the trivial complaints thread

WFO Speedracer

A lifetime ban is like a lifetime warranty !
Location
Alabama
Dug footers for my new garage, had them all cleaned oht concrete guys lined up and concrete ordered. Stopped by to ask a question about them which led down a rabbit hole with codes inspector as to why I cant build my garage on a stem wall. He says since its an engineered metal building, I have to go exactly by their plans or it doesnt count. I cant do anything outside of what they show. And since their plan doesnt show that I have to do it their way. So now its 2200 dollars for plans that show I can do it on a stem wall, and then re-approval by town, then rescheduling all the subs and its pushed me back 2 plus months. This is a building you can literally use a helical anchor and screw to dirt if you have to and they are holding me up because its not in the plans to do it my way. I hate when people let their brains get in the way of doing a job.
This is why I live out in the sticks, build whatever you want, no one is going to come by and ask any questions
 

Big Kahuna

Administrator
Location
Tuscaloosa, AL
Job...........
Subs not showing up when they say they will. Did not bother to call and say they did not finish up last week. Just got my ass crawled by contractor. Our company is not supplying any materials or labor. (Epoxy Floor Job). Just a phone call for a quote and throw some Mark-Up on top. Easy money right.................... (Well, easy for company I work for, I dont see it). Contractor states, "I have other subs set up for Thursday, they have to be done". .......... Back the Truck up............ On March 11th I told him 4-5 days for flooring to be installed. So, they missed today. That should leave 4 days to finish......... But he has "other subs scheduled for Thursday"........ Let me do the match. Monday, Tuesday, Wed.............. That is only 3 days he allowed our sub........ Just told him, If they walk on that wet epoxy floor before it is dry, they bought it (Which means he, the contractor does for letting them in)..........
Same Job this past Friday. Last day, they just have to do final coat of a Urethane Top Coat. Get call from contractor. "we have a problem, the smell is running everyone out of the building. People are getting sick". I run over there with the MSDS. Meet with everyone involved. Contractor, Their Safety person, Head UA Construciton guy, Fire Dept. UA EMS................ Contractor "We have 100 % Negative air. Vent Fans are running 100%"......................... Main UA Construction "What have we learned from this"....... "Lets discuss any issues that may arrive, schedule work when nobody is around............etc etc"............. Job superintendent walks up finally..... Something said about Neg air and Vent............ "Oh, The Ventilation fans are not on in the work space......" I said "Can you repeat that?" .................................... Shaking my head I say "There is your issue, you dont have proper ventilation which is required to keep the odor down"............ They are a big industrial construction company with a full time safety coordinator. We are a small family owned business............. They created the issue...............
Did I mention the Fire Truck, Ladder Truck and Hazmat Truck that was called out......................... 1 Person carried to the ER by Ambulance.
 

WFO Speedracer

A lifetime ban is like a lifetime warranty !
Location
Alabama
Same Job this past Friday. Last day, they just have to do final coat of a Urethane Top Coat. Get call from contractor. "we have a problem, the smell is running everyone out of the building. People are getting sick". I run over there with the MSDS. Meet with everyone involved. Contractor, Their Safety person, Head UA Construciton guy, Fire Dept. UA EMS................ Contractor "We have 100 % Negative air. Vent Fans are running 100%"......................... Main UA Construction "What have we learned from this"....... "Lets discuss any issues that may arrive, schedule work when nobody is around............etc etc"............. Job superintendent walks up finally..... Something said about Neg air and Vent............ "Oh, The Ventilation fans are not on in the work space......" I said "Can you repeat that?" .................................... Shaking my head I say "There is your issue, you dont have proper ventilation which is required to keep the odor down"............ They are a big industrial construction company with a full time safety coordinator. We are a small family owned business............. They created the issue...............
Did I mention the Fire Truck, Ladder Truck and Hazmat Truck that was called out......................... 1 Person carried to the ER by Ambulance.
 

OCD Solutions

Original, Clean and Dependable Solutions
Location
Rentz, GA
Well, you guys wil llikely be estatic but there will be no more Turtle pics from Turtle Island. It's the end of a wonderful chapter for us but it's time to move on to other interests.

I set up a camera on shore to catch some close-ups of the turtles feeding on watermelon and one of our neighbors lost her mind. Apparently she hasn't been able to enjoy her back patio for months now without fear of being on camera. "What makes us so interesting to you anyways?" was one of her comments. To which I replied, "not a f@cking thing, which is why we don't have any cameras facing your direction". "Well it's just strange to keep all your blinds closed and spy on the nighbors through your cameras". She said a few more things but I had already slammed the door in her face by then.

