Bad attitudes

Joshuajayg

Joshuajayg

Line Up and Wait
Joined
Sep 1, 2015
Messages
907
Location
'Merica
Display Name
Display name:
Joshua
Customer tells me the gear down light sometimes won't come on in his P210N. Airplane just came out of annual a couple states away at a shop he trusts.

I checked his airplane yesterday and found his two main gear down lock switches out of spec, switches flopping around in their mounts because they weren't tight, and the down lock very loose. So we pull the airplane over to our hangar today, I get it up on jacks and start re-rigging his main gear down locks. One over center setscrew is completely loose and the jamb nut is spinning on the setscrew. The other side was just loose by about .15". I reset everything, rig his down lock switches to spec and swing the gear. All is good.

Start looking around and the gear hadn't been greased and nothing had been lubed. So my supervisor lubes everything.

I called the owner, told him I re-rigged the down locks and lubed the gear because it didn't look like it had been done.

His response? "If I fly it and the gear won't come down, I'm calling you from the air."

Well, good riddance to you too. We don't need your business. Next time your down locks are about to fall apart, call someone else.
 
GlennAB1 said:
I wouldn't take it so hard, trust is earned. He trusted his **** shop, and doesn't trust you, yet...
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It isn't a matter of trust, I don't mind if he doesn't completely trust me yet. Being a jerk about me fixing his airplane seems ridiculous.

If I took an airplane in to a maintenance shop and they said, "Hey, I fixed this issue that could have caused a gear up and prop strike," I would respond with, "thank you for finding that." Just puzzles me how he wanted us to fix something then says something completely uncalled for like that.
 
I had one of those recently. It's hard to not take it personally. I hope you don't let it bother you too long.

I do service work for people - high quality renovation work. I took on a small project for someone in a hurry. I fit them into the schedule, did a quality job, fixed other problems while I was there, undercharged for the work I did and left the place clean. I could tell he really didn't like me to begin with but resigned himself to me working there as I was willing to satisfy his schedule. To punctuate his feelings for me he shorted me $150 when he eventually sent the check. I don't advertise, work only by referral and have only had 3 customer issues in 27 years. He still got to me. I wish I could explain it too. I guess the bottom line is some people are just d***s.

Keep up the great work it makes you special!
 
I could replace verbs & nouns in the OP's & Matt's stories which align with my work -and the stories would be identical to what I see in a regular week; although vastly different occupations.
Not to be excessively cynical, but I must quote my deceased friend John, "People are no damn good"
 
I cringe to see how he treats his servers at a restaurant.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
I could replace verbs & nouns in the OP's & Matt's stories which align with my work -and the stories would be identical to what I see in a regular week; although vastly different occupations.
Not to be excessively cynical, but I must quote my deceased friend John, "People are no damn good"
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And mine was yet a completely other type of business and I saw that kind of **** every day. My work would have been fun and interesting if it weren't for (a few) customers.
 
Not defending the owner, but the one suggestion that I'd add would have been to call him when you first discovered the lack of lube/proper rigging and offer to have him come in and see for himself before you did the work.
 
Fearless Tower said:
Not defending the owner, but the one suggestion that I'd add would have been to call him when you first discovered the lack of lube/proper rigging and offer to have him come in and see for himself before you did the work.
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I called him and told him about the downlock issue yesterday and told him my intentions. He knew what I was doing.
 
Joshuajayg said:
I called him and told him about the downlock issue yesterday and told him my intentions. He knew what I was doing.
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You did fine then.

I've seen some cases where a shop identified a deficiency and went ahead and corrected it only telling the owner after the fact.

Then the owner is left wondering who is telling the truth: the original shop or the new shop.
 
We had asked a mechanic to look at something (iirc leaky fuel drain). While under there, he noticed that 'one gear door was sagging' and proceeded to re-rig the entire gear. Unfortunately he did it all wrong, bent a push-tube and assembled a number of pieces in the wrong sequence.
 
weilke said:
We had asked a mechanic to look at something (iirc leaky fuel drain). While under there, he noticed that 'one gear door was sagging' and proceeded to re-rig the entire gear. Unfortunately he did it all wrong, bent a push-tube and assembled a number of pieces in the wrong sequence.
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That's really unfortunate for you and foolish of him for
A) Not telling you first
B) Screwing it up.

I've meseed things up before; everyone does it, but (A) makes it foolish.
 
Joshuajayg said:
Start looking around and the gear hadn't been greased and nothing had been lubed.
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And you made that determination, how? Because there wasn't fresh grease splattered around everywhere? Could it be that the last shop actually greased prppoperly and cleaned off all excess? Just wondering, because that's what I see all the time.
 
GlennAB1 said:
And you made that determination, how? Because there wasn't fresh grease splattered around everywhere? Could it be that the last shop actually greased prppoperly and cleaned off all excess? Just wondering, because that's what I see all the time.
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Because there was a thick layer of grime over all the grease zerks. Clean is good, thick, crusty grime is not.
 
Manners. They're what separate us from the animals.

The guy should've thanked you instead of being a snide SOB.
 
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One thing is. When a part fails, somebody ALWAYS worked on it before it failed...
 
coloradobluesky said:
One thing is. When a part fails, somebody ALWAYS worked on it before it failed...
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So true and some days it makes me nervous.

A week ago I put a gear actuator in another P210N and I want it to go fly so I can relax a bit. There is no reason it should fail but that doesn't make me less conscious of the possibilities.
 
Do stuff by the book, do the ops checks as required, let your conscience be your guide. My name is all over my company's first rudder change on a 767. No big deal.
 
Joshuajayg said:
Well, good riddance to you too. We don't need your business. Next time your down locks are about to fall apart, call someone else.
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Terrible. On behalf of aircraft owners everywhere, I apologize on behalf of that guy.

