Meeting people as a mechanic.

[talisman]

That business establishment would have mysteriously burned to the ground a week later.....

I would have had a tow truck picking up my box within an hour, and spent the rest of my day at the court house filling out the forms for small claims. Also would have contacted the Department of Labor.

[Rotortrash]

Love this thread!

You'd think that the stupidity would be not as prevelant in the aviation world. Not the case.

In addition to my full time job, I maintain a few helicopters on the side for some extra $$. I had one customer in paticular that would do everything he could to get out of doing any type of maintenance. He used to keep his helicopter in his front yard in Southlake. Some of you may have seen it while driving down 1709.

He brought it in for somthing small, but upon inspection it turned out to have a LARGE oil leak. It was close to its annual inspection, so I talked him into leaving with me to do the inspection, and fix the oil leak. This in itself was no small task, he flew that thing EVERYWHERE.
As I started the inspection, I climbed up to have a look at the main rotor blades. I wish I had kept the pictures, there was so much hail damage the blades looked like golf balls! On this helicopter, there is a limit to how big the dents can be. I picked one of the larger ones to measure and sure enough, the blades were not airworthy. Turned out, that the tailboom was also destined for the scrapyard due to the hail damage.
When I called him to deliver the news, he said "yeah, it was outside during that last hail storm. I didn't think the hail would hurt it". He had been flying it around for a couple months, not even knowing that the blades were damaged, much less not even airworthy. So much for doing preflight inspections.
This led to months worth of conversations, trying to convince me that the bleades did not need to be replaced, and that I should just sign them off and let him be on his way. I finally told him that if he didn't want to fix it, I'd be happy to roll it out for him to pick up, but it would not be signed off.
Ultimately, he claimed it on his insurance and we fixed it. I charged him accordingly, including storage fees for the months I had to endure while he tried to find a way out of fixing it.

[stephen4785]

I would have had a tow truck picking up my box within an hour, and spent the rest of my day at the court house filling out the forms for small claims. Also would have contacted the Department of Labor.

Young and dumb at the time.
I was going to quit that Monday after I got my check but I ended up getting fired. I replaced and egr tube on an 80's F150 due to an exhaust leak. I didnt notice the manifold gasket leaking due to the loud ass egr tube leaking. My manager told me that I was going to pay for the gasket and do the job for free which I declined. He fired me for insubordination. On the way out he told me he was going to roll my tool box out in the street. I backed him into a corner and then stuck my finger in his eye and informed him that if anyone touched my box I would assume it was him and he would find out what happened. Came back latter to pick up my box and it hadnt moved. The service manager suddenly had to go somewhere when I showed backup.

[BP]

Fixed that for ya.

Had a guy call on Monday and say that his truck got broken into and that they stole his battery. He wanted to get a new one from us because his battery was still under warranty. I had to, in great detail, explain the difference between a warranty and an insurance policy.

You could also pencil in Aamco. A lot of them are doing heavy line work now. It's really hard to find a good technician these days.

[talisman]

Young and dumb at the time.
I was going to quit that Monday after I got my check but I ended up getting fired. I replaced and egr tube on an 80's F150 due to an exhaust leak. I didnt notice the manifold gasket leaking due to the loud ass egr tube leaking. My manager told me that I was going to pay for the gasket and do the job for free which I declined. He fired me for insubordination. On the way out he told me he was going to roll my tool box out in the street. I backed him into a corner and then stuck my finger in his eye and informed him that if anyone touched my box I would assume it was him and he would find out what happened. Came back latter to pick up my box and it hadnt moved. The service manager suddenly had to go somewhere when I showed backup.

Young and dumb happens, and happened to me quite a few times at work before I hit about 21. Nice follow up though! lol

[Cooter]

young and dumb happened to me when I was pulling an old POS off the service drive... turns out the clutch hydraulics were out. Nobody told me. The car jumped forward when I tried to start it and broke a tail lense on the car in front of it.

