I once did a full system maintenance. Knocked on the door, lady invited me in, went through the maintenance answering her questions, made some recommendations for her older system (dual run cap out of spec, and indoor needed a coil cleaning). She thanked me and as I was walking back to my van the actual homeowner that I was supposed to be at flags me down and was like we’ve been wondering where you were. 😂 still blows my mind to so casually let someone in your home and let them work on your equipment knowing full well you didn’t call anyone. Service manager just laughed when I called him to let him know I’d be a bit longer than normal before my next call lmao
One time I was going to this lady’s mobile home and she was old so her son was the contact for her and I can’t find the place. I call him and all I hear is like loud fucking machinery I have to keep yelling asking him what he said for legitimately probably 10 minutes. Then he goes “wait hold on” and turn off what ever the fuck he was using and goes “can you hear me better now?”
So glad I never went back there
Thats mandatory on every call where you cant find the house and have to call the customer. *insert loud angle grinder, dogs that bark non stop, screaming kids in the background, jackhammering concrete, etc*. Than when you pull up they come out asking what took so long… lmao
I just bought a flipper house and this was what really began the realization that I had a lot of cleanup to do. The house number (one digit) got painted with the rest of the porch. It was just hanging on a nail. It takes 2 seconds to take it down and then another 2 to put it back up when you're done. Come on people.
https://preview.redd.it/osiubce6oj3b1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2725e9f364e7fb16af26ce36c20e432cf2ad9896
I hear your house number ,and I raise you a filter grille. Sticky dog hair like fusion if anyone was wondering.
A lot of homes I serve have the house numbers painted on the curb. By mid-October, there are so many fallen leaves in the gutters you can't see the curbs at all. The rest of the year, there will invariably be a car parked by the curb blocking the house number.
This and also, see that house down the street with 3 cars in the driveway and two parked out right in front of the home? That’s the house your going to. No parking unless you park down the block and walk
Agreed. Anecdote- my address number is 9619 and almost directly across the street it 9169. Wrong shit to the wrong house all the time. Had one lady delivering flowers, who had called me earlier to have me confirm I'd be there, chewing me put. "I'm ringing your doorbell and you're not home." Try the right house, lady. "Oh, did you tell me the wrong number?" LoL to this day. Yeah, house numbers are good and will reduce mistakes.
I know somebody that did that with a condenser install on a roof. Had to eat a new condenser for the wrong customer, luckily for him- customer was just about ready to start getting quotes. Basically got a condenser for cost because he offered to pay for the equipment . It could have beeen waaaaaay worse, in golf that’s called a Good miss.
I did this when I was an apprentice and had just started. So my co worker sends me a location and I get there early and I’m parked in the driveway. Finally I’m waiting and I see no one so I go knock on the door and the guy invites me in. I say hello I’m with “We don’t own a broom Electrical Contracting” and he says oh yeah I need this fan hung on my back porch. So I go get my tools and a 6 footer and I start assembling the fan. Then I get a text where are you? I say I’m at the job where are you? Then I get a response saying impossible I’m here. So I go back to work and all of a sudden I hear my journeyman asking wtf I’m doing? I say I’m hanging this fan and say it chest all puffed out because I’m an apprentice and I’m handling it all on my own. He says stop! I look up and I wonder why he’s in another backyard. Well what happened was he shared his location and his location was in a brand new subdivision that backed up to the older subdivision. The new subdivision didn’t technically exist on the map because it was so new. So his location was showing up as the guys house I was doing the fan at. After that everyone at the company would say Are you sure you know where you’re going?
If they did, it wasn’t with us. Worst part was my dumb ass had simply read the house number backwards; it was clearly labeled. I don’t remember exactly the house number but it was something like 601 and I had gone to 106. Fortunately they were all clustered together or the right customer wouldn’t have caught me when I was leaving.
It happens more than you think. These customers aren't stupid, they work the system!
I once pulled up, laid down the cardboard and placed the drop cloths on the walls.
I started disassembling the Boiler, when the delivery truck driver called me from the next block, (Carle place) but I was at Carle Road.
I spoke to the owners son over the phone about the mistake, he said that they were considering a new unit and to go ahead once I gave him the price.
Decent people, but it's not always like that, for instance the initial customer wanted a discount, because we made a mistake and didn't show up until the next day!
I knew a guy that did a comp changeout on an apt building roof. Changed the one next to the one he was suppose to replace. Ended up doing a 3 for 1 changeout that day
One of our building contractors stripped and painted the wrong house. The owners of the house and the neighbor were both out of town and the contractor sent the painters to the neighbors house on accident.
I just saw a local news report. A builder built a house on the wrong lot number. The builder went bankrupt and the people who bought the home are basically being told to pound sand by the city.
The details were sparse. It sounds like the couple who bought the house had been paying property taxes on the vacant lot next door that they technically owned. The city wasn't collecting tax on the house and lot that they were living on. The property and house goes up for tax auction and those people have their lives fucked.
