evo
Been here much more than a while
- Location
- My Island, WA
The "Oh, shit" thread, and my recent mishap with a water meter has inspired this thread. So random things gone wrong? Crazy stories with property damage regardless of fault? Lets hear it!
Broken, blunders, misshaps
- Thread starter evo
- Start date
evo
Been here much more than a while
- Location
- My Island, WA
I was hired to do cleanup on a very large Bigleaf maple. The tree crown failed into the powerlines the line clearance crew came and shit piles the tree into the yard before reconnecting and left the 6’ diameter 40' stob standing. My contract is just to chip the brush, and haul the wood that’s on the ground. Brush and 24” logs shit piled 4’ deep in any available space.
Brought the mini in and started picking the mess apart, making great time. Got 70% of the way through the mess. My GUESS is that a end of a scaffold limb impacted the water meter, and I grabbed the butt end levering the meter right out of the ground.
While I don't specifically state damage to water meters on my contract, I do mention other underground utilities, septics, sprinkler systems, and other incidentals.
Now the kicker is that this propert is a rental, in a development with a community well. The client was away on vacation, and the renter was not home away on a overnight. I was entirely on my own to make decisions. I called a good electrician friend for a plumber recommendation and couldn’t get through.
Called a random local plumber, they came out within an hour. His tweaker white boy wannabe homie, kept mentioning how screwed I am, how it’s the cities issue, and they couldn’t help me. The jobsite is nearly 20 miles outside city limits, and this yahoo clearly has no idea of the island.
Finally got the community well management company out to shut the damn thing off. Dude pulls up, parks (we shut down the chipper), he comes around my truck and screams at the top of his lungs “Aww FUCK!.” Then he turns around gets into his truck, and tires screeching literally floors it speeding out of the neighborhood!?!
Then comes neighborhood association elected dude. He just marches right in all pissed off, and starts kicking brush around muttering. I ask him what he is doing, and he says he is looking for the box. I responded “it’s right behind you” he turns around three time flapping his arms kicking brush. I had to ask him to stop many times, and once he does I show him where the box is placed just 10’ away. He then mutters about not knowing if he has a shut off key, and doesn’t know where the neighborhood shut off is. Gets in his car and drives off without saying anything else.
About 20 minuets later, the water just stops flowing, then “Aww F..” dude comes back. Never once makes eye contact, and doesn’t respond to me at all. He grabs a shovel and starts flinging mud all over the place. We rake... He then pulls some glue out of his truck then starts cursing, again. I walk over to see if I can lend a hand, the glue is bad and he has to go get more. I catch a whiff of booze on his breath. He leaves, we finish chipping. He comes back still not saying anything throwing a hissy fit stomping around. We finish cleanup, and I tell my guy to head out. I text the client explaining what happened, and that I think it’s taken care of. Then I walk back over to the plumber, his mood slightly improved. He asks how it happens, and I explain. He mutters, and I ask if he needs anything from me. He says no, so I get the he’ll outta there before shit gets any weirder, and I wind up murdered.
The client texts back, thanking me, telling me she is glad I stayed to make sure the plumbing is fixed, and is impressed with the clean up photos I texted. Plumber dude never asked for any contact info, in-fact no one did. Due to the hostilities I really didn't feel like offering any. I'm curious on what will happen next, who's getting billed, and who is paying/responsible. I've been in clear communication with my client, so she is aware, and the water is back on to the neighborhood. Part of me wants to call the water company, and part of me doesn't want anything to do with them based on this drunk dudes behavior. Perhaps it will all just go away?
The sheared scaffold sticking straight up.. The hammered flowering plum just beyond.. The meter is about 4' to the right of the plum.
I don't know who topped the plums between the initial photo and when I got to the job..
Brought the mini in and started picking the mess apart, making great time. Got 70% of the way through the mess. My GUESS is that a end of a scaffold limb impacted the water meter, and I grabbed the butt end levering the meter right out of the ground.
While I don't specifically state damage to water meters on my contract, I do mention other underground utilities, septics, sprinkler systems, and other incidentals.
Now the kicker is that this propert is a rental, in a development with a community well. The client was away on vacation, and the renter was not home away on a overnight. I was entirely on my own to make decisions. I called a good electrician friend for a plumber recommendation and couldn’t get through.
