Stupidest Service Call you've run!!!

[hurtinhvac]

I've had a few no cool calls that were the furnace door not put on right.
My husband changed the filter yesterday.

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Had one one of these over the summer who turned right around and blamed the cat. It was a Main Coon...huge freaking feline.

But, nah...

[workingguy]

Midnight insufficent heat call,warm air furnace. I get there the guy is wrapped in blankets. Temp is 85.tstat set at 85. He swears its not right, please change tstat. So i change it, as i'm leaving, he's sitting there no blankets and 2 fans blowing on him. I said youd be warmer without the fans blowing on you. Hed replied that it was too hot now that the tstat was working right

[Frostmonkey74]

Today I went to finish off a call started by another tech.. Original call was furnace fires but quickly goes out.. Tech diagnosed faulty secondary reg... I arrive at the house with new reg in hand, in a bit of a hurry so proceed with changing reg.. Test fire furnace..... The burner lights off but quickly goes out again. Hmmm walk out side to check gas pressure at the meter.. WTF the main gas valve is shut off..... Apparently the gas utility had changed the meter set at this customers house a month ago!

[jasonhermonat]

got a no heat call on a snowing sat. nite.She says the maint. man for the MH Park replaced the cond fan motor on her pump & he's not answering.Had no voltage at unit. Breaker was popped.Checked unit , new motor & cap. were good.It had a dual cap, but he only installed the fan cap. and just disconnected the the spare wires. I installed comp. cap. & all is good Only made her pay for cap, billed the rest to the head of the park

[JUSTADDSOMEMORE]

I had a OT call come in one night around 10pm. Customer complaint was they hear a beep coming from the Tstat. I informed her that it seemed unlikely to be coming from the hvac equipment but she was still worried her house might blow up any second. I told her the rates and she started to complain that the system was only about 7 years old and shouldn't have to pay for the service call. She eventually agreed and when I showed up and walked in the door I heard the beep. I looked up and it was a smoke detector with low batteries. I would have just change them out and left but after the way she acted on the phone I proceeded with the bill and she paid a pretty penny for a 9volt battery. I WON AND SHE LOST!!!

[ckartson]

Emergency call at an apartment building. One unit no heat. I was never there before. Get there after an hour torturous drive in snow storm. Walked into lobby area and I could see what looked like the boiler room. Found a neat clean well lit boiler room with boiler firing and zone valves manifolded and well marked per each apt number. The valve for the apartment was in the closed position, manually opened it, then went to the apartment. The tenant opened the door let me in told me how they didn't have heat because the oven broke and could I please fix the oven. I explained that I am here to fix the heat and there may be a problem with the zone valve but I manually opened it so can you show me where the thermostat is? She said I don't have one, but I can see it on the wall in the dining room, walk over to it find it off. Turn it on set it and check valve all is ok. I asked how have you been heating this apt all these months and she said,"With the oven, your supposed to fix the oven". Good night Irene!

[calubeda]

I had a noise call about a month ago. Our company had just replace the filters. no real noise just regular noise from the system. I spent 20 minutes trying to convince her that there was nothing wrong. I wrote up a ticket and left after talking to my boss on the radio.

[infinitend]

Last time I was on call I get woken up by the service informing me that one of our store's Walk-in freezers are down. Call the store, temping at 30*. Have her walk inside the box, fans are not running. I drive 2 hours, arrive, find the breaker is off, not tripped. I asked her if anyone had been in the electrical panel. Her reply, "OMG, we turn it off when we are stocking because it's sooo cold in there, we must have forgotten to turn it back on!!!".......I can't complain too much. 4 hours double time for a scenic drive and the flip of a switch.

[Deltashmelta]

Probably not the first in this big thread. Get called out to a no heat and the gas company is there. They red tagged a standing pilot furnace and the gas worker says "there's a flame in there" I honestly didn't know how to respond. Then they said "it's putting out CO and proceeded to stick the probe right in the exhaust vent. Like no sheet you found exhaust fumes in the exhaust.