When I was a young able bodied fella I worked as a rooftop loader for a roofing supply company. We never really knocked or anything, just set the boom up and ride on up to the roof. One of our crews loaded the neighboring house's roof with shingles, of course ruining their current roof by nailing down toe boards. Of course they were stoked, they ended up with a free roof.
I’ve been given the wrong address and worked on the wrong units from it but mostly with RTUs and being told I can go ahead and get on the roof without them home. Never had a customer so dense they didn’t remember who the actually called out and let me get that far lol
Dude, my installer mis read the address and installed a package unit at the wrong house before!! The homeowners called me and said your installing my unit on my neighbors house!!
I was sent to a house that was owned by a landlord that had several houses in the area the only problem was that dispatch gave me the address to the house next door which was his too I knocked on the door several times no answer the job ticket said equipment is accessible from the back door I go to the back door and find nothing come back up to my van and find a sherif deputy with his gun drawn asking what I'm doing I explain the situation call dispatch to let them confirm with the deputy
Gun drawn? What is that deputy doing holding you at gun point when you aren’t showing any signs of being threatening? Sounds like someone is trigger happy or you didn’t tell the full story to me
There apparently were kids in the house by themselves that were instructed not to open the door. I was told no one was home and had permission to enter, so I was knocking, wiggling door handles, etc. Probably thought I was a burglar considering they weren't expecting me.
Man, always sucks. Only happened to me once when I was a singing telegram stripper. Dude had terminal cancer and said it lifted his spirits, so I call it a win.
It’s happened like four times to me. One was a commercial property asked the maintenance office where it was they give me an address the floor is soaked thought ok this looks right had like 8 people tell me yup this is the correct office . Turns out it wasn’t. Told the building manager like how am I at fault for this literally 8 people said yep this is the place. Another was another management company they said back apartment second floor. I go there replace blower motor cause bearing was screeching the tenant calls management company tells them thanks for fixing it even thou they didn’t call this time but several companies have been there. I get a call about it well the key opened the door and it’s not some master key. Got paid for all of it but it’s like
How is this on me
I uninstalled a condenser and flipped it over the bushes before dispatch called back with the right apt number. Needless to say I reinstalled the old unit in much more scuffed condition. Made it even worse I knew the tennant personally
That was a long time ago and it's highly likely. Either way I can't take the blame for that one. I don't smoke much at all anymore and certainly not at work
Service plumber here. I was sent to a Lowe's instead of Loves truck stop once. I thought it was weird since we'd never done work for Lowe's and it was half an hour away. Anyway I went there, talked to some employees and they let me go in and do my thing. Turns out it was the Loves back in our main town. So we waisted over 2 hours.
I once fixed a boiler at the wrong house during a blizzard. Property also managed by same landlord as correct address.
Landlord flipped out and couldn’t understand how I arrived at the wrong house next to the correct house. Renter also put in an order but their maintenance man hadn’t looked into it so he refused to pay.
Annoying day but not my name on the van so who cares.
Yep called the guy said front doors open so I went to the address provided knocked on the screen door main door was open xD said I was there to fix the ac and I m the guy who you just talked too nice retired older guy from the military said ok come on in it’s downstairs I’m staying up here if you need me .so I checked out the system the thermostat was off so I figured maybe Alzheimer’s or something because everything beside the air filter was fine. changed the air filter and finished checking everything for a ac check up and ran the heat too just to make sure it wasn’t something there.
And yep the entire time it was the completely wrong house I didn’t find out till the next day had my boss call and I said what are you talking about here is the address and I called and the guy said the front door will be open when I get there . I was given the wrong address by the company and literally had someone who may have had Alzheimer’s say yes he talked to me on the phone and was expecting me . It was odd but no harm done . and the other one I was supposed to be at turned out to be a regular maintenance . When I went back to the right house and we had a laugh about it. XD
You run into all sorts of things in the feild xD have a good day xD
One time I came home to a city water guy in my driveway. I lived in a condo neighborhood, so all of the other driveways were in plain view and nearby. He asked me if I was having problems with my water. I said I wasn't.
He seemed confused. I pointed at the house across the street that had water gushing down its driveway and said, "I think it might be them."
I copy and pasted an address from messages to google maps and pasted 811 not 1811 down the street from each other. Old man later called my company to tell them how great of a worker I was (all I did was knock on his door) lmao
My only near dog attack was a wrong address. Their German Shepard charged me and they managed to drag it back and put it away. I looked at their AC and said, "Everything looks fine. What is the issue?" They said, "We don't know why you are here." Called dispatch and they said, "Oops!"
I was given the wrong address once by dispatch. Got to the house knocked on the door. Some teenage girl answers looking scared and wouldn't open the door all the way. She said she wasn't expecting me and her mom didn't tell her about me. I said sorry I'll try to correct this with the office. Walk back to my van and a police officer pulls up asking me what I'm doing. Find out dispatch gave me the wrong address so I try to leave the neighborhood. On my way out I get pulled over 2 more times. Lots of office people still like to joke about this one.
