Today's Rant - What Would You Do?

[OGputtnfool]

I'm not sure this is a single rant: why don't people who are unfamiliar with a product read instructions? Why don't they ask the question first? Why is it always the manufacturer's fault when they've gone ahead and guessed only to get it wrong? Why do they always seem to guess incorrectly?

If you did this type of thing for a living, and I gave you a unit with 3 connections but you only had to use 2, where would you start?

• Pride. I guess they think they've done similar jobs before and they're too proud to admit they don't know what they're doing.
• See above. I never have understood it either. As a supervisor, I'd much rather have people ask questions than screw stuff up.
• Well, because it couldn't possibly be their fault... right?
• You've got me on that one. I mean, even when it's a 50/50 shot, it seems like they always get it wrong.
• Oh, I'm a question asker. If anything, I ask the same one over and over sometimes 2 or 3 times. I admit, it does get annoying sometimes, but I'd rather ask it too many times than not enough times.

 

[Scorp]

Sometimes it looks like common sense is all that is needed. Other times not so much... read the manual.

 

[Scorp]

But at least you've got installation instructions. My wife wanted a new shelf for the home office and the instructions to put it together only went to page 2. The rest of the pages were blank. Common sense and dealing with these types of things before got it together.

 

[Junkyard]

Thanks for all of the responses; it's reassuring to know that this happens to other people as well as sometimes it just feels like I'm always the common denominator.

On the plus side, I was back to this site this morning and everything went off without a hitch. Chatted with the installer for a good half hour when we were done and he apologized and thanked me for taking it in stride. He owned up to the mistake, put his head down and got it fixed.

 

[Danimal]

Thanks for all of the responses; it's reassuring to know that this happens to other people as well as sometimes it just feels like I'm always the common denominator.

On the plus side, I was back to this site this morning and everything went off without a hitch. Chatted with the installer for a good half hour when we were done and he apologized and thanked me for taking it in stride. He owned up to the mistake, put his head down and got it fixed.

I just had one today....one of our project guys sold a job to move a 2002 Carrier up to the roof from grade. My service tech called me as he was starting it up and told me I needed to come out. Economizer was gone, huge refrigerant leak in the coil and one of the compressors was locked up. Now we have to eat the cost of the repair and tell the customer that we stepped in it. If the project guy gave me a call to check out the unit before hand, we condemn the unit and provide a good solution. Now we appear to be a clown show.

 

[Scorp]

Thanks for all of the responses; it's reassuring to know that this happens to other people as well as sometimes it just feels like I'm always the common denominator.

On the plus side, I was back to this site this morning and everything went off without a hitch. Chatted with the installer for a good half hour when we were done and he apologized and thanked me for taking it in stride. He owned up to the mistake, put his head down and got it fixed.

That's like the second best possible outcome... Best outcome would have been proper installation the first time. Maybe the installer learned a lesson... read the directions.

 

[Scorp]

I just had one today....one of our project guys sold a job to move a 2002 Carrier up to the roof from grade. My service tech called me as he was starting it up and told me I needed to come out. Economizer was gone, huge refrigerant leak in the coil and one of the compressors was locked up. Now we have to eat the cost of the repair and tell the customer that we stepped in it. If the project guy gave me a call to check out the unit before hand, we condemn the unit and provide a good solution. Now we appear to be a clown show.

Ooh, sorry to hear that... but why would your company look like a clown show? It's not your fault the unit was barely operating...

 

[Danimal]

Ooh, sorry to hear that... but why would your company look like a clown show? It's not your fault the unit was barely operating...

The guy who sold the project to move the unit works for us and should have known that was a no-go to begin with. He didn’t verify that the unit was even operational. Just a very poor decision to move an obsolete unit at the end of useful life.