Dumbest callback you have been on

[Swiss78]

What is the dumbest callback that you have been on to cover yours or someone elses a$$? I am sure someone has covered me before, but I know I have never done something this bad.

While working in Las Vegas we serviced a gym. A guy went out on a service call there and called me and said hey this unit is iced up and there is no reason for it. I told him to deice it and check it thoroughly, if he had questions to give me a call back. Didn't hear back figured it was fixed. Spoke to him in the morning and he said well it was low on freon, but I couldn't find a leak (r-22 using an H10pm). So we need to go back right, no was his response. I didn't know but that same day they called back and they sent him back out.
2 days later I go out and the unit is iced up and the compressor is cycling like crazy. I put my guages on the unit and the head pressure was running 550 psi, and the suction was in a vacuum. I checked the drier and it had a 60* difference across it. So I get all my stuff on the roof. The unit held 22 pounds of R-22, I removed 42 lbs. When all said and done he could have repaired this unit in under 3 hrs, took me all day as I only had one recovery bottle.

One more, went to help a guy install a unit he had sold. Talking to the home owner and discovered that his thermostats kept going bad and the tech had told him that there was a short somewhere that was backfeeding high voltage to his thermostat, causing it to burn the circuit board in the t-stat. So I investigated a little and found that he needed a common wire. I hooked the common to the stat and at the unit and asked the homeowner if he really wanted a new unit as it was not necessary. He opted out of it, I went to the parts house picked up an add a wire and installed it. Got a $500 gift card from the owner of the company and a customer that only I was aloud to go back to until the day I left.
I believe honesty and thorough checking of equipment makes for many happy customers.

[Kevin Weaver]

The classics, disconnect off, ssu off, rooftop blower door off, but the dumbest was the furnace doors of a residential furnace in the garage, after a cooling tune-up, switched and had a poor cooling situation. DUMB DUMB can't cool all of Indiana!!

[Allen8808]

Door not on right, gas off, left capacitor off and ruined compressor. 1 person in my old company did that at least 8 times. High temp limit not plugged in.

[jvillehvac]

Coworker goes to a gym for poor cooling call, said all checks out. Previous contractor says same thing to them before. Call next day and said it still doesn't cool good. Original contractor never wired up 2nd stage cooling. This thing is a few years old too. Point being just slow down and think it thru logically, its not cooling good for a reason.

[Redwood650]

Tstat running a program when customer doesnt want program on. Happens all to often around here.

[John Markl]

Went on a call to a duplex. Compressor shorted to ground. Left lid on loose and got owners OK to replace the outside unit.

Sent install crew to replace. (This was in January, and the owner had just bought the place).

April comes, owner calls and says that same duplex unit is tripping the breaker when they turn the AC on.

You guessed it. The (since fired) moron installer replaced the wrong condensing unit.....even after I had left the lid loose and crooked on the bad one right next to it....

[comfort comando]

Well all call backs are pretty dumb one I had a couple a months ago stands out. This was a up flow gas furnace in a basement. It was serviced by another company 3 days earlier. They could not get the blower door on right so they used a 5gal. paint bucket to prop the door. The customer went no heat when he moved the bucket. The customer called other company to come back but they would not, They did not want to work over time that day and are booked up. They called us at 3pm. I got there at 5pm. Was done by 5:15. bunch of lazy boobs.

[BaldLoonie]

Installer replaced a 90 Friday. Never installed the hose from inducer outlet to collector box so water in PVC got in inducer shutting down furnace. Took on-call 2 hours to figure out. I took the hose off my furnace (I have dual fuel) and took over and put on. Didn't take my glasses. On-call goes back this morning and says it would have been nice to take the cap off the c-box before hooking my hose up so there'd be some place for the water to go. Oooops.

[hvaclover]

~chortle-snicker~

OOHH NNOOOO ....not U too Baldy

[coilcleaner]

Went on a call to a duplex. Compressor shorted to ground. Left lid on loose and got owners OK to replace the outside unit.