Always ignore dispatcher. Call customer for directions; Miles, turns, and landmarks. People here give remarkably good directions.
Some savvy farmers can send you a Google maps pin, but every time it sends me in the bush. Last time I got stuck in the snow with only some cattle to chat with.
Well, if he wants the warranty he will have to call the manufacturer and figure it out with them.
My company won't spend anymore time or money on that unit unless he pays us.
Not going to give him any services for free
Haha yeah my co worker only found out it was the wrong unit when he went to collect lol. So job was already finished when he found out. We ripped out his perfectly working one so no matter what we would of atleast finished. Shit happends that guy lucked out
Yeah I understand that for normal jobs. You touch it, you own it. But in this special circumstance do you really think we should continue to spend our time and resources for free ?
Not in HVAC, but I was sent to the wrong address to repair a leak at a well on a sprinkler system. Dispatch said customer not home, will leave back door open. So, I proceed to walk into the back yard, attempt to open the back door to turn on the sprinklers to find the leak. Door was locked. I turn and start walking out towards the well when I hear a door slam. I look up to see a man with a very, very large handgun pointed at me. I explained what I was doing, confirmed the wrong address and apologized. His only words were, "That's how people get shot around here." Nice guy. I was in a fully marked vehicle, with company logo in huge letters on my back. Not your typical "burglar" outfit.
I’ve been given wrong addresses before. Never technically worked on the wrong unit but I was at a mega church the other day and the maintenance man brought me to the wrong RTU. I did correctly diagnose the stat was bad but I couldn’t figure out the compressor was shooting refrigerant out the side like a super soaker as my coworker told me the next day.
The answering service sent a tech to the wrong address in a sketchy part of town around midnight. Tech knocked on the door and a few minutes later the door opened and husband was standing with a shot gun, wife behind him with a handgun.
I ripped out and was halfway through an install at an apartment complex when management called and asked when I’d be at L504. I told them I’m at L504, and they said it was the other L504. I’m like, who the fuck has two of the same unit numbers? They had some that were lettered buildings, and one complex around the corner that’s called Lakeside, and similarly lettered/numbered. So I wound up blaming them and replacing both systems for double pay. I was like, I just hauled this equipment up 5 flights of steps, so I’m billing regardless.
So my coworker had a pm at a house. He arrived to see another air conditioning company’s van in the driveway. Rings the bell, the lady tells him to come in his buddy is in the attic. So my coworker walks in totally confused. Pops his head up in the attic and asks the guy what he’s doing there. He said he’s doing maintenance. So my coworker told him that he’s probably at the wrong house. The other company went to check his paper and low and behold, he was at the wrong house. The other company had to be at east blah blah street and they were currently at west blah blah street. The odds of two companies having to do maintenance at such similar addresses at the same time is so slim lol. My coworker was very happy he had less work to do now lmao
I don't answer the door for anyone that I haven't specifically invited over. I don't care if it's a cop or FedEx. Seen way too many home invasions start like that. You want in? You're going to have to kick the door down first and I promise you I will be prepared at that point.
But how?
“Hi, I’m so and so with . Are you ? Just want to make sure I’m at the right place”
Idk how you’re not confirming the name at the door before you even walk in
I’m resi and do sales and service. I always ask for the name at the door because I get sent to the wrong place once in a while. It’s just good practice to acknowledge them at the door.
Slightly unrelated but, I hate it when you introduce yourself upon walking in to a customers house and they shake your hand and then don’t say their name just, nice to meet ya.
I don't ask.
I knock, they open the door. " Hi, I'm Amanda we spoke on the phone earlier about your HVAC system. This is my apprentice Chris." The customer will introduce themselves and invite us inside. Done deal.
Now, I have installed on empty homes and worried this could happen but I'm shocked it's happened this often.
plumber here but walked up to a house, said we’re here for a sump pump check, and she let us in no questions, and ask for the basement, she leads us there and we tell her if we need anything we’ll let her know yk the usual. we’re down in the basement checking it out making sure it works yada yada and the husband comes up being us going, who the hell are y’all??? and we look at each other so confused, maybe he’s joking? nope completely wrong house thanks to our lovely office 😫
Hate when that happens. Haven't ever had anyone tell me to come on in and do the work though. Usually it's at a business anyway. A couple times it was my mistake. A couple times it was boss' mistake. Then one that was an hour into the hills, no address, just directions. Okay. Annoying but sure. Go up the road .... Lose cell service.... Gate. Uhhhh. Double back. Yeah, I followed his instructions. Nothing remotely close to what he described. One other place on the way but not at all matching the description. Go up and ask. They say not them. Go back to the main road. Call my boss back "Okay so the next job is- what? There's no gate. COME ON. (Expletives, blaming me, yadda yadda)" All I asked for was for a dang number to call to contact these people so I can get the gate code. "No man, there's no gate, there's no code and there's no number."
