Crazy... crazy for thinking about your internet working...

[An Haddock]

I'd forgotten about this one as it was one of the owners of the computer store who took this call a couple of years ago but I was reminded of it recently.


Woman called to indicate her internet was not working for at least a couple of weeks - why she didn't call her ISP I have no idea, but hey - as long as she pays out bill it's none of our business.

The woman seemed a little flighty and weird, but was pleasant enough. The tech gets to her house and as soon as he walks in the door he sees she's some sort of hoarder. Not as bad as some of the homes on the TV show Hoarders but in the ballpark. She also has an infirmed elderly father elsewhere in the house she yells back and forth with. The guy's bedridden but apparently his hearing works perfectly.

"WHO'S THAT?"
"THE COMPUTER MAN!"
"WHO!?"
"HE'S HERE TO FIX THE COMPUTER!"
"OH!"

It was like a conversation with Howard's mother on The Big Bang Theory.

Anyway, the tech goes in the computer room. Right off the bat he's uncomfortable because she LOCKS THE DOOR. Apparently some sort of obsessive compulsive, probably related to the hoarding behavior. He was trying to be polite and didn't say anything about that but it bothered him.

He basically spends five minutes looking things over and sees there's no internet light on the modem. He calls their ISP and manages to get through to their tech support fairly quick. Turns out they just hadn't paid their bill in about five months and the ISP shut off their internet.

So they paid us to go out and tell them to pay their ISP bill. At least the tech was released from his hoarder prison. He could have ended up being one of those people who gets crushed by a tower of falling newspapers and magazines.

[eltf177]

And she really paid for that information? I would have thought she'd have complained and told you she wouldn't pay...

[EricKei]

Right off the bat he's uncomfortable because she LOCKS THE DOOR.

I'm sure she just wants to make sure that nobody tries to steal any of her precious treasures After all, she's hoarding them because they're in such high demand, I'm sure...

[earl colby pottinger]

Lock the door

I would give them ten seconds then that door will come down.

There are too many crazies out there for me to accept being locked into a room.

Unless you mean she locked the front door, that I can see as my Aunts are in their late 80s and early 90s. They don't feel safe unless they lock the front door right away. They are always scare some robber will come in to steal their stuff.

I however run with a different home mode, if a robber comes into my house, it means they see nothing wrong with robbing people so they will not mind if I rob them of everything they bring into my house. Yes, that includes their clothes, fair is fair I say.

[MoonCat]

I remember a "Herman" comic years ago wherein a woman told her husband, "Someone broke in last night. They left $10."

Mrs. Hoarder must have left her internet bill somewhere in the mess, lost it and forgot about it.

[An Haddock]

I'm sure she just wants to make sure that nobody tries to steal any of her precious treasures After all, she's hoarding them because they're in such high demand, I'm sure...

And in case I didn't make it clear - she didn't just lock the front door of the house.

She locked the door of the computer room he was working in.

[raudf]

At MW repair center, that would have resulted in the tech saying, "Oh, hell no," and leaving. Our manager would have backed them too, because we'd had too many close calls with beatings and stuff without a tech being stuck in a locked room. And, yes, we'd would have still charged them for the call.

And yes, someone did that to one of our techs. He stuck with it because the hinges were on the inside and he had his tool box. Also, they explained why they locked the door behind him.. because that was the room they normally locked the dogs in when they had visitors and they weren't sure of one of the dogs' behavior to trust it in a room with a stranger. (The door had the lever like "knobs" that my parents' dogs can open easily with a single jump and slide down of the paw.)

[An Haddock]

At MW repair center, that would have resulted in the tech saying, "Oh, hell no," and leaving. Our manager would have backed them too, because we'd had too many close calls with beatings and stuff without a tech being stuck in a locked room. And, yes, we'd would have still charged them for the call.

Beatings? I'm gonna need some elaboration on that one.

I mean, I'm about 6'1/350 pounds so I've never had someone start any nonsense with me beyond a verbal lashing... same with my technicians.

