shoot me now

Jim_47

Steve I agree with you. She had no problem paying for the work to be done incorrectly, but did not want to pay for the work to be done right????
So you did not mention, did you charge her for a service call?

Steve Toland_4

customers

I recieved a service call for " too much heat ". when i arrived at the call the house very hot, i went down stairs and looked at the boiler it was a little cheap steal New Yorker with a beckett afg... i check the operation and it was obvious that the 2 zones in the house were line voltage. i notice both thermostats were low voltage, and i checked the voltage right at the thermostat and found 14 guage line volt. then i ask the homeowner if any work was done in the recent passed, and she said, yes i had a contractor re- do my basement, and then i asked her if she got new thermostats during that time and she said yes, the contractor had his electrician install new thermostats. so i said ok in order to fix your problem it will be chargeable. she got mad and said why. i told her, your electrician had put low volt thermostats on line volt zones which is dangerous and what it did is short out the thermostats and fuse them and make them constantly call for heat and then mabye one day they would burn off the wall and possibly burn your house down... i also said it might be a good idea for that electrician to fill out a application at MCdonalds and change carreers "this one is a no Brainer"... any way the customer did not want to pay me for the repair and did not want the work to be done. she was very upset with me, cause the replacement of the correct thermostats was going to be chargable... " but it was ok to pay the electrician who didn't know the difference between line and low volt... i love these people...so i red tagged the system... and had all my paperwork signed to protect me from any lawsuits.

Keith_8

why all the drama?

Steve,
I'm assuming you are a residential service tech for an oil company? Having been there I know how frustrating the
"Everything in my home is covered by my service contract" mentality is.

My guess is she was really upset by your comments about the electrician and not necessarily about the charges for the tstat replacement. You smacked the homeowner in the side of the head with your comment. What she heard was
"How could you have been so stupid to let that idiot work in your house?" Who knows, maybe the electrican was her brother in law?

You never know how these things come about. Focus on the solution not the events. Work will be less stressful.

Good Luck,
Keith

Dave Yates (GrandPAH)_1

the family connection - let us remove your shorts!

Damn near had a tech get electrocuted a few years back. Turned out the white wire was the line voltage and the black wire was switched in the furnace disconnect. After getting zapped, he traced it back to the home's newly installed breaker panel. The lone breaker with reversed color-coding was the one serving the furnace. She refused to pay for our time spent tracing and correcting the problem. As I found out, it was the son-in-law (an electrician by trade) who had installed the new panel.

He called my office & threatened to pound me into the dirt for telling his mother-in-law the install was not code-compliant. Said he'd found it wired that way and that, by code, he was required to re-install that circuit as he'd found it. So, my friend & assistant little-league baseball coach that is an electrician and an electrical inspector provided me with copies of the code passages that proved we were right & the son-in-law was wrong. Think he was mad before? He was livid following my detailed report to our customer.

Long & short (pun intended) of it? She's still our customer & he isn't allowed to do any wiring in her home(G).

Ever see a RTU wired to by-pass the disconnect?

Or a low-water cut-off with thermostat-gauge wiring that's really line voltage?

Always test before touching!

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

don_185

Bypass disconnect

Bypass disconnect.Now that is scary but, its true.I was doing a pm on a unit many years ago and almost lost my hand
from a bypass disconnect.

Bryan_16

reminds me of a story

My instructor in tech school told us 25 years ago. He was working on a 3 phase rtu, new contactor replacement. He did not mount contactor after rewiring, just let it hang while he tested the rtu. Really had to p**s so he was just going to set the cont back in place and install the mounting screws. Using both hands to do so, something slipped, he woke up in the hospital 6 hours later and didn't get to pee until midnight. Several lessons we learned 1. pee before you get on the roof 2.always turn off the power 3. nver put both hands in any electrical box 4.never trust anyone that the power is off

steve toland_5

jim/keith

no jim she agreed on the paperwork to let it run at her own risk... "she'll be calling back"! i also Red tagged the boiler. and Keith - i live by the truth and too bad... i know for some people the truth hurts, and others are happy to hear the truth. i may be a tough critic but oh well i love it... if that was my grandmothers house, you bet i'de be looking for that electrician... it's one thing to make a mistake but if you're not experience in that line of work " don't touch it "! i believe plumbers are plumbers and electricians are electricians ect... and then you have your specailists. who would i want to touch my thermostats an electrician or my heating tech..hhhmmmm?lol thank you

RonWHC

Picked up a new (old)

steam job this season. First service call, tech flushed the 47. Boiler room lites, water heater, & burner shut off. While tech was standing there scratching his head, a tenant popped in & asked what was wrong w/ the cable TV.

McDonnell's #2 Switches sure are tough.

Leo

The truth

Living by the truth is definately the best way but attitude and delivery are everything. Treat a person as an adversary and they will respond as an adversary. Treat them as a decent person and they will respond that way. They may not purchase your service but they won't throw you out.

Leo

steve_181

not true

i deal with personalities all day long... some people lie, some people are just nasty and think everything is for free, there are multiple personalities out there and i've been dealing with them for many years, and no matter what you do some people are impossible to deal with, so your theory on treating people in a special way doesn't always work... but i can tell you that every persons house i've been in, yes i do respect them in there home. example... i did a boiler install 4 section peerless with riello f5 and a super stor ultra. piped and wired for 7 zones, but only tied in the 3 existing zones that was there. now the plumber was realy the guy that sold the job, but couldn't do it without me... so 2 months later i got a call from the home owner telling me the circulator died for the kitchen zone, so i asked him has anything changed since the day of the install, he said yes i just got done tieing in the rest of my other zones. i asked who purged and he said he did. lol killing me, but ok, so i said that there's probubly air still in the system and the circ got air bound and he said no. the circ just died, i need a new one. i went there and found tons of air in the systems and showed him how he invited air in the system and didn't purge properly. but he didn't believe me and told me i didn't know what i was talking about. so i walked out and told him that plumbing and heating is not a hobby it's a profession. i told to deal with the plumber, because i'm not gonna have him breaks things in his house and blame me for it. too bad... that's when you can't win, so yes some people do suck

Brad White_185

For that story, Steve

you get an Honorary Doctor of Proctology Degree.