Doc_Hollingsworth

jbow
A side note... you should never allow electricians or cable guys to run anything through a foundation vent... unless you want a rat problem. The screen is on the vents for a reason. I see it all the time and when I was not paying attention an electrition did it to my house. Within a few months I had to trap rats in the crawlspace and I could see where he ran a wire through the corner of a vent and the rats made the hole bigger... and a rat can get through anything it can get its head through. A huge rat can squeeze through a hole the size of a quarter... Just saying... OK, back on topic, sorry.
 
J

Doe this mean that if you get rats running through the house you can sue the cable guy or electrician for fixing the foundation, floorboards and rat extermination?

Dam rite Doc!! Sue the people who made the floorboards too, and the neighbors who put up a birdfeeder, the maker of the birdfeed, and the cat for not doing it's job. Sue the vent maker, sue everyone. Sue the city for no longer baiting the sewers for rats... you know rats are semi-aquatic and in nature they burrow along rivers, creeks, or lakes and have an opening on the bank and UNDER water... which means... of course... that if you are on a sewer system that a rat can easily come up through your toilet. They do that, just hope you aren't sitting there when they do it... snakes do that too. Nice stuff there... sue the toilet maker and the plumber on general principle. Lawyers, Guns, and Money...
 
Seriously, you can and should make them come back and fix or replace your vent and run their wires in a better way. Use a two piece Tem Vent and run the wire through a small hle in the vent surround, it ain't hard but I think they just don't know any better.
 
J

Good point on the "grounded" chassis issue. I do remember many of the 2 wire radios and some early guitar amps built back in the day relied in the neutral to ground the chassis. This was also before polarized plugs and outlets were widely used. The chassis was isolated from the consumer by the body of the electronic device being made from wood or plastic/bakelite. The hot chassis only "grabbed" you if you were grounded and the cord was reversed in the outlet.
 
I studied electronics back in 1976. TV and radio repair. Our instructor warned us about this very issue you mentioned. Transformer-less chassis ground..... hairy stuff to mess with. Millions made....
 

I fired the first HVAC contractor on my remodel from hell. I gave them a check for the first draw and suggested that I expected it to be returned uncashed.
 
When they asked why, I explained that it was evident that they provided no training for, or supervision of, their employees and the workmanship reflected that circumstance. I sent over some captioned photos hi lighting the most egregious details.
 
Ironically, I occasionally work on their television commercials. ;-)
 
Very Ironically, the last time my wife was called to jury duty it was civil case between an unsatisfied customer and the same HVAC contractor.
 
When they asked my wife if she was familiar with the HVAC business she told the entire story. She explained that we still have captioned photos of the poor workmanship and that they did indeed return the check uncashed.
 
They kicked her out of the courtroom.
 
The owner of the business didn't seem amused.
 
best regards
mike

funny stuff Mike.... and a cool way to get out of jury duty.
 
I learned to be very cautious about advances for contractors. Personally, I only ask for advances if I get the feeling that a customer is trying to get over on me...... Have me do the job and then not pay. It's a case by case gut feeling determination. As a result, 22 years in business and only have a total of about $1000 that customers beat me on.   I had one guy who owed me $450  from a job actually have the brass to call me a few years later to quote a nearly $3000 home security system for him.... I told him it would need to be paid in advance and included the amount owed which I mentioned to him..... never heard from him again....oh yeah... he's a minister at a local church BTW.
 
I normally require nothing down and 100% at completion of the work in a manner satisfactory to the customer. Commercial customers can pay 30/net. If a residential customer balks at the terms, I will sometimes offer them 30/net as well. Again it's gut feeling and intuition.
 
Then there was the carpenters from hell and the roofers from hell...... 2 stories of contractors I hired for some work on my house. Both companies came highly recommended by friends who had them do work for them...... neither will work for me again nor get a recommendation that is favorable.
 
Needless to say I supervise and dole out money very carefully. If they need a deposit, I ask them if they are solvent enough to do the job. Most say yes, of course. To which I reply... then operate on your money and you can trust me to pay you on time. I assure them that I will pay them when the work is completed to my satisfaction and to a certain percentage of the total job. I hold back 10% at the end for 30 days in the event that I have problems after the fact so I know I can get them back to make the final fixes in a timely manner. Some walk away, some don't. I pay on time and they get the job done quickly to get paid.

Yes, that's a good policy.
 
In my case I gave them a check for the work that they had performed so as to demonstrate that I was not in any way trying to get over on them.
 
I know it's not the normal way of doing things but it worked out.
 
 best regards,
mike

Personally, I only ask for advances if I get the feeling that a customer is trying to get over on me...... Have me do the job and then not pay. It's a case by case gut feeling determination.
 
Same here. I have found over the years that there are customers who have madean art of trying to get you to feel sorry for them, some sob story or another. They almost ALWAYS are trouble. Straight up people who want work done and don't quibble about the price are seldom trouble... I tried to tell my wife when she started her business to watch out for people who somehow made you feel like you should give them a break... I am not sure that they conciously do it but the pattern holds, they will be trouble when it comes time to pay and they almost always expect extra service and usually are not happy with anything you do... and it's like you said, a gut feeling, nothing you can really put your finger on but when a prospective customer begins to try to make me feel like I should give them a break a BIG RED LIGHT goes on.
 
WAIT... newsflash... I just saw an Al Jazeera America commercial on FOX News Channel (of all places). I think they are wasting money there... bizarro.
 
Yep, you learn to read customers after a while.
 
J

 
Always in my gig bag when I'm helping out a friend's band - always used along with Furman power conditioners.

The point of the article linked by the O.P. was that an "all good" result from that particular tool is inconclusive when it is used on the wiring scheme that was described as problematic.
 
best regards,
mike

craigb

 
Always in my gig bag when I'm helping out a friend's band - always used along with Furman power conditioners.

 
The entire point of the main story above is that those cheap testers don't always catch the serious problems in the wiring.
 
That said.... I do have, and use 2 of those things. One is normal and one is a GFCI tester as well.
 
I had an inspector plug one of those in on a GFCI 2 wire, ungrounded circuit I had worked on. He pushed the button to trip the GFCI..... it didn't trip. He was going to fail the job, until the senior inspector explained to him that it doesn't always trip on an ungrounded circuit, but it's still considered OK...... and safe.
 
Trust them a little bit but not completely.