Customers with Funny Requests

[LostArt]

I was listening to some funny stories of what customers ask for. My husband can be pretty comical about it. Well, not just him, most powerlinemen I know can spin a good story. So, let's here them. I'll start with one from the Boss.

The Transformer Cover Doesn't go with My Landscaping

Not long ago, my husband came in saying, "I've heard it all now." I asked what now. He said they were replacing underground covers in a subdivision when a lady walked up from her yard and asked were they going to replace it with another ugly green one and if they were, not to bother because that color was just too ugly.

Now, at this point I'm laughing. I know my husband and he really can't abide silly stuff. I ask, "Please tell me you behaved." He said he did. He said they only come in that color. But, what he really wanted to say was, "Sure. We will be glad to just leave the wires exposed and you can hook this up yourself and put the cover of your choice on it." :D

[Highplains Drifter]

I was listening to some funny stories of what customers ask for. My husband can be pretty comical about it. Well, not just him, most powerlinemen I know can spin a good story. So, let's here them. I'll start with one from the Boss.

The Transformer Cover Doesn't go with My Landscaping

Not long ago, my husband came in saying, "I've heard it all now." I asked what now. He said they were replacing underground covers in a subdivision when a lady walked up from her yard and asked were they going to replace it with another ugly green one and if they were, not to bother because that color was just too ugly.

Now, at this point I'm laughing. I know my husband and he really can't abide silly stuff. I ask, "Please tell me you behaved." He said he did. He said they only come in that color. But, what he really wanted to say was, "Sure. We will be glad to just leave the wires exposed and you can hook this up yourself and put the cover of your choice on it." :D




If you ever get into the down town section of San Diego, the artists painted the pad mount transformers with cats and mice, flowers and all sorts of scenes. I see lots of them painted in light brown which is a nice earth tone. I don’t think that customer had an unreasonable request and why wouldn’t the Boss’s company want to do it? It is so much simpler then when the customer tries to hide the equipment with trees and shrubbery. Trees around under ground equipment are a hazard and safety issue for a lineman. You can not be in the right position for using a hot stick and take a chance of tripping or slipping..

[Pootnaigle]

I went looking for a pad mount in a backyard that according to the map was there. It was about 2 am and i couldnt find it anywhere. Went back to the truck, reread the map n sho nuff I was in the right place. I found the damn thing enclosed in a wishing well the customer had built around it.Absolutely no access You guessed it it was the normal open point and U had to get innit I spent over an hour dissassembling the thing but couldnt get the lid all the way open because of the height of the roof.... Had to tie that thing back The next day they called in a complaint
I once had a mental case tell me the Govt had some kinda remote control device and could turn her lights on and off at will, to harrass her. It didnt help matters any that she was wearing a Moo Moo with the entire crotch torn out and looked like she was smugglin muscrats er sumpin..

[LostArt]

I'm sure the Boss just passed the request on or had her contact the local office. That's what he does. He is pretty PC when it comes to work.
I don't know drifter. I've really not looked around. It's like wall grafitti I suppose. I've heard it.

The Horses Need Water
This just happened this morning. A tree fell on the line at a horse farm. He gets the call at 4:30am this morning.

The owner of the horse farm met him and asked how long is this gonna take and that his horses need water. The Boss, being his normal self, looks around and sees ponds (almost a lake of water), and the man sees him look and says, "Oh, they won't drink that." I can see the Boss pause for a second and then says, "Probably an hour, maybe two. Not long." And the guy has to say, "That long? I really need to get these horses water." The Boss tells him he will get on it now and tries to appease. That's what he does and has done for over 35 yrs in this business.

But, what he really wanted to say was, "I've seen Matt Dillion ride his horse thru open desserts and some how his horse found water and drank it. I wouldn't have a horse that didn't have that kind of grit."

Since it was near Ocala, I did ask him if it was John Travolta that asked. :D

[Highplains Drifter]

Okay LA back to the title of your thread, we changed out an alley pole one day and before we got in dispatch asked that we go back and bolt the top six foot of the old pole to the new one. So we did it, I guess the customer wanted the wood pecker condo back so they cold watch the birds.

[cololinehand]

We were in a lower income area of town changing out open wire secondaries and told a lady we were going to have her lights out for a few minutes while we changed her service. Her response was, "Is that going to effect my tv too?" When I told her yes she slammed the door in a huff!

[Lineman North Florida]

We were in a lower income area of town changing out open wire secondaries and told a lady we were going to have her lights out for a few minutes while we changed her service. Her response was, "Is that going to effect my tv too?" When I told her yes she slammed the door in a huff! I have been asked that same thing as well as when I said we are gonna have to have your lights out for a little while, they would respond with, all of them? and I would usually respond with probably only half. I have also had customers tell me that their light bill was already high and they did not want to be charged anything while we had the power out, I assured them we would not.:D

[loodvig]

I had a call one day in a well to do area. The customer wanted me to remove his overhead service. Why I ask. He said the woodpeckers sit on the service and bore holes in his house. I looked and he was right! I told him I couldn't cut down his service but he wouldn't take no for an answer. I called for a supervisor and left.

