Stupidest Service Call you've run!!!

[a4372302]

my heat pump up stairs doesnt heat as good as my furnace down stairs???? cracks me up every time.

[BMH_SE]

Got a call to a building with multiple mechanical rooms and call was for missing tstat. Long story short tstat was mounted on the air handler itself in this location and the other tstats where mounted on the walls in front of the other air handlers.

[jledford382]

Customer calls today and says "my em. heat is running constantly. When can you get here? My light bill is gonna be outrageous." (this is a restaurant) I told to give me 30 min. I get there and he has one of the stats that shows a flame on a call for heat. He points to the flame and says see there, it's in em. heat. I explain to him and leave.

[kenny3412]

ive got it,customer calls there brand new digital programmable thermostat honeywell4000 stat is changing program settings on its own in early morning.ok i replace stat.calls back again says he reserched stat online and finds out that when you set temp to b 70 at 8am furnace will come on earlier to bring temp to 70 at 8. he wanted heat to come on at 8 says stat too smart for him lol. has me put his old stat back up. some people kill me

[Homeowner314]

When mid eff. First came out one call I used to get a lot of was the vendor motor not coming on , it was usually a bird stuck in the wheel.(until code changes required us to install liners).

Found a pair (one male, one female) of mallards in my parents' wood boiler firebox a couple of years ago. That explained the rotten outdoor smell that spring/early summer. Never smelled anything in the basement.

[cboe]

I us to work for Lennox and had to drive about 250 miles to adjust the heat intesipator for one of oue so called dealer.

[ComfortablyNumb]

ive got it,customer calls there brand new digital programmable thermostat honeywell4000 stat is changing program settings on its own in early morning.ok i replace stat.calls back again says he reserched stat online and finds out that when you set temp to b 70 at 8am furnace will come on earlier to bring temp to 70 at 8. he wanted heat to come on at 8 says stat too smart for him lol. has me put his old stat back up. some people kill me

You can disable the Adaptive Intelligence Recovery feature on Honeywell programmable thermostats.

Just sayin'.

[AtticAce]

Wait a minute how was the breaker tested ok, if the power was off?

Hi all,

I was wondering what is the stupidest service call you've ever ran?

Let me start with mine today.

Customer call for no heat.
When arrived, furnace has no power,
checked outlet, no 120v.
Checked breaker, breaker is good.
After running around for 40 mins and multiple phone calls to different tech I ask the customer if I can use the phone cause mine was out of battery. Customer said, the phone doesn't work because her utility was shut off for non payment. DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She paid her bill, but it wouldn't go through for another two days. Advise customer that the furnace should work once she has utility on. I felt so sorry for her that I didn't even charge for the service call.

That said, my dumbest call ever was an old lady who called because she had run out of oil and after the tank was filled the heater still would not light.
I figured the oil line needed to be bled of air, but when I arrived I found the woman had a gas boiler! Yes, the gas was shut off for non payment.
I asked her about the oil tank being empty in the first place and sure enough she produced a paid receipt for 250 gallons or oil. Duh! She had converted to NG last year, her oil tank was still hooked up in the basement and was now full!

The good part about this call was the gas company would not turn the gas back on until she had the oil tank removed. Guess who got 250 gallons of free oil which they used to heat their shop and office building? Not to mention I got paid to take out the tank, and restart the gas boiler.

The old lady later said she didn't remember having the gas boiler installed. She produced a hand written receipt for $2450 for the installation of a new cast iron burner, the receipt had everything but a company name and contact info. Pretty good price for a 120k btu gas boiler install.

[Snapperhead]

Went to a no heat call . Found out of oil.

I went and got the lady 15 gallons of oil to hold her over until the oil truck came.

Ok lady I added 15 gallons of oil which will only give you heat for a day or two , but you need to call the oil company and order oil

5 days later , no heat call.

I says , "before i go out there, ask her if she ordered oil "

Lady says no she didnt have time to order oil yet

Really ????

[fitzyfitta]

I'm sure this has been already mentioned but, I hated going out on a nite call for the burner swith shut off at the top of the stairwell

[ORV]

Christmas eve just a couple days ago. Older lady been running fireplace for about 2 weeks and noticed rooms getting cold. Found furnace had no line voltage, checked breaker, opened furnace switch box. Electrician flipped the switch 180 degrees 2 weeks ago when he installed an outlet.

Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk 2

[hurtinhvac]

Today. Humidifier leaking water. Took the tray off, noted the condition of panel and said "been awhile since it's been changed, huh?"

Blank stare. It was an old General Aire 1040...been hanging on that return for twenty years. Scrape out the rusted old, in with the shiny new.

But really...even though we didn't do regular PMs there...you'd think one of the guys would have said something or asked over the years. They swear nobody said a word about changing the water panel in over twenty years...

So they didn't.

[SSB]

Here is the "weirdest" call I've been on [weird stupid]. Central a.c. not cooling very well. It was a tenant that finally got LL to pay for a service call. I found a slight bit of ice on evaporator coil. Filter, blower, and coil were all clean. Outdoor ambient temperature was in the 80s. I was getting a decent enough indoor temperature drop [17 or so]. This was nearly 20 years ago...I didn't know cfm checkout, yet. All registers were open and unobstructed. It was belt-drive blower running at full amps, belt and bearings okay....hmmmmm. I checked refrigerant charge to find it slightly low [outdoor dry bulb of 83, indoor wet bulb 70.....I was getting 29 superheat but wanted a 23]. One shot of R22 brought my superheat to what I wanted. I was baffled. I went back to furnace for one last look.....I had already checked blower rotation and found it going in the proper direction.....and besides, it had not been serviced in years and it takes a lot more work reversing rotation on a belt-drive than a reversible direct drive. Wait.....the blower was going in the direction shown on the housing [and it was a direction arrow factory-scribed into the metal].....but it was in the wrong direction! I wish I would have remembered the furnace make.....even though I'm new to this site and don't even know if it is proper to list make.....but it was not a big name. It seems to me that it was one of those makes I had rarely or maybe never seen before.....but it was weird! I got it in right direction.....I got my Sanford marker and corrected rotation scribing.....re-adjusted R22 charge.......and tenant could not believe airflow. She had lived there 5 years and it had never been anything like that.

