Funny service calls...

[modessitt]

Those of us who've been in the service business for any length of time have had those calls where the job is so simple or hilarious that it makes you wonder how you can justify charging them for coming out (but you do anyway).

Like the lady who called me because her pinball wouldn't start when she pushed the button and it turned out that it was because she was pushing the coin return button.

Or the world-famous movie director who called me out to his huge gameroom because his new Arcade Legends would no longer come on when he flipped the light switch connected to the plug the game was connected to, only for me to find that someone had turned off the cabinet switch on top of the game.

This comes to mind because of a call I scheduled today. One of our multi-billionaire game-developer customers keeps about 40 of his own original arcades in the hallways at the company for the employees to play. Six of these games are situated in one of the upstairs foyer and are the first thing you see when the elevatorrs open. Well, it seems someone got into the Joust and went into the menu and programmed a non-family-friendly message as the attract message. They tried to go into it to erase it, but somehow messed up the settings, so now it won't start (probably off of free play) and just keeps displaying the nasty message. So - I get to go out in the morning to fix it.

Anyone have some other funny stories?

 

[noice87]

Don't forget to post what the message says... reminds me of the Friends episode where they were playing Pac or Ms Pac and one fo the guy charaters got the high score and put in initals for something bad. (You can't keep High Scores in Pac but on the show you could). SO then they had to try and beat that score to erase the bad initals.

 

[jsquared]

I get service calls wear I just have to change a light bulb. People with no common sense deserve to pay for our service. Seriously

 

[tec9]

I have a few guys I do routine maintaince for. On my last visit, I propped up the playfield on one of his pinball machines. Once it was propped up, I saw my 1/4 nutdriver sitting in the bottom of the cabinet. I worked on this machine about a year ago, and must have left it in there! I went nuts looking around the house for it, and finally decided it was lost for good. A pleasant surprise to find it a year later!
-Mark

 

[Fibonacci]

My favorite was a lady whose computer I would go work on. She called me over at least once a week for a couple months. She would call because the computer wouldn't do anything.

The problem was that her keyboard was unplugged EVERY TIME.

Turned out that her cat would climb up the back of the computer and pull that one cable out every time.

 

[mariosim]

i used to get stuck going to people's houses to troubleshoot their new "defective" cordless phones. you would be amazed how many people would not connect the battery and charge it for days on end. "instructions? we don't need no stinkin' instructions!"

 

[GameRoomKid]

For these "funny" house calls, how much do you guys charge? If it is something as silly as an unplugged cord, or whatever.. do you still have to charge a full price for repair? Now that would be funny!!

 

[stealth1290]

I know when I used to do house call computer repair I would charge the base 50 bucks just to get me out there... Funny when it would turn out to be an "Oh, you don't have the monitor plugged in" type deal (happened a ton). But then there's those jobs where I just couldn't get the computer to function properly (short of re-installing the OS) and those haunt me to this day!

 

[Roadrunner000]

Which world famous director was this...you can PM me if you want to keep it secret but I have to know...love these people that fun muli million dollar operations..but don't know how to turn games on and off...

 

[mariosim]

i used to wire alot of bars for karoake about 10 years ago. just a few ab switches and coax. the cocky bartenders never listened to me when i showed them how to plug in ONE coax cable and push a few buttons.

those panicked friday night calls were a goldmine for free beer and hush money.

 

[davin72]

Im sure i know who it is and i know the game developer too, but i live here so i hear things all the time. Ill let him tell you though.

 

[Riptor]

My brother works on medical equipment and now just does on-site and phone support. You wouldnt believe how many times the things just dont work because they are unplugged. These are the people in charge of saving your lives. It blows my mind to think about the amount of people in this world with absolutly no common sense whatsoever.

 

[modessitt]

For these "funny" house calls, how much do you guys charge? If it is something as silly as an unplugged cord, or whatever.. do you still have to charge a full price for repair? Now that would be funny!!

