Bad customers again %^&*(#

[JAMES 3528-old]

Was wondering what the dumbest thing they have said or question you have been asked.


I had one ask me yesterday while standing over me cleaning a condenser........." Why is that stuff you are spraying foaming here but not here" this kind of stuff went on all the time I was there.

This guys A/c is udersized about 2.5 tons at a little carry out restaurant. He rents it from the guy next door for next to nothing $400.00 a month that also pays for running the A/C. He has placed a ice machine and about six free standing reach in coke boxes in the store. The owner just wants him to go away because the guy he fells should upgrade or install a big window unit like he was told.He has a good business.

Every time I work for the ower this guy follows me around back still seeking a solution to his problem when he has been told many times. He feels hammering me will get a result that will not cost him any money.
We had words after I got tired of standing there washing the condenser on crutches and hearing his shit at 98 degrees.

[OG]

Shoulda smacked him with your crutch! :D

[jmac00]

I had a customer once follow me around while installing a 2 stg V/S. He was soooo close i actually bumped in to him twice, after the second time i told him " if you want to watch, sit over there and stay out off my way or I'll got to lunch for an hour and a half "
( it was about 5*F outside ) he sat down and stayed put of my way after that, and was VERY sorry,

I installed another furnace, and at the end the HO saw the pitch on the flue ( flue came up 12" made rt turn at about a 25 degree angle, made a turn to vertical up through the roof ) " is that enough pitch?? " I asked him how much pitch he wanted, he said " I don't know< thats why your here". I said "exactly"

another time I just got through installing a furnace and A/C and the HO asked if i had checked for gas leaks ( I had, put he didn't hear the leak detector ) so i said no, lit off my oxy-aceytlene unit and said "where should i start", I though that guy was going to have a freaking hart attack, I started laughing so hard I allmost burned myself:D

[Breeze]

Customer had a labor contract with company I worked for.
On a routine furnace check out this man kept hovering over me, I was trying to clean blower compartment. He said something about my hair being too long (it wasnt really...just to him) that was when it started. I was vacuuming the burners, just for show they were clean already, something may have come out of my vacuum, thats what the man said, so I checked filter, it was fine ... I finished the check out with him hounding me the whole time. He told me to clean the floor around the unit (I had a drop cloth down prior to that), what he wanted was the whole foyer cleaned so I tried to make him happy, he wasnt satisfied and was more fired up then ever... for some reason I lost it and started wiping up the floor in kitchen.... and showed him how dirty it was in there, I asked now do you think I did that too? Needless to say I never had to go back to that house, he called and complained about me.

On some other calls it seemed people liked to hover while you checked the furnace out, these were mostly fedders with the delayed ignition on some of them. I got real good at timing the plug in and unplug to get a real nice boom... hey thats a good way to get the rust loose.

Bad run caps, how many of you found a bad run cap but since compressor might still be working the customer wouldnt let you replace it? I use to get atleast 3 of those a year. I tried to show them how my meter works and even brought out a good one so they could see the diff. It didnt matter, they were not buying anything but the check out.

[JAMES 3528-old]

I had a guy call me and say that since we changed his 2.5 split system condenser out his water has tasted funny. Wanted to know what we did to cause this.

[JAMES 3528-old]

http://hvac-talk.com/vbb/showthread.php?threadid=5702

[jmac00]

Originally posted by JAMES 3528
http://hvac-talk.com/vbb/showthread.php?threadid=5702
ya i responed to that, another guy with the brains of a carrot

[JohnnyB]

I think they always give me the difficult ones, or the ones that all the other guys refuse to go back to. Everyone refuses to go to a customer, but they still need to do something, "Hey...lets get John....he'll go anywhere". Sometimes I think they tell everyone to keep their mouth shut so I wount know what I'm getting myself into.

I had a lady get sooo mad at me because I refused to pump r22 into the system till I determined what the deal was first. Then she started to yell at me and then just told me to leave. When I presented her with a service charge she started to rummage through her coat pocket like she was looking for a hand gun.

I had another person that said that the heat pump he had had to have so much sunlight in order to pump it into his house for heat.

Had another guy who had one of those furnace the size of a couple of refrigerators. Swore up and down that it was 90% efficient because under the rust he saw a 90 somewhere. The flue pipe musta been 6-8".

Today was the best though. Had this other tech, went to a house and found that someone had added a return duct to upper floors to a house and made it so it would double as their laundry shute.
It had like a drip leg duct with a door. Tooo funny, wounder if they ever had underwear get sucked into the fan, or how about the dirty sock syndrome....????

[JAMES 3528-old]

Hey Johnny

I think I know what my problem is now. People from your area are moving down here.

[mcac]

Once we had a policeman stand over the techs in full uniform and gun holster with his hand on his gun and then called to complain.
Also one time a tech was on a service call and quoted the price of adding freon, the cust. said ok and after he added the freon and got him cooling at 11PM the guy refused to pay AND called the police on him for trepassing!
We started a blackball list and it seems to being growing very fast!!!

[JAMES 3528-old]

Originally posted by mcac
Once we had a policeman stand over the techs in full uniform and gun holster with his hand on his gun and then called to complain.
Also one time a tech was on a service call and quoted the price of adding freon, the cust. said ok and after he added the freon and got him cooling at 11PM the guy refused to pay AND called the police on him for trepassing!
We started a blackball list and it seems to being growing very fast!!!

You must have a different kind of cops and customers were you live bacause around here, I would of called the cops for theft of services.

[Breeze]

And while waiting for the cops I would be recovering my freon that I put in. Maybe even take the pull disconnect with me, if they had one.

[diceman]

got my 9mm out and just stuck it in my belt.

[CECIL1]

BREEZE WILL NEVER HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT POLICE WHERE HE LIVES. THEY ARE TOO BUSY TRANSPORTING COCAINE TO BOTHER ANY CITIZEN.

[dswair]

would not be the first nor the last to tell them my competitor needs their business!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mcac]

Originally posted by JAMES 3528


You must have a different kind of cops and customers were you live bacause around here, I would of called the cops for theft of services.

We did, waited at the at the police station for 2 hours to fill out the forms and then they tell me they can't prove that he intended not to pay!
Ya'll know of anything else to do in those situations?

[JAMES 3528-old]

Yea! BB gun.

[jmac00]

Originally posted by mcac


We did, waited at the at the police station for 2 hours to fill out the forms and then they tell me they can't prove that he intended not to pay!
Ya'll know of anything else to do in those situations?

put a lean on his property, then call the town building inspector and tell him your neighbor ( the cheap sh**) just did a lot of remodeling and you where woundering if you need permits for all the work (hehe).

if he owns other property, put leans on those also, even his business, it will put him in a major legal hassle. he'll either pay you or sue you, then drag it out for a couple of years, when you figure he's gone through about $10,000.00 in legal fees drop all the leans, smile and walk away, and ask him if it was worth a service call---jerk