Called a random local plumber, they came out within an hour. His tweaker white boy wannabe homie, kept mentioning how screwed I am, how it’s the cities issue, and they couldn’t help me. The jobsite is nearly 20 miles outside city limits, and this yahoo clearly has no idea of the island.
Finally got the community well management company out to shut the damn thing off. Dude pulls up, parks (we shut down the chipper), he comes around my truck and screams at the top of his lungs “Aww FUCK!.” Then he turns around gets into his truck, and tires screeching literally floors it speeding out of the neighborhood!?!
Then comes neighborhood association elected dude. He just marches right in all pissed off, and starts kicking brush around muttering. I ask him what he is doing, and he says he is looking for the box. I responded “it’s right behind you” he turns around three time flapping his arms kicking brush. I had to ask him to stop many times, and once he does I show him where the box is placed just 10’ away. He then mutters about not knowing if he has a shut off key, and doesn’t know where the neighborhood shut off is. Gets in his car and drives off without saying anything else.
About 20 minuets later, the water just stops flowing, then “Aww F..” dude comes back. Never once makes eye contact, and doesn’t respond to me at all. He grabs a shovel and starts flinging mud all over the place. We rake... He then pulls some glue out of his truck then starts cursing, again. I walk over to see if I can lend a hand, the glue is bad and he has to go get more. I catch a whiff of booze on his breath. He leaves, we finish chipping. He comes back still not saying anything throwing a hissy fit stomping around. We finish cleanup, and I tell my guy to head out. I text the client explaining what happened, and that I think it’s taken care of. Then I walk back over to the plumber, his mood slightly improved. He asks how it happens, and I explain. He mutters, and I ask if he needs anything from me. He says no, so I get the he’ll outta there before shit gets any weirder, and I wind up murdered.
The client texts back, thanking me, telling me she is glad I stayed to make sure the plumbing is fixed, and is impressed with the clean up photos I texted. Plumber dude never asked for any contact info, in-fact no one did. Due to the hostilities I really didn't feel like offering any. I'm curious on what will happen next, who's getting billed, and who is paying/responsible. I've been in clear communication with my client, so she is aware, and the water is back on to the neighborhood. Part of me wants to call the water company, and part of me doesn't want anything to do with them based on this drunk dudes behavior. Perhaps it will all just go away?
The sheared scaffold sticking straight up.. The hammered flowering plum just beyond.. The meter is about 4' to the right of the plum.
I don't know who topped the plums between the initial photo and when I got to the job..
Last edited:
Steve Connally
Been here much more than a while
- Location
- Suffolk, Virginia
I was working for a company a few years ago and had trimmed out a pine. The other climber put a felling cut in the trunk and I didn't trust what he was doing so I boomed down. I saw the tree start to go the wrong way so I unhooked my harness and jumped out of the bucket about 6' and then hopped over a chainlink to get out of the way. He cut through the hinge and the tree cut the house in half. Straight down to the crawl space. The homeowner was home and inside. It was some scary stuff there.
- Location
- Retired in Minneapolis
The ducks are resting...don't wake them!
evo
Been here much more than a while
- Location
- My Island, WA
WOW! Assuming no one was hurt?
Steve Connally
Been here much more than a while
- Location
- Suffolk, Virginia
No. Everyone was ok. Luckily the boss was there when it happened. He lost it and then called some shady friend of his to come repair the damage. Last I heard the feller was still blaming it on the wind.
Crimsonking
Been here a while
When I was working in Charlotte, the company had a safety meeting before the crews rolled out. Someone brought up watching out for water meters and irrigation because of an incident the week before. Okay, sure, spot the lids, and rig accordingly, no prob. Got on site, dead wooding an oak, working my way down till I get to a large lower limb 8-9” diameter that’s dead. Start cutting and chucking. A few minutes in, someone notices water running through the front yard. I was finished up, so I came down to investigate with the crew leader. The water is coming out of the mossy ground randomly. Underneath the moss we discover an 18” deep hole with bricks stacked up to the moss. Under the bricks was an abandoned irrigation system that had never been cut off. Thankfully no fiasco getting it taken care of; I just had to smile at the irony of my smug reaction to someone else’s incident only to get caught by this with no way of knowing.
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Do you ever have the occasional customer service experience like this?- Started by climbingmonkey24
- Replies: 7
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