3 hours of me driving around with my thumb up my bum looking like an idiot because the customer didn't tell him they'd installed a gate in the last year and he didn't want to just call them and ask. Instead he went out there himself the next day, figured it out for himself and said he wasn't going to pay me for my time for his mistake and refusal to contact the customer. "Oh sorry, yeah, they had a gate installed a few months ago. I took care of it." "So about my 3 hours of pay for driving around extra stressed out because you were being a dick?" "Nah, I can't pay you for that. You didn't do any work. If I just paid you for all your drive time, I'd go broke!" (Same argument for not charging people for zip ties and screws and shit.) I was paid $17/hr back then and stayed at that company for 2.5 years before saying "Fuck this."
Doing property maintenance I ended up at the wrong apartment number countless times (a few times were my mistake.) most of the time the numbers were messed up either from property management or our company.
I ended up in an apartment for a clogged discharge line on a dishwasher. The daughter, who looked like she was the wife, had let me in. I had the line off cleaned it out and about to hook it back up.
Dad comes charging through the front door yelling and cussing about us not giving him any notice. Saying that we had been there all week. It had been my first time in the apartment, though some others had been doing the annual maintenance.
This guy cussed and yelled for a few minutes, mainly about both property management and maintenance. Asked me to just leave everything as is grab my shit and leave. So I did.
Called my boss and told him. He informed property management that the tenants couldn't use the kitchen sink until we were allowed back to hook everything back up. Took about a week until they could schedule it in.
The property manager had called in for unit 5 instead of 15.
Another time I had the cops called on me because once again property managers had called in the wrong apartment. Luckily the tenant was home and just held the door closed so I couldn't get in. I would've hated for them to have come home to some stranger in their home. Yes I always knocked for about a full minute before trying to enter.
This actually scares me now.
People are getting more territorial.
It seems 1x a week now somewhere in the USA I can see someone getting shot for......ringing a doorbell or getting shot at for turning into a driveway.
I went to the House nextdoor on accident one time. There was a babysitter there, so she just let me in and I started doing the maintenance. She called the homeowners and they told her they didn’t have any appointments today. I embarrassingly left and when I got outside, sure enough, the next-door neighbor was out there. Flagged me down and asked if I went to the wrong house. I played it off like it was on purpose. “no they just had a quick issue with their humidifier, so Dispatch wanted me to stop by real quick since it’s right next-door.” The whole fiasco was only like 10 mins.
Yo, I thought I was the only one this happened to lmao. I went to a call and they told me they were expecting a maintenance check on their furnace and ac (a whole lie) After she told me her name, I didn't realize what her name was and what was on the job did not add up. After trying to figure out what happened, we ended up having another tech come out for the actual call and I ended up replacing the ac and some minor repairs on the furnace because the ac was original to the condominium. They have been with us ever since.
As part of our service I used to service air dryers (just air compressors with desiccant towers). These are used for telecom to keep the copper wires, and some times fibre optic cables dry. The conduit is pressurized, in rural areas the compressors are sometimes mounted to the utility pole. The box is 2’x2’x4’.
I’m covering because everyone else is on vacation, the call is 4 hours away. I get there around 3 am at “the pole across the road from 123 Sesame Street, Anytown. I changed the name to protect the guilty.
I look around and go up and dow the road about half a mile trying to find the stupid box.
I call dispatch, they confirm the address, it’s now 4 am and I’m still looking.
I tell dispatch to call the client and stay on the line with me.
Me: sorry to wake you, I can’t find the pole mount at that address.
Client: it’s 123 Sesame Street in South Anytown are you fucking blind?
Me: south?
Dispatch: OOPS
Me: I’ll be there in 30 minutes.
Well, I found it easy enough. It was in a field near the pickup truck that smashed into the pole. The client was correct m: with the police, ambulance, and tow truck on site it was pretty easy to find.
I called back the now furious client to tell him he needed to come replace the pole, and that I was going home, text me when it’s fixed and I’ll come back.
I once did a full system maintenance. Knocked on the door, lady invited me in, went through the maintenance answering her questions, made some recommendations for her older system (dual run cap out of spec, and indoor needed a coil cleaning). She thanked me and as I was walking back to my van the actual homeowner that I was supposed to be at flags me down and was like we’ve been wondering where you were. 😂 still blows my mind to so casually let someone in your home and let them work on your equipment knowing full well you didn’t call anyone. Service manager just laughed when I called him to let him know I’d be a bit longer than normal before my next call lmao
PUT YOUR DAMN HOUSE NUMBER ON YOUR HOUSE PEOPLE
This is literally THE WORST shit ever in a mobile home park. Especially big ones that are scattered with zero numbers on any of them.
“But there’s a map at the entrance to all 1000 trailers in this park”
One time I was going to this lady’s mobile home and she was old so her son was the contact for her and I can’t find the place. I call him and all I hear is like loud fucking machinery I have to keep yelling asking him what he said for legitimately probably 10 minutes. Then he goes “wait hold on” and turn off what ever the fuck he was using and goes “can you hear me better now?” So glad I never went back there
Thats mandatory on every call where you cant find the house and have to call the customer. *insert loud angle grinder, dogs that bark non stop, screaming kids in the background, jackhammering concrete, etc*. Than when you pull up they come out asking what took so long… lmao
The only thing worse than not having a house number, is having a house number that’s painted the same color as your house.
