Easiest service call ever. - Electrician Talk - Professional Electrical Contractors Forum

erics37 · 01-31-2011, 10:19 PM

Got a call today from a Head Start school up in Lincoln City. The administrator lady said they have a smoke detector making intermittent chirping sounds, as if a battery were going dead.

I hadn't seen the building before so I had no idea what kind of fire alarm/smokie set-up they had.

When I got there, I took one look at the high vaulted ceiling in the room (building about 10 years old) and saw a hard-wired fire alarm style smoke detector way up there. I've never seen batteries in individual devices on a fire alarm system like that, much less a speaker capable of chirping, but hey... first time for everything right? As we stood there, we heard the chirping sound. Sure enough it sounded like it was coming from the ceiling smokie.

Went and looked at the FACP.... no indication of trouble signals or anything. Something very fishy going on. I went out and got my tallest ladder, leaned it up on the wall, climbed up and put my ear next to the smokie. Heard a chirp... definitely not coming from the smoke detector. Looked down and saw a passive infrared motion sensor for the security system. That wouldn't have a battery in it, right? But it was the only other device in the vicinity that might chirp, not that I'd ever heard of that happening.

Got my shorter ladder and stood next to the motion sensor... chirp! Nope, not from the motion sensor. What the hell?

Stood in the middle of the room and listened. CHIRP! It came from that bookshelf over there! Wait for it... CHIRP! Moved some stuff around and found... a really old crappy battery smoke detector one of the teachers brought from home. They use the test button to simulate an alarm sound for the little kids to do fire drills with. The battery in it was dying and the room acoustics just happened to make it sound like it came from the ceiling.

All in all it took about 7 minutes and the biggest pain in the ass was hauling my ladders in and out.

Malaking_TT · 01-31-2011, 10:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by erics37

Got a call today from a Head Start school up in Lincoln City. The administrator lady said they have a smoke detector making intermittent chirping sounds, as if a battery were going dead.

I hadn't seen the building before so I had no idea what kind of fire alarm/smokie set-up they had.

When I got there, I took one look at the high vaulted ceiling in the room (building about 10 years old) and saw a hard-wired fire alarm style smoke detector way up there. I've never seen batteries in individual devices on a fire alarm system like that, much less a speaker capable of chirping, but hey... first time for everything right? As we stood there, we heard the chirping sound. Sure enough it sounded like it was coming from the ceiling smokie.

Went and looked at the FACP.... no indication of trouble signals or anything. Something very fishy going on. I went out and got my tallest ladder, leaned it up on the wall, climbed up and put my ear next to the smokie. Heard a chirp... definitely not coming from the smoke detector. Looked down and saw a passive infrared motion sensor for the security system. That wouldn't have a battery in it, right? But it was the only other device in the vicinity that might chirp, not that I'd ever heard of that happening.

Got my shorter ladder and stood next to the motion sensor... chirp! Nope, not from the motion sensor. What the hell?

Stood in the middle of the room and listened. CHIRP! It came from that bookshelf over there! Wait for it... CHIRP! Moved some stuff around and found... a really old crappy battery smoke detector one of the teachers brought from home. They use the test button to simulate an alarm sound for the little kids to do fire drills with. The battery in it was dying and the room acoustics just happened to make it sound like it came from the ceiling.

All in all it took about 7 minutes and the biggest pain in the ass was hauling my ladders in and out.

Cool. What kind of ladder did you use?

failelectric · 01-31-2011, 10:26 PM

Might have to take an early day after that one

kbsparky · 01-31-2011, 10:28 PM

I've had far easier service calls. Usually involves resetting a tripped GFCI on the kitchen counter, hiding behind a can of flour ...

In and out in less than 2 minutes.

erics37 · 01-31-2011, 10:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kbsparky

I've had far easier service calls. Usually involves resetting a tripped GFCI on the kitchen counter, hiding behind a can of flour ...

In and out in less than 2 minutes.

I've had a few of those. But I can understand someone not knowing what a GFCI is or how it works or why it would affect downstream plugs and stuff.

This one had nothing to do with any building wiring system

The whole faculty felt totally ******ed.

**480sparky** · 01-31-2011, 10:35 PM

Easiest call I ever got was for a buzzing sound.

Spent half an hour locating a pager in a plastic bag sitting on a shelf set to vibrate.

