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Always a tough call. I got my a$$ chewed by a store manager for stretching the truth around the building trying to cover for another tech, a friend at the time. Swore I would never put myself in that position agin. Spoke to him, as a friend, and was cussed and told to mind my own business. Went to boss, not to squeel, and simply told him I would rather not follow that tech. He was let go soon after and blamed me. No good way to handle these things. That being said, no matter how you handle it, remember YOU did not cause the problem. Good luck.

Sounds like he's craving a knuckle sandwich

I feel your pain. Worked for 27 years in the cryogenic gases service trade, trained by good people who cared about quality. Came to HVAC/R full time just over a year ago although brought many of the necessary skills with me, electrical, brazing, troubleshooting and low temp refrigeration repair knowledge and other experiences. And I see what you are talking about all of the time in this field. It was uncommon in my old line of work. I just don't get it over here. I wouldn't tell your boss. Seems as if it is more about fitting in rather than quality work these days. But certainly take pictures.

Originally Posted by 2sac

Might be laziness, might be cheap customers, might be a guy who was never taught properly. Continue to do quality work yourself. Build a good rapport with the customers. Drop hints to them to ask for you when they place a service call, or to say "Just don't send(fill in tech's name here)" The shop will get the hint. This way the customer is throwing crappy tech under the bus, not you.

I had a customer tell me the other day, "I can tell that YOU know what you are doing." I had to explain that it wasn't bad work on the other guy's part, just a failure that he could not have foreseen.

Do great work, and the customer will ask for YOU.

And, as JP said, take pics. I take pics all the time.

You don't even need to send them to anyone.

At least, not this week.....

If your company is making money and the customer is stupid enough to keep calling you guys , then that's what will help keep the economy going in your area.

I'd would tell the guy how much you had to do and ask him if it ever made temp like that. If he has any conscience , he'd feel bad. If he feels bad , he should buy you lunch for a week.

There are "hacks" everywhere

I am a service manager and what I always like to see in cases like this is, first and foremost do the right thing and correct the issues as you did. Second I would rather my techs tell each other about substandard work, and if talking does not solve it I want to be informed right away. As mentioned take photos of the work so there can be no question of how it was.
Some times service managers can be fooled by smooth talking techs because we want to believe everything is good, but we do wise up after some time and see these things. We need techs like you to remind us sometimes that not everything is not as it seems.
After your conversation with this tech I would want to know about this guy.

It takes longer to do it right than to do it half #$%. I just take my time and check everything. I called the tech today and just told him what I did yesterday and his words to me were 40 degrees of superheat at evaporator is ok I would have walked away, don't change the valve. I just sighed and said whatever.

i had to go behind the owners son one time on a call back . Reach in beer cooler wouldnt get below 48 . Found the high side way high. First thing i notice is the fan shroud missing. I ask the cook in the kitchen , did anyone remove this shroud ? He says yes the other guy who worked on that said by him removing the shroud it will allow more air to cross over the compressor to cool it.




I gather up some tin foil pans and make my own shroud.

Never heard a call back since.

Never mentioned to the son what i did ....

I'm just tired of people going out and hacking stuff up. And the bossman looks at me and wonders why it takes me so long. O could give a hundred examples. The boss thinks this tech is the best. And he is a smart guy but I don't know why he does some stuff.

Might be laziness, might be cheap customers, might be a guy who was never taught properly. Continue to do quality work yourself. Build a good rapport with the customers. Drop hints to them to ask for you when they place a service call, or to say "Just don't send(fill in tech's name here)" The shop will get the hint. This way the customer is throwing crappy tech under the bus, not you.

I phone up the guy on EVERY callback. Not an ass chewing, just a 'this is what I found' deal. If he has pride, things will change. If not, talk to the boss. I also tell every guy that I want a call if they follow me.

Originally Posted by Tech Rob

I wouldn't go to management, because then you're an underhanded back-stabbing coward. I also wouldn't throw him under the bus on my service ticket, either. Remember, the customer sees those, too.

