Stupidest Service Call you've run!!!

[openclasspro]

When I lived and worked in south fla.had an apprentice with me.clogged underslab condensate line .had a 90 where it came up out of ground.I tell my helper to watch it snd let me know what comes out,10 lbs,then 20-30-40 lbs of nitrogen I blow through drain from ahu .says nothing,I put 50 in it,clog gets undone ,I hear a loud scream ,he was literally a ft above 90 when it hit him square in the eye,then the decayed water snake splattered all over him,he smelled horrific,never saw such a purple swollen black eye like that before.

[anthonyac1]

Two15 ton splits,units started and running a few weeks,customer not happy many calls.I get a call on standby.Pressures crazy up and down low and high check condensing unit,see no problem.Go to check TXV's,not there liquid lines ran straight into distributers!

maybe it was a cap tube system

[Toadempole hvac]

"Go to such and such address< they have a noise complant < they claim its coming from the duct work upstairs". Well after running around , up and down , turning the furnace on and off, and on and off, over and over, But still hearing the noise myself, I GO INTO THE BATH ROOM AND FIND THAT THE TOILET HAS BEEN RUNNING THE HOLE TIME !!!!!! I then wiggle the handle and reach in and re adjust the plug and made the noise go away!

[xpuser357]

Went on a ice machine not working call. At a old folks home, maintenance person had flaker torn apart (Scotsman.) had water in gear case, auger on table with all the rest of pieces. I was asked what is wrong with it? I did find water reservoir sensor open, bearings were good no water in them. No scalds on side of evaporator.

[btack]

Love when electricians decide to install an interlock. They think if you break the coil voltage to the blower contractor when ever the exhaust fan is turned off is a good idea. 2 service company's later we figure out why is locked out every morning

[jamessnevets]

No heat call from a new customer at night. H/o claims blower won't work, he tried to oil it, but it's stuck fast. Told him I'd be there in about 2 hours b/c I was already on a call and about to finish. He was ok with that. Within the next 20 minutes he called 3 times demanding to know how soon I would arrive, I asked him to be patient, I would call when I was en route. I did call soon after, and his wife said she would tell him I would arrive soon. When I turned onto his street, an ambulance went screaming in the opposite direction I was traveling. I parked at the house and walked up to find a note on the front door:

"Going to ER, (name withheld) got his hand stuck in the fan when it started, we don't need you anymore, sorry for the trouble"

Found out later that the guy stuck his hand in the wheel, with power applied, to try to free it. The fan started, caught his hand, and tore off all digits along with mangling his wrist and forearm, leaving a bloody mess. Our company installed a new furnace by request (and payment from) his insurance company.

[jamessnevets]

No cooling call, I arrive to find a double-bit axe lodged in the side of a condensing unit, no refrigerant left in it. The lady of the house said her husband did it the previous night after they had a fight. She didn't know if the axe was hurting the a/c.

[AirServiceCo]

A Pa.Yank in Cowtown, No Heat, No speak English. LOL I Love my spanish customers, just smile alot to them and get thier Heat on and they love you. Upon arrival at the home on Newark St in the East Ft. Worth section of "PollY" (off Rosedale St) I found 3 families of hard working Mexicans living in a VERY COLD house. Nobody spoke English. I saw that the Closet door was open and the Furnace door was off like someone had tried to fix it. The gas Valve had a deep "dent" in it and the plastic cap was cracked. It looked like someone hit it with a hammer out of frustration. I smiled at the Lady and made a motion with my hammer like I was hitting it to explain to her how i thought the problem happened. "No", She says, and points outside to the front of the house. I took down the numbers, turned off the Gas, and put the furnace door back on. I noticed a perfect "hole" on the furnace door and continued thinking WTHeck? I shut the Closet door and there was another hole. I Looked accross the room to a Curtin by a window. I got close and saw a hole in the Curtin and the Sheet rock. I walked out to the street and found 3 bullet caseings in the street. I turned arround and thier were 10 Mexicans smileing and muttering..."Yes...Yes." Now He got it. The Gas Valve was a victim of a "Drive By". Just like the Lady had told me. I still have the Gas Valve and a caseing on my Desk.

[Chuckg222]

Got a after hours call from a home owner, said his A/C was not cooling.
He had checked it all over and everything was running but not cooling.
He found two things that looked like tire valves and one of them was full of frost, he let it all out but still not cooling. I quoted him overtime rates and said I'll be right out. Replaced clogged filter and recharged unit.

[Artietech]

Best Thread Ever!

Had a call the week of Christmas, 'furnace will not stop, we are going to florida now, come you come out?' Sure, even gave them a lower rate since the house was only down the road from mine, i mean i could have walked there and saved the gas.
Get there and the HO is stressed out, about to go on a trip, can hear the fan, but no heat......
Ask to see the stat.....Heat cool set to off, ......wait for it................................
Fan on ON.
didn't charge him but he insisted so i gave him a further discount for my troubles.......

[BoatMechanicMatt]

I had a houseboat owner who said that his AC unit kept freezing up. He had been down for the weekend and it had been frozen the whole time. He had just left the dock and asked if I could take a look or get someone down to take a look at it.

