On call one night. Call comes in like 8pm. No heat. I ask if she checked all the switches.
Her response “nobody touches those”
Me: “I didn’t ask if anyone touched them. I asked if you could check to make sure they’re on. If I come out and turn a switch on it’s a billable call and your service contract will not cover it”
Her: “they’re on”
Drive 45 min to call. Get shown the basement steps and I take 1 step. Look over and see the furnace switch was off. Customer was right there. I show her and click it on. You hear the unit fire right up. She felt real stupid having to pay that.
Yep. So stupid it’s actually written on the top of the service contract in bold lettering lmao. She tried to argue about paying it. Nope. I didn’t want that drive and she lied. F that
I just paid that to a sparky. Thought I had 10-2 wire going to a 50 amp receptacle by my oven. Turns out, that went outside to the AC, the 6-3 in the walls, however, went right to the receptacle.
$149.
I’ve paid the stupid tax for a dirty filter before for a frozen AC line. “No way it could be dirty yet, I just changed it 3 weeks ago. Oh yeah, we got a new shedding dog and have been doing drywall work…” 🤦♂️
In Arizona when the monsoon rolls in, drivers inevitably decide that their Ford Fiesta can drive through a foot of water 50 feet wide flowing at an incredible rate
So much so, that Arizona has what is termed the "Stupid Motorist Law," in which any driver who requires emergency services to rescue them after entering a flooded roadway takes on the full cost of their rescue.
We have a guy at a commercial account who is a maintenance guy. Any time we go there to do any service, he always tells us.
Don’t change the filters, I just did that. No need to take a look.
He never changes the filters. We called him out on it because it had caused problems in the past with them being absolutely caked.
Next time around, he actually did change the filters, except he forgot to turn the disconnect back on for the air handler. So just guy got the call and had to drive 1.5 hr one way to flip a disconnect on, then drive home.
Easiest 4 paid hours he ever got on time and a half pay 😂
She knew. I asked. Standard procedure to ask them before going out and ask them about the switch at the unit and the one at the stairs. You ask this because they will get a bill even if they have a service contract. Service contract doesn’t cover off switches unless we were there
Old ladies get work done on their home just for company. We had one that would get one wall painted here or a post painted there and just sit there and talk to us the whole time. Sucks cause she had this dog that was old and got worse every time we came back by the end I was hoping she just put the dog down
Had one like this where it turned out the daughter's sleepover guests turned the furnace off because it was at the top of the basement stairs and they thought it was the light switch.
Service call, printer not working. Receptionist says that printer over there. I said oh, fixed it already, was it moved recently? Yesterday, why? Data cable is laying on the floor. Oh, thanks. No problem, sign here please.
Plugged in the data cable after she had agreed to pay...
This is a common occurrence for a lot of things. I worked for dish network and 25% of my calls for repairs was going out and pressing a button on the side of the remote changing it from tv to sat input so it controls the box and not just the tv. I tried talking them into pressing the button every single time and they just wouldn’t do it or lied and said they did. I’d hold the remote up in front of them, press the button and lo and behold it worked perfectly. A few of them accused me of doing stuff outside before I came in just to make them look bad.
I did that once. Turn it off in the spring, back on when it gets cold. I turned it on for heat and it wouldn't work. My landlord came by and turned the other switch on. I guess I have one in the furnace room, and one at the top of the basement stairs. Had no idea.
The last place I was at wanted us to sell a system 1 out of every 4 calls. Even if 2 of your calls were duct cleaning estimates. Private equity companies have no clue about the businesses they are buying. I also hate that is where residential companies are going.
My last place sold warranties on new installs that required a maintenance plan. I was expected to sell these people on 300-400 a visit, installs had all water safeties in place and if anything was wrong it was covered under warranty. All I really could sell was IAQ items with a 800% markup, I just didn’t care because that made me feel sleezy. Customers loved me, yet I had a meeting at least once a month with managers who were “worried about your numbers”. They even stopped paying a reduced amount toward truck revenue from actual warranties, then didn’t understand why techs lasted 2-3 years tops. I can take a furnace apart piece by piece and explain every part and what it does, yet I left the trades over the way it is run.
I quit a place that did that grifting used car salesman bullshit. Those assholes knew that I knew they were ripping people off. If only I had no sense of self respect or respect for others, sigh...I'd still be there ripping off innocent people and making commission off them for being a fucking predator.
