66 degrees, is not a heating emergency... VENT

[Thorpe]

Sorry guys, just gotta grumble for a moment... So I am on call this week for work (hvac service tech) and had some d-bag call me at 1230am because his heat isnt working. Now its been mid 30's all week here in MN, so its not exactly cold out (ie: -20) So the guy says he is concerned, because he has children in the house, (I can understand that) So I asked the gentleman, well, whats the current temp in the house? His answer, 66 degrees! Do kids freeze at 66 degrees??? He seemed slighlty shocked that I wasnt going to drive about an hour away at that time of the night/morning for a 66 degree house... Thankfully my own kids woke me up nice and extra early, so now I can take that lovely ride in my service van... UGH, stupid people... Thanks for letting me vent!

Edit: When I show up, if you are wearing a tanktop, or barefoot, you will receive ZERO sympathy from me.... MORONS

[atc007]

LOL,,you gotta love some Human beings... Feel for ya Thorpe. When I could still farm,not only didn't our cows complain. They were downright thrilled for all that we did ! Toughest job I ever loved.

[brapp]

thsats whan it becomes an emergency with a ingnrance fee of an added 25% lol

[bkm]

Wow, I keep my house at 68 and love to sleep at 66.

[Dirtcrasher]

I have tenants at 80 degrees with no shirt on and a window open. Sometimes there heat shuts off for the weekend........

[atc007]

^^ I couldn't do it !

[Russell 350X]

I'm on call aswell, 24/7. It sucks pretty hard when you get called out at 2am Xmas morning...

[200x350xtriz250]

Just a question, but if it is at 66 at 12:30 am what do you figure it will be by the time you get there in the morning? My house is poorly insulated and if I lost my heat at 12:30am and it was mid 30's outside, I'd bet my house would be in the 40's by morning - a 40 something degree house with kids in it sounds like it could use attention to me. Being on call would suck, but what constitutes an emergency situation is relative to which side of the phone you're on. Hopefully you get paid extra for being on call.?

[Thorpe]

Their house was at 64 degrees when I got there at 8am....

[Dirtcrasher]

Just a question, but if it is at 66 at 12:30 am what do you figure it will be by the time you get there in the morning? My house is poorly insulated and if I lost my heat at 12:30am and it was mid 30's outside, I'd bet my house would be in the 40's by morning - a 40 something degree house with kids in it sounds like it could use attention to me. Being on call would suck, but what constitutes an emergency situation is relative to which side of the phone you're on. Hopefully you get paid extra for being on call.?

I don't mean to come across the wrong way, but, customers and or tenants, (sometimes many people in general) with a problem are idiots. They call you about a problem and proceed to tell you what THEY think is wrong. I've learned to listen to what people say, but not absorb it until I feel it's worth adding to my brain as I may have an aneurism - J/K

Kinda like when a girl when questioned over her I phone about her car not starting says "It won't catch". I'm not smarter than the average bear, I do dumb crap all the time, but at least I'm AWARE of the dumb crap I've done and try to learn from it.

Take summer as an example; If you can maintain 72 degrees with little humidity and a properly sized AC unit/duct etc, your doing great. I had some moron call me last summer 6 days in a row because he couldn't get his house down to 68 degrees and it was near 100 degrees outside and 100% humidity. He couldn't pay me enough to explain to him the logistics of air conditioning.......

Maybe this cold clown above had a dirty filter, maybe he had a programmable setback thermostat, maybe he had a heat pump and it was 30 degrees outside that night? Who knows; But it's up to the tech to ask a few simple questions and determine whether it is a true emergency or whether it can wait.

- A lady told me her heat wouldn't turn off. The thermostat fan was set to "ON" and she assumed the heat was running. She was 3 hours away.

- A tenant decided to defrost sausages in a pan, with the wrapper on them and fell asleep. He set off the fire system clearing out the whole house and asked me when I could come down (This was at 11PM). I told him to call the fire department.

- A female tenant "fixed" her leak under the sink with masking tape. It was leaking for months, swelling and ruining the base cabinet. I cut out the PVC and it was filled with 15 straws/food/wax (she had hundreds of candles) and didn't tell me until the sink overflowed and got all over the rug. She told me the plumbing was cracked........

No good tech would leave someone in a dangerous situation ("I smell gas" etc.) but you have to make your own assessments sometimes. And I consider myself a tech whether I'm back doing HVAC or running this sh!tshow they call being a landlord...............

[Thorpe]

^^AMEN Steve!!!

[RIDE-RED 250r]

I have worked as a service tech in the past, not HVAC but lawn and garden and exercise equipment..

I remember noticing how quick people are to pick up the phone and call for service when they aren't the ones paying the service bill. Also noticed how much more irresponsible people were when they thought their service plan covered everything. Imagine their disgust when I had to inform them they would be paying the full service call and that their warantee would NOT cover bent mower blades, broken spindles, etc because they were hitting large hard obstacles with their mower... A $155 service bill usually snaps most people back into being a little more responsible with their equipment. Can't count how many times I had to show people the things (mainly customer abuse) in the written warantee/service contract that warantee/service plans did not cover. And STILL they would get irate! Was a good job, but I don't miss dealing with customers like that. Some people think that if one spends $1000 on a cheap lawn tractor the company owes them a lifetime of free repairs... Sadly mistaken

[200x350xtriz250]

Their house was at 64 degrees when I got there at 8am....

Obviously good call on your part! I'd love it if my home was that tight. I've never been on call for anything, never a landlord and am glad about both. Kudos to those that have to deal with these issues at all let alone on a regular basis.

[YAMAHA_Jim]

I used to be a propane service tech,Some customers learned that by saying"I smell gas" or "I think I have a leak" means we had to go,no acceptions.Then when I get there,there is no leak or smell of gas.It was a tactic just to get me there asap. Few times I got right back in the truck and left them there with no heat,no hot water,no stove/oven.I didnt care but I did get scolded when I got back to the office effem.Also had C.O.D. customers call when they were out of gas(propane),I get there,make sure they are there before I hook up the gas,Then after I'm done and go to find the guy to get payed,he's gone....Unhook the tank,load it back on the truck and away we go,,,no money ,no gas a-hole.I like my current job digging holes in the earth better b/c there aren't any customers to deal with.

[Dirtcrasher]

^ Great to hear about some other techs that don't take any crap!!

They need US more than we need them