On the advantage of ruling out The Obvious before calling technical support
Well, I flatter myself by calling myself "technical support"; in fact, I was just a bloke with some (very limited) nouse and a screwdriver.

I remember getting a call from a (thankfully now ex-) girlfriend saying that all the electricity had failed in her flat. I found this a bit alarming, though I did recall that I'd replaced the light fitting in her room a couple of weeks before, so I suppose I could at least go over there and reassure myself that I hadn't shorted the connection there in such a way as to blow out the entire fusebox*.

"So, nothing's on?" I asked, "no lights, no power from the wall sockets?"
"No, nothing. It's all gone out. I was going to call an electrician but I thought I should ask you first."
"Have you checked the fuse box?"
"I don't know where it is..."
I wasn't going to be able to fix this one over the 'phone. I rummaged in my tool box for some fuse wire and a couple of screwdrivers and set off for her place.

And about 30 minutes' walk later, I get into the flat. I check the lights, I check the wall sockets, and she's got that bit right: there's no power. Maybe something really has knocked out the fuses.
"So have you any idea where the fuse box is?" I ask again
"No."
I try the cupboard nearest the front door. I move a suitcase aside and there it is. Better still, it's not even traditional fuses, but trip-switches. And the master switch is pointing quite decidedly at "OFF."

"Oh, is that where it is?" She pipes up, "Oh, I put a couple of suitcases in there this morning..."
"And did the electricity go out after you'd forced them in?"
I flip the big red master switch and 40W of ceiling light serve to better illuminate the growing element of crimson in her cheeks. Just as well she hadn't called an electrician...

*_{I realise that takes some doing, but I have a unique gift for fucking things up in an embarrassing fashion sometimes...}
(LongJohnBaldry, Tue 25 Aug 2009, 15:21, 5 replies)

Oh...
...dear...

The least you should've done is charge her a call out fee. That would be the gentlemanly thing to do. Or ask for a bit of sex.
( SpankyHanky, Tue 25 Aug 2009, 15:25, closed)

"There, I've come all this way over here to flip your switch,
the least you could do is um...flip my...switch..."
(LongJohnBaldry, Tue 25 Aug 2009, 15:40, closed)

You replaced a light fighting without isolating it first?
day one week one mistake that mate, you'll surely kill us all.
( Laird Dave Draws Now charges to take off his clothes., Tue 25 Aug 2009, 23:36, closed)

I was going to say....
surely you knew where the fuse box was as you'd turned off the power before changing the light fitting.....
...but Laird Dave Draws beat me too it :o)
(Wallilay has been bored of this shit since, Wed 26 Aug 2009, 14:14, closed)

There is certainly some inconsistency in the story.
As I've certainly never been that daft. But then it was a few years ago, so it's possible that the light fitting was done after the fuse box incident - my memory may well be failing me.
(LongJohnBaldry, Wed 26 Aug 2009, 17:47, closed)