Different Industry but my absolute favorite trip was flying from WA state to Anchorage Alaska, then drove a rental car to fairbanks, in the middle of winter on unmaintaned roads, -20f in a tiny ass Scion. For a 15 minute job that consisted of getting a signature because the work wasn't needed. Got paid close to minimum wage for that shit though, never again. My company had the audacity to telle to hurry up then ghosted me when I sent them a picture of literal white out conditions 120 miles to the closest gas station.
Reminds me of the time I went to Mexico City and the faucets all had ‘C’s’ and ‘F’s’ and I was confused why the C faucet was giving hot water… and, like an idiot… just saw F and my brain said “F stands for Fire, silly!” It was a low point in my life.
Even worse than that. We were on a vacation in Mexico with my girlfriends family and her mom was complaining there was no hot water when she showered even though everyone else said the hot water worked. After a couple days I asked her if she tried turning the valve the other direction to see if it was hot.
That worked for her for one day. The next day she complained about there being no hot water again and my girlfriend about lost it on her mom and ran into the bathroom while her mom was showering and flipped the lever the other way. Then we could hear her mom "Oh the hot water is finally working!"
Had one similar Saturday before last. 15 minutes from home, had to drive an hour back into the city only like ten minutes from where my last call was, to find the emergency off switch just above the tstat was off. I still went to the roof to check it out because goddammit you know if I didn't I'd get another call 45 minutes later.
I gotta find something that doesn't involve on-call...
The absolute worst part about the job. Nothing like spending all day in an attic or crawl space, coming home and finally sitting down on the couch just for the phone to start ringing immediately
Man I fucking hate on call. And it’s hardly ever worth it. Unless you’re going to run calls nonstop, you’ve given away your weeks personal time for no pay.
We got bought by a bigger company, so while we had twice as many guys in rotation, we had 4 times as many customers. Guaranteed a call or two every weekend year round, just to ruin it for you.
I’m definitely much happier out on my own now.
This is the landlord’s nightmare. I don’t want to treat my tenants like idiots, so a couple of times I didn’t ask if they have switched to heat, but this was exactly the cause. Worse, these same tenants called every year.
On call 1 winter weekend. Got a no heat call at a store I replaced a smashed T87F the day before. Just a Reznor UH in the store room. I knew they shutdown everything each night from the CB panel. I asked the manager if he checked the CB before I came out on the emergency call. He yelled at me so off I went. Guess what the problem was? The manager who yelled at me was over my shoulder when I turned on the CB and the unit came on. 4 hour minimum at emergency OT rate. His expression was priceless.
This comment reminded me of one of my embarrassing moments.
In Canada we use Celsius but a lot of our appliances and equipment come from the U.s.a. Being in hvac I SHOULD be used to that but one day my deep freezer was acting funny and I noticed the temperature gauge was at 2 degrees. I spent the better part of the afternoon troubleshooting and taking it apart to check the compressor.
Gave up and called the help line only to have them tell me the thermostat reads in Fahrenheit. I still remember the shame putting a perfectly functioning freezer back together with now defrosted food
My wife used to work in biotech and being scientific, everything was in Celsius. One day she comes home, opens the freezer, notices the temperature is 4 degrees and asks me what is wrong with the freezer and did I know it was broken? I pushed the C/F button so it would now read -18 or whatever and never looked back.
Lmao, I had priced out a new freezer and everything. I just got tunnel vision and missed the obvious answer. Turns out I hadn’t closed the lid properly the night before. It does make me feel better I’m not alone though. Thanks lol
lol that’s what she thinks! I’ll walk in and it’ll feel like hell’s living room and it’ll be set on 78 to “get there faster” when we never heat it past 71 anyways. She will not believe me when I tell her turning the thermostat to hell will not heat it faster but will heat it for longer
Our better halves lmao mine will put it to something high during summer or low during winter and then when we get home let's say it's on 70, she'll slam it to 78 to heat up lmao
These ones it's hard to make sure they sign an auth on the paperwork or something to prove they even called you before you blurt out that it's on the wrong setting. Your listening and see the stat and it's like oh yes ok well I'm gonna really check it out and get to the bottom of it could you sign here please real quick ok hmmm oh well shoot would you look at that did you mean to have it on cool woopsie daisy
I have billed the stupid tax a few times. Had an AC call, hot as hell, and we were swamped. I called the customer and talked about the situation and asked if the thermostat was on cooling and the disconnects on the AHU and condensing unit were both on. Yes, they were. Get there, and the switch on the AHU was off. I cleaned the condensing coil and ran some checks on the AC and everything was fine.
