Not really a contractor story, but a really dumb phone repair guy story. I think it fits.
On New Years Eve a truck clipped the phone line to my house and pulled it off the phone pole across the street. The wire fell across the road, but was still connected to the pole and to my house. This is the 2nd time it's happened since I moved in. The wire is obviously too low.
I called Verizon. They told me they were too busy to fix it. I told them that the cable was lying in the road, and that it was a dangerous situation. Of course no one showed up for 2 days.
The Verizon guy finally showed up, walked over to the cable, and proceeded to pull on it. The result of this was that the wire lifted off of the ground about 2 feet. This wouldn't have been a problem, except for the fact that a car was driving down the road at the time. It was doing about 50 when it's bumper caught the cable. I heard a zipping noise as the cable was dragged taught, followed by 2 loud bangs as it was torn from the side of my house and under my porch. The cable whizzed by me and just clipped my right arm. If it was 6 inches higher, it would probably have decapitated me. It tore my jacket, ripped pieces of siding off of the house, and gouged my porch railing as it was pulled into the street. The car just kept going.
I looked at the repair guy. All I could say was 'What the ****?'. He freaked out, started apologizing, and told me Verizon would pay for the damage. He asked if I wanted the cable re-attached. I told him no way. He dragged the cable to the pole and took off. I filed a claim with Verizon for the damage.
I saw him pull the cable, saw the car coming, and knew what was going to happen. It felt it was in like slow motion. It felt, and sounded, like one of those scenes from Final Destination - Except I lived.
Verizon needs to teach their people the meaning of 'cause and effect'.