Service manager told me he would take the $350 out of my check $50 a week. Young and dumb picked up my check on Friday and never went back because fuck them

[Binky]

Shadetree -

Guy from Canada wanted me to help fix his 98GT that had a busted intake due to the coolant issue. Ok, bring it over, I've done about 20 of them for various members. Oh No, it's stuck at his GF's apartment in the ghetto because he already pulled the intake and realized he didn't know wtf he was doing. So I tell him we can just tow it over and I head over the next afternoon with my truck and a buddies car trailer.

He didn't mention that was 9 MONTHS AGO.

I drove up on the car and it is barn find dirty. Winter, Spring and Summer. The intake was sitting in the trunk, so the heads were rusty and had animal nests in the intake ports. Tires were a mix of dry rotted and flat. Busted passenger window. The car was a POS.

There was no way I was getting that car up on the trailer in that condition - needed a flat bed with a winch to drag it up. I damn sure wasn't going to get out of my car for any longer than 15 minutes in that area.

He copped an attitude, so I left him there and went home.

[JimD]

LOL awesome post! Did a motor job several years ago, still LMAO at the poor lady, she "checked" her oil.... couldn't see it(didn't pull stick, just the oil fill cap) so she filled it till she could.
Gotta lol @ the fool i work for, he was on phone with some goof ball looking for an engine for some pile of junk caddy. He told him "sir, you don't need an engine, you need a vehicle".

[LaserSVT]

I had a kid ask me if I could stroke his 3.8 Mustang to a V8.

[homealone]

LOL awesome post! Did a motor job several years ago, still LMAO at the poor lady, she "checked" her oil.... couldn't see it(didn't pull stick, just the oil fill cap) so she filled it till she could.
.

I've never worked for a shop but I did push parts years ago. We had a guy do the same thing. Came in, bought a case of oil and left. Came back later to buy more and mentioned that he had already put a case in and it still wasn't full.

[Baron Von Crowder]

I've never worked for a shop but I did push parts years ago. We had a guy do the same thing. Came in, bought a case of oil and left. Came back later to buy more and mentioned that he had already put a case in and it still wasn't full.

I was training a guy that was fresh out of one of the tech schools, and made the mistake of going to the parts counter while he was "filling" a truck with oil. He stopped when it was leaking out of the valve cover.

[BP]

I was training a guy that was fresh out of one of the tech schools, and made the mistake of going to the parts counter while he was "filling" a truck with oil. He stopped when it was leaking out of the valve cover.

I switched the gauge on our gun from quarts to gallons once and watched the A tech pump 5 gallons into his 350 and start it. He was not only stealing bulk oil but now he was wasting it!

[JimD]

I was training a guy that was fresh out of one of the tech schools, and made the mistake of going to the parts counter while he was "filling" a truck with oil. He stopped when it was leaking out of the valve cover.

LMFAO what a tool!
We got a fairly regular customer that has a 95ish buick century that is a major pile, it needs 1 of everything.... Owner claims its a manual shifting automatic,LOL. He was correct, dump it in D...nothing, gotta go to 1st then up. Worked on same car just about a month ago, it now has one of those DUI breath things in it. So i go out with boss to review with owner the complaint and he starts to go over the procedure to get car to start. I stopped him midsentence and said i'm not blowing on that thing, i'll just bypass it. He looked at me and asked,"you know how to do that"......LOL Yep

EDIT.. i did reconnect it for that troll

[mustang1200]

Along time ago I had an Asian customer who's speedo didn't work. The speedo drive cable had broken and needed to be replaced. I reviewed with the customer the cost associated with the repair and she approved the repair. She came to pick up the vehicle and wanted a discount and I told her she could clip the coupon from the local paper for the 10% discount. She stated she didn't have time for that and wanted the discount anyway. I explained to her I was unable to do that and she got irate. Mind you I could have given her the discount, but she was rude from the start so I stuck to my guns. She refused to pay without the discount. I went out to the car and promptly cut the cable loose from the transmission and again at the firewall. She was livid after I had done this. I told her she owed me nothing and to have a nice day.

[JP135]

I always liked the signs in my buddy's shop:

HOURLY LABOR CHARGES:
$25 per hour
$50 if you watch
$200 if you help


On his tool chest:
I don't ask to borrow your wife.
Don't ask to borrow my tools.