Anyone have a job that requires going into people's houses? (Rant)

Lancer007 wrote: In my experience as a mobile auto glass technician, nothing annoys me more than this. We give our customers a 2 hour window when we call them at 8 am the day of their appt. Sometimes these people are far too important for that large of a time frame and act all indignant when we show up and ask why no one is answering the door. If someone admits to not being home I always add 20 minutes to how far away they are. I will not wait more than 15 minutes for them. After 10 years of doing this I have yet to be disproven with this formula.

I'm at least a "good guy" customer for those situations. I leave the car unlocked in an easy to access spot and wax-pencil crosshairs around the chip. Even if I'm not there, it makes it impossible to not get the job done quickly and confidently. Last three techs loved it!

Mazda787b wrote: I have nothing that interesting, just mostly depressing stories of old and disabled people who have nobody to care for them. Nothing outside of hoarding, general messes, family drama, etc. Bed Bugs are unfortunately common. Some places I go into and I just want to burn my clothes afterward.

I just started in pest control and the first couple bad bed bug jobs I went to I was freaking out and getting all itchy lol.

Seeing the state of filth a frighteningly large percentage of people let their cars get to I have no doubt their houses are worse. And this thread confirms it. There's a thread on Reddit similar to this, some of the stories on there are more aweful than I could imagine, sad thing is I have no doubt that they're true.

Oh as soon as I see a roach, nothing gets set down on anything. Not my tool bag, not my meter, nothing.

Oh and I have some stories, don't get me started on the Pickle Juice Jar House, that's too much to type on a phone.

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote:

novaderrik wrote: how is it that there are still houses that aren't wired for cable tv any more?

I ask myself that everyday. Uh... because some of us don't watch TV?

Lesley wrote:

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote:

novaderrik wrote: how is it that there are still houses that aren't wired for cable tv any more?

I ask myself that everyday.

Uh... because some of us don't watch TV?

Well in most major older residential areas it's not uncommon to come across someone who has moved into a house once owned by an elderly person who didn't watch tv or didn't have cable, just an antenna.

However in most newer houses that are built especially in cookie cutter subdivisions, it is surprising to see houses that aren't wired or not wired properly.

Actually I wired the inside of the house, just needed cable guy to run from the pole to inside. Previous owner had a dish, and ran the wiring OUTSIDE the house. Just poked a hole in the wall where ever needed....

I don't have a job involving people's homes, but I do get the shiny happy people that call 5 minutes to closing, pleading with you to stay open until they get there since they're "only 2 blocks away". 20 minutes after closing they show up.

I finally stopped doing that after getting burned about a dozen times.

I get clients who tell me their appointment will only take 10 minutes, they are lying to try to have me stay there so they don't have to wait 5 minutes for me to return from a local eatery or coffee shop.

I automatically mentally expect then to be 60 minutes whenever they say this.

Gearheadotaku wrote: Actually I wired the inside of the house, just needed cable guy to run from the pole to inside. Previous owner had a dish, and ran the wiring OUTSIDE the house. Just poked a hole in the wall where ever needed....

This seems to be commonplace amongst service providers nowadays. My company stopped teaching wall fishing before I started here 7 years ago. My only two options (if no existing wiring is available) is to either come through the floor or through and exterior wall. I don't like it as much as some customers (because there are actually a lot who don't care), but the technicians don't get the time to do the wall fishing.

I do go to a lot of houses that have DirecTV, Dish, and AT&T, and they all run wiring on the outside.

The last 3 techs I had come to my house were right on time. Well, except for one. He called about an hour into the time window and said he would be late. He was responding to a simple service call that required him to basically rewire the house. The dispatcher screwed the jobs up. When he did show up, he was relieved that it was just a bad splitter. I felt like an idiot.

moparman76_69 wrote: I'm pretty sure we've already discussed how I do essentially what you do, but for satellite tv.

Say, what does it take for one of you guys to do an install without putting holes in my roof? Had DirecTV for many years in another house. Liked the service. Originally the dish was attached to the chimney, which was fine. Then they upgraded the dish and the installer put a tripod next to the chimney and anchored it with bolts through the shingles, gooping lots of roof sealant around it. Not only did that horrify me, but it became an issue when I sold the house. The buyer wanted the dish removed and the roof repaired.

I've since used only cable companies, but here I sit on Downtown Abbey night and the goddamned Uverse is out AGAIN! The wife is major pissed. I want to go back to satellite, but not if it entails putting a single hole in a shingle in my brand new house's roof.

we have Dish Network, and the dish is on a pole out in front of the deck that has support braces screwed to the deck to stabilize it... it's out of the way and doesn't look bad at all since there is a shrubbery right below it to hide the pole..

we had to move the pole a couple of feet last year when we added onto the deck, and i managed to get a better signal (95%) than the officially licensed installer that had originally installed the dish a few years ago (85%)..

In reply to Basil Exposition:

Tell the guy you want it on a pole. He'll probably tell you it'll be extra but if it's a hd install the pole mount is free per DirecTV.

iadr wrote:

:facepalm:

DrBoost wrote: I would say "I'll be home between 8 and noon, or noon and 5"

This. How the hell do people expect you to miss 4 to 5 hours of work for a 10 minute job?

Spoolpigeon wrote: I don't have a job involving people's homes, but I do get the shiny happy people that call 5 minutes to closing, pleading with you to stay open until they get there since they're "only 2 blocks away". 20 minutes after closing they show up. I finally stopped doing that after getting burned about a dozen times.

That's even worse. People wanted us to stay open late all the time when I worked @ Advance. It was even more infuriating when they'd come in an buy something bogus like air fresheners or solvent.

I especially hated when people would get upset for us not having something in stock on, let's say a Friday night. 8:30PM. I can have it by 7:00 the next morning, are you really planning on replacing a pinion crush sleeve within the next 12 hours in the dead of winter?

The last time a telecomm company had to work at my house, they told me they'd be there sometime between 10:00 AM and October.

In reply to iadr:

I facepalmed because I know it wasn't Comcast. That's a ploy for someone to leave their gate unlocked. We have door tags for situations like that.

Gearheadotaku wrote: Actually I wired the inside of the house, just needed cable guy to run from the pole to inside. Previous owner had a dish, and ran the wiring OUTSIDE the house. Just poked a hole in the wall where ever needed....

This THIS makes me truly scratch my head and say "You really don't give a E36 M3 about your house do you?"

Mazda787b wrote:

Spoolpigeon wrote: I don't have a job involving people's homes, but I do get the shiny happy people that call 5 minutes to closing, pleading with you to stay open until they get there since they're "only 2 blocks away". 20 minutes after closing they show up. I finally stopped doing that after getting burned about a dozen times.

That's even worse. People wanted us to stay open late all the time when I worked @ Advance. It was even more infuriating when they'd come in an buy something bogus like air fresheners or solvent. I especially hated when people would get upset for us not having something in stock on, let's say a Friday night. 8:30PM. I can have it by 7:00 the next morning, are you really planning on replacing a pinion crush sleeve within the next 12 hours in the dead of winter?

My service writers nephew works at the Rona home center here. At 3:50 on December 24, when they are scheduled to close at 4:00, and almost everybody had called in "sick" so he was the only guy in the warehouse, a customer pulled up and talked the desk guy into letting him "go back real quick" to get a bit of drywall...which turned into 23 4x12 sheets...and he had just gotten out of the hospital so he couldn't help load.