Considering that I tried to help them for free over the phone, but they were 'too busy' to deal with it and I had to drive all the way out there to find out the circuit breaker in the house had tripped and that's why it won't come on....they pay a full service call.

I charged a guy a full service call who bought a GT on E-Bay (without telling his wife who was pissed) and got it home and had sounds but no picture. i told him what to check and he (after telling me he was a 'computer guy') said he couldn't find anything wrong so paid me to come out. I was there 5 minutes while they looked for the key, then opened up the back, put the neckboard back on, and collected a check. It's not my fault they couldn't check the obvious after I explained (for free) how to do so. and BTW - i didn't just leave. i stayed for an additional half-hour and explained how to use the menu to change settings, walked them through basic game ownership rules (surge protector, don't leave it on 24/7), and a few other things to make them feel a little better about the money they spent for me to do something they could have doen themselves...

 

[modessitt]

Which world famous director was this...you can PM me if you want to keep it secret but I have to know...love these people that fun muli million dollar operations..but don't know how to turn games on and off...

Well, his games are always on and just get turned on and off with a switch, so how was he to know? he wasn't even there when I delivered it.

Im sure i know who it is and i know the game developer too, but i live here so i hear things all the time. Ill let him tell you though.

No, it's the other one.

There ARE two world-famous directors living here in town, as well as quite a few famous actors/actresses and singers/musicians.

As to the director - no names here, but he's been considered quite the Slacker...

As to the game developer - no names either, but he's close to having the ULTIMAte collection at the company...

 

[FrizzleFried]

My Lord...is't that quite British of you?

 

[modessitt]

My Lord...is't that quite British of you?

Very punny, sir...

 

[Leinhit]

I had a call where this lady says her husband won't get up and do anything or talk to her.. he is just ignoring her.

Ends up the poor bastard has been dead for about 4 days.. Just laying there.. I mean, his color was dead man color, all his fluids were pooled to the low areas, and he was smelly and oozing....

About as simple a call can be... I told her he was dead and not just ignoring her.

 

[Robotron]

I get to go on all kinds of weird calls. Non-cooling refrigerators that have their cold control turned to "off". Ranges that won't bake, that are actually set on "automatic", turn the knob and off they go. Ranges with double ovens and the thermostat knobs have been switched, so the temperature is off in both ovens. Dryers and washers that have been torn completely down to the ground (by the owners), when all that was wrong with them was a blown fuse or a plugged up drain. Dishwashers with chunks of glass, metal, screws, and one time part of a zipper stuck in the impeller. A dishwasher that won't drain because whoever installed the garbage disposal didn't remove the knock out plug, so it hasn't been draining for over two weeks! I've had several guys call me after they defrosted their refrigs with a knife, screwdriver, icepick, etc.....you get the idea. One guy even patched the hole with a piece of gum and plugged it back in. Yeah, that really made it work better, not.

The lady with a big pair of men's underwear stuck in her washer's drain pump. She claimed she lived alone and didn't have any men washing their clothes in her machine, and yet there it was. Washers full of coins, keys, bullets, pens, under wire bra wires, and just about anything else you can imagine. I had one dryer that was so full of coins and keys that I had to take it completely apart and turn it upside down to shake all the coins out. When I scraped the coins together, they made a cone shaped pile about one and a half feet in diameter and about 8 inches tall. I told her she might want to check her pockets once in awhile.

 

[modessitt]

Well, it seems someone got into the Joust and went into the menu and programmed a non-family-friendly message as the attract message.

Don't forget to post what the message says... reminds me of the Friends episode where they were playing Pac or Ms Pac and one fo the guy charaters got the high score and put in initals for something bad. (You can't keep High Scores in Pac but on the show you could). SO then they had to try and beat that score to erase the bad initals.

Went out today. Here it is:

 

[Lindsey]

That's funny. I didn't even know you could do that! Time to add a dirty message to my joust...