InPhase277 · 01-31-2011, 10:40 PM

Lady calls and says that she replaced all the bulbs in her house with CFLs, but one light wouldn't come on anymore. It was one of two lights in the hall way. As she flipped the switch the light closest to us came on, but not the one down the hall. She was perplexed, bumfuzzeled even! It had always worked before now, what could possibly be the problem?

I walked down the hall and flipped the switch that was out of sight around a corner, BINGO!

chris856 · 01-31-2011, 10:48 PM

I've been paid to finish screwing in light bulbs before.

Malaking_TT · 01-31-2011, 10:49 PM

The easiest service call I ever had was flipping was turning on a breaker. Not tripped, just off.

The most ******ed call ever was the idiots at the shop told me to go out to a small hospital to replace the ballasts in the lot lights and re-pull the parking lot light circuit in brown cause somebody used orange wire and "orange is only for the highleg" I'm like WTF? So as I'm locking out to change the ballasts I noticed the lights were on the B phase so I called back the foreman and informed him that the B phase is orange duh!

erics37 · 01-31-2011, 10:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Malaking_TT

The easiest service call I ever had was flipping was turning on a breaker. Not tripped, just off.

The most ******ed call ever was the idiots at the shop told me to go out to a small hospital to replace the ballasts in the lot lights and re-pull the parking lot light circuit in brown cause somebody used orange wire and "orange is only for the highleg" I'm like WTF? So as I'm locking out to change the ballasts I noticed the lights were on the B phase so I called back the foreman and informed him that the B phase is orange duh!

My shop has an office tard that sends me out on some goofy s**t sometimes too.

He did a walkthrough on a job (done by one of our other guys) before final inspection and sent me out to install a main bonding jumper in the panel because the guy who did the job took out the factory jumper.

I hadn't seen the job before so I went up there to take a look.

The main panel in question was fed from a meter main which was functioning as the service disconnect. The main bonding jumper was located in the meter main along with the GEC and so forth. I called up and politely informed him that he needs to go back to Grounding and Bonding 101.

pawirenut · 01-31-2011, 10:56 PM

How much did you charge them?

This is one case where i would cut them a break on the charge.

erics37 · 01-31-2011, 10:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pawirenut

How much did you charge them?

This is one case where i would cut them a break on the charge.

It was a half-hour drive each way. I just charged our minimum service call rate (1 hour).

pawirenut · 01-31-2011, 11:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by erics37

It was a half-hour drive each way. I just charged our minimum service call rate (1 hour).

Magnettica · 01-31-2011, 11:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by erics37

It was a half-hour drive each way. I just charged our minimum service call rate (1 hour).

You charged them for 60 minutes when it only took you 7 minutes to complete job?

InPhase277 · 01-31-2011, 11:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by erics37

It was a half-hour drive each way. I just charged our minimum service call rate (1 hour).

You charged the customer because your office sent you on a wild goose chase? Sounds like that was your company's fault, not the customer.

Malaking_TT · 01-31-2011, 11:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magnettica

You charged them for 60 minutes when it only took you 7 minutes to complete job?

I charged $87.50 to turn on that breaker I mentioned earlier and that was only 5 min from the shop.

Magnettica · 01-31-2011, 11:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Malaking_TT

I charged $87.50 to turn on that breaker I mentioned earlier and that was only 5 min from the shop.

Holy smokes!! You're rich!!!

Malaking_TT · 01-31-2011, 11:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magnettica

Holy smokes!! You're rich!!!

Well the owner of the shop is.

erics37 · 01-31-2011, 11:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magnettica

You charged them for 60 minutes when it only took you 7 minutes to complete job?

Yup. I was driving for an hour and gas isn't cheap. They actually got the 7 minutes for free.

Quote:

Originally Posted by InPhase277

You charged the customer because your office sent you on a wild goose chase? Sounds like that was your company's fault, not the customer.

The customer insisted they had a fire alarm smokie chirping. I went out and determined that it was nothing of the sort.

Minimum service call charge is a minimum service call charge.

InPhase277 · 01-31-2011, 11:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by erics37

The customer insisted they had a fire alarm smokie chirping. I went out and determined that it was nothing of the sort.

Minimum service call charge is a minimum service call charge.

I'm sorry, I thought you were talking about the office tard who sent you out to look at the main bonding jumper.