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Vent: One perfect Tuesday then a Friday that made me question everything
Last week I had the smoothest day in months. Three calls in Greenville, all easy fixes. A dryer that just needed the belt, a dishwasher with a clogged pump, and a fridge that was tripping the breaker because the outlet was bad. In and out by 2pm, made $420, felt like a genius.
Then Friday hit. First job was a washer that the customer swore was shaking. Got there, it was leveled wrong, easy fix. Second call, an oven not heating. Element was fine, thermostat was fine, turned out the wire connector had melted. Took me two hours to dig it out and rewire. Third call, I walk in and the guy says "my fridge is making a weird noise" and points to a brand new model. I open it up and there's a mouse nest in the compressor fan. Mouse had chewed through the wiring harness. Took me forever to clean that out and patch it.
By 6pm I was covered in grease and dryer lint, made less than the Tuesday job, and my van smelled like dead mouse. Same trade, same week, totally different story. Do you all ever get weeks where one day makes you feel like you know everything and another makes you wonder if you should just quit? What's the worst surprise you've found inside a unit that made you rethink your rates?
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jordanr422d ago
Did you see that thread on the HVAC forum about the guy who found a snake skeleton wrapped around a blower motor? That story stuck with me because it shows how you never know what you're walking into, even on a unit that looks brand new. The advice in there was to just tack on a "surprise fee" for anything that takes more than an hour past the estimate, and honestly that seems fair for stuff like your mouse nest mess.
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