Well, the problem wasn't solved then and I called them back. They came yesterday to "assess" the situation again and today came to change the circuit breaker. At least I think its the circuit breaker. Anyway, the big greyish thing with the blue switch.
The man that came didn't ignore me this time and I was a lot more polite than the last time. Unfortunately, he gave me the same reasons/excuses and never really answered my question of why I seem to have less power at night even when I have the same appliance on. At least he went the extra step to see if changing the circuit breaker would help.
After he finished the job, he calls me to take a look. And, he says "OK. See here, I have tied it all back up and put these little clamps on the cables. This shows we have done a perfect job." Maybe the meaning was lost on me but the direct translation of the Indonesian word he used really is "perfect". I laughed inside but left it at that.
When I asked him how much I had to pay, he said "Its up to you." Immediately, I knew that this should have been free. I said I didn't know what the price was meant to be and he repeated "Its up to you. Just a sincere price". What the heck was a sincere price?? Yet another meaning that is lost in translation. So, since this was basically "coffee money", I gave him enough for lunch.
This "sincere pricing" doesn't happen all the time though. I've had many other people come to fix things in the house and when the job was too small or meant to be free anyway, they have honestly told me that there was no charge.
After the electricians left, I was walking around outside and look what I saw.
They just chucked the old shell into one of my plant drums! It happens to look empty because I just cleared it and put some new seeds in a couple of days ago. Still, I don't think it looks like a rubbish bin. If they couldn't see a bin to dispose it in, why couldn't they have just handed it to me? Or taken it with them?
Anyway, we'll see tonight if there is any change to our power situation.
3 comments:
This is a great story! If most of the workmen who do things around here charged a "sincere price," they'd probably starve.
vw: teddiat - question asked by a child who has misplaced his stuffed bear, as in "where's my teddiat?"
Wow, one 10 amp breaker. No wonder your tripping every night. Breakers are not meant to be used at more than 80% for an extended period of time (3 hours). So if you're drawing the whole 10 amps the breaker will eventually trip. Also, when a breaker trips it gets weaker. So the more it trips, the faster it will trip the next time.
Bilbo - If I come across this sincere pricing too much I will be the broke one. I think I would keep being on the 'safe side' and over paying. Stupid me!
Mike - Thanks for that explanation. At least it makes more sense to me than what the guy said yesterday. So now I know why we were fine at the beginning and only started to have problems recently.
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