just shoot me

[gsxrsquid]

got a True "Warranty" call from a chinese buffet that recently opened. one door reach in cooler. (r-22) Having had a rash of True refrigerant leak warranty calls I plopped down and pulled the grill to see if there is gas in it. Discharge line plenty hot, condenser moving heat. hmmmmm.
I noticed a shipping bracket screwed to the bottom of the door was still in place. It had a bright orange sticker and in 7 languages (none chinese) says to remove plate. I didn;t know it it would cause a problem but I went ahead and removed it anbyway. I stand up to check evap fan. the fan was spinnng nicely but not moving much air. The top shelf on one side was stack to the very top with 1 pound blocks of butter. holy cow did true build it that way so you could literally stack butter on the top shelf till the butter touched the top of the cabinet? The must have run out of butter because the other side had bags of shredded carrots wedged in to block the other side of the evap. they had litterally packed the stuff in so tight there was no air flow. no ice on the evap cause no air movement.

I moved everything so give it a full 8" all the way across the top and immediately cold air comes pouring out. in about 10 minutes the box temp drops to 31 and shuts off on t-stat. back on at 35. Air coming off the evap is 10 degrees. I call the shop to tell them it isn;t going to be a warranty call cause it is user error. They tell me to collect COD. ohhhhhhh crap. I have spent an hour checking the box and trying to explain to non english speakng cook about a load line. now I have to collect. I go out and do paperwork and do a total time of one and half hours. Then it starts. "no money, warranty" So I explain it isn't warranty if it is thier fault. then she drags me to the box and has me show the cook again. This time she translates. I think......
She tells me to follow her to the register. then she looks at the bill. 1 1/2 hours plus 15$ trip charge. You would have thought I had stolen her first born. too much, why so much. why trip charge. very expensive.
i grit my teeth and explain it to her over and over. she goes and screams at the cook in chinese and he screams back at her in chinese. I am looking at the buffet and thinking to myself the food looks really good and there is no way I am ever eating there.
Finally she goes to the register and counts out $137.50 like it was coming from her veins. when I walked back into the van I had spent an hour on the box and half an hour with them trying to collect. and I am getting looks like i should drop deat. oh yeah it was ME that packed food in front of the evap. If she hadn't been such a b!tch about the whole thing I would have told her that her cook had turned the stat to max and now that the box was cooling normally the food would probably freeze over night. nahhhhhhh it's not a warranty problem.

[HeyBob]

That's the #1 reason I quit doing refrigeration 20 years ago. Restuarant owners suck!

[alpha480v]

Chinese restaurants are the worst. Idian/Pakistani motel owners are a close second!

[Stucker]

I have worked for 4 different Chinese restaurants in town. And I have never had an easy time collecting money. All four wanted to talk you down on your price after the work was done. Then they cant understand you, and act like your putting them out of business by taking their money.

[davo]

We make it known that we are going to collect on all warranty work we did not install. We will provide proper documentation on the repair, and the owners can collect from True, Delfield, or any others.

[the mojo]

Here is what you do. You plant your behind right at the register. You're still on the clock till the paper work is finished. Stand your ground with invoice in your left hand and a calculator in your right. For every 15 minutes of delay up goes the bill. You can bet your boots it works.

[gsxrsquid]

The owners told me that the only reason they even sent me was it was a true warranty job. And why they made me collect on the spot. They said otherwise they won't do chinese restaurants. suits me!

We do the local Sonnys Bar B Q and they are great. We do PM on their stuff and if they have a problem they just call use and they are nice people to work with.

the worst part is places that want you to keep junk equipment working. 25 year old equipment that is just worn out and costs more to keep running than to replace or condensers so loaded with grease that the only way to clean then is to use a degreaser and garden hose.