[Bill]

I worked for a company one time doing service work. The secretary gave me a work order which said the HO had no water. We load the truck up and I look at the directions. It was something like go down this road, turn right, go to the bend in the road, and its the white house on the left. No 911 number, no mailbox number so I ask the secretary and she said thats what the HO gave me. Fine. We follow the directions and get to the bend in the road and voila! Ther is the house. We go and knock on the door, no one home. We go to the well and tried the hose bib, no water. We fixed the pump and left. We got back to the office and later that day the secratary asked how come we did not fix the pump? I said we did and she said the HO called and still has no water. We went back out and tried it, the water worked fine. Got back the same thing. By this time Rocky the owner came in screaming we were ing off because we went to the wrong address. Fine, Rocky and I get into the truck, he drove following the directions, and voila, back to the same house! Come to find out the HO did not know what road she lived on and we done fixed someones pump that never called us! well, it made me feel better knowing it was not my fault anyway!

 

[uaplumber]

Years ago, long before I decided to be a plumber, I worked as a roofer.
I was given directions that left alot to be desired as well. I followed them to the letter, including that it was a grey house with a black roof. I knocked on the door and introduced myself and let them know I was there to tear off the shingles and install new ones. They said " Great! we were hoping it would be done soon". Well, I got a call from the owner of the company about 6 hours later asking why we had not shown at the job we were to be on. Turns out the HO was off by 4 miles on her directions. We had shown up at a rented farm house and the renters assumed that we were supposed to be there. Thankfully, the owner agreed to pay enough to cover cost of materials.

 

[Herk]

I like it when the HO says that theirs is the house with the white picket fence around it, and it turns out that all the houses on the street have a white picket fence. There are a lot of variations on it, too, like a big shop out back . . .

 

[service guy]

I always get a physical address and a cross-street as a reference, and use my county map-book. I rarely have a problem that way.

 

[WestCoastPlumber]

Nice, When I worked for others, I was sent to the wrong house by the dispatchers. I never repaired anything though

Now I run the whole show, so I have learned to be a good dispatcher, even while driving. I will admit thought, the last few weeks, I have had alot on my mind, I have gone to wrong apt or condo units Today, I was banging on the door of the wrong apt

I went to the wrong street the other day, not even paying attention to the GPS, and wen to the door no one home, thnk god!

Sometimes it's just to much fun :no:

 

[threaderman]

You have to love those evening calls when the HO doesn't put on the porch light for you and you have to roll down the street with a flash-light reading house numbers,had one a few weeks ago,slow going for sure.

 

[Bill]

Well at least it worked out ok because the HO did need their water fixed and did pay

 

[GrumpyPlumber]

I use Mapquest, I take all pertinent info and copy/paste the map onto a word document so I can't go wrong.
When I'm on the road and I get an emergency call, I use my map...NO directions from the customer unless absolutely necessary.

I hate when I ask the customer what their st address is and they go into a long lecture on how to get there while I'm driving.
I generally find it best to interupt and ask again what the actual adress is.

 

[service guy]

I hate when I ask the customer what their st address is and they go into a long lecture on how to get there while I'm driving.
I generally find it best to interupt and ask again what the actual adress is.

EXACTLY!!! I use MAP SUPPLY INC. awesome street maps.:thumbsup:

 

[MACPLUMB777]

Boss' Mistake

YES I HAVE THAT HAPPEN,
I USE M/S STREET & TRIP MAPS AND PRINT OUT,
OR USE A LOCAL COUNTY-CITY MAP BOOK :thumbup:

 

[Song Dog]

I know what you mean! I usually have a map printed out if it dies not locate the exact spot thats when I use the extra info I have the wife get. A discription of the house, alot of times the # IS NOT WELL POSTED:laughing:
My next phone will have gps.

In Christ,

Song Dog

 

[service guy]

How's business songdog? The transition from franchise to independent been smooth?

 

[user4]

This is where working in a large city with a working grid system of addresses is actually an advantage. In Chicago and the southern suburbs, Western ave is always 2400 west, no matter how far north or south you are, and Ashland is always 1600 west, so if the address is 2146 it is aprox 3½ blocks east of Western.

 

[Bill]

This is where working in a large city with a working grid system of addresses is actually an advantage. In Chicago and the southern suburbs, Western ave is always 2400 west, no matter how far north or south you are, and Ashland is always 1600 west, so if the address is 2146 it is aprox 3½ blocks east of Western.

That would be nice, but here in the country they are trying to adapt the 911 signs. most HO have them, but there are a lot who dont

 

[Herk]

I USE M/S STREET & TRIP MAPS AND PRINT OUT,

Jerry - I used to use MS Streets but now I've switched to Google Maps. They're more up to date and, of course, free.

Both can have problems with the local Mormon numbers - all the 137 east S, 1249 W North or whatever. (Like you have in SLC . . .)

I have sometimes wound up about 20 miles from where I should be because Streets put the pin in the wrong place, and I've learned to be more careful about checking the surrounding roads.

 

[GrumpyPlumber]

Herk, I been using Yahoo maps because MapQuest stopped allowing "printable mode" so I can copy/paste into wordpad.

 

[Bill]

I usually use google map myself.

 

[threaderman]

This is where working in a large city with a working grid system of addresses is actually an advantage. In Chicago and the southern suburbs, Western ave is always 2400 west, no matter how far north or south you are, and Ashland is always 1600 west, so if the address is 2146 it is aprox 3½ blocks east of Western.

I've lived and worked in many different cities and Chicago is by far the easiest to get around.

 

[Plumberman]

Threaderman I know what you mean about running up and down the streets with a flashlight. I upgraded to spotlight not too long ago for that reason.:laughing: Some of the neighbors dont like it when I beam it past their windows but hey it works. I bought my own GPS to run in my truck with me, so I dont have to get directions. Our dispather knows to just give me an address when she calls me out.....

 

[WestCoastPlumber]

I use GPS, and for a backup, I carry a Thomas Guide.