The day I learned not to trust a homeowner's "it's just a simple run"

Last Tuesday in Phoenix, lady says she just needs a new line from the box to her living room. Simple, right? Get there and she's got a finished basement with drop ceiling tiles every 3 feet and a wall of built-in shelving that's bolted to the floor. Took me 4 hours to snake through the joists and another 2 to patch the drywall I had to cut. Charged her for a full day and she acted like I was ripping her off. Anyone else have a "simple job" that turned into a nightmare?

2 comments

2 Comments

stellat8711d ago

Omg the "simple run" is ALWAYS the biggest lie lol. My buddy had a similar thing where a guy said "just a quick cable hookup" and ended up having to crawl through an attic in July in Florida for like 5 hours.

lucas16511d ago

Your buddy's story checks out but technically that wasn't a "quick cable hookup" it was an attic crawl which is a whole different job. Five hours in a Florida attic in July is basically asking to get heat stroke. A real quick run is like swapping out a wall plate or running a 10 foot line along baseboards. Attics and crawls are what you charge extra for. People hear "cable" and think you just plug something in. The actual work depends heavily on the house setup.