Attn: Canadian IP Electricians looking for work

[curlyandshemp]

Whats the difference between a Paki from Pakistan and a Canuck from Canada?

I guess you can find racism wherever you really want to. Perhaps some Midol will help?

The 'P' word in Canada is similiar to the 'N' word in the US. Now that we are all politically correct, we cannot use these terms anymore.

 

[gas]

re Toronto

Sorry guys
Derogatory yes, but racism was not my intent.

 

[rguimond]

This discussion brought to memory an "emergency" service call I received about 18 years ago. I was just a young guy - maybe 21 or 22. Sorry, it doesn't allude to the inadequacies of an electrician, but the idiocy of a customer.

Anyway, it's 10:30PM and I'm in the shower. My wife frantically enters with the cordless phone. A recent customer of a pre-fabricated home I did the wiring on was on the line. She was so frantic I really couldn't get any sort of comprehensible information from her other than that there was an electrical problem. I immediately grabbed my tools and started out on the 2-hour drive.

Upon arriving I received an extended verbal whiplash, after which she calmed down enough to answer some basic questions...

First, she led me to her living room, where there was a "smell" coming from a baseboard heater. Turned out to be a crayon.

Her second concern, which she asked in a very demanding tone, hands on her hips, etc. was "Well, why is it that sometimes the hall light is illuminated when the switch is flipped up and other times it is extinguished?" I'm not kidding, I almost exploded. She had never heard of a three-way switch (actually, there were two 3-ways and a 4-way).

Still, she had a defiant attitude, so she went on to explain the problem with her door chime. Yep, you guessed it, it made a different chime depending on which door bell button was pressed! It never occured to her that maybe this was to prevent needless steps to a vacant door.

Everyone should get a minimum of one "give-someone-a-backhand-for-free" card each month. I think I would have used up at least six of them that night!

 

[leitmotif]

This discussion brought to memory an "emergency" service call I received about 18 years ago. I was just a young guy - maybe 21 or 22. Sorry, it doesn't allude to the inadequacies of an electrician, but the idiocy of a customer.

Anyway, it's 10:30PM and I'm in the shower. My wife frantically enters with the cordless phone. A recent customer of a pre-fabricated home I did the wiring on was on the line. She was so frantic I really couldn't get any sort of comprehensible information from her other than that there was an electrical problem. I immediately grabbed my tools and started out on the 2-hour drive.

Upon arriving I received an extended verbal whiplash, after which she calmed down enough to answer some basic questions...

First, she led me to her living room, where there was a "smell" coming from a baseboard heater. Turned out to be a crayon.

Her second concern, which she asked in a very demanding tone, hands on her hips, etc. was "Well, why is it that sometimes the hall light is illuminated when the switch is flipped up and other times it is extinguished?" I'm not kidding, I almost exploded. She had never heard of a three-way switch (actually, there were two 3-ways and a 4-way).

Still, she had a defiant attitude, so she went on to explain the problem with her door chime. Yep, you guessed it, it made a different chime depending on which door bell button was pressed! It never occured to her that maybe this was to prevent needless steps to a vacant door.

Everyone should get a minimum of one "give-someone-a-backhand-for-free" card each month. I think I would have used up at least six of them that night!

this is why service people need both a good dentist and orthopedic surgeon - to put the jaw back in after you pick it up off the floor.

I have had some "interesting situations" also BUT I must say I NEVER had three from the same person in the same day. This must be a record breaker. And you drove two hours to receive this unnecessary unrequested unmitigated male bovine excrement.??



Dan Bentler

 

[rguimond]

Yep, and 2 hours to drive back home. Customer ended up winning something like $4.6 million in a lottery about six months later. Karma just didn't work out that time...

 

[allscott]

Yep, and 2 hours to drive back home. Customer ended up winning something like $4.6 million in a lottery about six months later. Karma just didn't work out that time...

Don't worry, if she was that stupid she's broke by now.

Been away for awhile, wow did this thread ever go off the rails.