Anyone got any weird or strange experiences when doing in home service? Back in the early 80's when I did residential HVAC, I had so many that it made me not want to do it any more and I switched to commercial.
Do tell !
Graham
On Sun, 11 Feb 2007 15:32:54 +0000, Eeyore Has Frothed:
One was where I was dispatched to a home to check an electronic air cleaner. I enter the home and introduce myself to the woman of the house. I ask how do I get to her furnace and she shows me the way. On the way she picks up a newspaper and as I opened the door to go into her basment she hands me the newspaper. I asked her what the newspaper was for and she replied that I could use it to cover the dog poop so I wouldn't step in it. I handed it back to her and told her to clean the poop up first and I would be back when she called the dispatcher saying it had been cleaned up. We never got a call back. Another time I was called out to look at a new heating system we installed that wasn't working. As I entered the home there was a strong smell of something that had died. Braving the smell I opened the back of the furnace where the air handler was located since there was a loud hum when I switched the blower on. I found a dead mouse wedged inbetween the belt and the pulley Removing said rodent fixed the problem. Other homes I have entered had cockroaches marching single file up and down the walls and all sorts of disgusting things. Lots of times the dispatcher would advise me if a previous tech found poor conditions on a previous call but there was no way to know on new calls and we weren't forced to work amongst filth and vermin.
-- Pierre Salinger Memorial Hook, Line & Sinker, June 2004 COOSN-266-06-25794
The guy that I served my apprenticeship under back in the seventies, was one good-looking dude, and there was one female customer in particular that used to insist that it was he that called out to her. Every time he got to the house, and took the back off the set, there would be a smashed valve sitting there, and she would be leaning over him, jugs on his shoulder. Eventually, it got so embarrassing, that he refused to go any more.
We also had another customer who used to ring about once a month complaining that she had problems with the " colour bleeding through ". There was never anything wrong, but this same guy always managed to sweet talk her into thinking that he'd done something, and it was now fixed. However, on one occasion, I was with him, and she had the usual complaint. After having the back off, and engaging in his usual pretence of adjusting things, he declared it all ok now, and asked if she was happy with it. " Oh no ! " she cried " that's awful now - much worse ! There's a big yellow patch in the middle ! " When we went back around the front to see what she was on about, the picture was a nice green cricket pitch - with a big yellow area in front of the wickets where the batsman stands. No amount of remonstrating with the customer, would convince her that this was just worn out grass, not a colour error ! We finished up taking the set away and driving around the rest of the day with it in the back of the van, before returning it to her late on. When we put it back on, she declared it to now be absolutely fine, and delighted in telling us how much cleverer the workshop boys were at setting her TV up, than we were !!
I could go on for ever about the eccentric customers we had ...
Arfa
We had to rewire the conduit in an old house which was shared by several old people. The conduit was below the bathroom, and it seems the 'gents' weren't too good with their aim because the conduit was soaked in urine.
Shit happens -- and so does piss!
I went out to a meat packing works to fix a temperature controller. It was in the rendering plant where they boil down all of the scraps for fats and such and the smell would make a maggot gag. I never did a repair job faster in my life and as I was rocketing out of the place one of the inmates grabbed me by the arm, complimented me on my speed and observed that he'd never seen the same tech twice from our company. I know I never went back.
A fellow TV tech related this one to me:
An elderly customer complained that her TV set wasn't working properly but she couldn't explain the trouble over the phone... at least not so anyone could understand it. A service tech arrived on site and she demonstrated the problem.
The "problem" turned out to be this: On the game show "Hollywood Squares," the long-time contestant Paul Lynde, who for ages had always occupied the center square, was now for some reason sitting in one of the other squares. The customer saw this and concluded that it was a problem with her TV set.
On Sun, 11 Feb 2007 21:50:56 +0000, Matt J. McCullar Has Frothed:
Oh brother!
-- Pierre Salinger Memorial Hook, Line & Sinker, June 2004 COOSN-266-06-25794
On Sun, 11 Feb 2007 19:31:01 +0000, Homer J Simpson Has Frothed:
Had my fill of old people. Once called social services because I was concerned about the welfare of one old gent who live in total filth. This guy had shit stacked to the ceilings and a narrow path from his sofa to the bathroom. I couldn't even get at his equipment to service it.
Yuck......
-- Pierre Salinger Memorial Hook, Line & Sinker, June 2004 COOSN-266-06-25794
On Sun, 11 Feb 2007 19:20:13 +0000, Arfa Daily Has Frothed:
LOL, so could I.
