15+ Stories From Handymen Who Have to Deal With All Kinds of Customers

Most often we read customer reviews online, they can be positive or not so much. But handymen also have a lot to say about their customers and the peculiarities of their work. And it doesn’t matter in what industry these specialists work — plumbing, electricity or cars. Almost every one of them has a funny story to tell. And sometimes even more than one story.

• I’m renovating a flat. I am building a partition, judging by the construction level everything is even and beautiful, but something is wrong. I suspended a string with a nut — the wall is slanted for almost an inch in height. The level bubble is strictly in the middle. I turned it 180° — the bubble went sideways.
  And about 10 years ago, my father laid tiles in the bathroom and couldn’t understand why the tiles were all crooked. Yeah, he didn’t throw away that defective level and gave it to me now. Thanks, Dad! © Perdurator / Pikabu

• An old couple bought an LCD TV set in winter. In spring, they bring it to the service and say that the sound on all channels disappears from time to time. They left it for diagnostics and went home.
  The tech was checking the TV for a few days and found nothing. He called the couple, but they didn’t pick up the phone. They came back only a month later and took the TV set home.
  The next time, they brought it to the service, saying that it switched off by itself. It was checked, and everything worked fine. They took it back after a month again. It turned out that they left the TV set for storage because they were afraid that it would be stolen. © Podslushano / VK
• Went to set up a radiologist’s home office so he could work from there. He was a young (35) guy, in good health, looked normal. His house looked like a 70-year-old hoarder, stack of newspapers and magazines, boxes of food and trash. © Zapthyself / Reddit
• Last week I got a phone call.
  — Hello. I’ve got a problem with my heating system, it’s not working properly, I need help.
  — Okay. What happened? It’s a small thing or—
  — Here’s the thing. I ordered a heating system installation. And my wife complained that the tech started to hit on her. So, we kicked him out. But I didn’t change the lock on the door.
  So the tech came back when I wasn’t home. It seems that he didn’t spoil anything, but then it turned out that all radiators are warm in a different way. Some are hot, some are warm, some are slightly warm.
  The customer said that he called another team. The guys walked around, looked, tried to adjust, and couldn’t do anything. He called others then. Anyway, I’m the fourth.
  I arrived. Indeed, there was a complete mess with the radiators. I already guessed what and how that tech could do, who wanted to get back at the customer. He had inserted a long piece of a pipe of smaller diameter into the main line so that the pressure in the whole system was not evenly distributed. I quickly figured out the problem.
  The conclusion is simple. Separate personal life from work. © findeler / Pikabu
• I work as a telecommunicator: fix wires, deliver Internet to homes. I receive a request that the Internet doesn’t work. There is a note: “The client is fussy, so we need to make everything quickly.” We call — silence. We approach the house, there is someone there, but they wouldn’t open.
  Tech support calls the client. And he’s like, “You called me from an unknown number, I don’t answer calls like this and don’t open the door to strangers.” This is despite the fact that the car is branded, and we are in uniform with logos. © Wanderer with a camera / Dzen

• I work in technical support for home Internet, and I appeal on behalf of all providers: dear subscribers, if you and the operator are rebooting your computer, waiting for something to upload, or doing something that can be done without words, please do it silently. Let the operator be silent for a bit, it is sacred for them! © Overheard / Ideer
• Went to quote a renovation for a family. Older home, plywood floor, lawn furniture, both bathrooms ripped apart — one had a functioning toilet and shower, no sink, the other was gutted. Walked away after I gave them a deal on my pricing because I felt bad for them, and they tore my quote apart and demanded my reasoning for charging labor. © Localbeezer166 / Reddit
• I work as a builder. A girl calls, asks to come over and quote a renovation. I try to clarify what kind of work we’re talking about and generally what needs to be done.
  — Come over and have a look.
  — You see, I don’t go out to look at small volumes, I do them immediately, the price list is up-to-date, all the work is done strictly in accordance with it. I can certainly come and take a look, but it’s for a fee. Maybe you’d better explain on the phone?
  — Why is it so expensive?
  — Miss, please understand that it’s my time. To come to you, to look, to leave. This trip takes a lot of time, hence the price.
  — And if there was a lot of work, would you go for free?!
  — Yes.
  — Now I understand that you don’t want money. You don’t want to work. And you’re so arrogant! © findeler / Pikabu
• I work in the household appliance service company. I came to the scheduled visit, the owner shows what to do. And then my wife comes out of the bathroom, wearing a bathrobe. And she “went to visit a friend” a day earlier.
  She looks at me terrified and whispers, “It’s not what you think.” Turned out they’d been dating for a long time. She and I are now divorced. © Overheard / Ideer

