tips on the job

[slowandsteady]

well today i went back to change a stat which was defective, under warrenty, i was leaving and she handed me 10 bucks and says, thank you for comimg out, its nice getting the same guy, i said thank you very much and left, i did not want to say im the only guy they have, this happens once in awhile, wish it would happen more

[dblrye]

When I worked for somebody else I had a residential no heat call. The furnace wasn't running at all so I checked for power and found none. It turned out the guy had people in painting his basement and turned off the furnace switch when they left thinking it was a light switch. He was really embarrased when I told him. He gave me twenty bucks as I was leaving saying he was sorry I had to come out for something like that.
I still handed in my paperwork so he was charged for a service call.
I wonder if he thought the twenty bucks was all he was going to be out.

[hvacker]

The oddest tip I've got was at a funeral home. The mortician asked me if I would help move a body from a table into the coffin. I said sure and after he gave me a five.

[beachtech]

i have been given tools, bottles of wine, beer, clothing, phone numbers to neighbors that want our company to do thier work too, cookies, money, one guy even wrote me a check for 5 bucks for a tip. i still have that check in my wallet from like 2 years ago lmao

oddest tip i ever got was at a church the preacher said he needed to pray for me lmao i asked him how strong his prayer is

is offensive to many people if you don't accept thier tip, so i just go along with it

[jimmy k]

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.

A couple of years later,I was sent to his place and he was like a new man. Instead of having multiple doctors each prescribing multiple meds,he now had one doc. who cut him down to just a few and his mind was now clear as a bell.So he's complaining about this and that and says,"..and people are coming in here and stealing all my liquor.I had a full shelf and now there's practacally nothing left." I didnt want to say anything figuring there was a chance that he may of thought I stole it and was now trying to avoid blame.

I'm always a bit leary of taking money from someone especially the elderly.Its too easy for someone to make it look like you're taking advantage of them even though you're just accepting what they offered.

[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?

[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!

[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.

[jimmy k]

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?

[jimmy k]

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.

[hvacker]

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?

[absoair]

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

[yellowirenut]

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.

[airmanone]

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?

[tinmandad]

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.

[dblrye]

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?

[rojacman]

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

[rojacman]

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

[bja105]

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.

[KC13]

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.