Knowing this customer, and knowing how often he is incapable of functioning anything else on the boat I wondered if this were operator error or something simple. So I went over to the boat and stepped on the back where the unit was located, sure enough still frozen. I go inside to see what the tstat is set at 50* probably been there all weekend. So I shut the unit off to at least let it defrost.

So then I go to check the air returns. One return has a couch presses against it (owner just bought the boat, new furniture) Slide the couch out and pull the filter out. It looked like it had NEVER been changed, you could see where air was being sucked in around it. So I proceed to check the next return, should be somewhere around the middle of the boat I thought. Walked around trying to figure out where it is at, couldn't find it so I figured I would go to the back to find the third and final vent. Sure enough it is all clogged up as well.

Now back to where is that middle vent, then it dawns on me where it should be at. It is under that huge painting they recently hung. Remove painting from wall, and sure enough there it is.

Call the customer to tell him what I have found and he responds. "Oh yeah we noticed that they got blocked off, is that a problem?"
"Um.....yeah...."

[Isaac3384]

Best Thread Ever!

Had a call the week of Christmas, 'furnace will not stop, we are going to florida now, come you come out?' Sure, even gave them a lower rate since the house was only down the road from mine, i mean i could have walked there and saved the gas.
Get there and the HO is stressed out, about to go on a trip, can hear the fan, but no heat......
Ask to see the stat.....Heat cool set to off, ......wait for it................................
Fan on ON.
didn't charge him but he insisted so i gave him a further discount for my troubles.......

I ran a call similar to this a few months ago...

They shut the unit off over night since it was fairly cool. The next day the house began to warm up, so the Mrs. got up to turn the unit on but turned the fan mode to 'on' instead of the system to 'cool'...no charge...lol

[ColdAirMan]

I worked at an apartment complex when I was getting my feet wet and we had a call that a lady was feeling electricity shoot out her duct work when the AC would run. She was probably in her 70's and when i went over, I turned the system on to check it over and she just went HYSTERICAL..... running around like someone was tasering her. She said she kept seeing flashes of electricity shooting at her from the vents.

I just watched for a minute and left and told the girls at the office that they need to pay attention to her cause "she not right".

[doc havoc]

I may have pics posted in wall of shame for this one. No cooling call last summer. About 90 degrees outside. Get to house and find one of those LP Gas turkey friers sitting in the middle of the kitchen with the gas tank connected to it. It's sitting on some of that reddish colored rosin (?) paper to keep the grease off the floor and the ceiling above is a splattered greasy mess. This is a hmong family that is renting the place and nobody speaks English. Did my best to explain that the AC was running fine, it just couldn't overcome the added 30,000 btuh the frier was adding to the home. Contacted the landlord and explained.

Also ran a "furnace making loud screeching noise" call. Expecting to find a failed bearing. Went downstairs and fired up furnace. Nothing. Go upstairs. Nothing. Talk to elderly homeowner and she says "Can't you hear it? It's plain as day." As I get closer to her, I do hear it. Matter of fact, the screeching was coming from her ear. I said "I think that's your hearing aid ma'am".

[kdean1]

A customer called and said their Lennox air handler beeped every 30 seconds. The air handler is mounted horizontally near the ceiling so I climbed my step ladder trying to think of anything in an air handler that could beep. Once I got up to the level of the unit I could tell the sound was coming from a box on a shelf 3 feet from the unit. In the box was an old smoke alarm with a drained battery. Mystery solved.

[madhat]

Love when electricians decide to install an interlock. They think if you break the coil voltage to the blower contractor when ever the exhaust fan is turned off is a good idea. 2 service company's later we figure out why is locked out every morning

Our Electricians were working with the Exhaust fans, no meters any where in sight. Bypassed the relays, next morning when kitchen crew started the fans via the fan / wash control, two transformers caught fire, fire department called. Then they tried to put the blame on me. Boss didn't buy it when he saw the Full color wiring diagram beside the starters, that I made. Safety told me last week starters are illegal, as there is no power lamp, only a run lamp. Told her sorry, not my problem, talk to the electricians, and BTW its been that way for over a year.

[markvilleman]

I got couples of calls last year, and all the calls came form one big rental complex. tenants complaint "no heat".got there N checked. All electrical switches for the furnaces were off. Turned them on,done.

[Rob_in_WV]

I got two calls about a month or two apart same home, same problem.

No heat call on a fairly new American Standard 90% furnace, I get there, pressure switch not closing, so I hook up the manometer and vent is blocked. I cut it and looked down it and find her kids(assumed) dumped lava rock into it. I remove the obstruction and test it out all is well. Called a few weeks later, go back same song and dance, but this time they got trickier, MUD! I poke and prod and run water through the drain into a bucket at the other end of the vent and all is well.

[Turbull40]

I get one or two a year customer has no heat or cooling just bought a new tstat from a box store. Pop goes the fuse they always hook the blue wire to the B terminal. Our buy a h/c stat for a h/p system.

[beshvac]

I get one or two a year customer has no heat or cooling just bought a new tstat from a box store. Pop goes the fuse they always hook the blue wire to the B terminal. Our buy a h/c stat for a h/p system.

Just got back a couple of hours ago on this same call! A couple of new fuses, the old stats are now back up and the new ones are being returned to lowes.