Here’s a thread for examples of people in trades who seem to have forgotten something critical about their line of work.
To illustrate: I once had a yard customer I’ll call Carol. She knew I was taking law courses. Her sister took her car to an Aamco for service, and it was apparently stolen while in Aamco’s care. Carol asked me to try to find out if the company was liable for the theft. I said I’d try to find out.
When I later called to tell Carol that the laws did indeed seem to say that the company was liable for the loss, she told me there was no theft–a mechanic had parked the car in a restricted zone and it was impounded! The company paid the impound fees; I bet they fired the mechanic.
I’ll bet other Dopers have had pros screw something up…
I know this professional poster who put an IMHO thread in GQ this one time. 
The fool!!!
A plumber came to my place a couple of weeks ago to install a tap upon an already existing water-pipe.
Somehow managed to cut through my gas-line necessitating my gas to be cut off for 12 hrs until he could return to fix it.
a) It’s a wonder he didn’t blow himself to smithereens with the oxy-cutting device.
b) There was already a WATER PIPE RIGHT THERE…no cutting of pipes should have been needed.
c) Moron alert. :rolleyes:
Moved from General Questions to IMHO.
samclem, moderator
I bought a new washer and had it professionally installed. Three men showed up, probably because they had to wrestle the heavy thing into the basement. Later, I heard a commotion from downstairs. When I went down there I found them arguing excitedly while water sprayed in all directions out of the outlet hose. None of them thought to turn off the damned washer. Somehow they had found a hose with grooves on their truck and hooked it up to the outlet and water was shooting out of the grooves. Whenever I think of The Three Stooges, those men come to mind, arguing in my basement while water sprays everywhere.
Of course, there’s the Clueless Professionals I work with, but that’s another story.
Before I moved into my condo, many of the buildings were having problems with the attic water pipes freezing and then bursting. The board hired people to come in and provide insulation for the pipes. Apparently, that didn’t work and pipes continued to freeze.
Shortly after I moved in, I received notification that some workers would be accessing my unit to adjust the attic insulation. The adjustment consisted of moving the insulation from underneath the water pipe to on top of the pipe. At least they figured it out eventually, I suppose.
Soon after moving into my current home a hydronic baseboard pipe sprung a leak. No prob, I had a piece of joiner pipe already, just needed to solder it in, but water kept draining from the pipes. I didn’t want to put a piece of bread in the closed system, and I didn’t want to turn on the boiler again and have water pumping out, and I didn’t know anything about zone valves (previous house had seperate zone pumps). So I called the oil company that I had a service contract with for the boiler, and they covered the valves too, just not the baseboard plumbing. I asked them to come and check that the zone valves were open so all the water would drain. A couple of guys came out and told me they were full open, but the water kept draining. Running out of time on a cold winter day I took a chance and turned the screw on the valves. They had been closed, all the rest of the water drained out, and a few minutes later I had the pipe sealed up. Morons.
ETA: To be fair, most of their service techs do an excellent job.
I had to fix a brand new washer for a friend once.
The installers, working for a huge famous company that sounds like “tears” set up a new very expensive washer. At first use, it leaked all over, and the wife, being home alone, was calling my buddy at work. He couldn’t leave the job so he told her to call the big store again and get the delivery/installation guys back. These geniuses determined the plumbing inside the wall of the house was defective, so they told her to call a real plumber.
My friend asked me to go by and look at it. One rubber hose washer later, it was running fine. The installers had hooked up the cold water feed with no washer in the screw fitting. Idiots.
Speaking of auto mechanics…
Over the weekend I went to a shop to get my oil changed. Paid, picked up my car, drove it home and then around town for errands the entire weekend.
Monday morning, I was commuting to work – highway rush hour. At one point I had to slam on the brakes to avoid the cars in front of me also slamming on their brakes. This caused the front of the car to dip down slightly, of course.
After about another 10 minutes, I noticed smoke or steam trickling out from under the hood, and the heat gauge was creeping upward. I barely made it to work, parked, and popped the hood.
There was oil everywhere. Burnt, sticky, smoky oil all over the engine. Notably, the oil cap was nowhere to be found.
