Any electricians out there?

Desert Orchid

Desert Orchid

Senior Jockey
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Aug 2, 2005
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Something electrical isn't right in my kitchen.

Last Thursday John Lewis's fitters came back out to re-connect my hob. On Friday the switch at the fuse box tripped.

Twice more on Saturday morning and once in the evening. Three times on Sunday. Monday was OK until it tripped three times in the evening. Tuesday another three times.

This morning it tripped four times between 7.30am and 9.30am. Since then it tripped three or four times an hour until I started putting down individual switches one at a time. The pattern continued until I put down the one marked 'kitchen'. This is the hob, freezer, fridge, sockets, dishwasher and washing machine. Everything except the oven and the ceiling lights. No more trips for over an hour. I put that switch back up and it started tripping only even more often.

I alerted John Lewis's customer services bloke this morning that I felt there was a connection between the problem and the fitters being here last week as it's never happened in the 17+ years we've been here.

If any sparks out there recognise the problem and can advise, I'd be grateful.

I've already discussed potential ongoing issues with the JL guy, eg if I get an independent electrician out and he says it's related to the hob installation then who pays, etc.
 
I reckon you have a dirty fusebox.. Open it up and wash it down with soap and water. Don't turn off the mains because it doesn't clean so easily
 
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I am not a spark but it sounds terribly similar to an issue I had with fuses tripping which had been caused by mice eating through wiring causing a short.

Given that you have just had electrical equipment installed it would seem to be stretching the realms of coincidence to suggest that it doesn't have anything to do with it - and I reckon the John Lewis guy will know fine well that this is the case.

Tell him to get his arse back out to fix it pronto.
 
Fingers crossed...

I got an electrician (from Which? Local) who came out this morning. He spent 3 hours trying to get to the bottom of the problem and concluded at one point it was the hob, then it wasn't, then it was, then it wasn't, but when the new hob arrived and John Lewis's guys refused to fit it because there wasn't 600mm clearance to the wall units (the ones that have been there for over 17 years) he volunteered to fit it himself so we sent the JL guys on their way. Jim did some work on the wires the guys put in last week even though he said he couldn't see anything wrong other than one was a wee bit compressed and the electricity hasn't tripped since.

Jim also located a possible problem with an oil-filled radiator and suggested I bin it.

He charged less than the call-out fee from the guys who did the dishwasher recently and said just to phone him if anything goes wrong again.

I reckon I've uncovered a diamond!
 
Don't forget to take his invoice back to JL to get a refund - it's the least they can do (and they refund far much more with more trivial problems!)
 
All's well etc.

JL have been in touch and satisfied me that they take customer satisfaction seriously.

Fair play to them.
 
They are very serious about Customer Service - they have a huge department dedicated to it (sitting very close to me!) but they would rather pay out and keep the customer than argue and lose face and the ripple effect.

Some argue its bad for profit margin but you cant argue with figures over the years - out of the high street stores who is consistently in the top 3 for customer services?
 
Strangely enough, the c/s manager I spoke to claimed they had a very small c/s team, which is a measure of how few difficulties they have. Maybe he meant very small relative to the size of the company.

Nevertheless, despite my earlier difficulties with other c/s staff, he has made sure they went a very long way to get me to keep faith with them. I can't honestly imagine many, if any, other companies going as far as he did so fair play to him.
 
I probably lumped them into the same department as the whole C/S department which covers every part of the customer journey - its part of a directorate which is nearly 200 strong and looks after all things Retail :)
 
All the people I spoke to had Scottish accents and when I checked the phone numbers against the 'say no to ...' alternatives, they were all Strathclyde area numbers (Hamilton / Coatbridge).

Presumably they have departments in various locations.
 
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