# Disturbing Service Calls/Moments



## Mike Jessome (Aug 7, 2008)

I was at a chinese resturant fixing the wok, and the cook was feet away fixing a meal he for some reason picked up my channel locks and flipped something on the grill with them. I just looked at him and shook my head honest to god how disgusting is that, those channel locks have been every where....


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## uaplumber (Jun 16, 2008)

got one. Went to a kitchen at a hotel one time to unclog their main. The c/o access was in the kitchen. The kitchen floor had raw sewage about 1" thick in it. They were still cooking and serving! The wait staff was splashing through it to get orders. I cleaned out the main then left and called the health inspector. They were shut down.


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## Mike Jessome (Aug 7, 2008)

uaplumber said:


> got one. Went to a kitchen at a hotel one time to unclog their main. The c/o access was in the kitchen. The kitchen floor had raw sewage about 1" thick in it. They were still cooking and serving! The wait staff was splashing through it to get orders. I cleaned out the main then left and called the health inspector. They were shut down.


I believe it the things some of these resturants do is ludacris when I was a kid I used to love eating places, but now I do not eat out anywhere after being behind the door of most resturants in my area


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## Jake The Snake (Oct 28, 2008)

Did some work at a Mexican restaurant a few years ago including cleaning a condenser drain on the walk in cooler. It was literally raining condensate in the cooler, 5 gal. buckets of salsa open on floor. water running down over food on wire shelves right into the salsa. Waiters were still scoopin' it out & taking it to tables like nothing was wrong.


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## O.C. plumberman (Nov 21, 2008)

*some town buffet*

I got one for you, we did a jetter job at some town buffet in beautiful downtown Anaheim and after we pulled the hose out of the c/o we got a little spray of black speckle all over the boxes of fruit sitting in the kitchen. We told the manager and he didn't even care. This manager would always offer you a free plate of food and drinks which us guys who knew about that place would kindly refuse, but one day we heard a story from a new hire how after looking for a shut-off above the bathroom encountered a rat or few scurrying around in the ceiling. He told us he was starving and when he was done with the repairs in the restroom he gladly took the managers offer of a hot plate of food and a cold drink, He told us " dude I was starving and the manager guy gave me a plate of food and I started chowing down, then I found a long hair in my food but I was so hungry I just pulled it out and continued macking down on the grubb" Then we shared the jetter story with him and how we wouldn't eat there ever. I wish I had a picture of his face when he heard that. Oh the memories.....:laughing:


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## DUNBAR PLUMBING (Sep 11, 2008)

Used to be a water heater installer for a plumbing contractor years ago.


Installed heaters for sears/home depot/lowe's/AHS/2-10 and a few others.


Our job was to commit the property owner of the upcharges when we got there as most were code violations that were a "have to" fix in order to install the heater.


I commit the owner, but forgot to check pressure. Well I do this "after" and the guy is freaking out, I tell him that it's $300 more. He commits but he's the mother's son in the basement that hasn't seen a human being not related to him in years...and society is evil to him.

I go and turn the main shutoff off, breaks in my hand instantly......I tell him this is another $140 to fix and that was giving him a deal because it was a cluster**** of fittings and a trip to the supply house guaranteed.


This guy freaks, tells me to stop, leave now.


At this point I feel so damn bad as a water heater replacement now is $500 more than they actually spent, I've disabled their plumbing because the gate dropped in the house, I offered to fix the valve, get it operable AT NO COST because the situation is getting scarier by the minute by the look on this guy's face. The kind where he's got this agitated blank stare and you can tell he's getting furious.


I honored his wishes, left there with the water heater and his house with no water at all.


I'm sure the install cancelled but never heard the outcome of that one. 

Felt like a reall POS but hey, I offered to at least pull that gate back out @ no charge just to get the water back on.


Working under the guidelines of those companies sucked! because there were set prices you couldn't negotiate down. Very expensive upcharges that made us look like scammers as the plumbing contractor.

Good riddens to that BS!


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## pzmember (Sep 20, 2008)

DUNBAR said:


> Used to be a water heater installer for a plumbing contractor years ago.
> 
> 
> Installed heaters for sears/home depot/lowe's/AHS/2-10 and a few others.
> ...


 yeah those contracts suck, kind of leaves your hands tied at times.
as far as the sub-terranian mutant remember " sloth loves chunk".


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## brain freeze (Oct 20, 2008)

dunbar,

i hear you man.

i did a *little* job in montreal. everytime i touched a pipe on this 40+ year old hwh system, something else would start leaking. it turned out that alot of the threads on the BI pipe were cut too deep.

i wasn't *trying* to add hours or materials, it was just happening. sh!t happens.

i think the customer believed me. i *almost* wished the customer was standing there watching me work.

there was a plumber with this same company that was *trying* to teach me how to break a cast iron steam rad. by hitting it with a hammer. the plumber got the company a big job.

i didn't work for that company for very long. i do have ethics.

even though it cost me employment in the end, i could sleep with a clear conscience.

all we can *do*, is try. can't please everyone.

