Best comments from repair customer

[mowerman05]

Installed a windshield in a ladies car a few winters back, she came to pick it up and when she started it she heard a sound from in the dash. she came back into the shop to ask if we may have dropped some glass down her defroster. I being the tec on that job went to see what had happened and started the car, sound was coming from under the hood, opened the hood and there was a cat in the fan. showed the problem to the lady as she looked under:confused2: the hood she said to me why would you put a cat in my fan

 

[GetTechnicalWithJd]

Installed a windshield in a ladies car a few winters back, she came to pick it up and when she started it she heard a sound from in the dash. she came back into the shop to ask if we may have dropped some glass down her defroster. I being the tec on that job went to see what had happened and started the car, sound was coming from under the hood, opened the hood and there was a cat in the fan. showed the problem to the lady as she looked under:confused2: the hood she said to me why would you put a cat in my fan

I worked at Lexus many years back and one of the clients brought he IS250 back as the aircon ducting was jammed.

The techs stripped the dash to find a CD stuck in the ducting... it has slipped in to the duct in the cubby. Ironically the CD was "Slow Jams". Client had a good laugh when he collected his vehicle and the handed him the CD.

 

[Kodie's Lawn Service]

Reminds me of a restaurant owner who decided to serviced his own Briggs & Stratton (54series) generator with Automatic Mains Failure panel. After the service the generator would start and shut down with numerous errors on the controller. So he called a 'fly by night' generator repair shop and they told him the panel was faulty. So they replaced it ( USD 1200). Still the error. So they replaced the AC power alternator (USD 900). Still the generator would start and shutdown with 'over volts' or 'under volts' or under frequency. So the Tech disappeared.

Eventually they contact me and we head out to site. I listen to the above story from the owner and stood for a minute taking in the information. That's when I noticed that the engine had a non original oil filter and they guy said the problem started immediately after the service. That got me thinking... if he serviced with non original filters I bet they did not use the correct spark plugs.

So I checked and they had used chinese non resistor spark plugs.. these were causing interference with the digital generator controller and causing it to malfunction. So I quietly changed the spark plugs out. All the while with the owner is in the background telling my Apprentice "he's wasting his time, I've already change the plugs!.. the problem is with the AC generator not the engine".

Once I had changed the spark plugs.. I packed my tool bag up, pressed start on the control panel and walked to my vehicle to pack up and do the paperwork. The generator started and ran without fault.

The restaurant owner came running to my vehicle and said what was the problem? I told him it was the spark plugs and gave him my bill (USD 80) and he said "I'm not paying that much just for spark plugs... the one's I bought only cost USD 2.50." I said no they didn't, they cost you USD 2100!!!


Strange how people will pay idiots thousands of Dollars for essentially doing nothing.. but for travelling 100 miles and actually fixing the generator I get asked to justify my bill.



Reminds me of the story of the ship engineer who knew where to tap!
Knowing Where to Tap

So weird how original part work better right

 

[Mini Motors]

Okay, so I witnessed this at my local repair shop. And I'm sure it isn't all that uncommon.

The customer had bought his mower at a big box store, and had already done it in and gotten the big box to replace it once already, but the new one clearly had been run with no oil. I can only guess he was embarrassed to go back again. The service guy was saying that he needed to put the oil in it when he un-boxed it at home. He stated that he had done exactly this. The service guy asked where he put the oil, and the customer pointed to the air filter. I'm guessing that the answer wasn't that funny to the service guy, but I couldn't contain myself, and couldn't stay to see what the air filter looked like.

 

[sgmgarden]

Some very entertaining customer comments, bet you'd get some right laughs working in a store like that :laughing:

 

[EngineMan]

The one that I remember best is......" it worked when last used "

 

[GetTechnicalWithJd]

Okay, so I witnessed this at my local repair shop. And I'm sure it isn't all that uncommon.

The customer had bought his mower at a big box store, and had already done it in and gotten the big box to replace it once already, but the new one clearly had been run with no oil. I can only guess he was embarrassed to go back again. The service guy was saying that he needed to put the oil in it when he un-boxed it at home. He stated that he had done exactly this. The service guy asked where he put the oil, and the customer pointed to the air filter. I'm guessing that the answer wasn't that funny to the service guy, but I couldn't contain myself, and couldn't stay to see what the air filter looked like.

We had a customer phone us complaining that the fuel tank capacity on the Briggs & Stratton powered 15kva petrol generator we supplied him was too small. As the machine was equipped with a 50Litre fuel tank I was naturally confused. So I asked him why he need more than 50Litres to which he exclaimed "50Litres!! I've put in less than 3Litres and its already overflowing. So I asked him if perhaps someone else had filled the tank before him and he guaranteed me he was the only person to have touched the generator since it was delivered the day before. So off I went to site only yo find that the guy had poured fuel in to the OIL filler cap not the fuel tank. :laughing:

 

[GetTechnicalWithJd]

I just received this via Em-mail from a Facilities Manager at one of our large national banks. They are trying to sell me their secondhand 350kVA Volvo generator.


"Generator has full service history 4 X Annual services (3 x Minor / 1 X Major).
Generator indoors, very low run hours Average load capacity 35 40%.
Installed new in 1996."


Something wrong with the maths here:
Installed new in 1996 and has had 4 annual services... 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000.... what about the other 13 annual services?

 

[afoulk]

I had a road call one day for a Hino truck that the driver said was overheating. I get out there and it didn't look like it had lost much coolant. I climbed in and started it and I could here this ticking noise that sounded like it was coming from the top end of the engine and the oil pressure light was on. I shut it down right away and checked the oil level, it was good. Had it towed back to the shop. Hooked a lap top up to it in the shop and found that someone had over revved the engine to 5200rpms, these things redline at around 2700rpms. I started tearing it down and found that the ticking noise was actually coming from the turbo, the compressor wheel was hitting the housing because it was not getting oil to the bearings. Found that when they over revved the engine, it spun all the main bearings, so almost nothing in the engine was getting oil pressure. Wound up getting all the parts and putting together another engine for them (hino did not offer a long or even short block at the time). They claimed they had loaned the truck to someone over the weekend and that they must have over revved it. I just found it funny that the driver claimed the engine was overheating, but had paid no attention to the low oil pressure light lit up right in front of his face.

 

[afoulk]

The dealer I work for is no better either. We have a 2000 Chevy 3500 as our service truck with the 454. We told them since the truck was only a year or 2 old that the intake manifold had an external coolant leak, but they never took it to the chevy dealer to get fixed under warranty. Well, one day, when the truck was about 7 or 8 yrs old, one of our techs punched it to merge onto the high way and lost oil pressure. Turns out the intake gasket was leaking coolant internally also, and the coolant finally wiped out the bearings and this one spun all the bottom end bearings as well. I was the lucky one that got to pull the engine and disassemble it. the main bearings spun so much it actually turned the webbing in the block blue. I thought for sure they would want to put a crate motor in it. Nope, they had me put a new $1200 crank in it from GM and replace the bearings, and if they checked out good when I plastigaged them, they were gonna run it. They had me add lucas oil additive (complete snake oil garbage in my opinion) to the oil for good measure. Well, it made it 200miles and spun all the main bearings again. So, they finally decided to put a crate motor in it from GM, which of course did not have a piston installed right something, so it had to go to our local chevy dealer for engine work a third time. The dealer ship in the process managed to smash the transmission pan with their lift, so when we got it, it would not shift into 2nd gear because the pan was pushed up against the tranny filter. It got fixed, but the truck has never run right and had the same power it did when new. In the end, if they would have just taken the time to take it to the dealer when it was still under warranty, they would have avoided all of this.