I recently started a new relationship with a mechanic I really like so far. My plane is obsessively well-maintained, but I had just moved it to the northeast after 15 years in Florida. Plus it was only a couple months out of annual when I brought it in for a handful of minor squawks. I had asked him to do a 25-hour on it and take a look at my elevator trim. The day after I dropped it off, he called me and told me that the trim pulley was frozen and that he noticed a cylinder was missing on the left engine, so he cleaned and gapped all the spark plugs. "Listen," he said, "I want to do a 50 hour on this airplane, I've seen two things I don't like already. I know you just did the gear AD so we can skip the gear swing but I want to do a 50. My name's going to be the last one in the logbook and I don't know this plane yet."

Well, I guess a lot of owners spaz out about that kind of thing, but it didn't bother me at all. I fly my family in this ship. I can always make more money, but I can't replace my wife and kids. "Go right ahead," I said. "Anything you don't like, call me and let's talk about it. I'm not in the business of flying with open squawks."

Well, he ended up doing the 50 hour and called me back. "Hey, I was wrong. This airplane is really nice. I mean, REALLY nice! Beautiful wiring, the grease is clean, safety wire everywhere it's needed... this is one of the best Twin Comanches I've ever seen. I'm sorry if I concerned you, it turned out the only two things I found were a dirty spark plug and that frozen trim wheel, everything else was great."

I assured him that it didn't bother me at all, that I want my mech to be concerned whenever he sees something he doesn't like, and that I was looking forward to working together in the future.

And that's the way it should be.
 
Sounds like the beginning of a great relationship Ryan.

Until you get his bill. ;)

Nah just kidding. Your mechanic appears to be conscientious and truthful. Good luck!
 
Joshuajayg said:
Customer tells me the gear down light sometimes won't come on in his P210N. Airplane just came out of annual a couple states away at a shop he trusts.

I checked his airplane yesterday and found his two main gear down lock switches out of spec, switches flopping around in their mounts because they weren't tight, and the down lock very loose. So we pull the airplane over to our hangar today, I get it up on jacks and start re-rigging his main gear down locks. One over center setscrew is completely loose and the jamb nut is spinning on the setscrew. The other side was just loose by about .15". I reset everything, rig his down lock switches to spec and swing the gear. All is good.

Start looking around and the gear hadn't been greased and nothing had been lubed. So my supervisor lubes everything.

I called the owner, told him I re-rigged the down locks and lubed the gear because it didn't look like it had been done.

His response? "If I fly it and the gear won't come down, I'm calling you from the air."

Well, good riddance to you too. We don't need your business. Next time your down locks are about to fall apart, call someone else.
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Just a matter of pilots mantra " the last mechanic to touch it, is at fault"
 
GlennAB1 said:
And you made that determination, how? Because there wasn't fresh grease splattered around everywhere? Could it be that the last shop actually greased prppoperly and cleaned off all excess? Just wondering, because that's what I see all the time.
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Any mechanic with half a wit, can tell if anything has been greased, the fitting may be clean but where the old grease came out is the tell tale.
 
lol I'm just a kid making $14 an hour at a grocery store, you've got no idea man. The things people say and do everyday make this look like nothing worth noting at all.
 
Joshuajayg said:
I called the owner, told him I re-rigged the down locks and lubed the gear because it didn't look like it had been done.

His response? "If I fly it and the gear won't come down, I'm calling you from the air."
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Should'a said, "Sure, call me, I'll come up and fix it."

The ill manners aren't excusable, but I can understand the owner being a bit worried. He thinks he just had a bad switch/wire, and the work you had to perform was beyond that. He doesn't know you, he probably doesn't understand the hardware, he had trusted his regular mechanic to get things right. You had him over a barrel. It's not surprising he was uncomfortable, but, again, he should have been more polite about it.

I had a new A&P last year, and he told me that one of the mag timing was off by several degrees. While I've known the man for 20 years, I still had qualms about it. I'd watched the previous mechanic set the timing, and the plane seemed to be running fine. But I just nodded and said, "Sure thing." Change in performance was undetectable, so he probably was right.

Ron Wanttaja
 
I was going to annual a guys airplane last year and after a quick walk around his airplane I handed him the checklist I was going to use from the manual and showed him what stood out before I even started. He tells me that I was just afraid to just let some things slide. Crazy world we live in. Shook his hand, thank him for his time and I walked away.
 
Well, I did fire a guy who came up positive on a methamphetamine DOT random screen, who yelled at me, "I am a professional. I don't need this sh_t".....BuhBye, find another sponsor, neither does FAA!
 
Jim Case said:
lol I'm just a kid making $14 an hour at a grocery store, you've got no idea man. The things people say and do everyday make this look like nothing worth noting at all.
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Seriously? Did you have to train, study, test at your own expense for a few years and obtain Federal Certification for that grocery store job?

I think maybe perhaps you don't understand quite as well as you think.
 
N3368K said:
Seriously? Did you have to train, study, test at your own expense for a few years and obtain Federal Certification for that grocery store job?

I think maybe perhaps you don't understand quite as well as you think.
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I disagree. I think he was simply commenting on how rude people in general can/will be. I've seen that stuff in public, and some of it is not pretty.
 
N3368K said:
Seriously? Did you have to train, study, test at your own expense for a few years and obtain Federal Certification for that grocery store job?

I think maybe perhaps you don't understand quite as well as you think.
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Hilarious to reply to me like that in a thread titled "bad attitudes". Sounds like you know all about them
 
N3368K said:
Yep. I've had to **** can a bunch of young know-it-alls with bad attitudes like yours.
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Very big guy here, mocks me when I reply to his rude comment. You sound like a fun guy to be around I'll be adding you to the ignore list, so you can cool off
 
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