Sent install crew to replace. (This was in January, and the owner had just bought the place).

April comes, owner calls and says that same duplex unit is tripping the breaker when they turn the AC on.

You guessed it. The (since fired) moron installer replaced the wrong condensing unit.....even after I had left the lid loose and crooked on the bad one right next to it....

That's crazy, did you hire this moron or did someone else. Did you make absolutly sure you communicated properly with said employee. Sometimes one must look into the mirror to find the awnsers.

[tstcstu]

this was OT call not a callback old lady said her compressor was stolen it was a Rheem I showed her where it was she then instisted It had been moved.

[fabiana/c19]

i left the rubber plug on a rescue motor burnt out in about a week darn

[xxcels]

After we did a new install 80%..customer call back the next day saying there is no heat. I went out to check it out. He pointed me to the return grill and said "its cold here"

[BigBacardi]

just posted this somewheres else....

3 times in last year i have come across systems that where piped for 2lb gas and had lo pressure meters in stalled

they were all about 15 yr old installs.

thing that really sux is that in one case we were out there last year for a furnace tune up and everything "checked" out ok....really???? i was called in for a tune up and i could not get my temp rise due to lack of gas pressure had 2.5 in wc...so i did the normal thing which was to turn up gas pressure....oops the last guy maxed out the valve....didnt even think to wonder why at max it still only had 2.5 wc....lol

problem was telling the h o after about why he had to pay gas company to change out meter. hge went nuts....the last thing i was trying to do was throw my co worker under bus.....but i couldnt just pretend that my numbers were ok....we did fix problem and that is all that matters, but i dont think we made any money tho....

[Gerber]

A couple of guys that used to work for our company installed a new compressor in a commercial application. It wasn't used for at least a year, then when occupants turned it on it didn't work. I guess they never did a start up when they installed it because somehow they left one or both plugs in the compressor ?!?! I didn't see what it looked like, but how does that happen?

[Kelly T]

Got a call late one evening on my way home, a tech had been out all day to replace a 3 phase compressor and couldn't get it to run,(i thought he probably has it wired backwards okay i will go out and help) I get there and he explains it wont run at all and it sounded locked up. I looked at the unit and then the new compressor and explained to him that a 460v 3ph compressor will not work in a 230v 3ph system.
I explained to the customer that we had a bum compressor and would change it first thing in the morning and that made them happy.

Oh BTW was a scroll compressor

[skippedover]

More years ago than I'd like to admit, was sent on my first call of the day to a home for a 'water leaking from the boiler, bulkhead is open'. I went in the bulkhead, observed the old diaphragm relief valve leaking and boiler pressure at 30 psig, 180°F, not calling for heat. Drained the expansion tank, reset boiler pressure and left. Right around quitting time I get another call, same house, "No heat". I go in the bulkhead, boiler is 100°F, all switches 'on'. Check for power at thermal switch, no power. Go up the basement stairs and the woman/owner meets me at the basement door. I see the emergency switch is turned off and ask her, "did you know this emergency switch was off?", to which she answers, "Yes". She had no answer as to why she didn't just turn it on, as she had turned it off when she discovered the relief valve leaking. Wasted callback, customer induced. I had no reason to even guess the ES would be turned off. Some people...

[trouble time]

Many many moons ago, running service, our company installed Keeprite A/C systems. Our installation crews were payed by the unit. They would do up to 3 units a day. Received a call 8 hours after our crew left the customers house saying "no cooling"
When I arrived at the house, the unit was running I hooked up my gauges and the suction pressure was in a vacuum discharge very high can't remember exact numbers now. My first thought was a restriction. I reached to check the temp of the liquid line and it came off. The line-set was not screwed on. I tightened the fittings and the unit worked fine.....go figure.

[Glennhvac]

How's this for scary? Years ago before I went out on my own I worked at a firm with about 12 trucks. Went on a callback for noise.

One of the guys was out the day before on a C&C and inserted one of the burners in UPSIDE DOWN!