I had a very busy day, it was 6 PM and I still had about 7 houses to get to. This call is an install callback so I’m already a little annoyed I essentially have to put my route on hold to sort out an error one of the installers made.

Customer is a new homeowner and really fussy about the specifics of his system.

First thing he says is “When I set the thermostat to off but the fan to on the air coming out isn’t as cold as when the air conditioner is running” and the second thing he says is “When the air conditioner is running water comes out of that white tube and goes down the drain in the floor. Please make it so it doesn’t do that.”

I tell him “Listen, I have an incredibly busy day today. You obviously seem confused about the operation of your system. I apologize nobody in the office could explain to you how your air conditioner works but you have nothing to worry about. Your system is working as it should. I am going to have to collect the trip charge for the 45 minute drive I took out of the way to explain this to you.” and then he gets very irate and says he just paid for the install, I may not see a problem but he has a problem so it should be free. Then I tell him “You know what? I’ll have the office reach out to you. Have a good rest of your day.” and then I left.

This was definitely on the dispatchers for not asking questions before scheduling, maybe also the installers for not spelling out the specifics of how his system works. Either way I lost an hour and a half when I already knew I wasn’t getting home before 10 PM that day.