# Customer was on drugs.....



## billy_awesome (Dec 19, 2011)

Today at the end of the day my boss called me and said there was a quick service call to do on my way home.

Just a quick cut and cap job, as I knocked on the door I heard a yell to come in, and laying on the couch was a rough looking lady, I could tell she wasn't right, looks like she was on some sort of drugs, oxy's or morphine or something.

I could tell from the place I was at it wasn't a nice household, beer bottles everywhere, cigarettes on the floor etc. Let's just say this lady wasn't on medication for an injury in an athletic sport.....


My Boss has always said if I feel something is fishy on a job and we can't trust the customer, he would be okay with me walking away.

I decided the do the job anyways since it was quick, but has anyone ever walked away from the job because of sketchy customers? And what was the thing that put them over the top not to be trustworthy?

I feel if the customer doesn't pay the bill I will feel guilty that I knew they were messed up and I didn't walk away....


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## OldSchool (Jan 30, 2010)

billy_awesome said:


> Today at the end of the day my boss called me and said there was a quick service call to do on my way home.
> 
> Just a quick cut and cap job, as I knocked on the door I heard a yell to come in, and laying on the couch was a rough looking lady, I could tell she wasn't right, looks like she was on some sort of drugs, oxy's or morphine or something.
> 
> ...


Dam it was the end of the day 

Should have went to the fridge and grabbed a beer for yourself and smoked one of her joints while you wrote her the invoice

Sent from my portable office....yes I am at work


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## Keefer w (Jan 26, 2012)

not sketchy, but I walked out of a rental property because it was infested with roaches. And there was a toddler in there. Called my manager told him I refuse to put my self at risk. Called landlord told him we couldn't do any work until he got an exterminator. Don't know who was to blame, tenant or landlord.


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## ken53 (Mar 1, 2011)

Bin there done that had to tap a drugged out tenant in Prince Albert on the ear twice  with a 16" Ridgid just to get past him out the door. He wanted me to fix the gas and water meters so his bills weren't so high. I guess he wasn't that tough the Ridgid was aluminum.:laughing::laughing:


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## Mike Jessome (Aug 7, 2008)

I was doing a job at the local "aids coalition" in my area its where all the needle jockys hang out and drink coffee and talk about shooting up heroine while i'm standing there swaping old cabinets off the baseboard rads


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## ChrisConnor (Dec 31, 2009)

I've walked off a few because of sketchy folks. Sometimes you just gotta say no. Restaurants reserve the rights to refuse service, plumbers aren't immune to bad situations.


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## AndersenPlumbing (Jan 23, 2010)

ChrisConnor said:


> I've walked off a few because of sketchy folks. Sometimes you just gotta say no. Restaurants reserve the rights to refuse service, plumbers aren't immune to bad situations.


Speaking of restuarants, I avoid them! I have yet to do business with one that pays on time and doesnt try to haggle.


I recently did a job for a young woman who was a little rough around the edges. Something about her screamed trouble. I figured I would give her a chance anyway since she had a sticker on her car in the driveway, it was the family sticker thing with two kids, mom, and military dad. Least I could do is help out a serviceman's family. I even texted a buddy saying I think I am working for a stripper, then.......I had to shut the water off in a closet and found this! Stripper shoes and lots of underwear! BINGO, Stripper! She paid cash :yes:


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## MarkToo (Dec 17, 2011)

I've moved couches with people passed out on them, waded through garbage and crawled through crap. It's part of the job.

I had a service call at a house where the old fella was chain smoking while on oxygen. The place was so bad that I literally could not breathe - and I smoke myself. I did make the repair (while wearing a respirator) but when the son called a few months later for another issue, I had to decline to return. It wasn't the worst looking place I've seen but certainly the most polluted.


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## ChrisConnor (Dec 31, 2009)

RedRubicon2004 said:


> .....I had to shut the water off in a closet and found this!



I don't think it's a good idea to take pictures of customers clothes, personal belongings and such. Just sayin.


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## AndersenPlumbing (Jan 23, 2010)

ChrisConnor said:


> I don't think it's a good idea to take pictures of customers clothes, personal belongings and such. Just sayin.


Its not like I was scoping out the place to rob em! 

I didnt take any pictures at my customers house that films professional bondage **** videos if that makes ya feel better.


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## ChrisConnor (Dec 31, 2009)

RedRubicon2004 said:


> Its not like I was scoping out the place to rob em!
> 
> I didnt take any pictures at my customers house that films professional bondage **** videos if that makes ya feel better.


Meh. 

I am just offering insight to respecting customer privacy, I wouldn't like it, but you do what you want.