[T-Man]

When I was a Dispatcher we got a call from a lady that claimed there were little men coming out of a light socket in her livingroom and wanted someone to come over and make them stop. She wouldn't take no for an answer and we tried all sorts of ploys to get her off the line and somewhat happy. She wouldn't give up. So we turned the phone over to one of our sharper supervisors and in a short time he had her off the line and was smiling. We were astonished and asked him how he did it. He said he asked her if the little guys were wearing hard hats and she said yes. He asked her were they yellow or blue hard hats and she said Blue and he said m'am those are gas company guys. . .you need to call the gas company. . .We never got a call from her again. . :cool:

[electriklady]

Obviously customers don't just think the green transformers are ugly but also their meter.....when I have to go to a place and it looks like a jungle in front of the meter I take my pliers and start cutting away.......always expecting to hear some "b!tchin" about it......one day I turned around after the trimming was done to get the meter to exchange and the owner was standing there and said, "I just got a letter from your company asking me to trim the bushes at my meter location....I see you started it.....could you cut it back a little more, then I wont have to." I said.....NO......and left. I am very accomodating to the customer but I am not in the "landscaping" business......at least not yet.:rolleyes:

[hotwiretamer]

Probably not the funniest, but definitely the most common in my hometown is people asking why we can't "put it all underground?"
Everyone is concerned about there lake view. When Havasu first started they would offer free flights and bording to view the town, and take them on tours, then try to sell them property. Somehow, I'm guessing the realtors told everyone that the town would have all URD utilities.
So, when I am asked about that, I tell them to look at there plat map with the easements on them, and tell them to look for the guying easements, and say: "Why would there be guying easements built into the lot design, if this town was supposed to be all underground??"

[LostArt]

I'm still laughing at some of these stories guys. And after reading EL's I wonder if you all had requests like hers? Or similar? Too funny.

I like the stories where you work on weekends to do some intown work and the people are mad because you are working at this hour because it's so inconvenient. Well, "this hour" is sometimes after midnight! :eek:

Unreal. It kills me.:D

[hotwiretamer]

I went looking for a pad mount in a backyard that according to the map was there. It was about 2 am and i couldnt find it anywhere. Went back to the truck, reread the map n sho nuff I was in the right place. I found the damn thing enclosed in a wishing well the customer had built around it.Absolutely no access You guessed it it was the normal open point and U had to get innit I spent over an hour dissassembling the thing but couldnt get the lid all the way open because of the height of the roof.... Had to tie that thing back The next day they called in a complaint
I once had a mental case tell me the Govt had some kinda remote control device and could turn her lights on and off at will, to harrass her. It didnt help matters any that she was wearing a Moo Moo with the entire crotch torn out and looked like she was smugglin muscrats er sumpin..

We had a guy build a Butcherblock BBQ table over one of our padmounts in a Mobile Home park. He had poored a patio, and went ahead and incorporated our XFMR in his theme! That was a real pain to find.

[loodvig]

How about the humming padmount or humming transformer calls? Or the noisey street light calls?

[electriklady]

Buzzing meters......seal rattling on the meter box when the wind blows..........:rolleyes:

[Squizzy]

Had an old Italian bloke come out and ask us "Ifa wea could moova da fu^kinga great ockatapus offa da pole" as it apparantly "scare da shitta outta hiz wife an da chooks" it was a noisy re-closer I thought it was pretty funny and had to get the crew leader over to hear it ( I was an apprentice at the time) lol...

[hotwiretamer]

Had an old Italian bloke come out and ask us "Ifa wea could moova da fu^kinga great ockatapus offa da pole" as it apparantly "scare da shitta outta hiz wife an da chooks" it was a noisy re-closer I thought it was pretty funny and had to get the crew leader over to hear it ( I was an apprentice at the time) lol...

Can't say I've ever heard a recloser called an octapus!:p I guess it could resemble one that's upside down!

[T-Man]

How about the humming padmount or humming transformer calls? Or the noisey street light calls?

And the Cicada bugs buzzing or the bug lights zapping bugs, all wire arcing calls.

[Pootnaigle]

Ummmmmmmmmm My Favorite was " The meter is spinning like mad and nothing in the house is turned on" call.Just out of the shower every time.

[loodvig]

By far the most calls I ever got was a tree or limb on wires call. And 99% of those were people looking for free tree work! Some trees were close to 100' away from any power lines.

[Squizzy]

We were running aerial bundled conductor in the hills one time (240/415V) to replace the existing open aerials when I was approached by a 40ish guy with his elderly mother. He said "My Mother has a Question"
"Yes" I replied.
"I don't like these high voltage lines"
"Ok why is that?" (its low voltage on 30 foot poles)
"Every time I go to water my roses the electro magnetic electricity electrocutes my aura" she said lol as I raised my eye brows and grinned at the boss.
"Well" I replied, " This new stuff is all insulated and is consentrically wound to cancel out all electromagnetic fields and if is still a problem we can run the power out in reverse to draw any EMF in" All said with a straight face.
"Well thats fantastic son! Thank you very much" And she was as happy as could be and came back and bought me a bunch of flowers to the look of be-musement of her son who I think knew the old girl had a couple of screws loose. I later found out she had been driving customer services mad for weeks with her "aura" problem and she never called after that...

