Emergency electricians? Do they exist?

[oggbashan]

We had an electrical disaster this morning. I switched on an electrical kettle which didn't have enough water in it and blew the electrics for the whole house.

In the current telephone book and local trades directories, there are a number of electricians listed who promise attendance within half an hour to an hour.

We rang the first two. No answer.

We rang the next two. Line disconnected.

We rang another. Yes, they would come for a fee of £75. Within five minutes they rang back. They can't come until Monday afternoon.

My wife went next door to a neighbour who is a competent handyman. He was out working on a daughter's house but the daughter who was in, rang her mother who is related to most of the prominent local families. Mum rang back in five minutes. Her nephew, who IS an electrician will be with us in ten minutes.

He sorted the problem in ten minutes and wouldn't take payment because it was a favour for his aunt...

 

[AlexBailey]

I'll help you, Ogg.

Just pay my travel time and expenses from California and I'll be right there in a tool belt and a skirt

 

[ChloeTzang]

I’m glad that one worked out for you, Ogg.

 

[LupusDei]

I don't know about there, but here, the number to call would be the company responsible for distribution networks. (Used to be monopoly energy company, but now they're broken up in a network company and a bunch of energy brokers.) They do have emergency teams to clear storm or snow fallen trees in forests and such, and to inspect exclusion zones in residential areas and cut a hole in someone's overgrown hedge on occasion. Their responsibility ends with the meter though, including. The way to do it until recently was to play dumb and force them to come investigate, then bribe to do your work (I believe that now they can call the new smart meters to see is it still connected).

Any client side problem would necessarily be a paid service, and they wouldn't do any installation work, like, in case of a burned out cable in the wall they would just diagnose the problem (had such in a city flat after flooding by upstairs neighbor plumbing rupture, resulting eventually in complete rewiring of the entire appartment). But they do reconnect prepared cables on reconstruction and such, and even when they do not do the work they usually can give unofficial recommendations.

 

[oggbashan]

I don't know about there, but here, the number to call would be the company responsible for distribution networks. (Used to be monopoly energy company, but now they're broken up in a network company and a bunch of energy brokers.) They do have emergency teams to clear storm or snow fallen trees in forests and such, and to inspect exclusion zones in residential areas and cut a hole in someone's overgrown hedge on occasion. Their responsibility ends with the meter though, including. The way to do it until recently was to play dumb and force them to come investigate, then bribe to do your work (I believe that now they can call the new smart meters to see is it still connected).

Any client side problem would necessarily be a paid service, and they wouldn't do any installation work, like, in case of a burned out cable in the wall they would just diagnose the problem (had such in a city flat after flooding by upstairs neighbor plumbing rupture, resulting eventually in complete rewiring of the entire appartment). But they do reconnect prepared cables on reconstruction and such, and even when they do not do the work they usually can give unofficial recommendations.

My supplier would offer such a service to cover all emergencies but at a ridicously high monthly cost. They promise an engineer will be with you in a hour but online comments suggest that is fanciful and NEVER achieved.

For three months service payments I could pay for half a day's work by a local electician and yesterday was the first problem in 12 years. In twelve years I would have paid £6,000 for nothing.

 

[Handley_Page]

I recall a time when the electric kettle had a devise fitted which precluded the affects on the house wiring; the plug got ejected from the kettle.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Well, oggbashan I understand you so much. My son has done the same thing. He put the electric kettle, not enough water, and here we go, the same story. We called for a couple of electricians companies, and they didn't reach us.

Hey all, when you see a post like this from a new-ish author resurrecting an old thread, please take a moment to check their posting history for spam:

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Their usual MO is to post something bland like this with no links, and then edit it a couple of days later to add a spammy link. I expect this one is planning to add something for electrical services.

These ones are a bit sneakier than regular spambots because the posts are written by humans and they're not trying to get human eyeballs on their links. It's about search engine optimisation - when Google's crawler goes through this forum and notices "bitcoin" linking to a particular site, then that improves the site's ranking in search results for "bitcoin".