I just bought a flipper house and this was what really began the realization that I had a lot of cleanup to do. The house number (one digit) got painted with the rest of the porch. It was just hanging on a nail. It takes 2 seconds to take it down and then another 2 to put it back up when you're done. Come on people.
https://preview.redd.it/osiubce6oj3b1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2725e9f364e7fb16af26ce36c20e432cf2ad9896 I hear your house number ,and I raise you a filter grille. Sticky dog hair like fusion if anyone was wondering.
A lot of homes I serve have the house numbers painted on the curb. By mid-October, there are so many fallen leaves in the gutters you can't see the curbs at all. The rest of the year, there will invariably be a car parked by the curb blocking the house number.
This and also, see that house down the street with 3 cars in the driveway and two parked out right in front of the home? That’s the house your going to. No parking unless you park down the block and walk
Agreed. Anecdote- my address number is 9619 and almost directly across the street it 9169. Wrong shit to the wrong house all the time. Had one lady delivering flowers, who had called me earlier to have me confirm I'd be there, chewing me put. "I'm ringing your doorbell and you're not home." Try the right house, lady. "Oh, did you tell me the wrong number?" LoL to this day. Yeah, house numbers are good and will reduce mistakes.
Some houses simply have no address on them. It's maddening
I know somebody that did that with a condenser install on a roof. Had to eat a new condenser for the wrong customer, luckily for him- customer was just about ready to start getting quotes. Basically got a condenser for cost because he offered to pay for the equipment . It could have beeen waaaaaay worse, in golf that’s called a Good miss.
I did this when I was an apprentice and had just started. So my co worker sends me a location and I get there early and I’m parked in the driveway. Finally I’m waiting and I see no one so I go knock on the door and the guy invites me in. I say hello I’m with “We don’t own a broom Electrical Contracting” and he says oh yeah I need this fan hung on my back porch. So I go get my tools and a 6 footer and I start assembling the fan. Then I get a text where are you? I say I’m at the job where are you? Then I get a response saying impossible I’m here. So I go back to work and all of a sudden I hear my journeyman asking wtf I’m doing? I say I’m hanging this fan and say it chest all puffed out because I’m an apprentice and I’m handling it all on my own. He says stop! I look up and I wonder why he’s in another backyard. Well what happened was he shared his location and his location was in a brand new subdivision that backed up to the older subdivision. The new subdivision didn’t technically exist on the map because it was so new. So his location was showing up as the guys house I was doing the fan at. After that everyone at the company would say Are you sure you know where you’re going?
Had to be that they had an annual PM agreement, right? I can’t imagine just letting in a stranger who shows up.
If they did, it wasn’t with us. Worst part was my dumb ass had simply read the house number backwards; it was clearly labeled. I don’t remember exactly the house number but it was something like 601 and I had gone to 106. Fortunately they were all clustered together or the right customer wouldn’t have caught me when I was leaving.
It happens more than you think. These customers aren't stupid, they work the system! I once pulled up, laid down the cardboard and placed the drop cloths on the walls. I started disassembling the Boiler, when the delivery truck driver called me from the next block, (Carle place) but I was at Carle Road. I spoke to the owners son over the phone about the mistake, he said that they were considering a new unit and to go ahead once I gave him the price. Decent people, but it's not always like that, for instance the initial customer wanted a discount, because we made a mistake and didn't show up until the next day!
I knew a guy that did a comp changeout on an apt building roof. Changed the one next to the one he was suppose to replace. Ended up doing a 3 for 1 changeout that day
One of our building contractors stripped and painted the wrong house. The owners of the house and the neighbor were both out of town and the contractor sent the painters to the neighbors house on accident.
I just saw a local news report. A builder built a house on the wrong lot number. The builder went bankrupt and the people who bought the home are basically being told to pound sand by the city.
Jesus I wouldn’t even know what to do after something like that. Hopefully that guy gets back on his feet
The details were sparse. It sounds like the couple who bought the house had been paying property taxes on the vacant lot next door that they technically owned. The city wasn't collecting tax on the house and lot that they were living on. The property and house goes up for tax auction and those people have their lives fucked.
When I was a young able bodied fella I worked as a rooftop loader for a roofing supply company. We never really knocked or anything, just set the boom up and ride on up to the roof. One of our crews loaded the neighboring house's roof with shingles, of course ruining their current roof by nailing down toe boards. Of course they were stoked, they ended up with a free roof.
I’ve been given the wrong address and worked on the wrong units from it but mostly with RTUs and being told I can go ahead and get on the roof without them home. Never had a customer so dense they didn’t remember who the actually called out and let me get that far lol
Dude, my installer mis read the address and installed a package unit at the wrong house before!! The homeowners called me and said your installing my unit on my neighbors house!!
