Having tried two different electricians, all being ridiculous (e.g. exposing & leaving live wires or parking 100 metres from our house instead of the driveway & then charging us for 30 minutes walking time back & forth to the house to bring equipment), we are now onto our third one, he is here to install a doorbell at the moment.
We only pick tradesmen with good ratings so if these are the best we can get, I dread to think what the worst are like. Once we find a decent electrician, I think we will be sticking with him no matter what his prices are!
Before he agreed to do the job, I texted him to make sure he understood that we are supplying the wired doorbell for him to install. I explained we don't currently have any doorbell installed so it'll need new wiring & that the driveway is empty for him to park his car.
He agreed & turned up... so far so good ! I'm hopeful, perhaps that is naive?
However, he arrived a short while ago and the ridiculousness started almost straight away. I thought it might be amusing for all of you if I gave you live updates while he is here.
- he turned up & parked his car in the middle of the road blocking the entrance to the street instead of on our driveway, so none of the neighbours could get home. It also caused a dangerous obstruction against oncoming traffic along the main road. I had to repeat to him to move the car onto our driveway- I resisted the urge to explain to him that it isn't safe to park in the middle of a road.
- he took one look at the wired doorbell we supplied and said "It's wired, I don't have the right parts to install a wired one."
- he then said "let me explain it to you, some doorbells are wireless you see and some are battery operated. Yours is wired." (as if I hadn't already told him it was wired!)
- then he said to me "can you Google search the correct voltage for it please?"
- a few minutes later, he said "this is normally a DIY job, you see, it is something you would do yourself."
- the rest of the time he has spent reading the 1 paragraph of instructions on the doorbell packet over & over again. That is as far as we have got so far, and he has been here for about 30 minutes. I will update you with live progress reports as they happen !
- update: he repeated that he doesn't have the right parts. I knew if I have to find another electrician, it will just be the same sort of saga again, so I agreed to pay him an hourly rate for him to drive to the shop and pick up the parts he should've brought over in the first place. He has just left in the car to go to the shop
