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Tom Holland

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Guy calls me up. "My damn tractor won't crank Tom!!"
...."OK, I'll be there in about an hour" It's a good drive. I get there and the idiot can't crank it because he forgot to turn on the gas....... Then he's got the nerve to get mad at me cause I wrote him a bill for driving an hour to come out and turn his gas on!!!! Just a rant
 
If it was me I would be embarrased and glad to pay the bill hoping you wouldn't tell anyone I knew how dumb I am lol.pd.
 
One of my co-workers repaired TV sets and he would tell that some of the sets were unplugged. He would then charge a small fee of $5.00 and a lot of them complained so when he found that problem again he never told them and charged the usual service call cost. Hal
 
Prabably some jacka$$ dirt farmer who thinks he knows everything about everyone and judges people by what they raise instead of who they are.
"Traditional Farmers" were horse owners, you prejudicial dipstick
 
That reminds me of a story I heard about an old mechanic in town here.

A customer came in with an old ford pickup that wouldn`t upshift, after looking at it Virgil crawled under the truck and hooked the vacuum hose back up the modulator on the trans. Problem solved. Virgil told him that would be $10.00. The customer got mad and told him he wouldn`t pay him for simply hooking a hose back up. Virgil scratched his head, looked at him and told him he wasn`t charging for hooking up a hose, he was charging him because he knew to hook up the hose.

He called you, I think you`re in the right. He got his tractor fixed. I agree with the others, I would be happy to pay the `hush money`...
 
This reminded me of a local that was called out at 1 AM car was in the ditch so he got his wrecker and went and pulled it out got it back on the road and driver said how much wrecker said 25.00 driver said too much. Wrecker operator hooked the car back up and driver said what are you doing wrecker said im putting it back where i found it and you can call someone else. Driver says no i will pay.
 
I"ve had two machines brought to me in the past few months that wouldn"t start....Both had dead batteries because they kept on trying to start them, both also had empty gas tanks. Charged for gas to get them running and 15 minutes of my time and didn"t miss a wink of sleep for charging for it.
 
Just write the bill up as a service call, like a furnace repairman or plumber does. Then write turn on gas, no charge.
 
Just write the bill up as a service call, like a furnace repairman or plumber does. Then write turn on gas, no charge.
 
“When a man uses profanity to support an argument, it indicates that either the man or the argument is weak - probably both”

“Profanity is the common crutch of the conversational cripple.”

"Profanity is the weapon of the witless”
 
I called the heating and air conditioning place because my "relatively new" digital thermostat wouldn't work anymore.

They charged me $54 for the service call. That included the price of that AAA battery. :>(

Allan
 
Usually I find that when somebody get loud and obnoxious, they don't have an argument. When you start swearing, you lose credibility.
 
personally I am happy w/ small simple repair bills. Apparently this fella was hoping he had spun some main bearings and spoiled the crank.If he wasn't happy w/ yer work ya shoulda kept fixing stuff till he was satisfied...
not really but some folks are hard to please
 
I don't understand why gas turned off would stop a tractor from "cranking" wouldn't that be the starter or battery?
 
I did service work for years made a lot of calls that I flipped a sw or pushed a button.the charge had a lot to do with the attude of the customer
 
NO NEED to let using the correct terminology get in the way of making SENSE!

DAMN, it bugs me when folks say "it won't crank", when what they mean is "it cranks but won't START"!

Just wastes a guy's time trying to explain to them what ELECTRICAL problem they may have.
 
Had a customer buy a new Komatsu Grader'called said he was getting dust and dirt in the cab....made a 350 mile service call to show him how to shut the door.He paid for the call because he felt stupid for not shutting the door!
 
Had a customer buy a new Komatsu Grader'called said he was getting dust and dirt in the cab....made a 350 mile service call to show him how to shut the door.He paid for the call because he felt stupid for not shutting the door!
 