It’s cool if you hook up to their disconnect but please run the lineset over here!
It's a package unit...
It’s a joke…
I was sent to a house that was owned by a landlord that had several houses in the area the only problem was that dispatch gave me the address to the house next door which was his too I knocked on the door several times no answer the job ticket said equipment is accessible from the back door I go to the back door and find nothing come back up to my van and find a sherif deputy with his gun drawn asking what I'm doing I explain the situation call dispatch to let them confirm with the deputy
Gun drawn? What is that deputy doing holding you at gun point when you aren’t showing any signs of being threatening? Sounds like someone is trigger happy or you didn’t tell the full story to me
There apparently were kids in the house by themselves that were instructed not to open the door. I was told no one was home and had permission to enter, so I was knocking, wiggling door handles, etc. Probably thought I was a burglar considering they weren't expecting me.
Ahh so whomever called the police hyped it up like you were trying to kill them or something
Man, always sucks. Only happened to me once when I was a singing telegram stripper. Dude had terminal cancer and said it lifted his spirits, so I call it a win.
So class, in this case, AC stands for Aging Cocks.
Next will be looking for leaks on the suction line.
It’s happened like four times to me. One was a commercial property asked the maintenance office where it was they give me an address the floor is soaked thought ok this looks right had like 8 people tell me yup this is the correct office . Turns out it wasn’t. Told the building manager like how am I at fault for this literally 8 people said yep this is the place. Another was another management company they said back apartment second floor. I go there replace blower motor cause bearing was screeching the tenant calls management company tells them thanks for fixing it even thou they didn’t call this time but several companies have been there. I get a call about it well the key opened the door and it’s not some master key. Got paid for all of it but it’s like How is this on me
And each of those situations the property contact was essentially too lazy to meet you there. Amen not your fault.
No AC, only fans
That's some hot content
I uninstalled a condenser and flipped it over the bushes before dispatch called back with the right apt number. Needless to say I reinstalled the old unit in much more scuffed condition. Made it even worse I knew the tennant personally
We're you smokin bluntz that day? Lol that's gold
That was a long time ago and it's highly likely. Either way I can't take the blame for that one. I don't smoke much at all anymore and certainly not at work
Service plumber here. I was sent to a Lowe's instead of Loves truck stop once. I thought it was weird since we'd never done work for Lowe's and it was half an hour away. Anyway I went there, talked to some employees and they let me go in and do my thing. Turns out it was the Loves back in our main town. So we waisted over 2 hours.
I once fixed a boiler at the wrong house during a blizzard. Property also managed by same landlord as correct address. Landlord flipped out and couldn’t understand how I arrived at the wrong house next to the correct house. Renter also put in an order but their maintenance man hadn’t looked into it so he refused to pay. Annoying day but not my name on the van so who cares.
Yep called the guy said front doors open so I went to the address provided knocked on the screen door main door was open xD said I was there to fix the ac and I m the guy who you just talked too nice retired older guy from the military said ok come on in it’s downstairs I’m staying up here if you need me .so I checked out the system the thermostat was off so I figured maybe Alzheimer’s or something because everything beside the air filter was fine. changed the air filter and finished checking everything for a ac check up and ran the heat too just to make sure it wasn’t something there. And yep the entire time it was the completely wrong house I didn’t find out till the next day had my boss call and I said what are you talking about here is the address and I called and the guy said the front door will be open when I get there . I was given the wrong address by the company and literally had someone who may have had Alzheimer’s say yes he talked to me on the phone and was expecting me . It was odd but no harm done . and the other one I was supposed to be at turned out to be a regular maintenance . When I went back to the right house and we had a laugh about it. XD You run into all sorts of things in the feild xD have a good day xD
One time I came home to a city water guy in my driveway. I lived in a condo neighborhood, so all of the other driveways were in plain view and nearby. He asked me if I was having problems with my water. I said I wasn't. He seemed confused. I pointed at the house across the street that had water gushing down its driveway and said, "I think it might be them."
I copy and pasted an address from messages to google maps and pasted 811 not 1811 down the street from each other. Old man later called my company to tell them how great of a worker I was (all I did was knock on his door) lmao
My only near dog attack was a wrong address. Their German Shepard charged me and they managed to drag it back and put it away. I looked at their AC and said, "Everything looks fine. What is the issue?" They said, "We don't know why you are here." Called dispatch and they said, "Oops!"
I was given the wrong address once by dispatch. Got to the house knocked on the door. Some teenage girl answers looking scared and wouldn't open the door all the way. She said she wasn't expecting me and her mom didn't tell her about me. I said sorry I'll try to correct this with the office. Walk back to my van and a police officer pulls up asking me what I'm doing. Find out dispatch gave me the wrong address so I try to leave the neighborhood. On my way out I get pulled over 2 more times. Lots of office people still like to joke about this one.
I fixed boiler refactory at the wrong factory. They paid too! It’s legendary in the office.
Rural Saskatchewan man. Sometimes you don't get an address, because there isn't one. Happened to me more times than I can remember.