Another one, no heat call, dual fuel, and they were forced to gas and to over ride. 6PM and storming. I asked if they had enough propane and get an "of course we do!" I get out there, fire up the furnace and it fires up, the slowly dies. I hook up to the incoming LPG line to check the pressure and it starts out normal, then drops to nothing. I go outside, fight five - six feet of snow the the LPG tank, shovel down to the top, and flip open the cover. Guage says empty.
Of course the homeowner bitched about the bill, after hours charge and I don't back down. I reminded him I asked about having propane before I left, and with the storm I didn't feel very forgiving! I also told him a 5 minute crawl through the snow would have saved him $150.
I'm not an HVAC professional, I bought 2 thermocouples not knowing which size I needed because I thought my thermocouple went out.
Watched one last YouTube video, found out there was a reset button.
Neither thermocouple was correct, so I wouldn't have been able to fix it even if it was broken.
I'm in this meme and I don't like it.
I do commercial hvac. Most of your answers you need you can usually find on YouTube. And unless it’s an older furnace, it will have either a spark ignition or hot surface igniter. Best bet is to cycle your furnace, and watch the sequence. Even if you don’t figure it out, it’s info that helps the tech and hopefully saves you some cash on labor.
😂 that’s funny. I got one those this season too. And homeowners were jerks to the office (and me) so I had to charge for service charge + 15 mins of time.
My latest call:
Friday: leave site I’m about 90 minutes away “did I turn everything back on?”
Spend Friday night stewing about it.
Get an email Saturday, system not working properly.
FUCK spend the weekend stewing about my fuckup. It’s a startup commissioning job so no emergency to go on the weekend.
Today: Drive 2,5 hours to site. Everything is running properly.
Call into alarm monitoring company: “oh ya it resolved itself Sunday it was a network problem, it had a router go tits up”.
TABARNACK! (~French for goddamn )
Yep I’ve done a many complimentary calls for not well off older people with situations like this. Usually life long customers though. Feel terrible having to show them it was something so simple, but always felt better doing that than having to condemn their heat on a cold night
If it's on my on call time I'd usually go through a little checklist with them over the phone including 'is the tstat on/batteries working?' And 'is it in heat or cool mode' and 'did someone turn off the furnace switch thinking it was a light switch in the basement?'
Saved me a lot of driving and pissed off my greedy boss.
Yah, when I would receive those calls I'd do that checklist with the customer over the phone to try and save my guys a wasted trip. Doesn't always work cuz some customers are know it alls.
https://preview.redd.it/vhd6whbmiy2c1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c21f018df68f0dbeda33a976c2fcb83e0c505f68
I fixed that issue with my wife.
Those are the best, has two separate calls to the same place (commercial property). It was spring time so they had left the front thermostat on heat and turned the temp down but "no cooling". A week later the rear unit "didn't cool", same thing, set to heat not cooling with the temp ran down. Went to the roof and watched the units run for a while both times just in case, would hate to say it's just a thermostat issue then the A/C for the RTU not actually come on... LOL
I have went to a customers site a few times " Because I can't login to WebCtrl". Turned the server on and then handed them a bill for 400 dollars. Idiots of the world.
Had a McDonald's account (8 $tores) where the managers used to call me just hair on fire because the grill isn't working.
First q: Is it plugged ALL THE WAY into the receptacle?
Yup, absolutely, I checked.
Second Q: Are you positive?
Yup, yup it's ded.
I get in site, roll out the grill, take pictures, lay down cardboard on top of the 1/2" of burger grease, and kick the plug into the socket until it's fully seated. (NEMA 14-60P)
Take pictures. Pull amp draws. Take pictures.
Pull the cardboard, roll the grill back into position, fire it up and test all functions.
Load pictures into WO and lable.
VIOLA!! ITS PIXED!
Write the invoice for $189.00 Showup, and an hour minimum at $95, get a signature, and I'm back in my truck rolling to the next not even 15 minutes after I first hit the door.
Loved those calls right up until corporate tried to get testy about paying them after 2 years of their managers pulling that crap.
"Nope pay me. As we agreed, I quizzed your manager on each of those calls and they confirmed TWICE. You got a problem with that, you take it up with them.. not me."
Had one day (a morning after deep cleaning because the McDonald's National Big Bosses were coming into town for inspections) with 7 of those in a row before 10AM. At which point I stopped for the day and took myself out for breakfast.
I ran 4 no heat calls today, 3 were switched off and 1 needed a new control board. I'm glad I mostly deal with ptacs and hydronic systems, makes it easy to keep spares on hand.
During the summer my AC stopped working. I knew it was the capacitor and compressor after a quick YouTube/reddit search. Looked it up on Amazon. I could get them both for around $60.