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## Boomer! (Feb 24, 2012)

I have walked away from a couple Landlord/Tenant jobs recently. Usually it is a lack of interest on the landlords part to fix a potentially dangerous situation correctly. Things are pretty bad in the Metro Detroit area and some of the slumlords are making our jobs difficult. I have made the calls when necessary to the authorities when I felt someone may be in danger, I don't hesitate if there are children in the house.


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## MikeS (Oct 3, 2011)

I generally assume most people will pay. In fact, at my new job, I don't really care. As long as they sign the estimate, I do the work. If they don't pay, the company puts a lien on the property. Now, I have walked away from rude customers, like one lady who told me "Get your fat ass up on the roof and install my new cooler." ha, right, see ya.


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## DUNBAR PLUMBING (Sep 11, 2008)

I've been handed beers, bottles of wine, weed to smoke... I pass on it all. 


Don't really care that they are doing it, just glad that they are understanding that I'm cool about it and don't care, not to worry.


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## ChrisConnor (Dec 31, 2009)

MikeS said:


> Now, I have walked away from rude customers, like one lady who told me "Get your fat ass up on the roof and install my new cooler." ha, right, see ya.


Did you say, "yes, ma'am!" and pretend that you were going to jump right to it?


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## AKdaplumba (Jan 12, 2010)

he faked rolling his ankle and said he would have to come back:whistling2:


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## MikeS (Oct 3, 2011)

ChrisConnor said:


> Did you say, "yes, ma'am!" and pretend that you were going to jump right to it?


haha, pretty much. I had a helper with me. It was a Sears job (we used to do their installs back in the day). I told her, Ok! and promptly got in the truck and drove away. My helper was all, wtf? and I explained to him that if she is like this now, imagine all the callbacks, etc. Oh, and this was an out of area job, in Lake Isabella, about 45 miles from Bakersfield. I didn't get five miles down the road when the two way radio (back in the day) went off telling me to call the salesman at Sears. He was surprised I could just walk away. I asked him if customers swore at him would he still serve them, and he said yes. I said, thats why I don't work at Sears, hung up, and drove back to the shop. Boss backed me up 100 per cent.


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## ChrisConnor (Dec 31, 2009)

Contracting residential service through another company can be that way, some people expect you're shaking in your boots when you service them.

I've had some home warranty customers are like that.


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## Tommy plumber (Feb 19, 2010)

I never turn down work. I don't care if the customer is being chased by police, with a camera crew on their heals, and I'm on an episode of Cops; I'll finish the work and get paid............:laughing:



PS: If I stopped working for people on drugs or booze, I'd probably lose up to half of my customers..!


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## Richard Hilliard (Apr 10, 2010)

I cannot remember ever walking off a job due to how someone lived. I will leave a customer who does not respect the trade or me. I am not a doormat. It does have to go a long way before I will decide to leave. A few weeks ago I had to let a customer know to chill out. He purchased his own parts from the wrong company and started to yell at me for him ordering the wrong parts. He purchased Price Pfister parts for a delta pull out spray and became ignorant when I said the parts will not work. I sat at his bar and told him that this had to stop and if he did not stop I would leave if he did not stop his yelling and start talking like an adult. Most of the time customers have had to say something to usually calm down once they see that I am not going to take crap.

Those that do not , see my ass walking out the door.


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## deerslayer (Mar 29, 2012)

Bedbugs! I don't care if they are rich, poor or middle class when I see em I leave. Brought them home with me from somewhere, burnt 3 couches and heated entire house to 130 degrees for 3 days in july to be sure they were all gone! It's amazing how well a wood furnace works in july!


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## justin (May 14, 2010)

Had a job that I walked in and it was a shiit hole. There was human crap in piles on floor. I was holding throw up in my mouth and didn't want to breathe in cause I was scared I would taste it . Short breaths. 

I've had crazy jobs and I just play along and tell them I will go out to truck and make contract. I put a frickin outrageous price on quote and they usually tell me they will call me back. What is crazy is I actually have gotten most of the ones I bid crazy like that. I tell my service guy that it is a bad house. I usually give him a hundred dollars on top of the 6 he is there.


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## deerslayer (Mar 29, 2012)

justin said:


> Had a job that I walked in and it was a shiit hole. There was human crap in piles on floor. I was holding throw up in my mouth and didn't want to breathe in cause I was scared I would taste it . Short breaths.
> 
> I've had crazy jobs and I just play along and tell them I will go out to truck and make contract. I put a frickin outrageous price on quote and they usually tell me they will call me back. What is crazy is I actually have gotten most of the ones I bid crazy like that. I tell my service guy that it is a bad house. I usually give him a hundred dollars on top of the 6 he is there.


LOL I did that a while back on a side job. Added $100 for a nasty house qoute came to $250 then figured I wouldn't get paid so I doubled the price! Tenant said 3 other plumbers looked at it and never came back. I almost felt guilty when I got paid!