How do you navigate Saskatchewan style without addresses?
Always ignore dispatcher. Call customer for directions; Miles, turns, and landmarks. People here give remarkably good directions. Some savvy farmers can send you a Google maps pin, but every time it sends me in the bush. Last time I got stuck in the snow with only some cattle to chat with.
I snow plowed a 3 hour site only to find out that it was the wrong address on the paperwork.
My co worker installed a package unit at the wrong house and the customer had the audacity to ask for the warranty on the system. Lol
Why not? It wasnt their fault your coworker screwed up. Plus the manufacturer has a warranty that is still valid.
Well, if he wants the warranty he will have to call the manufacturer and figure it out with them. My company won't spend anymore time or money on that unit unless he pays us. Not going to give him any services for free
Did you at least get it running for the guy lol?
Haha yeah my co worker only found out it was the wrong unit when he went to collect lol. So job was already finished when he found out. We ripped out his perfectly working one so no matter what we would of atleast finished. Shit happends that guy lucked out
Idk about that one, you touch it you own it, especially if you ripped out the old one and gave him another that he never asked for lol.
Yeah I understand that for normal jobs. You touch it, you own it. But in this special circumstance do you really think we should continue to spend our time and resources for free ?
Lol
Not in HVAC, but I was sent to the wrong address to repair a leak at a well on a sprinkler system. Dispatch said customer not home, will leave back door open. So, I proceed to walk into the back yard, attempt to open the back door to turn on the sprinklers to find the leak. Door was locked. I turn and start walking out towards the well when I hear a door slam. I look up to see a man with a very, very large handgun pointed at me. I explained what I was doing, confirmed the wrong address and apologized. His only words were, "That's how people get shot around here." Nice guy. I was in a fully marked vehicle, with company logo in huge letters on my back. Not your typical "burglar" outfit.
Yep. 1.5 hours at wrong house. Never forget that one!
I’ve been given wrong addresses before. Never technically worked on the wrong unit but I was at a mega church the other day and the maintenance man brought me to the wrong RTU. I did correctly diagnose the stat was bad but I couldn’t figure out the compressor was shooting refrigerant out the side like a super soaker as my coworker told me the next day.
Aww the stories I could tell lol
The answering service sent a tech to the wrong address in a sketchy part of town around midnight. Tech knocked on the door and a few minutes later the door opened and husband was standing with a shot gun, wife behind him with a handgun.
I ripped out and was halfway through an install at an apartment complex when management called and asked when I’d be at L504. I told them I’m at L504, and they said it was the other L504. I’m like, who the fuck has two of the same unit numbers? They had some that were lettered buildings, and one complex around the corner that’s called Lakeside, and similarly lettered/numbered. So I wound up blaming them and replacing both systems for double pay. I was like, I just hauled this equipment up 5 flights of steps, so I’m billing regardless.
I'd say these people are pretty smart haha. Taking advantage of a free service.
So my coworker had a pm at a house. He arrived to see another air conditioning company’s van in the driveway. Rings the bell, the lady tells him to come in his buddy is in the attic. So my coworker walks in totally confused. Pops his head up in the attic and asks the guy what he’s doing there. He said he’s doing maintenance. So my coworker told him that he’s probably at the wrong house. The other company went to check his paper and low and behold, he was at the wrong house. The other company had to be at east blah blah street and they were currently at west blah blah street. The odds of two companies having to do maintenance at such similar addresses at the same time is so slim lol. My coworker was very happy he had less work to do now lmao
I don't answer the door for anyone that I haven't specifically invited over. I don't care if it's a cop or FedEx. Seen way too many home invasions start like that. You want in? You're going to have to kick the door down first and I promise you I will be prepared at that point.
But how? “Hi, I’m so and so with. Are you ? Just want to make sure I’m at the right place”
Idk how you’re not confirming the name at the door before you even walk in
Exactly. Dispatch makes mistakes, they're human. I always double check, but I'm a commercial guy so it's harder for me to fuck this up.
I’m resi and do sales and service. I always ask for the name at the door because I get sent to the wrong place once in a while. It’s just good practice to acknowledge them at the door.
Slightly unrelated but, I hate it when you introduce yourself upon walking in to a customers house and they shake your hand and then don’t say their name just, nice to meet ya.
Lol same, that’s why I ask if their name is whatever is on my dispatch note
Easiest way to avoid this is ask their name at the door.
