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i have had money, food, booze, furniture and alot of other stuff. one time after a p.m. and the last job of the day i was doing the paperwork and drinking a beer with the ho we got on the subject of elvis. long story short he had a concert ticket for syracuse that elvis never made it to. i think it was his next show. i don't know what it's worth but me being a huge elvis fan i thought it was realy cool. the best tip ever got.

Once had a customer that was VERY rich, had done his work for years, and he had always given me a Christmas card with $50-100 in it, one Christmas eve I was at home and he called me (like a dipstick I gave him my home #) went to his house and fixed the problem when I was ready to leave he handed me an envelope, I thought whoopie a $50 tip for messing up Christmas Eve, when i got home I opened it and the were 10 crisp $100 bills in it


I was real glad he called

Originally Posted by rojacman

Her husband was the current head of the chicago mafia that nobody told me ahead of time.. had me watching my back for a long time

She made you an offer that you couldn't refuse...until it was too late!

flirting with broken arms or??????

Originally Posted by B_roche

I had to work in the penthouse of a big wash dc building. It was like eight bedroom and the brochure for the place said 1 bedroom starting at 1.9 mil. I had better not say her name but some of you have probably heard of her. She gave me two dollars.

It was embarrassing that she must have been so wealthy and so distorted in her opinion of what I make, that she thought two bucks was a nice gesture. It is around four bucks for a cup of coffee in that area.

we had a wealthy rezzie customer that i did a clean & check for , ok , routine boring job , got the invoice signed & off the clock on my way out the door she says could you please fix the cord on my washing machine?? "mam , i say politely , i'm off the clock and on my way to my next call" Oh don't worry i'll just pay u it won't take long , ok not to offend a long time customer . well , it was a pita job , now i'm behind sch. & fer sure missing lunch to make it up. she smiles at me and says "sorry , i don't have any money" i didn't care about the money but the way she said it and smiled and said it meaning you like it or not , tough!!! I read her out good and left steaming , being too young to have learned the fine art of tactfulness. when i related this story to another tech he looked at me and made the sign of the cross at me and said i should find a priest for the last rites as her husband was the current head of the chicago mafia that nobody told me ahead of time.. had me watching my back for a long time

I just got 10 for a diagnostic today.
I always so no,... no need to its my job. But they still insist. Gotta love it!

I had to work in the penthouse of a big wash dc building. It was like eight bedroom and the brochure for the place said 1 bedroom starting at 1.9 mil. I had better not say her name but some of you have probably heard of her. She gave me two dollars.

It was embarrassing that she must have been so wealthy and so distorted in her opinion of what I make, that she thought two bucks was a nice gesture. It is around four bucks for a cup of coffee in that area.

Back in '96, a customer gave me a CAR! It was an '84 Lynx, 32K miles, dead battery and a hole in the muffler. Clean as a pin inside and out! New battery $35, tune-up & oil change $40, new exhaust $130. Ran & drove great, and 1 year later I sold it for $2300.

I get tipped very frequently, sometimes every day. One lady gives me $50 every time I do her maintenance. I have been tipped $100 before. One nut job gave me $340 to get my cat spayed. I also get some bottles of wine.

Yesterday, a customer gave me a CD of him playing traditional Persian music on a dulcimer.

The pistachios sound good right now, I'm hungry.

i loved.....

Originally Posted by qwerty hvac

I think getting tips is great. Even when you try not to except them people will force them on you. Then there are others who think they shouldn't even pay you what you are charging them even though they called you at three in morning!

.....the 5#bag of pistachios i got last year

nice guy

Originally Posted by coolperfect

I have a bottle of vodka around my house somewhere. It got from an old boss around 1983. It was never opened.wonder if it still good?

to show you what a nice guy i am , send the bottle to me and i'll test it for you and let you know how it tastes.....Jack

I was working in one guys place. He had a ton of health problems and as a result was on so many different medications that he was pretty out of it most of the time.It was close to Christmas and I had finished what I was doing and he insisted on giving me a bottle of whisky(which I dont drink).I tried to politely say no but he kept going on and on ,so I finally took it,said thanks and its sat at my house ever since. Talked to a couple of other guys I work with and he had given them bottles too.