[philjafo]

I drove two hours out at 7:30 pm because they are closing on the house in the morning and the new homeowner expects the ac to be running. The seller hasn't ran the ac in three years because they go to their other home for the summer. So two hour drive to charge them to turn on the circuit breaker. I get ten minutes from home, and the phone rings "I need you to come back, there's water all over the floor." Drive all the way back out there expecting it to be a plugged drain, nope the pan is melted and the seller says "oh yeah, that was why we turned off three years ago. What do you mean you have to order that part, the lady on the phone said you have a warehouse on wheels."

[Deltashmelta]

Just go to the wal-mart and buy all the toothbrushes you can. Melt those down and form it around the coil and drain tube. This helpful tip was brought to you by San Quentin Heating and Cooling.

[pierre1811]

A couple of winters ago we had a blizzard with about 18" of drifting snow. Needless to say we were busy. I get a call from a guy with a 90% and at this point i'm so busy i'm doing some screening before going. Most houses here have the vent pipes going out the side of the house about a foot or so above the ground so I asked the guy if he's checked to see if it was buried in snow. He says "yes I want you to come and dig it out!"...he's still waiting.

[hurtinhvac]

The wife called hubby after I told her the shelves/backwall have to come out. His indignant reply: "I didn't expect a new furnace would need service after only three years..."

[mason]

The wife called hubby after I told her the shelves/backwall have to come out. His indignant reply: "I didn't expect a new furnace would need service after only three years..."

Haha, shelf fail!

[Artietech]

The wife called hubby after I told her the shelves/backwall have to come out. His indignant reply: "I didn't expect a new furnace would need service after only three years..."

Wheres the flue?!?!?!?!?

[SCtech33]

went on one a few minutes ago and turns out startup tech didn't turn the dang gas valve switch on...atleast it was an easy one

[captaincompressor]

Replaced a heat exchanger for a customer in a goodman upflow. He had every vent in the house closed!

Explained to him all the vents need to be open. His ductwork was slightly undersized.

Ducts were leaking around the upper plenum drive locks. I got out a roll of silver foil tape. He saw the tape and wanted to buy two rolls from me.

I told him he could get the tape at a builder supply house.

He insisted I sell him tape. I sold him two rolls for 40.00

He started piling the foil tape on the duct joints in multiple layers lmao. Like a ton of tape all crinked up. Lol

[hurtinhvac]

Wheres the flue?!?!?!?!?

I assume it's single wall and less than six inches from the back shelving wall. For that matter, where's the gas valve and disconnect? I don't know if we ever went back to it...

[dillon2]

Went to a not heat a few years ago. furnace out on limit. Found a new filter installed complete with plastic wrap. I decided it was a bone headed mistake and proceded to remove plastic. Customer has a cow and says (and I quote) now it's going to get dirty!!!.

[RafterRat]

Any time your customer has to tell you "I'm an engineer and....'fill in the blank'" you know your on a collision course with wackiness. They have a uncanny ability to loose their tempers rapidly when things don't work the way they "know" they are suppose to work.

My favorite thing to do is to stand there with a big smile on my face as they try to epically fail at explaining how things should work as if they were the ones who invented the theory of thermo dynamics or something. Fix the problem then add special "D-bag" charges to the final bill for being such a pompous jerk to you. My favorite.

My favorite calls are when the homeowner "Mr. Engineer" has already tried, tried and tried again to fix the air conditioning problem himself. And after many failed attempts and good part replacements, which also took hours and hours of research just to find a parts house that would sell to him and it's on the opposite side of town, he finally has to admit defeat and call you. Then you show up and based on the symptoms, go straight to the problem and have it fixed in less than five minutes. The look on their face is priceless. Not to mention it's a nice little boost to the ego, and makes one appreciate all the time and effort put into learning their craft.