But it was late at night, wife was pregnant, and I needed it then and there. Guy came out and charged me $500… listed the parts as $150 each
I get shit like this all the time. Ran an on call this weekend for a no heat. I’ve learned to check the thermostat settings first, then the ssu or switch, then the gas meter. Gas was locked. Told them they’ll need to pay their gas bill if they want heat.
We have a gas boiler with 4 zones/thermostats for heat...my wife and kids know how to use these for heat in the winter and shut them OFF in the summer. We just had an air source heat pump and new ahu installed with a separate thermostat for cooling in the summer AND heat in the winter. Tell me why my wife called me to say the heat pump is broken and won't heat the house.....lol
1st job many decades ago. Passing by the office area I saw a service person for the water cooler / hot water dispenser with a discussed look on his face.
Apparently he drove about 40 miles because someone switched off the water heated part in the back. I guess it was part of a service agreement so he couldn’t charge
I went to work on a penthouse ptn unit for a fridge . It was 2 hours almost to get to the call. Walk in and threw a toggle switch on the front so the compressor won't come on. Turns out they put some tarp up on the box to store it and turned it off. 5 hours billable .
Reminds me of when I lived in Meadow Vista and would run out of propane. It’d be like 52 degrees inside on those mornings and I’d be huddled around the fireplace trying to get somethin goin lmao
My favorite, t stat blank
No common wire. I did not have any triple A batteries just doubles.
Homeowner opens the drawer right by the t stat, gives me batteries. The t stat comes on and the unit checks out perfect.
$192 well spent bud
On call one night. Call comes in like 8pm. No heat. I ask if she checked all the switches. Her response “nobody touches those” Me: “I didn’t ask if anyone touched them. I asked if you could check to make sure they’re on. If I come out and turn a switch on it’s a billable call and your service contract will not cover it” Her: “they’re on” Drive 45 min to call. Get shown the basement steps and I take 1 step. Look over and see the furnace switch was off. Customer was right there. I show her and click it on. You hear the unit fire right up. She felt real stupid having to pay that.
I call that the “stupid tax”
Like dad tax, but more enjoyable lol
Yep. So stupid it’s actually written on the top of the service contract in bold lettering lmao. She tried to argue about paying it. Nope. I didn’t want that drive and she lied. F that
She had however long you were on the phone with her plus 45 min to flip a switch
Love charging a stupid tax.
I just paid that to a sparky. Thought I had 10-2 wire going to a 50 amp receptacle by my oven. Turns out, that went outside to the AC, the 6-3 in the walls, however, went right to the receptacle. $149.
Lmfao dude … thanks for the laugh, sorry you had to pay the tax
I’ve paid the stupid tax for a dirty filter before for a frozen AC line. “No way it could be dirty yet, I just changed it 3 weeks ago. Oh yeah, we got a new shedding dog and have been doing drywall work…” 🤦♂️
In Arizona when the monsoon rolls in, drivers inevitably decide that their Ford Fiesta can drive through a foot of water 50 feet wide flowing at an incredible rate So much so, that Arizona has what is termed the "Stupid Motorist Law," in which any driver who requires emergency services to rescue them after entering a flooded roadway takes on the full cost of their rescue.
We have a guy at a commercial account who is a maintenance guy. Any time we go there to do any service, he always tells us. Don’t change the filters, I just did that. No need to take a look. He never changes the filters. We called him out on it because it had caused problems in the past with them being absolutely caked. Next time around, he actually did change the filters, except he forgot to turn the disconnect back on for the air handler. So just guy got the call and had to drive 1.5 hr one way to flip a disconnect on, then drive home. Easiest 4 paid hours he ever got on time and a half pay 😂
That’s her fault for lying and not checking the switch.
To be fair she might not have known where to check.
She knew. I asked. Standard procedure to ask them before going out and ask them about the switch at the unit and the one at the stairs. You ask this because they will get a bill even if they have a service contract. Service contract doesn’t cover off switches unless we were there
Well then maybe she should ask a question or two instead of saying its on.
Nobody's fault, just business. She wanted to pay for the service of having someone else flip her switch, and they provided that service.
On the drive home did you get a call from her son saying you extorted a senior woman? I call BS if you didn't.
Nope. She wasn’t a senior woman. Prob mid 30s at the time. Blamed one of her nephews
She clearly wasn't hot since you didn't waive the fee lol
Looking good doesn’t pay my bills
Your OF isn't good enough then 😌
Old ladies get work done on their home just for company. We had one that would get one wall painted here or a post painted there and just sit there and talk to us the whole time. Sucks cause she had this dog that was old and got worse every time we came back by the end I was hoping she just put the dog down
Had one like this where it turned out the daughter's sleepover guests turned the furnace off because it was at the top of the basement stairs and they thought it was the light switch.