Anyways, she's famous for submitting compaints to the HOA so we pulled down both the turtle and duck islands and the two cameras that faced the tree line. I didn't need to pull the platform but I know she enjoys it so f@ck her. I want her to look out every day and miss the turtles and know that she was the reason that it's all gone. BTW, she had her husband install a camera that looks at the platforms so she can enjoy them too. You see any irony there? That camera looks right at our back yard but do we complain?

The real pisser here is that she loves the turtles and wildlife as much as we do and is a huge fan of Turtle Island and all the pics and video we post. She's always commenting and see's what our cameras can see. They have been in our house and we have shown them what all the cameras can and cannot see so this was absolute BS. We thought we were good enough friends that they could have come over and had a civil conversation but apparently we are not. Regardless, it's all done now and we are done with this neighborhood. Our house goes on the market on July 5th and our new house will be ready to move in around Aug 1st.

They came over a few days later and couldn't apologize enough. They admitted to completely over-reacting thinking I had set up the camera permanently and now realized it was only temporary, (I've used this setup 20-30 times over the past 3 years). They begged me to put the island back but I had already given it to a friend who lives on a lake with a daughter who loves turtles so they had to live with their mistake. Besides I said, you can apologize all you want but we can't unhear the things you said about us.

I then asked the husband if he was carrying, to which he confirmed he was, I asked him to get off my property before he shot me. His wife got all defensive, "like he would ever shoot one of you guys", to which I replied, "Right, just like I would never aim a camera at your house and spy on you?". Now get the f@ck off my property!"
 

Quinc

Buy a Superjet
Location
California
Damn that sucks man! Also you just put all that work into your garage and house and lawn etc. Where are you moving? Beach house or lake house? :D
 

OCD Solutions

Original, Clean and Dependable Solutions
Location
Rentz, GA
The silver lining in all this is that we found an awesome new home just days afterwards that puts me dead center in the middle of my service region. We had been looking for almost 2 years to get me closer to work but I was holding onto our current location for the turtles and the pond life. Once inspired to make the move, we found a brand new construction at lockup stage, custom home on 2.4 acres on the edge of a small town in rural Georgia. Semi private acreage but with city sewer and water on a quiet side street. I am working with the builder now to design and build a matching 28'x32' shop in the months to come.

Our house shows amazing and we should make out pretty good since we have done so much work to it. Quite a bit comes with us and we caught the new home at the construction phase so we were able to get several things changed so that I don't have to do much of anything other than move in and install our customizations.

The builder has been amazing to work with and the quality of their work is phenominal. We are going to miss our turtles but we are super stoked to be getting out of the city and away from the crowds, traffic and neighbors.
 

WFO Speedracer

A lifetime ban is like a lifetime warranty !
Location
Alabama
Customers suck, everyone wants something for nothing. case in point, customer is given two Seadoo 4 tecs, skis haven't run since 2019,, he brings them to me to get running, this involves replacing fuel pumps and filters, cleaning tanks, replacing plugs, changing oil and filters repairing seats and scanning one ski which had a laundry list of error codes, I believe I counted 12.

I pulled the dipstick on the first ski and it didn't touch anything, added two quarts of oil then one more to top it off, so it had been run at one time three quarts low on oil, engine sounded funny and while running it on the hose it locked up. I called him and told him what happened.,.

On to the next ski, being the nice guy that I am I pulled the new fuel pump and filter out of the first ski and installed it in the second ski and cleaned the second fuel tank, ski runs but is in limp mode, I cleared all the codes and three came back, I removed every single sensor from the now dead ski and put them on the other ski one by one, codes are still there, swapped ECU and MPEM codes are still there, swapped throttle bodies . codes are still there.

Finally I find a blown 5 amp fuse and replace it, fuses were not blown before , I checked all of them first thing out. I water test it no go. rescan for codes yep you guessed it still there, As a last ditch effort I swap gauges, now both gauges are dead or inoperable but the one gauge blows the 5 amp fuse intermittently, the other gauge does not, water test the ski again and got a somewhat respectable result, two codes are still there no blown fuses, the two codes are communication codes from the gauge cluster to the ECU, they are not going away without replacing a $700 gauge cluster and marrying it to the ECU. Since it is a 2006 the ski is also not going to run 100% correctly without a good working gauge installed.