-- Pierre Salinger Memorial Hook, Line & Sinker, June 2004 COOSN-266-06-25794
Back in the 90's the shop had one where the customer called JVC to complain that the tube had a pinhole in it because they had to clean a thick ring of black soot off the tv to see it every day. Where they got that information no one knows but the customer sounded quite off when they were contacted to schedule the call.
Turned out the TV service tech who was sent had years previously worked at an HVAC company. Soon as he walked into the house he called 911 and informed the owners they needed to leave the house immediately.
Black soot all over the gas forced air vents and tv set, the family pet was laying in front of the door with heavy panting.
Anyone want to guess what was really the problem?
CO
Oil heat?
On Sun, 11 Feb 2007 18:07:37 -0800, snipped-for-privacy@locl.net Has Frothed:
Cracked heat exchanger, blocked air mix to the burner resulting in sooty flame.
-- Pierre Salinger Memorial Hook, Line & Sinker, June 2004 COOSN-266-06-25794
It was both a blocked exhaust vent and cracked heat exchanger on an old furnace. Turned out the house was drafty enough that the CO levels above the basement were not quite lethal, but still high enough to be dangerous. The old fart was lucky the person who went out knew what was going on because it was only November and if the furnace had been running more often the levels could have been lethal.
On Sun, 11 Feb 2007 19:00:59 -0800, snipped-for-privacy@locl.net Has Frothed:
I've worked on my fair share of coal conversion furnaces. Seen many cast dougnuts with gaping cracks. Did 3rd party service calls one year for the local gas provider when they went out on strike. Put red tags on many CO hazards in my time.
-- Pierre Salinger Memorial Hook, Line & Sinker, June 2004 COOSN-266-06-25794
I was about the fifteenth tech sent out to this little old lady's house. I was told outright I was just another warm body and this lady wouldn't be placated, her set was perfect and the company was just waiting out the remainder of her service contract. I got there, and sure enough, the set was about as perfect as a set could be back then. I prodded and twizzled and asked questions hoping I'd find out what the problem was, and all she could say was "it's fuzzy, it doesn't look right."
Killing time and thinking, I figured for the heck of it I'd check the range of the customer controls. Color up, color down, tint purple, tint green, etc. I hit the brightness and turned it most of the way down so that only little splotches of the picture tube lit up. She just about screamed, "What did you do?!" I told her. She said that that was the best her set had looked since it entered the house. I looked again and couldn't make out what the picture was supposed to be. I had her play better-worse-better as I adjusted it in small increments, got a setting she liked, got her to sign the paper and left. She called in to tell the bosses what a great tech I was.
Then there was the picture tube install, at 5 PM (quitting time) 12 miles from the office. When I got back to the office the next day, the boss asked me how I got along with the Bickersons, and I knew exactly why he called them that. (The picture tube was being replaced in a brand-new set because one of them put their boot through the old one.)
-- "Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine." -- Bill Gates, in an interview with Newsweek's Steven Levy
Reported in one of the tech journals.
In Australia, little old lady got her first phone. The exchange called after a few weeks to check on it. Lady said it was fine but now her water tasted funny. Much hilarity with the techs.
A week later a tech swung by and took a look. In Australia a lot of homes collected rain water from the roof in big tanks. When they installed the phone, the tech put the insulators right over the open access hole to the tank and the birds perched there and crapped in it. The tech replaced the cover and solved the problem!
On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 06:27:44 +0000, Homer J Simpson Has Frothed:
Yuck. My grandfather used to collect rain water but to wash clothes with and not to drink.
-- Pierre Salinger Memorial Hook, Line & Sinker, June 2004 COOSN-266-06-25794
About 10 years ago, we started noticing a bad smell in the laundry room, couldn't quite localize it at first. As the smell got stronger, we decided it was coming from the dryer. Started tearing the dryer apart, found a dead bird wedged in the squirrel cage. The door flap on the outside dryer vent was stuck open, bird got in, went the wrong direction, ended up dying in our dryer.
Jerry
Hmm, I've had problems with squirrels in my bird feeder, but a bird in a squirrel cage! Wow, will wonders never cease! :-) Regards, Tom
Doing TV service calls - nice old lady with no pic and no sound on her TV. Wanted me to fix it, but refused to let me take the back off the set 'because you might get a shock and I'd be upset'
When I couldn't meet her request to fix the set with the back on, and depite my explanation of why I needed to do that, she sent me away saying she would try another TV repair firm.
David - who didn't have the heart to charge the old dear for the wasted call
Meat Plow wrote:
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