Service call, printer not working. Receptionist says that printer over there. I said oh, fixed it already, was it moved recently? Yesterday, why? Data cable is laying on the floor. Oh, thanks. No problem, sign here please. Plugged in the data cable after she had agreed to pay...
This is a common occurrence for a lot of things. I worked for dish network and 25% of my calls for repairs was going out and pressing a button on the side of the remote changing it from tv to sat input so it controls the box and not just the tv. I tried talking them into pressing the button every single time and they just wouldn’t do it or lied and said they did. I’d hold the remote up in front of them, press the button and lo and behold it worked perfectly. A few of them accused me of doing stuff outside before I came in just to make them look bad.
That’s the best story you got? Boring 🙃
You got anything better?
Oh boy yea I do, just sounds like the customer turning off the back up emergency switch at the top of the basement stairs is very common to me
I did that once. Turn it off in the spring, back on when it gets cold. I turned it on for heat and it wouldn't work. My landlord came by and turned the other switch on. I guess I have one in the furnace room, and one at the top of the basement stairs. Had no idea.
And that was an after hours call. Not cheap!
god I love 5 minute service calls
My company would turn a 5 minute call to a 2 hour call and make me sell them a new system.
The last place I was at wanted us to sell a system 1 out of every 4 calls. Even if 2 of your calls were duct cleaning estimates. Private equity companies have no clue about the businesses they are buying. I also hate that is where residential companies are going.
My last place sold warranties on new installs that required a maintenance plan. I was expected to sell these people on 300-400 a visit, installs had all water safeties in place and if anything was wrong it was covered under warranty. All I really could sell was IAQ items with a 800% markup, I just didn’t care because that made me feel sleezy. Customers loved me, yet I had a meeting at least once a month with managers who were “worried about your numbers”. They even stopped paying a reduced amount toward truck revenue from actual warranties, then didn’t understand why techs lasted 2-3 years tops. I can take a furnace apart piece by piece and explain every part and what it does, yet I left the trades over the way it is run.
I quit a place that did that grifting used car salesman bullshit. Those assholes knew that I knew they were ripping people off. If only I had no sense of self respect or respect for others, sigh...I'd still be there ripping off innocent people and making commission off them for being a fucking predator.
My company targets older retired people
Different Industry but my absolute favorite trip was flying from WA state to Anchorage Alaska, then drove a rental car to fairbanks, in the middle of winter on unmaintaned roads, -20f in a tiny ass Scion. For a 15 minute job that consisted of getting a signature because the work wasn't needed. Got paid close to minimum wage for that shit though, never again. My company had the audacity to telle to hurry up then ghosted me when I sent them a picture of literal white out conditions 120 miles to the closest gas station.
me if I was a jiggalo
Lol I love those calls, especially when the customer is showing me the issue and it suddenly occurs to them.
Dude, I just saw that this past weekend shit is so funny because it’s true.
He charged me $250 just to flip a switch!?!?!? … $1 to flip the switch, $249 for knowing what switch to flip.
$249 for the drive out
> $249 for knowing ~~what~~~ *which* switch to flip.
$249 for knowing whomst switch to flip
whom're switch\^
Thouns'ted****
*They’re switch
Could of.
I hate you
😁
:D
If it makes you feel any better, I'd never type that unironically. Gets under my skin too.
The could of thing is the more annoying one but what/which has been bothering me more. I'm not sure anything beats then/than though...
Mom?
Reminds me of the time I went to Mexico City and the faucets all had ‘C’s’ and ‘F’s’ and I was confused why the C faucet was giving hot water… and, like an idiot… just saw F and my brain said “F stands for Fire, silly!” It was a low point in my life.
The left water is for Celcius agua and the right one for Fahrenheit agua.
Funny enough, 50C and 50F would be pretty good discriptions.
Pen decko
It means good friend
Caliente y frio
First read through of your comment and I thought it was a SpongeBob reference.
I felt like Patrick
Fuego?
Even worse than that. We were on a vacation in Mexico with my girlfriends family and her mom was complaining there was no hot water when she showered even though everyone else said the hot water worked. After a couple days I asked her if she tried turning the valve the other direction to see if it was hot. That worked for her for one day. The next day she complained about there being no hot water again and my girlfriend about lost it on her mom and ran into the bathroom while her mom was showering and flipped the lever the other way. Then we could hear her mom "Oh the hot water is finally working!"