I relay this to the customer and tell him it is time for him to pick up his skis, bill comes to $1135, he wants to know if I will discount his bill because his motor locked up, this is when I explain I have already discounted his bill by not charging him any labor on the first ski, even though there was double labor from repairing then removing and replacing the fuel pump he was not charged anything on that ski.

He still insists that he wants a discount which I agree to and at this time I come to the realization that it is time to walk away from the ski repair business, enough is enough, people have no idea what it takes to fix these skis but they don't want to pay what I consider more than reasonable prices for repairs.

If you took this ski to a dealer and actually found a dealer that would work on a 2006 model ski the repairs on the fuel pump alone would be close to $1000, dealers replace parts, Seadoo does not sell fuel pumps they sell pump module assys, for a 2006 ski that part is no longer available if it was it would be $650 plus tax plus the labor to put it in, like I said close to $1000.

I am tired of dealing with this BS. it looks like I am am going to start flipping skis full time and if you are damn lucky I might change your oil or recover your seats., my days of fixing skis for uncaring and disrespectful people are over.
 
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The folks who used to hunt me down for car repair work either knew me and knew I did good work or were too cheap to go to the dealer. Quoted a guy a timing belt on his honda pilot last year and he told me it was too much and x shop would do it for..... the same price as me. I told him to go over there. I dont need his work or his hassle and I told him I know what the dealer charges as well as most shops and if its cheaper than me they are probably using china parts not factory honda. If you wanna play you gotta pay!
 

Sanoman

AbouttoKrash
Location
NE Tenn
The folks who used to hunt me down for car repair work either knew me and knew I did good work or were too cheap to go to the dealer. Quoted a guy a timing belt on his honda pilot last year and he told me it was too much and x shop would do it for..... the same price as me. I told him to go over there. I dont need his work or his hassle and I told him I know what the dealer charges as well as most shops and if its cheaper than me they are probably using china parts not factory honda. If you wanna play you gotta pay!
My family and l have been using a tech that works on our cars for years.ln the evenings after 5.Certain big jobs he won’t do,but l don’t blame him. l have never questioned his price.And l always tip him.But l get it,l guess cause l work around the car biz
 

Quinc

Buy a Superjet
Location
California
Dont buy sparkplugs from amazon or ebay....

knock off ACDelco plugs I got from amazon on the left (plug gap of .094") after only 30k miles. New plugs on the right (Plug gap .040") Gained 2mpg and ton more power back after replacing them.. *if you need new plugs for your car/truck acdelco has a rebate going right now.

plug2.jpg
 

tor*p*do

Squarenose FTW
Site Supporter
Location
NW NC
My new waterfront lot and dock is overgrown and dock in rough shape, upside-down. Lots of work to do
 

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OCD Solutions

Original, Clean and Dependable Solutions
Location
Rentz, GA
Moving sucks!

We had everything set to close on our current home in the morning of Aug 15th and then close on the new home the same day, just in the afternoon.
3 days ago we get a call from our lender that they cannot find anyone to do the appraisal and had been sitting on this info for 10 days. They finally found one guy willing to take it on but he wants $200 more (already paid $700), and needs 17 days to complete. Like WTF!!!! That puts us almost 2 weeks past our closing date when we started the process 6 weeks earlier. Meanwhile there are several appraisers in the area that are accredited and willign but of course our bank, (Truist), doesn't recognize them as "in-network".

The appraiser showed up today to look everythign over and casually mentions that he'll start working on the report early next week. Oh, and because the driveway isn't poured yet, he'll need to return again, (at our cost of course), to verify it gets done. SMH. I sent our lender a message asking to remind him that there 3 more working days in this week and that if he really wanted to earn his extra money, that he can work the weekends too like everyone else involved in this deal is.

Our new house doesn't look like it will be ready by the 15th anyways so we are booked into a local hotel until it is. Thankfully the builder is letting us move in as renters prior to closing but even that still hinges on them getting it ready to move in. They still have a ton of work to do!

It's gonna be so awesome once it all settles out though so stay tuned for the counter-trivial posts in the other thread, lol.
 
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WFO Speedracer

A lifetime ban is like a lifetime warranty !
Location
Alabama
So now Harbor freight is offering credit and financing, who ever thought you would have to finance cheap Chinese junk ?
 

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