 

[mfan2112]

We had an electrical disaster this morning. I switched on an electrical kettle which didn't have enough water in it and blew the electrics for the whole house.

In the current telephone book and local trades directories, there are a number of electricians listed who promise attendance within half an hour to an hour.

We rang the first two. No answer.

We rang the next two. Line disconnected.

We rang another. Yes, they would come for a fee of £75. Within five minutes they rang back. They can't come until Monday afternoon.

My wife went next door to a neighbour who is a competent handyman. He was out working on a daughter's house but the daughter who was in, rang her mother who is related to most of the prominent local families. Mum rang back in five minutes. Her nephew, who IS an electrician will be with us in ten minutes.

He sorted the problem in ten minutes and wouldn't take payment because it was a favour for his aunt...

Change a couple of the facts and you have the start of a nice dirty story.

 

[Hypoxia]

I am licensed to maintain broadcast electronic gear in the US, not the UK, and I dare not fuck with house power systems. I foresee a tale of a tech experienced with megawatt transmitters who shorts-out a neighbor's home breaker box, burning down their house. Hilarity ensues when the victim's family moves into the techie's quarters, with some or all being practicing nudists. Title: SPARKY CUMS QUICKLY.

 

[jehoram]

https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.-1prIllswG9KNEErBgGyXQHaHa?w=181&h=181&c=7&o=5&dpr=1.25&pid=1.7

 

[NotWise]

Hey all, when you see a post like this from a new-ish author resurrecting an old thread, please take a moment to check their posting history for spam:

It looks like we have another one, this time from Xonia.

 

[oggbashan]

Sod's Law

Now our central heating boiler has failed.

Our normal engineers don't work after 5 pm on Saturdays until Monday morning.

The emergency twenty-four service has no one available until Monday.

I rang British Gas - they said they would come on Monday until I told them our ages and that I am disabled. They offered 9 pm to 7 am i.e. we would have to sit up all night! Or tomorrow sometime between 8 am and 6 pm so we accepted that.

 

[Handley_Page]

Now our central heating boiler has failed.

Our normal engineers don't work after 5 pm on Saturdays until Monday morning.

The emergency twenty-four service has no one available until Monday.

I rang British Gas - they said they would come on Monday until I told them our ages and that I am disabled. They offered 9 pm to 7 am i.e. we would have to sit up all night! Or tomorrow sometime between 8 am and 6 pm so we accepted that.

Truly remarkable performance. . . . .

 

[oggbashan]

Of course, they didn't come...

At 5 pm, one hour before the end of the scheduled visit I rang to find out WHEN they would come.

The automated system informed me the visit was booked for tomorrow i.e. MONDAY afternoon. There was no explanation for the change. The automated system asked whether I still wanted that appointment and offered me other dates up to the second week in January. When I had said NO to all the dates offered, eventually I got put through to a real person who couldn't understand why the date/time had been changed.

I would have had to pay £107 for the visit and £25 a month for insurance (or up to £500 for the visit). I told them to cancel everything. Our normal heating engineer is available on Monday morning.

I will write a more in sorrow than in anger letter to the British Gas Chairman and ask why, when they say they will do eveything they can for their vulnerable customers they change the time and date without telling us, and why should I, a dual fuel customer for decades, stay with British Gas if they cannot do what they promise AND fail to keep us informed?

Meanwhile? I am getting colder. We have one electric fan heater - that's all.

 

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

Of course, they didn't come...

At 5 pm, one hour before the end of the scheduled visit I rang to find out WHEN they would come.

The automated system informed me the visit was booked for tomorrow i.e. MONDAY afternoon. There was no explanation for the change. The automated system asked whether I still wanted that appointment and offered me other dates up to the second week in January. When I had said NO to all the dates offered, eventually I got put through to a real person who couldn't understand why the date/time had been changed.

I would have had to pay £107 for the visit and £25 a month for insurance (or up to £500 for the visit). I told them to cancel everything. Our normal heating engineer is available on Monday morning.