Well, I guess every company is a little different. I guess I should have elaborated more so I don't sound like a back-stabbing coward!

1st, I am very honest and open with my service manager about everything. The majority of the time, it's my own mistakes that I bring up. That's part of why I think he trusts me so much. In my opinion, he needs to know strengths and weaknesses of other technicians.

2nd, I always talk to the technician first before I speak to service manager about the situation. Nine times out of ten, there's a good reason why the other technician ignored all the other issues; often the customer didn't want them to spend time cleaning up wiring, drain lines, etc. Or it could be because the technician wrote an estimate to repair all of the minor issues, but I didn't know it and the customer never approved the estimate, etc. Or like I said originally, even a good tech can have a bad day and make a mistake.

3rd, we have electronic invoices and our customers don't see a "callback" invoice - the callback invoice goes to the original technician who was out there, or just to the service manager. So this is one way I can communicate clearly what I found.

Thanks you made a good point.

I wouldn't go to management, because then you're an underhanded back-stabbing coward. I also wouldn't throw him under the bus on my service ticket, either. Remember, the customer sees those, too. They're not stupid, and they can read between the lines.

What I would do is have a conversation with him first about what you found and explain that you don't like cleaning up others' mess. If it continues, refuse to follow up on his calls. If the boss asks why, then tell him/her.

At the end of the day, you can rest easy because you know you gave the guy a chance to get right. Some people fire themselves.

Originally Posted by hvac wiz 79

What do you mean? ..

Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using Tapatalk 2

Take pictures.

Start by sending them to the tech.

Then, if that gets no results, send 'em to the

Originally Posted by jpsmith1cm

Pictures are your friend.

What do you mean? ..

Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using Tapatalk 2

he did all of that??

Start taking pictures and sending it in if you can. If the owner of your company has any pride he will correct the situation.

Also what I do, is I just document exactly what I found. Then when my manager is reviewing the invoice to see why a lot of my time is not billable, he can see exactly what I had to clean up.

Yes it is very frustrating when this kind of thing happens, but I think every company has techs like that. And sometimes good techs just have bad days too, although what you are describing sounds pretty extreme. Some techs just don't care, and some are trying the best they can but they aren't that good.

Originally Posted by hvac wiz 79

i wouldnt tell the boss .. id tell the hack what you found & what you did to make it right .... tell him that type of sh!t doesnt fly & will only make the whole outfit look bad if anyone ever catches on ...

Pictures are your friend.

i wouldnt tell the boss .. id tell the hack what you found & what you did to make it right .... tell him that type of sh!t doesnt fly & will only make the whole outfit look bad if anyone ever catches on ...

where to draw the line

At what point do you call out your coworkers and tell them to straighten up. I went to a call today for a keg cooler today. I arrive on site to find a blown breaker for condenser. While I'm looking around I find evaporator thermosat set to 10 degrees. Wires hanging loose with wire nuts all over the place. Solenoid coil overheating because screw is loose and wire connections look atrocious. I was embarased to say it was a coworker that did this. Then I find the wrong fan blade is installed and is going backwards. But i reset the breaker for condenser and it immediately trips. I go to roof to find compressor shorted to ground. So i qoutr the condenser pick it up and install. Clean up wiring inside the box while i evacuate and install proper fan blade and redo drainline that was taped to pan with electrical tape. I go back to roof charge system and find I now have a bad txv. Back downstairs and look at my danfoss valve and it is ziptied to suction line not insulated and at 12 oclock. So I move to approx 7 and insulate and open all the way up and can still only get 40 degrees superheat but much better than pumping into a vacumn as it had been. So i ordered the new valve.oem along with new evaporation motor because that wrong fan blade had worn out the bearings. I'm sorry for my terribly long run on sentence and if i was unclear let me know. But what a terrible day fixing somebody else's crap. Should I just stay quiet or should i tell the boss that one of his favorite super techs is a hack. The hack part is just my opinion.