[raudf]

It was one of our sister repair centers, north of us. Tech showed up at the guy's house, the guy was drunk, the tech refused to do the job.. didn't know drunk had friends over for more drinking. And it quickly escalated from there. Cops were involved, hospital time was involved, but the tech recovered. I was given just enough info to know why I had to be ready for the radio and 911.

Not that I needed it. Our techs were firmly told to return to their vans the moment they spotted any sort of trouble and call it in on the radio. We never told them to stay, but to always return to the shop to fill out an incident report, so we could blacklist the jackasses.

In fact, my uncle was appliance tech and was running a call when he got to one house to install a part in a fridge.. maybe.. (It's been over a decade, memory sucks) and he was confronted by a belligerent guy who started making threats the moment Uncle stepped out the van. Uncle flat told the guy that he wasn't installing the part and got right back in the van, called in and returned to the shop PISSED OFF. Stupid SC called the cops because and I quote, "He stole a part that I paid for!"

Cops come, find out that no, the guy hadn't paid for the part, so he could suck wind on that. Well, actually, SC kinda charged, arrested, booked, and blacklisted. Because of the blacklisting, which was also enforced by corporate, I didn't find out how that all turned out. Uncle never spoke of it, so..

When the cop asked Uncle what he'd have done if the guy had launched himself at him, Uncle said, "You think I carry this tool box just for repairs?"

[An Haddock]

When the cop asked Uncle what he'd have done if the guy had launched himself at him, Uncle said, "You think I carry this tool box just for repairs?"

Hah.

I have a baseball bat in the back seat for just such an occasion.

Err... I mean... softball practice. Yeah. Softball practice.

[earl colby pottinger]

Okay

And yes, someone did that to one of our techs. He stuck with it because the hinges were on the inside and he had his tool box. Also, they explained why they locked the door behind him.. because that was the room they normally locked the dogs in when they had visitors and they weren't sure of one of the dogs' behavior to trust it in a room with a stranger. (The door had the lever like "knobs" that my parents' dogs can open easily with a single jump and slide down of the paw.)

See, I guess I would also be okay if an explanation like that was given to me. After-all I did do service calls to a prison where I was locked in with the computers so no-one could disturb me while I worked (they also counted all my tools when I entered and left the prison).

But at a person's house, I need a very good reason not to turn that door into scrap if they plan to lock me in.

[Ironclad Alibi]

But at a person's house, I need a very good reason not to turn that door into scrap if they plan to lock me in.

Not that I see myself ever being in that position, but sometimes walls are much easier to break through than a door. Many years ago someone at work broke though a wall to steal some printers rather than break open the locked door.

[greek_jester]

Not that I see myself ever being in that position, but sometimes walls are much easier to break through than a door. Many years ago someone at work broke though a wall to steal some printers rather than break open the locked door.

Wasn't that how some office workers escaped from their office in the Twin Towers? They'd been trying to break through the doors (unsuccessfully) which were jammed shut, a rescue worker/maintenance guy (sorry, can't remember which) heard them and just smashed through the wall by the door so they could get out.

Many modern buildings only have stud walls internally as they're cheap and easy to put up, and easy to rearrange in the future as tastes change without having to shore things up with RSJs.

[Racket_Man]

Not that I see myself ever being in that position, but sometimes walls are much easier to break through than a door. Many years ago someone at work broke though a wall to steal some printers rather than break open the locked door.

I remember an early episode of the show Burn Notice. The guy downstairs put in a heavily reinforced steel door (was a drug dealer or something). The upstairs guy noticed this and shot through the wall next to the door which was NOT reinforced.

[Argabarga]

I know there was a story about how the allies in WW2 found one of the nazi treasure vaults where they'd been hoarding stolen artwork/gold bullion and whatnot. They figured something valuable was inside because the place had a HUGE and obvious vault door made of inches-thick steel that they were mulling over how to blast open when a member of the engineer corps calmly strode up and blew a hole in the cheap masonry on either side of the door with a quarter stick of dynamite.