Customer’s Call for Help
Hi, this is John Dale from GlobileNet. Just another topic of interest. Often the simplest things can be the most difficult. We had a client, Veonie, call us, and she had a problem that the outside lights were always on, and they couldn’t switch them off, whether they want to or not.
Urgent Same-Day Need
So we went and had a look for her, and it was urgent. She needed it done the same day, actually. So we didn’t go through our normal consultancy process, except a couple of things over the phone.
First Inspection and Spare Sensor
When we got there, we took a spare sensor with us. We did ask her for a picture so that we at least had the appropriate spare sensor. And when we visited, we found indeed that the lights were on permanently. We even did our normal tricks, like switching off this circuit breaker and resetting it. Sometimes that actually resets the sensor and gets it to work; obviously, that’s a no charge repair in such a case. But we did have to change the sensor in this case.
Tracing the Faulty Wiring
After changing the sensor, we also found that the lights were still on. So then we had to trace the circuit back so that Veonie would be able to have a party that evening without having these lights on.
Restoring Original Wiring
So we traced it back to the switch and opened up the switch and we did a few tests by disconnecting the switch wires and making sure it disconnected the active at the sensor. What we found was, in this case, the sensor had a permanent active on it and somebody had changed the wiring. But we were able to restore the original wiring. We did it within the one hour call, actually.
Customer Relief and Feedback
And the customer was very happy at the end of it, very relieved that she could turn the lights off. And she left us a wonderful review. So we’re very happy with that.
Importance of Sensor Accessibility
So with sensors, you always need to make sure they’re somewhat accessible. It helps if you can change the direction of the head or the sensitivity and things like that. And when we install them, we make sure, before we leave, that the customer knows that when they walk to the driveway and it’s five metres away, or whatever it is, that they’re absolutely happy with it. And in this case, Veonie was.