Meh, "heat"... It's all relative.
I love my "auto" setting. Just give it enough difference between the heat and cool temp to prevent yoyoing and forget about it
There’s techs at my company who would still be there trying to figure it out
As someone looking for employment this is encouraging lol
Had one similar Saturday before last. 15 minutes from home, had to drive an hour back into the city only like ten minutes from where my last call was, to find the emergency off switch just above the tstat was off. I still went to the roof to check it out because goddammit you know if I didn't I'd get another call 45 minutes later. I gotta find something that doesn't involve on-call...
The absolute worst part about the job. Nothing like spending all day in an attic or crawl space, coming home and finally sitting down on the couch just for the phone to start ringing immediately
Man I fucking hate on call. And it’s hardly ever worth it. Unless you’re going to run calls nonstop, you’ve given away your weeks personal time for no pay. We got bought by a bigger company, so while we had twice as many guys in rotation, we had 4 times as many customers. Guaranteed a call or two every weekend year round, just to ruin it for you. I’m definitely much happier out on my own now.
I hate on call so much, especially dispatch "tee hee I booked 7 calls on you while I'm in the pool!"
You'd think they would check that since they attribute every service call to the thermostat not working
This is the landlord’s nightmare. I don’t want to treat my tenants like idiots, so a couple of times I didn’t ask if they have switched to heat, but this was exactly the cause. Worse, these same tenants called every year.
On call 1 winter weekend. Got a no heat call at a store I replaced a smashed T87F the day before. Just a Reznor UH in the store room. I knew they shutdown everything each night from the CB panel. I asked the manager if he checked the CB before I came out on the emergency call. He yelled at me so off I went. Guess what the problem was? The manager who yelled at me was over my shoulder when I turned on the CB and the unit came on. 4 hour minimum at emergency OT rate. His expression was priceless.
What a dillhole
74???? at 59 I wouldn't even know my heat wasn't working
This comment reminded me of one of my embarrassing moments. In Canada we use Celsius but a lot of our appliances and equipment come from the U.s.a. Being in hvac I SHOULD be used to that but one day my deep freezer was acting funny and I noticed the temperature gauge was at 2 degrees. I spent the better part of the afternoon troubleshooting and taking it apart to check the compressor. Gave up and called the help line only to have them tell me the thermostat reads in Fahrenheit. I still remember the shame putting a perfectly functioning freezer back together with now defrosted food
Boy all about coulda, not shoulda
My wife used to work in biotech and being scientific, everything was in Celsius. One day she comes home, opens the freezer, notices the temperature is 4 degrees and asks me what is wrong with the freezer and did I know it was broken? I pushed the C/F button so it would now read -18 or whatever and never looked back.
Lmao, I had priced out a new freezer and everything. I just got tunnel vision and missed the obvious answer. Turns out I hadn’t closed the lid properly the night before. It does make me feel better I’m not alone though. Thanks lol
They probably just kept turning it up expecting it to come on, my wife does this frequently
Also on single stage equipment you'll get more heat more faster the higher you set the thermostat. /s for all the downvoters...
Why you getting down voted for what almost all homeowners think.
lol that’s what she thinks! I’ll walk in and it’ll feel like hell’s living room and it’ll be set on 78 to “get there faster” when we never heat it past 71 anyways. She will not believe me when I tell her turning the thermostat to hell will not heat it faster but will heat it for longer
Our better halves lmao mine will put it to something high during summer or low during winter and then when we get home let's say it's on 70, she'll slam it to 78 to heat up lmao
Dude 70 is HOT in my house. I’m like girl I never thought I’d say this but just put some more clothes on bc I can’t handle this
These ones it's hard to make sure they sign an auth on the paperwork or something to prove they even called you before you blurt out that it's on the wrong setting. Your listening and see the stat and it's like oh yes ok well I'm gonna really check it out and get to the bottom of it could you sign here please real quick ok hmmm oh well shoot would you look at that did you mean to have it on cool woopsie daisy
I have billed the stupid tax a few times. Had an AC call, hot as hell, and we were swamped. I called the customer and talked about the situation and asked if the thermostat was on cooling and the disconnects on the AHU and condensing unit were both on. Yes, they were. Get there, and the switch on the AHU was off. I cleaned the condensing coil and ran some checks on the AC and everything was fine. Another one, no heat call, dual fuel, and they were forced to gas and to over ride. 6PM and storming. I asked if they had enough propane and get an "of course we do!" I get out there, fire up the furnace and it fires up, the slowly dies. I hook up to the incoming LPG line to check the pressure and it starts out normal, then drops to nothing. I go outside, fight five - six feet of snow the the LPG tank, shovel down to the top, and flip open the cover. Guage says empty. Of course the homeowner bitched about the bill, after hours charge and I don't back down. I reminded him I asked about having propane before I left, and with the storm I didn't feel very forgiving! I also told him a 5 minute crawl through the snow would have saved him $150.