Vince


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## 422 plumber (Jul 31, 2008)

This didn't happen to me but a friend who is owner of a 2 man HVAC shop. The service call was to a little rural subdivision, along a river, very isolated. I was there years ago on a Realtor call for an empty house and got really creeped out. Kind of a _Children of the Corn_ vibe, one of my cousins moved in with her boyfriend out there and even going out to her house for two different service calls at night was hinky. Anyway, my buddy goes out to house and the furnace needed some work, the hx was cracked. He said the house wasn't dirty, but there was a smell there. The h/o was only about 5'-6" but my friend who is about 6' and pretty beefy, thought he was going to be murdered. He said he has never had a feeling like that his whole life. The next day, he sent his helper, who is about 6'-8" 250 pounds to start the hx replacement, while the owner ran to the supply house to get the parts. The helper got the same vibe, even he was scared. They put the old unit in the garage, and noticed a car there, the h/o mentioned the car belonged to his girlfriend, but "she won't be coming back to get it." Plus the check was written on a woman's account from California. I told my buddy that was what he smelled in the basement.


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## 22rifle (Jun 14, 2008)

Had a few disturbing calls. one involved death threats and the guy waving a butcher knife over a quote to hook up his ped lav. I got him calmed down, got him to go to another room, and got the fuzz outta there.

Another was a guy whose house was so filthy I wore shoe covers to keep my shoes clean. Put down a drop cloth to keep my tools from getting nasty. The owner left for a little while so I had the boss come by. He told me to find a good place to stop and quit. He told the HO we were not going to complete the job, nor were we going to bill for what we had done. (It was a lot of small tasks, so it's not like we left a task partially done.) The reason for no bill was so we wouldn't have any warranty obligation. Sure enough, a week later the guy called. The faucet he supplied leaked. We told him to not call again. He was sick and we couldn't help him.

Then there was the 14 or 15 year old girl trying to seduce me. Flashing her breasts in a flirty way, etc. Thank God there were other adults in the house since it was a no heat call. But I called my boss, told him to get another tech there ASAP, and when he showed up we both went in and completed the call.


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## pzmember (Sep 20, 2008)

the very worst call i had was for an apartment which i had a service contract w/ the building owner. the apt was in rapid city sd. and the owner lived in california. i was the only person in town w/ keys. so he calls me one saturday morning and asks me if i could open up an apt for a tennants brother, he had been trying to call his brother and was getting worried. bear in mind this apt building was pretty much inhabited by drug addicts and losers. the owner said he would pay me for my time so i said sure. i get there and the brother is waiting for me he was tweaking a little from his all night meth binge. so i open the door and sure enough there is the brother dead, bloated and blue. the live brother starts freaking out i walk down to street level and call 911. the operator asks me to go back upstairs and try performing cpr. this guy couldnt have been more dead and i felt i had already superceeded my responsibility as a plumber. so i went up told the brother to start pumping his chest and id wait downstairs for the emts. i felt bad for the guy and his brother espicially since 2 weeks prior i had met him when i replaced the tib faucet. that was the wierdest 240.00$ i ever made. oh yeah thats the 2nd dead body ive found on the job. anyone else in the club.


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## Wethead (Oct 13, 2008)

Mike Jessome said:


> I was at a chinese resturant fixing the wok, and the cook was feet away fixing a meal he for some reason picked up my channel locks and flipped something on the grill with them. I just looked at him and shook my head honest to god how disgusting is that, those channel locks have been every where....



Speaking of Chinese food 

I used to work for a PUMP company for 5 years pulling ejectors , etc .

I will tell you that most of you have eaten food that has been in crap or at least dipped in it,......BUT then again we are all plumbers here so we really know what goes on in these storage / back rooms.

I agree its nasty in some of these places


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## Juice (Nov 17, 2008)

I got one for ya! I got called out by a restoration company asking me to come to a four storey appartment because ont of there guys hit a water line in the floor. I grab an apprentice and head over. upon arrival I met two guys working for the rest. company. I ask them why they are in Haz-Mat suits full resporators full suits the whole thing. they say did knowone tell you? there was a dead guy up there and he just got taken out that morning. I asked how long he had been their. and they told me around three weeks! so he had just turned into a puddle! they had to jackhammer the floor up to get rid of the stain that smelt like a corpse and hit a in floor heating line. They only had a resporator for me to borrow cause I had no haz mat gear with me. ( my own stupid fault) so I went in and there was still sludge along the base boards where the guy was. I fixed the line,wentg home and tossed my clothes in the dumpster! I never smelled anything like that before. it was nasty!


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