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| Subject - Warranty work | |
| John A. Peters |
Today I got a warranty call. The original complaint was that the plugs were sparking. I went out there and found one plug was cracked, which I replaced and another plug that looked a little old, which I replaced and a third plug that seemed perfectly fine but just to be sure, I replaced it. The client is telling me that the problem is still not fixed, there are still sparks coming from the plug. This time decided to talk to the person who's actually seen the sparks, and found out the spark is created when they plug in the a cord and plug set of lights on a track that has no switch. Of course when the track lights are already on, the electricity is ready to jump from the wall plug to the male cord cap, even before it's all the way inserted. This small sparking is normal. It also occurs in a wall switch. The sparks in the wall switch do not show up unless the cover plate is abnormally thin and it is nighttime with the other lights out. To sum it up - sparking is normal if you are plugging in an appliance that is already turned on. |
| Electricman | John, Just like plugging in your 500watt halogen work light in a dim basement.
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| lctrc789 | Yea isn't it amazing at what people say who don't really undertsand what is going on. Even my wife knows that if she plugs the vacuum in and some one didn't shut it off at the switch on it , it will spark because of the load. |
| MONOLITH | I've gotten this a few times too. The last one was when the guy plugged in a TV that was already on. Here's a question from a business standpoint... When you make a trip to the house for this sort of thing, do you charge for the service call? |
| kbsparky | quote: We have what we call a "courtesy call" for our customers. We will allow for one what we call a "stupid people" type call. Things like resetting a tripped breaker or GFCI, or changing a blown light bulb, or "sparking" from receptacles. All of these we have done. And, we explain to the customer (usually for the umpteenth time) how they can do these things themselves, as well as point out that the next time they cry wolf, it will cost them. |