Work, job turned down

Hi
Let me explain, I am talking about jobs That BT sent me on that I could not/refused to do

Job 1

I was sent to this ladys house to install an telephone extn. So on arrival I asked where she wanted the extn telephone put. Believe it or not she wanted it half way down a long hallway hung on the wall that had heavy flock wallpaper and wooden floor . No way could run the cable without it showing.
Not good enough she said, she wanted me to slit the flock wall paper from the center of the wall right to the end, dig out the plaster behind then lay in the cable and re stick back the flock wall paper. Unbelievable what some people expect

Job 2

Back of Epson downs . Visited this house again to provide an exten telephone. You would never guess where. He had an enclosed swimming pool at the bottom of the 100ft+ garden ,it was like a small house.

So he wanted an extn telephone in it . Yer like fun when he said I had to dig up his flower bed right down the garden and lay a telephone cable in it and reinstate the flower bed.

Job 3

Leatherhead bus garage

I was asked to provide a switchboard in one of the offices with extns phones within the building. No way. First the electrical supply had no earth when I checked and second how was I supposed to run cables from one side of the bus garage to the other with buses coming in and out let alone huge inspection pits in the floor.

Just some of the impossible jobs I was expected to do by the customers.

Re: Work, job turned down

A no access job

went to a house to provide a telephone extn, it was a timed appointment. So I turned up at this house and knocked on the door, a voice female behind said who is it. I said who I was and she wanted proof by me putting my ID card through the letter box. Like fun!! but I did suggest she went to a widow where she could see it which she did. Still not allowed in to do the work so I quoted her the job number of which she had a copy and the contact number which I quoted her. Still not allowed in
I gave up and put a no access card through the letter box, just got back to the yard and the boss had had a complaint I had not turned up.

Yes I did go to the right house and the lady said it was her name before you ask, sometimes you just can't win

Re: Work, job turned down

@ realspeed – All that sounds like a large notice posted on the wall of a company where I worked for some years, dealing with members of the public, it read:

Re: Work, job turned down

When I used to install bathrooms, it never ceased to amaze me how many customers had made no effort at all to clear anything away in readiness. Not sure why they thought that my time should be spent removing bottles of shampoo, bath oils, ornaments, towels, laundry baskets etc etc.

Had one customer who couldn't understand why a complete stripdown of tiles from the walls, replastering, decorating, reconfiguration of pipework and installation of completely new suite with new tiles couldn't be completed over a weekend.

Re: Work, job turned down

i had to smile to myself with this one.

Working in Esher Surrey in a house I got talking to the interior designer who happened to be there as well. This particular lounge the lady had everything, and I do mean everything from carpets to lamp standard and shade, walls to furniture. you name it all in this one shade of red
.
The last thing was she wanted a red dial phone, as they were back then, So i got out and unwrapped a red dial phone and shock horror it was the wrong shade and she demanded a red phone to match everything.
Well the outcome was I could only provide the red of that the phone. I looked at the interior designer and he looked at me and we both knew instantly what the lady was going to say.

Yes she wanted everything changed to match the telephone colour. I spoke to the interior designer outside and out of ear shot, he told me they had spent several days deciding on a shade of red from 300 different ones.

you just can't win

Re: Work, job turned down

Would have been cheaper to take the phone to a car body shop and let them colour match and spray the phone

Re: Work, job turned down

I know the feeling Dex. I once had to replace a kitchen sink which was full of washing up. I just removed the whole thing as it was and left it on the kitchen floor with water intact.

Re: Work, job turned down

Many years ago I used to do a few electrical jobs on the side, one of my wife’s colleagues asked if I could fit an extra socket and under cabinet light in their kitchen, I went and priced up a new socket ect, and an under cabinet strip light of about 12 inches in length, which was all agreed and included in my price, after I’d chased in the wiring to the socket, I filled with plaster, and made a fairly neat job, I’d gone out to my car to get something and I came back to find her husband had pushed all the plaster into the chased out channel..!! I had to re do it all!!, a couple of days later ( after I’d been paid ) my wife said they had said the strip light wasn’t big enough and could I fit another one, at my own cost..!, I refused and said if they bought another, bigger light , I would fit it foc, they refused, the wife then started to give my wife a hard time at work, we came home one night to find a letter, written in red ink?, threatening legal action if I didn’t buy and fit , a bigger light...of course I ignored it, ( and didn’t follow my first instinct to punch his lights out) and it eventually went away, cheeky bar stewards, it turns out they used to pull stunts like these with all sorts of traders

Re: Work, job turned down

Yep, there are those sort of customers.

Was once asked to paint a room which a customer had prepared. Told them that there were places which really needed a bit of more prep work as the divots and nail holes would show through and also that I'd happily do it for the price of a bag of some finefill and a tube of caulk (all for less than a tenner) at no extra labour cost. But no, they wanted me to proceed.

Needless to say that they then complained about the quality of the finished product due to the lack of prep work that they'd made which, apparently, was my fault.

Re: Work, job turned down

The worse bodge I had to be involved with was from a friend of my wife. He had managed to get hold of a timber window frame from a mate of his for free (no glass mind, plus it was single pane, not double glazed). It had no bearing on the size of the opening and we spent so much time time and money constructing a concrete surround to fill the 4inch gaps either side and 6inch gap at the top..... Unbelievable!!! At the time a new frame built to fit would have been around £70, but he was happy to spend around £30 for shuttering (for the concrete) and concrete instead. Looked utter shite TBH, but he was proud of it!!