[neil macgregor]

quite often when on LV shut downs we would get some old dear asking what time the electric would be back on
i used to ask them what house they lived in
when they told me i always said
"ok i'll turn yours on first if you promis to make the lads a cup of tea"

(there was probaly about 200 houses off at the time)

[LEAFMAN]

Ummmmmmmmmm My Favorite was " The meter is spinning like mad and nothing in the house is turned on" call.Just out of the shower every time.

Did a meter check because it was spinning off the wall. The usual we have nothing on and our bills are unreasonable................what can we do to lower our bills, but when I looked in the back yard and they have the big inground heated pool and hot tub on the side. Thats a classic.

[Divemaster]

My Foreman and I were talking to a gentleman while our guys were working on an irrigation bank. He told us that his neighbors could listen into his house through the electric lines, and asked us if we could do anything. The Foreman had a look on his face that I'll never forget. I just told the customer that I had the cure. Went to my truck and grabbed a can of red grease for breaker connections from behind the seat. Grabbed a marker and wrote "De-Bugging Grease" on the can. I showed him the can, we pulled his meter, put grease on the stabs, and put it back in and I told him that he'll never be bugged through the electric lines again. The best part is, he called into the office and thanked the Stupidintendent for what we did and explaned the whole thing. It was worth having to explain ourselves, like I told him: "We're linemen, we improvised and we have a happy customer, any other questions?"

[T-Man]

I had a fuse down on a transformer one sunny day and got all my gear to take to the back yard and the customer came to my truck asking what it could be, there was no storm or bad weather and just yammering away to where I couldn't get a word in edgewise. We walked back to the pole and low and behold there was a bunny all tosted laying at the bottom of the pole. I said there is the problem and started up the pole and the customer just sat there scratching his head. I was trying to figure it out too but I had more fun watching him in puzzelment. I got up to where I could check out any damage and saw a hawk sitting on a crossarm two spans away and I knew then it was the hawk that took the bunny up there to eat and dropped it across the arrestor causing the fuse to blow. I replaced the fuse and came down. I argued with myself as to if I should fill the customer in on what happened. . . I did, but he still didn't get it. . oh well, another day on the job.

[glover]

went to a trouble call at a hi-rise aprartment building. they had just had the place re furbished, and they had wallpapered the hallways, and when i say all the hallways i mean everything, they papered over the stack vault doors removed all hardware from the doors and did a beautiful job except we couldn't find the stack vaults, had to change out a tx. spent half the night locating the vaults and tearing down their wall paper. the super of the building had a fit, all i could do was turn him over to the cust serv rep the next morning, I don't know who repaired what but i'm sure it cost somebody some cash to put things back to normal,,,,,just another day in the life of a lineman............:D

[wantafastz28]

Probably not the funniest, but definitely the most common in my hometown is people asking why we can't "put it all underground?"
Everyone is concerned about there lake view. When Havasu first started they would offer free flights and bording to view the town, and take them on tours, then try to sell them property. Somehow, I'm guessing the realtors told everyone that the town would have all URD utilities.
So, when I am asked about that, I tell them to look at there plat map with the easements on them, and tell them to look for the guying easements, and say: "Why would there be guying easements built into the lot design, if this town was supposed to be all underground??"


When i was doing cable in havasu out there a few years ago, i would get at least 1 customer a month complain/bitch to me about the whole town going to be underground soon and that "we" need to hurry up with it. I don't think they realize it would bankrupt the city if it actually happened.

[topgroove]

Would a 28 foot ladder got you up the pole without hopping the fence?

[Highplains Drifter]

Didn't have a 28 foot ladder back in 73, when I had that call.
Things were more "personal" back then. Before OSHA, and all the other bullshit.:(



Every Utility truck I have ever seen has a ladder on it so you could work on a house service. Was that the ladder truck you where driving? How did you work at the house periscope without a ladder?

[polehiker]

This may be a long story. Did a job with the crew at an old ladies house. She saw us having coffee. Brought us out blueberry muffins. Delicious! Went back a month or so later. Sent my buddy down to tell her she would be out of power for a bit so we could upgrade xfmr because of new customers added load. He came back told me she wanted to talk to me and grinned. Went down to her house and she told me that we were to stay off her property cause we were only doing that to help out new cust. and that they had snubbed her at the grocery store the other day. Told me she was ready to die to defend her property and she would shoot any of us who came on to it. Xfmr was in her back yd. Was a temp 2/3 triplex already going to the new place on a temp meter setting. We just stayed off her place, spliced out the temp. hung it on the new place and I went back in and told the boss he had some public relation work to do. As far as I know, that can is still up and the spliced out 2/3 is still there. I been retired for 12 yrs, so I really haven't checked lately All of you be safe and watch out for one another.

[MI-Lineman]

Had a customer tell me to change out his #6 trplx srvc cause it was to small and didn't allow enough electricity through? Therefore the meter worked harder to pull the electricity through?? Thus causing his bill to increase???

Anyone else confused???:confused::rolleyes:

And no I didn't do it!