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## B.P. repairer (Jul 14, 2010)

I've worked in mobile homes were the HO had 2 dogs and 3 cats. I would rather eat my lunch in a public bathroom than do that again. The litter box was so full the cat wouldn't use it any more . How can people live like this ?
There was so much crap in my way. It took twice as long as it should of. My house is by no means perfect but if I know someone is come over we clean it up. I don't get it.


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## deerslayer (Mar 29, 2012)

I did a sewer odor call a while back. Found an abandoned bathroom in basement with dry traps. Had to shovel a path with a snowshovel to get through the dog poop. I really ain't figured out how she could tell there was a sewer odor. Lady had told me when I got there to explore and find the problem yet wasupset when I went into this part of the basement?


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## 422 plumber (Jul 31, 2008)

RedRubicon2004 said:


> Speaking of restuarants, I avoid them! I have yet to do business with one that pays on time and doesnt try to haggle.
> 
> 
> I recently did a job for a young woman who was a little rough around the edges. Something about her screamed trouble. I figured I would give her a chance anyway since she had a sticker on her car in the driveway, it was the family sticker thing with two kids, mom, and military dad. Least I could do is help out a serviceman's family. I even texted a buddy saying I think I am working for a stripper, then.......I had to shut the water off in a closet and found this! Stripper shoes and lots of underwear! BINGO, Stripper! She paid cash :yes:


uh, sweaty stripper vuhgena stank. But I would probably rather smell that than a grease trap.


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## Dun' Right (Sep 27, 2010)

"Hey baby, that was cool, but I gots to go" :sweatdrop::yes:


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## bartnc37 (Feb 24, 2009)

That's not stripper gear, there's no glitter :whistling2:


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## plumberkc (Jun 23, 2011)

I did an apartment building that was occupied by a foreign family. I found out that they had just moved to America within the last year. There was a huge roach infestation and I guess they just didn't know any better so they must not have made a big deal about it. 

I wanted to say something to them but I also didn't want to stir up trouble. Instead I told the landlord how bad it was in there and hopefully he got it taken care of.


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## Master Mark (Aug 14, 2009)

*Alone with a nut jub*

I had a real bad one a long time ago that taught me a good lesson........

if they live in their own filth and dog crap all over the living room carpet,
.. their is a very good chance that they are *mentally ill...*

and if they are mentally ill, and maybe have not taken their medications for a few weeks, they might take offence to you not wanting to work in their filth.....:yes:.


and if they are crazy and female and you are alone with them, they could claim anything that they damm well feel like that you said or did to them while you were there... and they might have a shotgun around the corner or behind the door.


I had to back out of a hell hole one time with an insane old lady in my face every inch of the way screaming at me about why I would not fix her plumbing one satruday morning....


I told her I had to call my boss to get an estimate together just to get out of the house and she did not buy my excuse to go out to the truck... 
.....SO IT WAS ON.. and I did not turn my back to her as I backed out of the living room and out the door....


I got in my truck and left with her screaming at me from the door.... anything could have gone down...
I flipped her off and told her to clean the place .



I called the health department on her:laughing::laughing:


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## AWWGH (May 2, 2011)

Went to a service call for a leak under the kitchen sink.

The husband and wife were blazzzzzed and the dude was trying to crawl under the sink with me while I worked. He was very into what was going on and wanted to help. It was actually quiet humorous. 

As for smells, I'd take a grease trap over the smell of curry. Yuck.


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## OldSchool (Jan 30, 2010)

AWWGH said:


> Went to a service call for a leak under the kitchen sink.
> 
> The husband and wife were blazzzzzed and the dude was trying to crawl under the sink with me while I worked. He was very into what was going on and wanted to help. It was actually quiet humorous.
> 
> As for smells, I'd take a grease trap over the smell of curry. Yuck.


Okay.....

I would have put a stop to that immediately


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## billy_awesome (Dec 19, 2011)

AWWGH said:


> Went to a service call for a leak under the kitchen sink.
> 
> The husband and wife were blazzzzzed and the dude was trying to crawl under the sink with me while I worked. He was very into what was going on and wanted to help. It was actually quiet humorous.
> 
> As for smells, I'd take a grease trap over the smell of curry. Yuck.


seems to me he was trying to get fresh with you....


but that's a whole new thread all together.......


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## frisco kid (Dec 18, 2008)

I've had to call county mental health services on one customer who obviously needed more help than what I, as a service plumber could provide him. It's always an uncomfortable situation when one realizes the current job is all bad and you have to get out of there. But at the end of the day I need to make it home to my family in more or less one piece, so I can live to plumb another day! ...if it's a matter of the customer's gross living habits then I gotta cowboy up and do the job at hand.


