Client wanted the panel in the closet behind all their holiday decorations

I showed up to a house in Phoenix last Thursday and the homeowner had stuffed every shelf of that closet full of plastic totes and fake Christmas trees. Took me 45 minutes just to clear a path to the wall, and of course the panel was mounted way up high in the corner. I told them straight up, this is gonna be a pain if you ever need to reset the system or change a battery. They just shrugged and said they'd deal with it later. Has anyone else run into homeowners who completely ignore where you put the panel?

3 comments

3 Comments

william_torres19d ago

Happened to me in an attic last summer (found a whole collection of old board games blocking the way).

juliashah18d ago

Fourteen years in this business and I still don't get why people make such a big deal out of moving a few boxes. Board games in an attic? That sounds like a 3 minute delay at most, not some huge disaster. You just slide them over, do the work, and push them back. Nobody's asking you to throw out someone's childhood memories. I've had panels behind floor to ceiling shelving units that took twenty minutes to clear and I still didn't post about it online. Is moving a couple of Monopoly boxes really worth complaining about?

morgan_bailey9319d ago

That's rough, I feel your pain. I've had it happen more times than I care to count where people stuff stuff right in front of the panel after you've told them to keep it clear. It's like they hear you but they don't really listen. The worst part is when you come back for a service call and have to move all their junk just to do a simple battery change. I always try to tell people ahead of time, pick a spot that won't get buried by holiday decorations or storage, but sometimes it just doesn't sink in. Makes you wonder why they even bothered asking for your opinion in the first place.