Mall work.....

[BobbyBJr]

Hello everyone,
How many times have we wondered while on top of a mall who services the units close to the roof hatch?? I know I have because it seems the ones I get calls on are always on the other side of the roof away from the hatch and not labeled either. Well today, I pull up at a mall two cities away and after going in to the store I notice there is a roof hatch less than 10 feet from their back door and it is unlocked. I call the mall office to tell them that I am going to go on the roof and the lady tells me I have to come over and sign in before I can access the roof. So I get back in the truck, drive around the mall to sign in and get a visitor's pass. I turn to leave and she asks me where I am going and I tell her to my truck to drive back around to get on the roof. She says I have to come this way and I follow her through her office to another roof hatch. I explain to her that there is a roof hatch about 10 feet from the back door of the store I am servicing and she tells me that I can't use that one. I have to either go on the roof here or turn in my pass and leave. Well, I did go on the roof there and walk about 1/4 mile to unstop a drain trap on a package unit. I was tempted to turn the disconnects off to some of them 100 or so units I walked past on the way back, but I didn't. But have you ever heard such nonsense? The other roof hatch came up right beside the unit after I got over there.....

Bobby

[beenthere]

It bites, but they're just doing their jobs.

Secure roof access, so they don't get sued if some one plants a bomb on the roof. .

[double bubble]

They're nazi's I hate when they insist on taking your drivers licience .

[BobbyBJr]

Originally posted by beenthere
It bites, but they're just doing their jobs.

Secure roof access, so they don't get sued if some one plants a bomb on the roof. .

Secure roof access, huh? Note that I said the roof access next to the unit was unlocked.

Our local mall demands our driver's license. I asked the lady one day what happens if public safety, who patrols the parking lot, pulls me over driving back around to the roof access? It was useless though, just got a blank stare.

Bobby

[ozone drone]

Five hundred units and if they are labelled ,it has the name of what the store was three years ago and has changed tennents 12 times since then. How many times have you found fuses missing, taken by techs too lazy to hump the three miles out to their truck to get new ones, so they take them from other store's units. Mall work sucks.

[chiller mekanik]

Don't get mad, get their money.

[BobbyBJr]

Originally posted by chiller mekanik
Don't get mad, get their money.

Oh yeah, we are on the same page here. I did note on the invoice I had to hike 1/4 mile to their unit that had a roof hatch beside it and added an appropriate flate rate code for it. Let them hash it out with the mall management.

Bobby

[amickracing]

I got in some major trouble at the mall before. We were changing out a RTU above the radio shack. Well after 2 trips (out of probably 20) to get all of the materials up there I drove around back. Ended up roping a bunch up, and set up the extention ladder as a temporary thing to make my life easier. Mind you this was around 7 in the morning. Man you'd swore than the Taliban were going to get up there and ruin our city.

I ended up using the roof hatch after that butt chewing. But every time we needed up there we had to call mall security to authorize us up there. They got 2 invoices. One was for the work, and the other was the amount of time we stood there waiting for them. I guess they cried about it but paid, and my boss loved that idea.

I've also heard of guys taking thier own paddlelocks and putting through the hole so no one can lock them up on the roof.

[gruvn]

Should of went down the other one and had a three hour lunch, then came back up that one and down the one she showed ya, and billed her for it.

[Shophound]

I remember this one mall in the San Diego area (think it was Plaza Bonita)...someone must've been thinking when they built this mall. It had a chilled water system and water meters to every air handler in each suite. Tenants were billed for amount of chilled water used each month. No need to go on roof, air handlers were located at back of each suite, mostly accessible over restrooms.

In contrast I remember a mall in El Cajon where an indoor blower motor let its smoke out and had brought the fire department running. By the time I got there the excitement was over, but I had to hoof it across a long, hot roof from the scuttle to get to the unit...the one the smelled the strongest of fried motor is how I found it, since it wasn't marked with any kind of suite no. or store I.D.

That and park way to hell and gone...no special privileges for the guys who arrive to turn the tenants back into civilized human beings.

[drivewizard]

Don't usually do Malls but couple years ago got a no cooling call at a shoe store. 45 min drive to mall, got to mall office found out we needed insurance proof before we could walk on their POS roof. By the time I got that faxed down to them and made it to the roof it was another 1.5 hours. Then the security guard who escorted me didn't have a clue which unit served what. I found the general location, did the hand wave over the cond fan till I found one blowing ambient air. Then found a iced coil and the dirtiest air filter I have ever seen. Got a filter at home depot and coil defrosted, I think I had about 4.5 hours into a filter change. I wish I could have seen the customers face when they got the bill for a $500 filter change.

[roc service]

Back in the late 1970's I worked for a company in NYC that was owned by a big ill tempered Italian guy named Johnny and we installed a new Carrier 5 ton split system for a women's dress store in a Mall. They went out of business in a month and Johnny didn't get paid. He told me and another guy to go out to Long Island and get the unit off the roof. He said if anybody asks you what you're doing "Tell them to go F*#K themselves. We went, they asked and we told them you know what. The Mall manager called the Police and they arrested us as we were lowering the unit down the extension ladder. It's the first time anybody ever got arrested for Grand Theft ACCU.

Johnny straightened everything out with the police and the Mall manager but we had to re-install the unit. Johnny told us to turn off all the a/c units disconnect switches on the roof before we left the roof. The guy I was with did that and he also stole the fan belts off of all the cooling towers. The moral of this story is "Don't F*#k with Johnny."

[otto]

Mall work does suck. If these tenants had a clue why their service is so expensive then they might pressure the management for easier service access and to have the units marked with space number, not the current trendy store name. Hell, they might even get hose bibs.....naw, that's just asking too much.