It's 2:30 AM........ PAH

Cosmo

We all have had these calls. It's funny how the last person to touch a heating cooling unit is always the original installer, and must have screwed something up! This would be a good article for one of the trade magazines.....

Casmo
Dependable P.H.C. Inc.

Dave Yates (PAH)

Phone rings....

"Dave, it's the service. A Mr. Curr Mudgeon called with no heat."

"OK, thanks." Ring, ring... "Hello, Mr. Mudgeon, this is Dave calling from F. W. Behler. I understand you have no heat."

"You people were here on nine-ten two-zero-zero-two and now I have no heat. It's your responsibility to get over here and fix this. I'm not paying you a cent. You're responsible & I want you here right now. It's cold outside and the temperature in our house is dropping by the minute. When will you be here?"

Boy that frosts my pumpkin when they start out with "You people". That's like waving a red flag in front of a bull! Then there was the drawn out date reference. Two strikes against him before I could get a word in edgewise! "What did we do on 9/10/02 Mr. Mudgeon?"

"Serviced my furnace that you installed two years ago. You're responsible for this problem."

"Brand new furnace?"

"Darned right & it's under warranty. I'm not paying for you to come out either."

Turning to my bride, the one with the memory of an Elephant, who by now is wide awake too. Ain't it grand being married to guys who earn their living this way? "You recognize this guy's name?"

"We've only worked for him that one time & we didn't install his furnace." God, I love this woman. She never forgets the customer's records. Me? My brain's a sieve. Can't remember a name to save my life - but a piece of equipment I've personally worked on? Now that's a different story(G).

"Mr. Mudgeon, we didn't install your furnace and if I come out tonight, that will be at overtime service call rates."

"What!?!, Why I've never run into anyone like you before. Don't you care about customer service? You advertise 24-hour service & I want service. We're freezing in here."

"Well, actually - no we do not advertise 24-hour service. We reserve that priveledge for customers whose credit is good and those who are courteous when they call us in the middle of the night. What's the temperature at your thermostat?"

"Hang on........ It's 68 degrees right now. We're gonna freeze here. I'm not paying for the call. It's under warranty. Don't you care about your customers? "

"You agree to pay or I don't deliver. It's that simple."

"We'll be OK till morning. I'm not paying you overtime rates."

1/2 hour later I'm now wide awake, so it was my turn(G). Ring, ring.... "Hello, Mr. Mudgeon?"

"Yes."

"I'm calling back about the heat. Do you want me to bring over some electric heaters?"

"No, the Mrs. & I are snuggled up under the covers & can keep quite warm (at this he chuckles). I'm 91 you know, one of the Old Guard. Sorry I was so short with you before."

"No problem, we'll be over first call of the morning."

I was tempted to ask if he'd taken any blue pills since our first conversation!

Turned out to be a disentegrated induced combustion fan squirel cage. The two-stage unit had rubbed through the wheel and half of the vanes had separated. Noisy bugger & not enough draft to make the pressure switch.

Takes four days to get the damn part! D'oh. Fortunately, a single stage blower wheel was found (in a sealed combustion blower in our stock) that matched perfectly. There goes our warranty on that in-stock unit! Temp swap till the factory piece arrives. It is under warranty as it turns out & we did not install the furnace. Mr M's been as nice as pie.

Customers! Can't live with em, can't live without em.

Well, at least there was a boring program about evolution and dinosaur skeletons on at that hour to lull me back to sleep. Actually, it was interesting in that it detailed how everything living evolves and that we all (bugs, mammals, etc...) have the same DNA. The difference it seems is that the DNA is arranged differently to make different species.

Who doesn't love cold weather!


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chuck shaw

So Dave

Did you make sure the cat wasnt pregnant when you left, dont want to be the one responsable for those kittens.

Chuck Shaw

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Steve Ebels

When I get those calls

that come in around 1:00 to 4:00 in the morning I tell the person on the other end that they don't want me working on their furnace with only ?? number of hours of sleep under my belt. "Do you really want someone who is only half awake working on something that can burn down or blow up your home??" Usually they quiet right down and decide they'll survive til morning.

Dave Yates (PAH)

Cracks me up too!

Thinking of all the nights I've spent winter camping in the snow at temperatures approaching zero - in an uninsulated tent no less - with our Boy Scout Troop, I can't help but chuckle when I hear them claim they're going to freeze in less than six hour's time. And it was 68 degrees in the house!

When we first moved into our new home, a winter ice storm shorted out the transformer serving the four homes on our lane. We were last on Met-Ed's list to be served & went without power for four days. By day four, you could literally see your breath & we camped out in front of the fireplace. Our T-87's were all but pegged on the low side! Miles of PEX with no glycol - yikes! Power was restored before any damage occured, but that gave me a pretty good idea of how long a home can survive without heat during sub-freezing weather. Sure the first hour or two saw more rapid loss, but as the delta-T narrowed, that slowed till it was a snail's pace.

So, we lit candles and played board games instead of watching TV & no, I wouldn't consider adding a generator because we had a good time in spite of the adverse conditions.

Must have something to do with how we were raised. Back then Doctors made housecalls & I can remember being sick & asking my parents to call Pete (last name is Piper - Pete isn't his real first name, but you can guess why he got the moniker). They told me I wasn't sick enough to disturb Pete's sleep & that I'd have to wait till morning. I remember the night they did call him - my brother had pneumonia & almost didn't pull through. Pete is retired now & my customer - funny how that worked. He waits till morning to call too. What goes around comes around!

And I was no where close to the cat!

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