Funny But True
Oh by the Way…
by Greg Sirico
I had just finished wiring up a small telephone switch when I heard the customer say these awful words that a technician hates to hear. “Oh by the way…”
Someone had just decided the wall I had hung the equipment on was going to be used for a custom cabinet, they said. I would have to move the equipment, they said.
I agreed to rewire and move the equipment, but reminded them politely that that was where I’d been told to put this telephone switch.
They smiled; they shrugged; they went away.
I finished the work for the second time, and the customer was at the door again: “Oh by the way…”
We just had a meeting, they said. We think this ugly cabinet should really go on the opposite wall where it can’t be seen, they said.
I tried to smile and told them that it would take me another day’s work to rewire and move the switch again.
Sorry, they said. We really need this to be finished up today, they said.
I told them I’d be on overtime.
They smiled; they shrugged; they went away.
But the new wall looked thin and weak and did not look like it could support the heavy equipment. I found four 6-inch toggles with 4-inch wings in my truck, and used these bolts to mount the equipment. By the time I was done, the sun had long since set and I was glad to put that place behind me.
But three days later I was back again. I was in the luggage store next door to where I had been working. I was staring at a trunk suspended on the wall, five feet off the floor. The clerk had noticed it when he’d been moving his trunks around. The trunk was hanging from—you guessed it—four 6-inch toggles with 4-inch wings that had gone clear through the wall.
I had to take the equipment down a third time to free the captured trunk, and put it up again carefully, so I didn’t skewer any other pieces of luggage.
Oh by the way…I had to pay for the trunk.
Regards,
Greg
This is a true story. We’d like to hear your strange-but-true stories of the weird and wonderful things that happen in the field. Send them along to gregs@c-techtraining.com and we’ll share them with your fellow instructors.
And when you visit us for training on Copper, Fiber and Integrated: Systems Voice & Messaging, let’s sit down and share war stories
