And informed of height. Most of us don't carry ladders that tall on our trucks. You sure its 20 foot?

How many romex cables are in the switch box? Or, does the switch have a black and a white wire? Or two black wires? If you take the two wires off the switch and touch them together (or jumper across them), does the fixture light up?

More like 15.

Sorry about your luck. Feel free to call me if you want I can tell you if you are being charged fairly. Raytown is a bit too far for me to travel. Wish I could have been more help.

one black wire and one white wire with a ground cutoff still inside the 1 romex cable.
I won't blow something if I touch them together?

Heres a pic

12 foot ladder would be sufficient. Still should be informed when you call em. Use angies list a lot of bad electricians out there.

That's what he's testing.

I can take it off right quick and see... so do it?

That white wire will be your hot the black your switched hot. You won't blow anything if you touch them together. If you replaced switch with no change then touching them won't help.

The white *should* be the hot (feed) at the switch, the black *should* be the switch leg back to the fixture. You won't blow anything up, but you'll get a small arc that might startle you. All this does is bypass the switch to eliminate that as a possible problem. I asked about the wiring because it could have been fed from the switch (two romexes) with the neutral tied together in the switch box, but it doesn't look like that's the case. If bypassing the switch and it still doesn't light, the yeah, you've probably lost the neutral (grounded conductor).

Fair enough.

Private Message. How it works is, if you move your mouse to a username on the left, and click on it, a dropdown will occur, and somewhere in that selection list will say "Send a private message to Coach" or whatever the username you click on.

So the neutral is the ground wire? the one that's tucked back inside the Romex?

You don't have a neutral at all on that switch box