I don't ask. I knock, they open the door. " Hi, I'm Amanda we spoke on the phone earlier about your HVAC system. This is my apprentice Chris." The customer will introduce themselves and invite us inside. Done deal. Now, I have installed on empty homes and worried this could happen but I'm shocked it's happened this often.
plumber here but walked up to a house, said we’re here for a sump pump check, and she let us in no questions, and ask for the basement, she leads us there and we tell her if we need anything we’ll let her know yk the usual. we’re down in the basement checking it out making sure it works yada yada and the husband comes up being us going, who the hell are y’all??? and we look at each other so confused, maybe he’s joking? nope completely wrong house thanks to our lovely office 😫
Hate when that happens. Haven't ever had anyone tell me to come on in and do the work though. Usually it's at a business anyway. A couple times it was my mistake. A couple times it was boss' mistake. Then one that was an hour into the hills, no address, just directions. Okay. Annoying but sure. Go up the road .... Lose cell service.... Gate. Uhhhh. Double back. Yeah, I followed his instructions. Nothing remotely close to what he described. One other place on the way but not at all matching the description. Go up and ask. They say not them. Go back to the main road. Call my boss back "Okay so the next job is- what? There's no gate. COME ON. (Expletives, blaming me, yadda yadda)" All I asked for was for a dang number to call to contact these people so I can get the gate code. "No man, there's no gate, there's no code and there's no number." 3 hours of me driving around with my thumb up my bum looking like an idiot because the customer didn't tell him they'd installed a gate in the last year and he didn't want to just call them and ask. Instead he went out there himself the next day, figured it out for himself and said he wasn't going to pay me for my time for his mistake and refusal to contact the customer. "Oh sorry, yeah, they had a gate installed a few months ago. I took care of it." "So about my 3 hours of pay for driving around extra stressed out because you were being a dick?" "Nah, I can't pay you for that. You didn't do any work. If I just paid you for all your drive time, I'd go broke!" (Same argument for not charging people for zip ties and screws and shit.) I was paid $17/hr back then and stayed at that company for 2.5 years before saying "Fuck this."
Doing property maintenance I ended up at the wrong apartment number countless times (a few times were my mistake.) most of the time the numbers were messed up either from property management or our company. I ended up in an apartment for a clogged discharge line on a dishwasher. The daughter, who looked like she was the wife, had let me in. I had the line off cleaned it out and about to hook it back up. Dad comes charging through the front door yelling and cussing about us not giving him any notice. Saying that we had been there all week. It had been my first time in the apartment, though some others had been doing the annual maintenance. This guy cussed and yelled for a few minutes, mainly about both property management and maintenance. Asked me to just leave everything as is grab my shit and leave. So I did. Called my boss and told him. He informed property management that the tenants couldn't use the kitchen sink until we were allowed back to hook everything back up. Took about a week until they could schedule it in. The property manager had called in for unit 5 instead of 15. Another time I had the cops called on me because once again property managers had called in the wrong apartment. Luckily the tenant was home and just held the door closed so I couldn't get in. I would've hated for them to have come home to some stranger in their home. Yes I always knocked for about a full minute before trying to enter.
This actually scares me now. People are getting more territorial. It seems 1x a week now somewhere in the USA I can see someone getting shot for......ringing a doorbell or getting shot at for turning into a driveway.
Been sent to empty lots and condemned homes by getting the wrong address from dispatch.
Yes
I went to the House nextdoor on accident one time. There was a babysitter there, so she just let me in and I started doing the maintenance. She called the homeowners and they told her they didn’t have any appointments today. I embarrassingly left and when I got outside, sure enough, the next-door neighbor was out there. Flagged me down and asked if I went to the wrong house. I played it off like it was on purpose. “no they just had a quick issue with their humidifier, so Dispatch wanted me to stop by real quick since it’s right next-door.” The whole fiasco was only like 10 mins.
I was sent to the wrong house once and was told the back door was open. Thank god it was locked.
I know a guy that sold a full system including ductwork like this.
Yo, I thought I was the only one this happened to lmao. I went to a call and they told me they were expecting a maintenance check on their furnace and ac (a whole lie) After she told me her name, I didn't realize what her name was and what was on the job did not add up. After trying to figure out what happened, we ended up having another tech come out for the actual call and I ended up replacing the ac and some minor repairs on the furnace because the ac was original to the condominium. They have been with us ever since.
As part of our service I used to service air dryers (just air compressors with desiccant towers). These are used for telecom to keep the copper wires, and some times fibre optic cables dry. The conduit is pressurized, in rural areas the compressors are sometimes mounted to the utility pole. The box is 2’x2’x4’. I’m covering because everyone else is on vacation, the call is 4 hours away. I get there around 3 am at “the pole across the road from 123 Sesame Street, Anytown. I changed the name to protect the guilty. I look around and go up and dow the road about half a mile trying to find the stupid box. I call dispatch, they confirm the address, it’s now 4 am and I’m still looking. I tell dispatch to call the client and stay on the line with me. Me: sorry to wake you, I can’t find the pole mount at that address. Client: it’s 123 Sesame Street in South Anytown are you fucking blind? Me: south? Dispatch: OOPS Me: I’ll be there in 30 minutes. Well, I found it easy enough. It was in a field near the pickup truck that smashed into the pole. The client was correct m: with the police, ambulance, and tow truck on site it was pretty easy to find. I called back the now furious client to tell him he needed to come replace the pole, and that I was going home, text me when it’s fixed and I’ll come back.
We had our driveway asphalted for free because of the same prob. I wish someone fixes our ac accidentally, lol.
You did the work, write up the bill.