That moment a client told me I was overthinking their basement reno

Had a guy call me last week about wiring his basement for a home theater. I show up, ready to plan out conduit runs and circuit loads, and he just points to a wall and says 'just put an outlet there and one over there, I'll figure the rest out myself.' I started explaining voltage drops and code requirements, and he cuts me off with 'man, you electricians overthink everything, it's just plugging stuff in.' It hit different because I realized some people truly don't care about the behind-the-scenes stuff, they just want it working and cheap. I ended up doing it his way with the bare minimum, and he was thrilled. Has anyone else dealt with a client who just wanted the quick and dirty version even when you knew better?

4 comments

4 Comments

rowanr8814d ago

Read an article about liability waivers and how they don't always hold up in court... scary stuff.

rowanr8816d ago

Wondering if you've ever had one of those jobs come back to bite you later though... like when the cheap way finally breaks and they blame you for not warning them harder?

drews5516d ago

Learned that lesson the hard way with a deck job a few years back. Told the client straight up that using untreated lumber for a ground-level deck was gonna rot out in 3 years tops. They pushed back hard and said they couldn't afford the treated stuff. I made them sign a waiver and took before and after photos of everything. When it finally fell apart, they yelled at me but I just showed them the signed paper and pictures. Now I always send follow up emails too, keeps everything documented. Honestly worth the extra hassle to protect yourself from that kind of thing.

nancyramirez14d ago

Don't think it's that serious @rowanr88, half the time people just vent and move on even if they're mad.