I called up the shop that had changed the oil and explained the problem to them and that I didn’t think I should have to check their work before driving the car. They said they would fix it, and then proceeded to ask me to DRIVE THE CAR BACK TO THEIR SHOP. Which by now was a good 30 minutes away even in light traffic.
I actually had to tell them no, I can’t do that multiple times before they twigged to the fact that there was no oil on the inside of the engine and driving it would be bad. Even better, when the tow truck arrived, the mechanic asked me to start the car and back it out of the parking space. I asked if he thought that was really a good idea, and he conceded it was likely not.
They did, finally, tow the car back and did a decent job rectifying things. They steam-cleaned the engine, replaced the oil, and gave me a new oil cap for free. I’ll bet the mechanic responsible for my first oil change got an earful, though. I’m sure they didn’t like giving me a free 30-minute tow.
During the planning of a Christmas visit to my sister’s house, she told me they were having trouble with “intermittent” hot water. Spoke to (mechanically challenged) BIL, who said “Water heater circuit breaker keeps on popping, but don’t worry, I’ve called the plumber - all will be right when you arrive.”
Of course, it wasn’t. Plumber had spent 2 minutes deciding that the circuit breaker was bad and installing a new one ($95 for the call-out, plus $50 for the circuit breaker) - which had no effect on the problem. BIL called to complain. Plumber returned, spent 2 minutes installing another circuit breaker (and presented another bill for $145) - which had the same effect as the first one.
I drained the water heater and pulled the two heating elements - one of which was completely gone, the other mostly so. We went to the local plumbing supply store and spent $38 for two new elements, installed these, and the water heater worked perfectly.
I told BIL he should refuse to pay this so-called plumber. He ended up paying one bill, with the plumber very unhappy about the second (and not even slightly abashed by his spectacular incompetence).
This exact same story happened to my mom once, except that they were glad she had the wherewithal to not drive the car with no oil. It could have been a free engine replacement.
They were glad once I explained to them that oil all over on the outside surface of the engine = no oil on the inside of the engine – they twigged to the repercussions at that point. I’m not sure WHY I had to explain that to them, but there you go.
Presumably not one of them was aware of trace heaters.The method they chose will only work if the properties are not left empty for periods of time.
http://www.thermotex.co.uk/editorials.asp?c=1&d=2&gclid=CJ2brqS5orUCFc_JtAodzGcAiQ
I took my Honda van to a Jiffy Lube for a routine oil change, during which they did the usual slate of other services.
Driving home, the car felt weird, like the suspension was bent. I checked the tire pressures (nominally 35 front, 32 rear) and found something like 19, 24, 38 and 44 on random corners. Now, all of them off is one thing. Two and two (different guys/gauges) maybe. But four scattered and completely wrong settings that could have been lethal on the highway? Jesus.
ETA: Tires were new enough not to have leaks, so all should have been within a pound or two of my (checked monthly) preferences when I went in.
We had our kitchen redone in 2007. The final act of the job was hooking up my dishwasher to the garbage disposal. I was so happy to finally have it all done. I cooked some real food and I was happy.
I filled up the dishwasher and ran it. Water all over the brand new floor. Plumber attached the drain hose from the dishwasher to the garbage disposal, but neglected to “punch out” the plastic piece that actually allowed the dishwasher to drain. I could understand if they botched a complicated job, but this was fairly by the books, in my opinion.
Is that true? Leaving the cap off and stopping hard will make ALL of your engine oil spill out of its container? I didn’t think oil was so sloshy.
I replaced a disposer in a hurry a few years ago and made the same mistake. Fortunately, all that happened was my DW failed to drain and I had to spend a few minutes contemplating appliance replacement or repair before the truth hit me.
As I understand it, oil is continuously circulated so it goes through the filter, and if there is a leak anywhere in the system (and particularly if there’s no filter in place), oil will continuously leak through it until there’s not enough for the pump to work (which is also not enough to lubricate anything).
I had a similar experience with an oil change place. Left the shop and drove about 2 miles and just as I got on the freeway the oil light came on. I took a chance and drove it back to the shop (in hindsight probably not a good idea, but apparently did not permanent harm).
Apparently when they replaced the oil filter, they didn’t remove the old gasket, and put the new filter and gasket on, so that the oil sprayed out between the 2 gaskets.
They paid to have my engine steam cleaned and checked by another shop to make sure there was not damage.