Ever have a stupid day?

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Apple Valley, California
Where everything goes wrong?

Started with a 97 Chevy pickup. Simple AC job, compressor, dryer and orifice tube. The tube is in the line at the condensor and the aluminum nut and aluminum condensor have become one piece. I tried heat, oil, hammering and no go.

Had to sell the customer a condensor and line also.

Got that all done and the system won't hold vacuum. I pressure tested it and the front seal on the new Delphi compressor is blowing nitrogen out.

Pushed that one back out.

Car #2. A 89 Taurus. We checked this one out 3 weeks ago. The AC works except that the low side AC line thats part of the Accumulator leaks.

Put a new line/ Accumulator on it, charged it and no power to the compressor. Body control module is dead and thats what turns the compressor on or off. 2 weeks to get one from Ford.

Pushed that one back out next to the Chevy pickup.

#3... 72 Chevy Chevelle. I installed the customers rebuilt compressor. I thought it was odd that the box had oil all inside it.

Front seal on this one is leaking too! Customer drove away in this one w/o AC.

I had a shock bushing on my Jeep fail so I took them back to A-Zone to exchange them. Put on the new shocks and I immediatly notice that it rides terrible. It's bouncing all over.

Feels like they forgot to add oil to the shock when they built it. I can bounce on it, walk away and it's still bouncing.

Swell
 
Doesn't sound like a Stupid Day. More like "Everything I Touch Turns To #$%&" day.

Stupid Day is like one I had recently. Forgot to charge my cell phone, so it died during the work day. Forgot to take my prox card to work so I could not clock in. A simple sale took 2X as long because I completely spaced several parts of the sales process and had to duplicate efforts several times. Stupid Day is the day you should have never got out of bed.

But, yeah, I know the feeling. Think we all do.
 
That is why it is called work! When I was working there were weeks that I felt invinciable Mr. perfect himself. Then there were times everything that could go wrong did go wrong. It is normal. A few months ago I put a set of KYB gas shocks on a friends car and as soon as the car was lowered to the ground 1 shock leaked oil . It didnt leak when I pumped it before installing it.
 
There are times when you can sorta read the cosmic writing on the walls. After two or three senseless "stumbles" early on ..I'm either on guard and prepared for the next avalanche of calamity ..or resigned to it.

It's sorta like a much milder version of Final Destination.
 
Chris, I bet tomorrow is a better day.
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Hey Chris, add in screaming/crying customers refusing or unable to pay their shop bill and you'll get why I'm not in the auto service field anymore! After a rash of re-do's and comebacks I have switched parts suppliers more than a few times, only to find the new parts were just as bad as the first ones. In fact, a some suppliers only relabel what they purchase and you are getting the same reman or rebuilder in a different box. I hate filling claims.

When the line of come backs and re-dos is long it sure makes it hard to get to work on them...Next week is a new day! Good Luck!
 
Bad quality parts and the opposite of serendipity = bad things happining. Does not matter how good you are. I pride myself on doing a good job and can't believe how things go sometimes.

Hope things go better next week.
 
Originally Posted By: Scott_Tucker
It could be worse. One of my co-workers wrecked a customers 1967 Corvette w/ 427 tri-power yesterday.


Ooooo wow that's a phone call you don't want to make. Guess it was a driver, since it was being driven, and hope it wasn't a numbers matching restoration. Still not going to make a happy customer. Guess thats where the insurance comes in! Sorry to hear of it. I know of a shop where a numbers matching 68 big block Corvette went in for a pant job and came out with a small block...the argument just about came to gunfire.
 
Originally Posted By: Scott_Tucker
It could be worse. One of my co-workers wrecked a customers 1967 Corvette w/ 427 tri-power yesterday.


There is actually an upside to that - that customer probably won't be returning...
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Originally Posted By: Scott_Tucker
It could be worse. One of my co-workers wrecked a customers 1967 Corvette w/ 427 tri-power yesterday.
Well ya that is definatly worse than my day. Things like that are why I do not like to drive cars like that. It wont be the 88 Plymouth minivan that gets banged on the test drive or in the driveway it will be a Camaro/Mustang/Impala/GTO/Corvette/GS/Chevelle/Cobra or any other rare or sought after car.

I'll let my boss move those around so I'm innocent if it gets banged up
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I just got home from replacing the 2nd set of shocks. These are much better. I can have em swapped out in 10 minutes now.
 
I've had several late night pages this week (I'm on call) but only two where I actually had to roll out and do something.

Folks on the other side of the world work the calls and when they think they have a solution, they page it out, without regard to when the customer wants service, what level of service entitlement the customer has, etc.

So most of my sleep disturbing pages have been for calls that will happen M-F 8-5 (or 8-8).

I was paged 3x last night, only the final page resulted in an actual after hours service call.

So this week is FULL of stupid nights!
 
I had the privilege to work with my grandfather on some jobs. He was a master carpenter, among his business duties of well-drilling in central Florida, he also did just about anything house or mechanically related (plumbing, building, roofing etc.).

He had a rule and I live by it as well. You have 3 mistakes (or stupid moments) per day. Once he hit the 3rd one, he quit for the day (and I'm not joking). He always said it made better business sense to stop rather than fix everything you're messing up.

I don't think the rule applies to parts or tools not working correctly, because he also had another rule I live by: Don't get mad, just get a bigger hammer.
 
bigmike, that's sound advice. I'll have to remember that one from your grandfather. Lord only knows how many times I did NOT adhere to that and costs me way more that it should have. Worse day for me??? Saying "I do" to the ex-wife.
 
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