13 People Whose Home Repairs Didn’t Go According to the Plan

When you call a handyman, you want them to take care of your problem as quickly as possible, not create new ones. And hardly anyone expects surprises from their visit. But if everything went smoothly, we wouldn’t read these fascinating stories.

• Evening. The doorbell rings: 2 plumbers say they have come to remove a clog. I reply that I don’t have a clog, but they insist. One goes in, the other goes to the floor below. The plumber that I have shuts off the riser, and then out of the blue asks for money for removing the clog. I say that I never had it and I didn’t call him. Plumber, “Here is the order: house 35, building 1, flat 57.” And I say, “Yes, this is house 35, flat 57, but the building is number 2.” Silence. © vyacheslav tuchkov / Dzen
• A relative is a fridge repair technician. We called him to fix ours, for money, of course. He postponed the visit for 3 days, then he came and said, “Let’s drink some tea!” We drank tea for 2 hours, then he said, “Maybe you have something to eat?” Well, we set the table. He sits there, and I ask him, “What should we do with the fridge?” And then he goes, “Oh, I’m so tired. Let’s just eat, shall we?”
• I called a technician, told him how and where to go. He’s not here. I call. A cheerful voice says he’s almost there. I wait. No technician. I call. A confused voice says that he must have got a bit lost — he’s on foot. And it’s −4°F outside. It’s already dark, I had to go look for him. We found him, fed him, warmed him, showed him the fridge. He said, “I don’t know what’s wrong with it.” We put him in a neighbor’s car and sent him home. We gave him some money, mittens, they left. 10 minutes later, the neighbor calls — he’s stuck. We went to pull the car out. An hour and a half later, we did it. We came home and laughed. What a day the technician had. And it turns out the fridge was just frozen. We moved it to a warmer place, and it works fine. © Ekaterina Kuznetsova / Dzen
• Our electric “smart stove” broke down. I called a tech, and he took it away for diagnostics. It turned out that it was impossible to fix it. I said that I won’t take it back because I don’t need scrap metal at home. It’s been a year! Now this bloke calls, “I’ve fixed it! You just need to pay for the new part!”

• I used to have an old TV set, a huge one. Suddenly the color was gone. I went to the workshop a block away, and they said to bring it in. I was terrified, I could barely persuade the tech to come over to my place at lunchtime. The tech came, I’m in the kitchen with my friend. And then I hear the tech’s voice, “Ma’am, are you kidding? Your color button is pressed!” I laughed till tears — probably my child pressed it. And the tech is like, “I would have laughed even more if you had brought it to us.” © Galina K. / Dzen
• Our refrigerator once broke down, freon leaked out. Summer, heat, the freezer full of meat, and the fridge is only 3 years old. I call the tech from an ad. A man in his fifties came. He was working on our fridge for 3 hours, complaining that he had to go to the countryside. All in all, he burned the linoleum, used all the freon he had brought with him. He said he didn’t know what to do. So he left and said that we needed to buy a new refrigerator. I called another tech. A boy of about 20 years old came. He looked very unprofessional, but did everything in 30 minutes. I was surprised, I said, “Why couldn’t the first tech fix it?” The boy explained that our refrigerator was a new model, and the tech who’d come before him could probably only repair old ones. And this boy was always learning how to fix new appliances. © Inga / Dzen
• I was in a hairdresser’s salon for coloring. The windows were open, and the air conditioner broke down! A technician came. He poked something outside with a stick and asked for a stepladder. He disassembled something there, examined it. His verdict — the air conditioner is old, it can’t be repaired, send it to trash. He demanded his fee and left. I was stunned. I said that maybe the batteries in the remote control should be changed? They did. It worked! They gave me a discount on hair coloring. © Zhora Majora / Dzen

• The washing machine broke down. The tech arrived and asked me not to interfere and to leave him alone with the patient. After a while I heard the front door slam. He left silently. We thought that maybe he had some tools in the car. My husband caught up with him, asked what happened to the machine. He said it was dead. He must have been a doctor in his past life. © Incognito 0644 / Dzen
• One time the Bell guy came to my apartment to fix my internet and cable box. I let him do his thing in the living room and I went to hang out in my room with the door open in case he needed anything. After an hour I was like okay what is up, he hasn’t said anything, so I went to check, and the man was on my couch casually watching TV. I asked if it was all fixed and he said yup, and proceeded to stay for another 30 mins. © kmcdingus / Reddit
• I moved into a new house 6 months ago. I pay the utility bills regularly. Then suddenly in the evening the heating was cut off. We called the plumbers, and they waved their hands, the reason wasn’t found. In the morning the story continues: none of the techs can help, as there is no obvious reason for the breakdown. As it turned out later, my meter and the meter of the neighboring flat that wasn’t occupied were mixed up, and I paid according to their meter. I thought this only happens in movies! © Overheard / Ideer

• I was working as a shop manager, and the siphon under the sink needed to be replaced. I called a handyman. A muscled, tanned, handsome man in a white linen suit came. He started working under the sink in that outfit. He worked well, but the girls were shocked: while he was working, he paralyzed the work of the shop. © Galina K. / Dzen
• The company I worked for installed vinyl siding, windows, metal roofs, etc. on new construction and remodels. We had just finished installing vinyl on this blind man’s house, and he said he wanted to inspect it. So we kind of laughed to ourselves as he was walking around outside with his walking stick, when he said, “You guys aren’t done. There is a piece unlocked.” And we were like, “What?” He walked right up to the only piece of vinyl that wasn’t completely locked, and pulled that sucker of the wall. © bennetteatsbrains / Reddit
• When we came to study in China, my friends and I rented a flat. There was no hot water in that building, so everyone used boilers. Ours didn’t work. We tweaked it, knocked on it, but all in vain. For 2 months we washed in a basin, heating water in pots. We got tired of it and called a technician. He came, pressed a button on the wall, and the boiler worked. Turns out we hadn’t turned it on. I have never felt so embarrassed. © Overheard / Ideer

And here’s another bunch of stories about handymen who have to deal with various kinds of customers.