Different areas have different meanings. Around here we say it wont turn over meaning it wont start. Speaking of feeling stupid many of my friends call me the minute there appliances wont work and I generally can fix them. Bought a new Maytag fridge(first mistake)and have had dozens of warranty calls on it. Last year it just quit again so without looking I called the repairman and he came out, moved the fridge and did something back there and everything started working. Then as he was writing a $60 service call ticket said" better get some mmouse traps." the cord had been chewed thru by a mouse. What really takes the cake, if a neighbor had called me I would have done exactly what the repairman did.Henry
 
Sold a new Gravely rider mower to a fellow years ago,called me up about 4 hrs. later,this p.o.s. won't start,I want my money back,should have known better than to buy this,blah,blah,blah.Drive over there,reach down and turn the pto switch off,tractor starts right up.Guy gives me that slack jaw look,stands there a minute,then says well,since your here would you like a drink of water?I could have punched him right in the nose....
 
You can have a complete conversation with my old man when he is PO and he will be completely understandable using only swear words lol.
 
Well if I start swearing you really should pay attention cause it means I am either totally frustrated or am throughly POed. Your attitude will very quickly decide just how fast you lose business permenantly.
 
Hey! I drove from Grand Island, NE to St Louis, MO one time on a window warranty. The complaint was that the window leaks. The man was REAL imbarassed when I got there and CLOSED HIS WINDOW.
 
I finished building my Pitts Special bi-plane in 1986. My son and I got it out of the hanger on Fathers day, at the airport pancake breakfast.
The engine didn't have a starter (to save weight). My son was 20 at the time propped me for about :45 minutes before he couldn't raise his arms above his head.
That's when I noticed that I didn't turn the gas on fully! I told him to take a rest and sit in the plane and I would prop it....started on the second pull! Someday, I'm gonna tell him that story!!
 
A friend of mine runs a small plumbing bussiness in ohio.He installed a new outside air conditioner unit at a womans house.It worked fine all summer.The next year the woman called,started cussing,took a while for my friend to figure out what she was mad at.It seems the air conditioner didn't work,and she spent all that money,and how he ripped her off.So my friend got up on sunday morning,missed church,drove 20 miles to remove a tarp,a piece of plywood,and a couple old tires the woman had covered the air conditioner unit up with to proect it from the winter weather.
 
I'm a carpenter so I don't usually do service calls per se but I do have a few loyal customers who I will come over at a run to fix whatever they need.
Had a lady call me because the laundry tub was backed up. Got there with a snake and found the tub full. Reached into the water and found the rubber stopper had fallen off the shelf and into the drain. She wasn't home so I just left the bill on her table.
Reopen blocked tub drain.--------------1 hour
With the price of fuel and all what else can a fellow do?
 
I absolutely agree with your statement on the cussing customer!- Last year I had a 316 Deere mower come in for work. It originally needed a pto switch and a ignition switch replaced--which I did on his trailer. Test ran unit following repair, and the pto clutch had engaging issues....customer said, lets just do the clutch since its here. I was putting on the clutch, and the man ups and leaves....go to test run the unit following clutch install and the starter motor burns up.....now what, huh? Call the customer and inform him of this--cusses at us...decides he wants a used starter installed---removed engine and put a used one on ....customer takes it home and then has the balls to b!tch and complain it has a drag in the starter. We inform him he opted used...so then he calls and leaves a nasty cussin' voice mail for our boss. So, after our butt chewing for doing as the customer requests, the guy gets a free new starter (worth 400 bucks, and all the labor) for this old mower....then he's cusses us out for the mower backfiring now....Once this was all done, the shop foreman just told me not to worry about it, and he'd handle it with the boss....I think it just got swept under the table in the end, and I could care less if the guy would ever show up again....his first impression was a lasting one.
 
If I call a repairman and he comes out, whether he does anything or nothing, I expect a bill. That's only fair. Service people make their living selling their "time" and time was expended coming to my place. "nuf said.
 
I have had many, many service calls of shop lights not working, aircompressor wont run, grain auger wont start, only to reset breakers, overload relays, manual contactors and the like. When it comes to electric, people get kinda goofy. I just charge for my time involved, they called me to fix it, and i did! I sold a do it yourself farmer a new 7.5 horse motor for his unload auger,(wouldnt pay me to instal for him) He takes motor and installs. about 3 hours later, he calls and says "motor runs about 9 seconds, shuts off. I clean the auger out and the same thing happens, something is wrong with the motor. I think you sold my a junk motor". 1 hour later i arrived and reversed rotation of the motor. HE WIRED IT WRONG!! Auger was running backwards and obviously plugging. He payed cash and asked me not to tell anyone, especially his brother.
 
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