• I’m 20 years old, and I’m an experienced car mechanic. I do almost all kinds of work on the engine and chassis. And I’m so annoyed when people come, take the car to the repair area and, as soon as they see me next to their car, rush to the service adviser, and then to me and breathe down my neck.
  They can’t understand that if I didn’t know what I was doing, I would have been fired a long time ago. And if you googled or your friends told you what should be done, do it yourself. © Overheard / VK
• It happened many years ago. I worked as a plumber, as well as now. I arrived to install a towel dryer. I quote the job, but the client doesn’t agree, says that he called some other random handyman, and their quote was twice cheaper.
  No problem, I tell him to call that handyman and am about to leave. But the client insists that I should do it because I was recommended to him. But he keeps on insisting that this “simple” job can’t cost that much.
  So, I made him a unique offer. I’ll lend him all my tools and materials for free, and he’ll do this “simple” job himself. The client refused, saying, “I didn’t study for 6 years to twist nuts.” So, I didn’t install that towel dryer. © maik972 / Pikabu
• I work as a technician in a boiler house. It’s equipped with an autodialer. That is, if the temperature in the heating pipe falls below a certain level, a sensor is triggered and a call comes to my mobile phone. Now I leave the boiler room with the words, “Call me if anything!” © Overheard / VK
• I worked for a carpet cleaning agency for about 7 years. The house I was scheduled for first thing in the morning was an average house, 4 bedroom and 2 bathrooms. When they opened the door, the first thing that hit me was the odor. I initially thought “that smells like burnt breakfast, maybe toast” nothing crazy.
  Then I saw the areas that they wanted me to clean. They wanted 1 living room and their stairs and landing cleaned. However, after going through the areas with my black light (checking for urine areas so as so apply the appropriate cleaning method), the entire living room lit up. There was more urine in that carpet than fabric.
  Turns out the folks had an 82-pound dog that they let have free reign over the house. The urine was so intense that I actually referred her to a Hazardous cleanup company. The pad and carpet were so saturated with urine that had I cleaned it, I would’ve easily created an unlivable situation.
  She was devastated when I told her there was nothing that could be done by a simple cleaning, that even using a water claw to remove the urine would result in them having to sand down roughly a quarter inch of wood underneath to get the house back to normal. © Damien687 / Reddit

• I work at a factory. It so happened that I had to paint parts for a week. We paint them with a sprayer, the paint is pressurized from a tank. I had a sore neck at the time and couldn’t turn it, so I turned the whole body like Robocop.
  So, I’m standing, painting, everything is normal. I hear someone calling me, I turn round to see what’s wrong. And my hand with the sprayer turns together with my body. I painted the foreman from the front. No one came into the paint shop during my shift after that. © Podsheshano / VK
• I used to work in a car service. A car arrives, the whole body needs to be repainted. I quote the job, the client leaves. 6 months later, that same weirdo comes back. The paint on his car is cracked like the Sahara desert. I can pick it with my fingernail.
  I ask where he got it painted, he says that he got it painted in another place, because it was a little cheaper. This time the price was 3 times higher than the last time, so that he wouldn’t agree. He left to look for a cheaper place. © silverleon / Pikabu
• I work as an interior designer. I come to the object, an old house, where a team of electricians is working. I enter and see how a tech’s perforator softly enters the wall, and half of the wall just falls out.
  And inside... a bed net, pieces of rebar, pieces of planks, roofing felt, rotten rags and even a shoe. The builders apparently made walls out of construction rubbish instead of bricks. © Podsushano / VK

And if you are now dealing with renovations yourself, check out this article about renovation mistakes.