Worst Boiler Service Call Ever. Let me know yours.

jjser

Several years ago when my company was new I responded to a no heat call. The customer was a hoarder on steroids, stacks of garbage everywhere, couldn't see the floor anywhere you stepped, including the stairs to the basement. There were narrow trails through the house and the basement, and the smell- I can still taste it if I think about it. It was a 40+ year old Chrysler oil furnace. I fixed it as fast as I could, hoping to never go back there. Found out a few years later, after the homeowner died and was found, that hidden behind a false wall in the basement was his murdered wife, who disappeared 20 years ago.

Shalom

jjser said:

hidden behind a false wall in the basement was his murdered wife

Holy cats. That guy never threw anything away...

Also I didn't know Chrysler made oil burners. Air conditioners, yeah, I have an Airtemp in my dining room that was old when I bought the house in '05.

RayWohlfarth

@jjser Wow! Thinking you won
@Shalom LOL That was so wrong

tankman

sorry guys, i can't believe any service tech can be that desperate for a service call. the smell, feces ,rodents, roaches are you guys kidding??? I'm hoping you don't have kids at home!! Do you know how sick you can get from all of that foul matter!!!
no money is worth that type of service call. have a little pride and walk away GOOD LUCK

scott w.

Was an outside tech for the telephone company in small town. Just started the job and probably was 22 years old. This was back in the early 1980s.

Way out in the the middle of gods country had to do an a new install for service in a trailer that was moved onto the property. The owner of the property had not paid the bill and had no phone service because he went to prison for stealing cars off the highway that had broken down. He would get his tow truck, tow the broken down vehicle back to his farm strip the vehicle for parts and sell them.

Everyone in the country side would go there for cheap parts, engines, doors, fenders, all kind of car parts. Some time if you needed enough parts for a car you could order ahead. Cars started to go missing out of the the local mall parking lots. Feds finally got him and he went to jail and eventually got parol and got out of prison.

Every one was a bit afraid of this guy because he had a violent temper and had spent time in a federal prison. Well it was my luck as low man on the totem pole to get assigned the install on the property. He had a new girlfriend that moved a trailer on the property and the girl friend wanted service in the trailer.

I show up and meet the girlfriend and ask where she wanted the phones installed. The guy comes running out of the house , is a raving lunatic screaming at her that he did not want the phone company on his property and she wasn't going to get phone service. He starts screaming profanity at me. She starts arguing with him. Right in front of me he starts beating the heck out of her, slapping her around, bloody nose, she's screaming. His little (4 or 5) kids, not hers, come out of the house and are watching this. She's begging the kids to get her the keys to the truck so she can get escape.
I am floored, a 22 year old kid, never saw this type of behavior in my life. All I can think of is this great big guy with the red hair has just been released from the penitentiary. What the heck am i supposed to do. He screamed at me to get #### of his property or he was gonna shoot me.
I got in the truck and headed back to the business office ASAP.

She eventually got the service. A few years later, I guess she got sick of the abuse and left him for another guy in the small community. The ex con threatened both the ex girlfriend and the new boyfriend with death threats over the phone and by mail. He hunted them down( ambushed) at the new boyfriends house. Shot and killed the boyfriend and wounded his ex as they came out the front door. They had suitcases as they were advised by the police to leave the area.

State police had a manhunt going on in the area for a week.

He went back to prison for a long stretch after that.

Never forgot that one. It beat all the dirty basements, stinky houses, junkey trailers and cockroaches that I had to endure over the years.

NY_Rob

^ Wow... just wow!

Some seriously unhinged people out there....

RayWohlfarth

@tankman Sometimes you think you are helping the person by working on a system no one else will
@Scott That is super scary
@NY_Rob My dad used to say Theres more on the outside than there is on the inside