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## pilot light (Apr 21, 2012)

Tommy plumber said:


> I never turn down work. I don't care if the customer is being chased by police, with a camera crew on their heals, and I'm on an episode of Cops; I'll finish the work and get paid............:laughing:
> 
> 
> 
> PS: If I stopped working for people on drugs or booze, I'd probably lose up to half of my customers..!


Agreed!


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## MarkToo (Dec 17, 2011)

AWWGH said:


> The husband and wife were blazzzzzed and the dude was trying to crawl under the sink with me while I worked.


Hopefully beside you...


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## rrman (Oct 29, 2008)

*rrman*

Went to a rental house and was a leak in the basement.Went down stairway in literally minutes my legs were itching like the blazes.I gave him an estimate and left.Stopped at walmart and looked at my legs and fleas were all around my lower legs with bites all over my ankles.Went in store and bought a can of fleaspray and killed the fleas but it took weeks for the bites to go away.Now every slumlord call i spray my shoes and pant bottoms>


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## PunkRockPlumber (Mar 26, 2012)

Most of the journeyman I've worked with have been on drugs too.


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## DUNBAR PLUMBING (Sep 11, 2008)

I can't stand the smell of a drunk, one that you can smell the aging alcohol when they breathe....


No fouler smell than that. You've definitely earned your stripes as the town drunk when people notice that smell, when a beer or drink is more important to you than a good meal.


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## rjbphd (Feb 5, 2010)

Not only that, can't stand the smell of a heavy smoker.. a frigging smelling walking ashtray.


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## Widdershins (Feb 5, 2011)

rjbphd said:


> Not only that, can't stand the smell of a heavy smoker.. a frigging smelling walking ashtray.


But the smell of shiot, that smells like money.:thumbup:


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## 89plumbum (May 14, 2011)

AWWGH said:


> Went to a service call for a leak under the kitchen sink.
> 
> The husband and wife were blazzzzzed and the dude was trying to crawl under the sink with me while I worked. He was very into what was going on and wanted to help. It was actually quiet humorous.
> 
> As for smells, I'd take a grease trap over the smell of curry. Yuck.


Reminded me of a leak we had to look for in a crawl space once for an apt complex. Boss said to go meet the maint man. Got there and he was a she, a tiny, little asain women. She was like a spider on crack crawlin under that floor. The plumber I worked with at the time was recently divorced and he asked her out! She said yes! Oh boy, did the shop raz him for the next couple of months. Hahahaha! What made it funnier was that she could barely speak any english. He said he didnt understand a word she was talking about at dinner that night.:laughing:


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## OldSchool (Jan 30, 2010)

89plumbum said:


> Reminded me of a leak we had to look for in a crawl space once for an apt complex. Boss said to go meet the maint man. Got there and he was a she, a tiny, little asain women. She was like a spider on crack crawlin under that floor. The plumber I worked with at the time was recently divorced and he asked her out! She said yes! Oh boy, did the shop raz him for the next couple of months. Hahahaha! What made it funnier was that she could barely speak any english. He said he didnt understand a word she was talking about at dinner that night.:laughing:


As long as he got lucky ... It was worth the cost of dinner


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## Tommy plumber (Feb 19, 2010)

OldSchool said:


> As long as he got lucky ... It was worth the cost of dinner


 





You mean, "At reast he got rucky."........:chinese:


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## 240Jordy (May 5, 2012)

Ha ha. Oh man, there's some hilarious stories in this thread. I've never had to walk out of a job over something sketchy, but it's been close. 

The entire crew almost revolted over having to do service calls at what affectionately became known as "The Crack Shack". One of our guys witnessed the drug peddling resident manager get his arm hacked off with a machete in a deal gone bad (seriously). 

After that the boss made a new policy that if we were going there for any service calls we had to be accompanied by at least one other plumber to watch your back while you did the work. Pretty bad when the plumbers are all packing knives and **** to go to a service call. Ha ha. 

Luckily enough for us the city condemned the place and tore it down a couple of months ago.


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## pilot light (Apr 21, 2012)

I thinks its just amazing how many places out there are like that! I went to one where the single mother was a tweaked out crackhead and had a daughter that must have been 5. I am pretty thick-skinned, not much phases me, but that really did ! One call that will always stick in my mind! Fixed what was broken but still left feeling I hadnt fixed anything sucked!


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## Mississippiplum (Sep 30, 2011)

pilot light said:


> I thinks its just amazing how many places out there are like that! I went to one where the single mother was a tweaked out crackhead and had a daughter that must have been 5. I am pretty thick-skinned, not much phases me, but that really did ! One call that will always stick in my mind! Fixed what was broken but still left feeling I hadnt fixed anything sucked!


I woulda called CPS

sent from the jobsite porta-potty


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