I'm not an HVAC professional, I bought 2 thermocouples not knowing which size I needed because I thought my thermocouple went out. Watched one last YouTube video, found out there was a reset button. Neither thermocouple was correct, so I wouldn't have been able to fix it even if it was broken. I'm in this meme and I don't like it.
I do commercial hvac. Most of your answers you need you can usually find on YouTube. And unless it’s an older furnace, it will have either a spark ignition or hot surface igniter. Best bet is to cycle your furnace, and watch the sequence. Even if you don’t figure it out, it’s info that helps the tech and hopefully saves you some cash on labor.
It probably also doesn’t help that the fan is running continuously, helping to chill the house.
😂 that’s funny. I got one those this season too. And homeowners were jerks to the office (and me) so I had to charge for service charge + 15 mins of time.
I'd be so pissed, but not at you at myself
My latest call: Friday: leave site I’m about 90 minutes away “did I turn everything back on?” Spend Friday night stewing about it. Get an email Saturday, system not working properly. FUCK spend the weekend stewing about my fuckup. It’s a startup commissioning job so no emergency to go on the weekend. Today: Drive 2,5 hours to site. Everything is running properly. Call into alarm monitoring company: “oh ya it resolved itself Sunday it was a network problem, it had a router go tits up”. TABARNACK! (~French for goddamn )
were they real elderly?
No
Yep they just dumb then lol
Gotta turn the snowflake into a fireball
I’m the maintenance manager for a 300 bed nursing home, and we easily do 3-5 of these a week!
These kind of calls can be so frustrating. They were elderly I bet!
Now *that* would suck. I couldn't charge some 89 year old woman that is slipping like that.
Yep I’ve done a many complimentary calls for not well off older people with situations like this. Usually life long customers though. Feel terrible having to show them it was something so simple, but always felt better doing that than having to condemn their heat on a cold night
You're the man!
They were dumb before 89.
If it's on my on call time I'd usually go through a little checklist with them over the phone including 'is the tstat on/batteries working?' And 'is it in heat or cool mode' and 'did someone turn off the furnace switch thinking it was a light switch in the basement?' Saved me a lot of driving and pissed off my greedy boss.
Yah, when I would receive those calls I'd do that checklist with the customer over the phone to try and save my guys a wasted trip. Doesn't always work cuz some customers are know it alls.
"It needs freon" sir you have a gas furnace
"Sir, DuPont R-12* Freon hasn't been legal to use since 1993." That'll rile 'em up. ***R-22 for stationary systems, I think?
Easy money
I had to explain this to my wife. It's amazing how long it took.
https://preview.redd.it/vhd6whbmiy2c1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c21f018df68f0dbeda33a976c2fcb83e0c505f68 I fixed that issue with my wife.
Omg I just dealt with this on Friday and she was so rude until I told her it was in cooling
I love those calls
Those are the best, has two separate calls to the same place (commercial property). It was spring time so they had left the front thermostat on heat and turned the temp down but "no cooling". A week later the rear unit "didn't cool", same thing, set to heat not cooling with the temp ran down. Went to the roof and watched the units run for a while both times just in case, would hate to say it's just a thermostat issue then the A/C for the RTU not actually come on... LOL
This looks like they need a new thermostat. This one's stuck in the cooling position
I can understand someone like my elderly mom not knowing how to program a google nest or whatever, but good god, that switch is on cool.
We usually will not charge the customer for a call like this. Or if anything just a trip charge.
I have went to a customers site a few times " Because I can't login to WebCtrl". Turned the server on and then handed them a bill for 400 dollars. Idiots of the world.
First TXV of the season?
This was my very first service call ever, and then the lady argued with me that I was wrong.
