caused by recent diy and they then confess

 

[Marvo]

I often have to cover for ppl lying to their boss when machines go down... when they don't know me their lies can cost me headaches trying to fault find but once they realise ill cover their back they now tell me how they caused the issue .... operator happy boss happy and I get job done a lot quicker... the amount of time ive wasted through mis-information is unbelievable now I just assume all ppl I meet and don't know are fabricating the truth as I usually prove the cause of the problem to them anyway.

Agreed, you get liars, damn liars and then you get machine operators.

 

[durhamspark]

Happens all the time " there's a fault on the lights mate , the fuse keeps blowing " notice the opened boxes of b&q light fittings " have you done anything?" " no mate but when you find it could you put these lights up as well?" " no problem, it be an hourly rate to find the fault so the more information you can give me the cheaper it'll be" " I tried to put those lights up and f****d it up" " thankyou very much "

 

[GLENNSPARK]

you will get them though that keep up the charades....
like it says....keep it up....£££££
you can smell lies anyway....some folks breath stinks of em...

 

[telectrix]

as a recent post on another thread... some customers are so full of bullsh1t, their breath smells like a fart.

 

[Outspoken]

I remember many years ago when we did call out work we were called to a small industrial unit where the main DB had caught fire and needed to be replaced...investigations by the Spark I was with (I was still an apprentice) found the 3 main fuses feeding the board had steel wire in them that appeared to be cut down nails!!

The main isolator on the board had slowly broken down due to the loading and this caused a lot of fuse blowing...although everyone there denied putting the nails in!

 

[RmBo_0]

I prefer the columbo approach myself. I'll ask them a load of questions and just as I'm walking out the door I'll turn round and say "Just one more thing" and they confess every time