I have a bottle of vodka around my house somewhere. It got from an old boss around 1983. It was never opened.wonder if it still good?


Unopened bottles in the house?
Are you sure you're real hvac guys?

Originally Posted by yellowirenut

I am constantly offered food from restaurants

About 10 years ago, we did 2 rooftop changeouts at a local McD's.
Middle of July, hottest days of the year.
They made us pay for cold drinks.

TIPS on the job?? Never had much luck there, maybe I'm not as good a tech as I thought.

I do have one story though that goes to show just how CHEAP owners are:

We have had this particular client for about 4 years now. It's a manufacturing plant. They have a MAU that we have been servicing. Well, one day we get a call that the MAU is down and we need to come fix it. Ok, two of us go out and lo and behold, the customer HAD MOVED THE MAU from the original location to a new spot about 30 feet away. I mean they moved the dang thing!!!! They were blaming us for breaking it and told us they expected it to be fixed under warranty. The kicker is that the MAU was made of 2 modules you can bolt together (pretty big) and you have to unbolt the sections to move it. So it was pretty obvious that someone didn't put it back together right.

But wanting us to fix it because it was under our service contract, but you take it apart, move it, and try to put it back together?

I am constantly offered food from restaurants, most the times after seeing the kitchen i decline. We did a full remodel at a place..new RTU new hood and MAU, everything. I was there programing the t-stats talking with my boss/owner when the restaurant owner walks up and says i think we can make a deal. He wanted to pay for the labor portion in COUPONS...he was trying to start up a collaboration of business that only barter to each other. He actually wanted to pay in meal tickets. We ended up putting a lean on the place because he would not pay his bill,his argument was he tried and we refused...tried in coupons.

I was given 2 small dirt bikes while working in a restaurant about 10 years ago. He just asked me if I would remove about 6 lights for him.

This thread is making me want to break a seal on a bottle that has been sitting for about a year

Originally Posted by coolperfect

I have a bottle of vodka around my house somewhere. It got from an old boss around 1983. It was never opened.wonder if it still good?

Do you still have my address?

Originally Posted by madhat

Got a call on Christmas Day, no heat. Get out there and it's the Pool Cabana. They put the dog out there due to a Guest, and he pulled the T-stat down. I put it back together, mounted and calibrated it. The gave me a Bottle of Wine that I put on shelf, some time later, a relative offered me $10, then $25 then $40. Decided to check on it, sold it to someone in N.J. for $800. They came and got it, and handed me the envelope with money, looked at quickly, when I counted it later it was $1000.

I guy I work with came here from China back in the 70's and his daughter works in China now. I forget how she got it,but she has a bed that she needed repaired. Its made of a very heavy wood and is ornately carved. She had someone come to repair it one day and he offered her the equivilent of a couple of hundred dollars for it. She declined and a while later the guy comes back and offers her even more for it. By now she's suspicious and does some research. Its a couple of hundred years old and made from some type of wood that has been illegal to harvest over there for a while.I dont remember exactly how much its worth,but its very valuable.

Originally Posted by qwerty hvac

I think getting tips is great. Even when you try not to except them people will force them on you. Then there are others who think they shouldn't even pay you what you are charging them even though they called you at three in morning!

I remember getting called at like 2:30 am.First floor apt had water coming through the ceiling. Woman above was washing clothes and machiene malfunctioned. So I wet vac all the water in both apts, and go back upstairs to tell the woman not to use the washer until she gets it fixed and she says "Am I gonna get charged for this?" So I say yeah ,and I could tell she was genuinely shocked. "WHAT?!? WHY???" Gee I dunno,flood two apts in the middle of the night maybe?

Got a call on Christmas Day, no heat. Get out there and it's the Pool Cabana. They put the dog out there due to a Guest, and he pulled the T-stat down. I put it back together, mounted and calibrated it. The gave me a Bottle of Wine that I put on shelf, some time later, a relative offered me $10, then $25 then $40. Decided to check on it, sold it to someone in N.J. for $800. They came and got it, and handed me the envelope with money, looked at quickly, when I counted it later it was $1000.

I think getting tips is great. Even when you try not to except them people will force them on you. Then there are others who think they shouldn't even pay you what you are charging them even though they called you at three in morning!