dont call unless its important

[ambrosia]

what do you guys find the most annoying part of being a gas engineer

my 3 rants are:

Customers who think fault finding shouldnt be chargeable, it takes time knowledge and skill to fault find a boiler, but apparently thats not appreciated when you tell them you dont work for free

Customers who when told an hourly rate think youre trying to con them, you might be charging them £60 an hour but its taken half an hour to drive here and it'll take half an hour back. Also out of that money comes parking, cost of running a van, cost of tools, qualifications etc etc

In fact customers who have watched too many cowboy builders programmes and think no matter what you do youre trying to rip them off and are suspicious of everything

Number one hate is people who keep ringing you to ask when youre going to be there, you have to stop what youre doing, answer the phone estimate how long, listen to them recap yet again what the problem is. then get off the phone and try and get back to what you were doing.
each time they ring it breaks your concentration, takes 5 to 10 minutes and theyve rang you 3 times in the last hour.
"yes i know its very cold and your heating isnt working, its not like i'm sitting at home playing Call of Duty with a spliff, i'm in the cold myself trying to fix everyones boilers. every time you call me you make me later so the question is what time do you want me to get there."
Either that or its the missus on the phone moaning because normal couples get to spend the weekend together

reason i'm ranting is i had a customer call 3 times in 40 minutes to ask me what time i'd be there this evening. each time he gave me a sob story of how cold he was, he then rang a forth time to say he was popping down the shop and to wait for him if i miraculously turned up early, i wasnt even due there for another 2 hours

 

[Barry98]

id off told him to phone someone else on the 3rd time of ringing. did you go ?

 

[SimonG]

Sounds the same as some of my oil jobs.

Monday, phone rings, unusual dialling code but I answer it anyway. A bloke from the west midlands who has a property up here with a mistral oil boiler. A local company has been fixing it for 3 months and there is still a problem and the tenant won't havwe this company back. Got my number through a referral. So can I help, yes but not until Thursday afternoon. Well they won't be home until 3.30, not a problem but I'm out at 6.00 on Thursday as two games of pool to play. So they phoned again today, tenant won't be in until 4.00 but that will be alright won't it? No, I get there at 4.00 spend at least an hour there, half an hour drive home, shower, tea, late, NO!. If they can't get themselves home half an hour early to get the boiler fixed then stuff them. Now booked in for saturday morning at premium rate.

If it wasn't for the fact that somebody else hasn't been able to fix it, I like a challenge, then I would have told them to stuff it permanent.

 

[ambrosia]

yep, pressure had dropped on his boiler, could have fixed it in 5 seconds but desided to drag it out as long as possible

 

[Roger Welton]

id off told him to phone someone else on the 3rd time of ringing. did you go ?

I'm sorry due to the high volume of calls recieved this afternoon I won't be able to get to you untill tomorrow afternoon :tounge_smile:

It always seems to be the younger ones that can't wait for me the old dears seem to put an extra blanket on and say there's no rush.

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

:iagree:with bod

 

[Barry98]

cos the young are soft and think there owed everything

 

[Leo21]

Sounds about right to me. Turn the phone of at weekends now, only go out if last weeks installs leaking or not working. I always give rough times now, say between 2and4. Then they ring at 5 past 2 and say where are you! Oh the joys of being self employed and earning an apparent 100k a year!

 

[ambrosia]

the joys of being self employed and earning an apparent 100k a year!

have you been reading those start a new career ads from the colleges, apparently there is a massive shortage of plumbers, spend £7000 on one of those courses and you'll be driving a merc within a year

 

[Leo21]

Maybe as a taxi driver! I've been in the trade for 25 years, and m still learning. It actually gives me a cold shiver when I think back on my confidence skill ratio from way back. You can't learn this trade from a classroom. You need experience.