I will write a more in sorrow than in anger letter to the British Gas Chairman and ask why, when they say they will do eveything they can for their vulnerable customers they change the time and date without telling us, and why should I, a dual fuel customer for decades, stay with British Gas if they cannot do what they promise AND fail to keep us informed?

Meanwhile? I am getting colder. We have one electric fan heater - that's all.

When we lived in England, in rural Oxfordshire, we could guarantee that power would fail on a pretty regular basis in winter; we didn't have mains gas, and we lived on the very edge of the electrical distribution network, so any failures or downed power-lines downstream knocked us out for several days, and in times of deep snow or inclement weather, we might have to wait anything up to a week to get power restored.

Luckily we had wood-burners, open fireplaces, and solid-fuel Aga-Rayburn cookers with back-boilers for our hot-water needs (provided the pumps were running) and 50 acres of managed deciduous woodland we maintained as a heat-farm. It still got plenty cold at night, though, until Will had finally had enough of National Grid, and EDF, EON, and British Gas were just contemptible, and had 3 10KVA diesel generators with automatic cut-over's installed, which kept the stables heated, kept the walk-in freezer and the furnace and central heating pumps running, and provided enough heat to prevent the cisterns freezing. They didn't put out quite enough power to manage the TV, computer UPS's in my office and Will's CAD setup, and most of the household lighting, so we got used to reading and socializing by candlelight for extended periods in the depths of winter, and walking around with old-fashioned glass candleholders and a bunch of kerosene lamps we found in junk stores in the dining room and sitting room.

Someone gave me an ornate reproduction Georgian rush-light, a floorstanding swing-hinged bracket to mount a waxed rush taper on for sewing, I suppose, and it was a talking point among our friends that we still spent a significant part of the year in the 21st century reading, sewing, and cooking by candle or rush-light. I have to admit, though it was kind of romantic walking around like Florence Nightingale with my reproduction Victorian glass candle lantern, and kerosene glass-chimney table lamps put out a really warm, nostalgic glow, so unlike modern electric light...

 

[oggbashan]

Boiler fixed - NOT by British Gas.

MY normal service engineer had a fault on his answering machine, It told him there were no messages until lunchtime today when he found our two and another one. He arrived within half an hour, found a burnt out electrical item and called his friend a boiler specialist. The boiler specialist arrived within the hour, found a burned-out transformer, and replaced it. Cost, including new transformer? £100.

Meanwhile, between the two engineers' visits, the British Gas Engineer phoned to say he would be with us in ten minutes. I had to explain that I had cancelled the call-out because British Gas couldn't come yesterday. He was annoyed but not surprised that the customer services line had messed up - again!.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Yeah, no substitute for knowing the prominent local family!
If our usual electrician/plumber/roofer etc doesn't answer, we ring the hairdresser - and within the hour will get her bloke's mate Dave's brother's stepdad or similar calling back. Who will do a good job as otherwise she, bloke, Dave and brother will all give him an earful.

Her haircuts are rather expensive but worth it!

 

[oggbashan]

I have just had a personal phone call from the Board Secretary of British Gas.

My letters to the Board Members have had some effect! (or maybe it was my copy to my Local MP - a personal friend?)

She apologised and will investigate and ring me back after Christmas...

 

[Bramblethorn]

Yeah, I think that they don't exist because I had the same problem and I had to wait much time before they came to me.

Hey there, spammer.

 

[NotWise]

Hey there, spammer.

For some reason, this thread seems to be inviting to them.

Check Xonia's post up the thread a ways. I've been watching it to see when they insert the link. You already pointed out the post by lorniaton, and that's been removed.

 

[Bramblethorn]

For some reason, this thread seems to be inviting to them.

Check Xonia's post up the thread a ways. I've been watching it to see when they insert the link. You already pointed out the post by lorniaton, and that's been removed.

Huh, one of Xonia's other posts is advertising a SEO optimisation company. Now we know who to blame for all the spam.