[hurtinhvac]

Two this week:

Call back on a furnace install this past October. Complaint: Furnace is coming on, running for about 10 minutes and then shutting off for ten minutes - does it about three times an hour, according to their detailed notes. I arrive and find the system humming along and cycling normally. I explain all the variables that effect cycling. I point out their fridge as an an example...how it cycles as well according to heat infiltration levels. I explain heat loss, conduction, convection, the second law of thermodynamics etc. and pronounce the system fit. I also point out that the new system is much more efficient than the old, way oversized natural draft system that was sure to have short cycled badly.

The dispatcher radios me later and apparently they were still asking why it's cycling and what should I tell them. I told her I guess I didn't explain myself adequately...try this: It's freaking cold out there (16 overnight, high of 27).

2.) "No heat, furnace not working." Walk into a 81 degree house (high of about freezing today). Set temp 81, actual temp 81. She states the furnace will not run unless she keeps turning it up - and it only goes up to 85...

[chaard]

Two this week:

Call back on a furnace install this past October. Complaint: Furnace is coming on, running for about 10 minutes and then shutting off for ten minutes - does it about three times an hour, according to their detailed notes. I arrive and find the system humming along and cycling normally. I explain all the variables that effect cycling. I point out their fridge as an an example...how it cycles as well according to heat infiltration levels. I explain heat loss, conduction, convection, the second law of thermodynamics etc. and pronounce the system fit. I also point out that the new system is much more efficient than the old, way oversized natural draft system that was sure to have short cycled badly.

The dispatcher radios me later and apparently they were still asking why it's cycling and what should I tell them. I told her I guess I didn't explain myself adequately...try this: It's freaking cold out there (16 overnight, high of 27).

2.) "No heat, furnace not working." Walk into a 81 degree house (high of about freezing today). Set temp 81, actual temp 81. She states the furnace will not run unless she keeps turning it up - and it only goes 85...

I've been to that house.

Guy trying to heat house to 80 something. 81 inside. Heating house with HP.

[TimTech1]

I had a Propane customer that had Heat but no Hot Water. They had a Boiler with an Indirect tank for hot water. Customer said they would get hot water for a couple days then they would lose it, get hot water back for short time and then lose again. I manually opened the zone valve for the hot water tank loop and it wasnt stuck closed. It opened easily and then spring closed. I looked at the indirect tank and it had a temperature dial on top of it. it was set on Low. I turned up the temp and went upstairs and told lady she would get hot water soon. She asked what problem was. I told her temp dial on tank was set at low. She asked how it could end up set at low. I told her someone must have turned it down. While I was in her kitchen checkin the temp out of the faucet she immediately got on phone. She angrily told someone on phone she knew how her daughter was still seeing her boyfriend she didnt approve of. She said her daughter would stay at her Grandmas house every time they would mysteriously lose hot water in house and thats how they would still see each other. I couldnt help overhear the conversation cuz she was so upset. I showed her where the temp dial was and got out of their......Lol.

[hurtinhvac]

She said her daughter would stay at her Grandmas house every time they would mysteriously lose hot water in house and thats how they would still see each other. I couldnt help overhear the conversation cuz she was so upset. I showed her where the temp dial was and got out of their......Lol.

That's a riot!

I often think that had I known then, when my kids were teens, what I know now...I would have had a much easier time with controlling my infrastructure: Timers and kill switches for various circuits in the house, hydronic hot water valves for their bathroom...

But then we wouldn't have the stories we laugh about today...

[Strkout499]

Two calls stick out in my mind:
1) No heat - arrive, notice no diagnostic light and no 24VAC. Check control fuse, fine. Check line voltage at the plug - nothing. Go to the breaker box to check for a tripped breaker, cannot find one. Ask the homeowner for a sub-panel to look for a tripped breaker, he responds with "Oh my power's been out today. Could that be why my furnace stopped working?" ...yes.
2) Furnace won't stop running - my service manager left his jumper wire in the furnace earlier in the day to check operation after his repair while the customer was at work (furnace was in an outdoor closet). It was 103 in her house when I arrived. I enjoyed telling him about that one. haha

[keef]

Just had this the other day.
Lack of heat in managers office. Get there unit is running, check vents one is open and pumping out heat. Check the second one, vent has no heat coming out of it. It is closed, open it, still no heat. Trace the line back to the trunk. The damper is closed. Manager says o yea we closed that because during the summer it is too cold in the office. :facepalm:

[wuffdog]

Company is contracted to perform PM on 30 hanging heaters in an empty factory bldg. Customer wants systems maintained so when place is sold no issues with heating systems. Good idea. Completed the pm on the heaters all of them functioning properly and safely. Received a call that a portion of them were not working. Had to drive about 1 hour to factory. All units are suspended about 30 feet up. Get there start checking units. Thermostats located on the side of units. All stats set to 55 degrees turned up stats units coming on. After completion individual who called in problem called to check on the condition of equipment. After talking with him he stated that when he tried to turn them on there was no response. I asked if he turned them on at the units, no I used the stats mounted on the support beams, sorry these turn on the exhaust fans and those have been disconnected......Oh so all is working. Duh......