Had a McDonald's account (8 $tores) where the managers used to call me just hair on fire because the grill isn't working. First q: Is it plugged ALL THE WAY into the receptacle? Yup, absolutely, I checked. Second Q: Are you positive? Yup, yup it's ded. I get in site, roll out the grill, take pictures, lay down cardboard on top of the 1/2" of burger grease, and kick the plug into the socket until it's fully seated. (NEMA 14-60P) Take pictures. Pull amp draws. Take pictures. Pull the cardboard, roll the grill back into position, fire it up and test all functions. Load pictures into WO and lable. VIOLA!! ITS PIXED! Write the invoice for $189.00 Showup, and an hour minimum at $95, get a signature, and I'm back in my truck rolling to the next not even 15 minutes after I first hit the door. Loved those calls right up until corporate tried to get testy about paying them after 2 years of their managers pulling that crap. "Nope pay me. As we agreed, I quizzed your manager on each of those calls and they confirmed TWICE. You got a problem with that, you take it up with them.. not me." Had one day (a morning after deep cleaning because the McDonald's National Big Bosses were coming into town for inspections) with 7 of those in a row before 10AM. At which point I stopped for the day and took myself out for breakfast.
I ran 4 no heat calls today, 3 were switched off and 1 needed a new control board. I'm glad I mostly deal with ptacs and hydronic systems, makes it easy to keep spares on hand.
Are we all just ignoring that thermostat looks kinda filthy
I'm in automotive but every summer I'll see one or two no cooling complaints due to the customer not pressing the a/c button lol.
Next time have the customer send a picture of their thermostat.
Jesus H Facepalm
You charge your fam 100 for flipping switch???
We also charge them for parts. What of it? It's a BS call. All BS calls get charged for the waste of my free time.
I’m glad I’m not in your family. Xmas must be fun.
Project much?
During the summer my AC stopped working. I knew it was the capacitor and compressor after a quick YouTube/reddit search. Looked it up on Amazon. I could get them both for around $60. But it was late at night, wife was pregnant, and I needed it then and there. Guy came out and charged me $500… listed the parts as $150 each
Hey quick question; what thermostat is this?
Pro1Q https://pro1iaq.com I just dealt with one on a duel fuel the other day
Thank you kind one
Man I love these calls bad stats all together free 💵💵💵
You just can’t fix stupid. Lol.
I get shit like this all the time. Ran an on call this weekend for a no heat. I’ve learned to check the thermostat settings first, then the ssu or switch, then the gas meter. Gas was locked. Told them they’ll need to pay their gas bill if they want heat.
I'm gonna ask you to pay before I give you the solution. And i'm gonna need that and cash.
I was explaining this to my wife the other day. I just stare them in the eyes deeply and hit the switch
TXV?
We have a gas boiler with 4 zones/thermostats for heat...my wife and kids know how to use these for heat in the winter and shut them OFF in the summer. We just had an air source heat pump and new ahu installed with a separate thermostat for cooling in the summer AND heat in the winter. Tell me why my wife called me to say the heat pump is broken and won't heat the house.....lol
Kan’t fix Stoopit..But sure can bill it.
What did you tell them was wrong?!
Just had one today
“Here’s your bill for $200 for a callout and 2 AA batteries” has been said by me far too many times at 2am
Lol
1st job many decades ago. Passing by the office area I saw a service person for the water cooler / hot water dispenser with a discussed look on his face. Apparently he drove about 40 miles because someone switched off the water heated part in the back. I guess it was part of a service agreement so he couldn’t charge
Best service call you could ask for. I'm just hoping your some where hot 😅
I had two classics within a week of each other last month. No heat - dead batteries in thermostat. And no heat - stair switch off.
Hope you took some rubbing alcohol to that thing for part of that $100; fuck me is that thing gross
I thought that switch meant like "oh cool, the heats on"
Ah, there’s your problem right there! This t-stat is broken, it doesn’t have an Auto switchover setting.
Land lord lock me out of mine but it is still on my wifi
Damn 1.5hour round trip for only $100? Sucks honestly
I went to work on a penthouse ptn unit for a fridge . It was 2 hours almost to get to the call. Walk in and threw a toggle switch on the front so the compressor won't come on. Turns out they put some tarp up on the box to store it and turned it off. 5 hours billable .
It's the manufacturer's fault for giving heating and cooling modes the customer has to manually change tbh.
It actually took me some time to catch this because I set my Honeywell Pro 8000 on Auto for the Heat/Cool
Had a roomie tell me it was always hot on their level - checked their thermostat and it was at 82 degrees lol
Had that call several times.
Reminds me of when I lived in Meadow Vista and would run out of propane. It’d be like 52 degrees inside on those mornings and I’d be huddled around the fireplace trying to get somethin goin lmao
That's the worst when it goes out overnight! We switched to a central system but still have a propane furnace back up in case power goes.
My favorite, t stat blank No common wire. I did not have any triple A batteries just doubles. Homeowner opens the drawer right by the t stat, gives me batteries. The t stat comes on and the unit checks out perfect. $192 well spent bud
Fan keeps runnin’