Meat Plow wrote:

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

"Meat Plow" wrote in message
news
On Sun, 11 Feb 2007 15:32:54 +0000, Eeyore Has Frothed:



Meat Plow wrote:

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

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.


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

"Meat Plow" wrote in message
news
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.

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.

**** happens -- and so does ****!

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.

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 **** 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.


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

wrote in message
ups.com...

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?

Oil heat?

On Feb 11, 9:56 pm, Meat Plow wrote:
On Sun, 11 Feb 2007 18:07:37 -0800, 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 **** 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.

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

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- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

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.

Eeyore wrote:
Meat Plow wrote:
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 !

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

"Meat Plow" wrote in message
news
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 Feb 11, 9:15 am, Meat Plow wrote:
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.

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

wrote in message
ps.com...
On Feb 11, 9:15 am, Meat Plow wrote:
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.

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