This one has me confused. I am running a timer switch for x-mas lights in the windows in the dining room. I cut in a new outlet under a window where there was no existing outlet. I ran a 12/3 to this outlet from the panel and I broke off the tab on the hot side so I could have one side switched and the other always live. This will not be a 240 volt circuit, I am going to pigtail off of the feed coming from the breaker. The black will feed the bottom of the outlet and the red will go through the timer cabinet to switch the top of the outlet. I pigtailed the switched hot, neutral, and ground and ran a 12/2 out to an existing outlet under another window. At this outlet is the existing circuit which I am going to leave powering the bottom of the outlet and have the new switched circuit power the top of the outlet. I broke off the hot and neutral tabs at this existing outlet so they are totally isolated. I would have just disconnected this original circuit and ran a new three wire over from the new work but the box fill wouldn't work out for the existing outlet and we are probably going to rip all of this out in the next few years when we do an addition. I have not hooked up the 12/3 at the panel yet. I turned on the power to the existing circuit and checked it with my neon tester. The bottom tested hot across the hot and neutral and I also tested across the hot and ground. So far so good. I tested the top of the outlet. No power between hot and neutral and hot and ground. I then tested the live side hot and the neutral for the top outlet which is not wired to the panel yet and I got power. I shut the power removed the outlet from the box, removed the neutral from the top of the outlet and turned the power back on. I tested the live hot side and the neutral terminal which had no wire attached and had no power. I tested between the hot and the now disconnected neutral and got power. Obviously I have to go and pull out the new work but I am not at home right now. I would guess a problem with the neutral and ground somehow not being separate at the new outlet. Maybe the ground is somehow bonded at the new outlet that I installed? Any ideas?