Vent: Customer tried to fix their own breaker and made things way worse

Tbh, I got called out to a house last Friday because the lights kept flickering. Honestly, when I opened the panel, I saw a mess of wires and a breaker that was clearly tampered with. Ngl, the homeowner admitted they tried to replace a faulty breaker themselves to save money. They used the wrong type of breaker and didn't secure the connections properly. This caused arcing and damaged some of the bus bar, which is a real safety hazard. I had to spend extra time fixing it and educating them on why it's dangerous. How do you guys handle situations where customers do unsafe DIY work? Sometimes I worry about what happens when I'm not there to catch these mistakes.

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3 Comments

sanchez.simon7mo ago

YouTube tutorials make everyone think they're experts now.

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brookef737mo ago

The "experts" thing is so real, but sometimes those vids do help. My sink was leaking last month and I was about to call a plumber. Watched a three minute tutorial, bought a two dollar washer from the hardware store, and fixed it myself. I'm not an expert, but I saved like 300 bucks and learned a thing.

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patel.grace7mo ago

That "saved like 300 bucks" part is why I finally gave those videos a real shot.

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