Speaker 1: Okay. Well, what I'm trying to do here is get some honest feedback from you use of how you felt when you first started running the service for us. How, you gradually became more competent and confident. Now, specifically when you started running calls when we went to Italy and then when you started running some Friday afternoon calls. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: So, if you look back then, what would your reflection be? Speaker 2: Well, in October of 2009, I was just running calls then you said go put this part in and that I'll fix it and that was all I really need to do. Take them apart, which really isn't that hard. Put the part in, which is pretty easy, but if I put the part in and I didn't fix it, I was pretty much stuck. And I have no idea with workings of any machine in order to figure out what else could be the problem or whether I get something more. Speaker 1: And had no ideas of the workings of any machine in order to figure out what else could be the problem, or whether I did something wrong. Speaker 1: Right. So in the spring after school was over, we decided to start giving you more calls. Right. Speaker 2: Yeah, and after I had seen a bunch of things taken apart on the Friday calls with you there and explaining a little bit of how things worked than I was actually able to understand how a dryer works and washing machine works and fridge, and that way if you told me to go put a part in, I could make sure that it was the right part that I was putting in. Speaker 1: Right. Speaker 2: Or, if there was a specific thing wrong with a machine I would know what the multiple components where that could have caused the thing to fail. speaker 1: And that is because you had run some calls, begin to get an understanding of how they work. Speaker 2: Yeah And that was because I took apart thing that I didn't really need to take apart and slowly began to observe the other working parts inside of the appliances. Speaker 1: And you started to get a feel for it, and you had not really gone through the books or the video.You still haven't. Speaker 2:No. Speaker 1: You've seen a few videos when it was convenient. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Now, I remember when we were trying to figure out how to give you up the money, or what to do with the calls. You said that I'm not very thrilled about going on call where I don't have a clue as to how the thing works. I can't get you on the phone and the customer's hanging over my neck. Remember that discussion. Speaker 2: Yeah. That was at the very beginning of the summer when you went on vacation. Speaker 1: Right. So, we decided at that point when you decide whether you wanted me to go on a call or not, based on how it looked from the customer's view point. All right. And if I went you made less money than if you went on your own. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: But it seemed to me that in a short period of time, like what a couple weeks. Speaker 2: One or two. Speaker 1: You decided that you didn't want to waster the money and that you'd rather tackle them on your own. Speaker 2: Yeah, cause most of the times when I called you it was for an easy solution, even though a lot of the times I could have spent an hour or so on a diagnosis and I would eventually come to the right conclusion. Speaker 1: Right. Speaker 2: But I would have done a lot of trial and error and without reading the books that's just easier to call you instead of an hour trial and error I get a 2-minute phone call that says that's it. Check that. Speaker 1: Right, or check a,b,c. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Now that you've got, what 6 weeks. 2 months. June and July. Speaker 2: Yeah, June and July. Speaker 1: Where's your comfort level? Speaker 2: We're beginning to see a lot of a same thing over and over again. Speaker 1: For instance? Speaker 2: Dryers, dryer repairs, noisy dryers. I went on one today. Speaker 1: Right. Speaker 2: And probably have gone on one a week since I started. Speaker 1: Right. Speaker 2: They seem to be the easiest, and same with no heat in the dryer. Speaker 1: We've seen a lot of that. Speaker 2: Yeah. I know what to check for in those. You're asking about my comfort level? Speaker 1: Well, maybe let me ask you in a different way. In retrospect, if you were advising a new student how to do this without having me handy, were in the same house, what would you suggest that they do to get a comfort level pretty quickly? Speaker 2: Not call you as much and want to double check things, always check the simple things first, and never to go just through things one step at a time. Don't jump to conclusions just because the dryer's noisy it doesn't mean you have to put new rollers on. It could be something stuck in the blower. Speaker 1: Right. Speaker 2:And last week you told me go put belts on this Maytag Dependable. Speaker 1: Right. Speaker 2: And gotta checked in the basket, there was a sock. Speaker 1: I suggested that, remember. Speaker 2: You suggested it, but I felt around, which I would have done anyway now but six months ago I would of turned the thing over, put the belts on without thinking about it and then turn it on and have the same thing happen, and I probably would have been there for a few hours. Speaker 1: That's right. Speaker 2: Instead of just checking the obvious things and making sure the customer's right in their diagnosis because they said it needed belts. Speaker 1: Yeah, they did, didn't they. Speaker 2: The woman had the front off all ready. All ready for the belts. Speaker 1: That's interesting. I didn't know that. Speaker 2: Well, how about David *****. Speaker 1: Not David. Paul, his father when the dishwasher was dead. I remember I said usually stuff at that house is stupid dumb stuff. Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a blown circuit breaker. Speaker 1: But you spent some time looking for other things. You apparently had the fan apart. Speaker 2: Yeah, I went down to look at the circuit breaker, and I looked at it for a minute in that little dungeon of a Speaker 1: Basement. Speaker 2: Cellar and decided since Paul used to build houses for a living he would probably have checked that so i didn't bother looking. There were 2 circuit breakers. Speaker 1: House? Speaker 2: And I went back up to check less obvious things. Speaker 1: And then you went back and checked the 110 after. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: And it wasn't any. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: So you're back to the simple again. Speaker 2 ***** Speaker 1: Now, how would you suggest to a student, read the books and look the videos cause you haven't managed and you haven't? Speaker 2: How would I suggest? Speaker 1: Would you suggest it? Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I went on calls with you. Speaker 1: Now, that's true. Speaker 2: To see these things first hand instead of reading about them in a book, but I would have read the books prior to going into people's houses because then I would feel like I would know what I was doing instead of just. Speaker 1: Fumbling. Speaker 2: Yeah, just going on your direction or the customer's direction. Speaker 1: Or the customer's direction, right. Even you know I would say my batting average is reasonable as far as sending you out with good advise, but 1 time out of 5 you were getting in trouble anyway because it was different then what we thought. Speaker 2: Yeah, I ran into a lot of snags when I first started, and it wasn't that you were wrong or that I was doing anything wrong. It was a weird problem that, I don't know if they're in the books or not. Just weird things that you would never think are the problem. I can't think of any off the top of my head except the bunny in the blower. Speaker 1: The bloody bunny. Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't think of any off the top of my head, but when I first started I think half of the first 10 calls that I went on I had to go back 3 or 4 times with different parts and different tools to fix a fridge, a washing machine, a dishwasher, and I hadn't really run into anything like that since that oven. Speaker 1: What oven? Speaker 2: The oven from hell. Speaker 1: You talking about **** Speaker 2: ***** and Miller. Speaker 1: Right, right. Speaker 2: Miller **** rushed it up, but those are the things you can't really do anything about. probably 3 or 4 months ago I would have called you and said come help me. Speaker 1: Right. Speaker 2: But where I am now, I knew there wasn't' gonna be anything you did that was any different from what I was doing. Speaker 1: Right. That's exactly right, and that's a matter of confidence. Well, you're not really seeing anything that's particularly difficult. It's just stuck. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: You're stuck no matter how good the mechanic is. Speaker 2: Right. Well, whatever appliance you are going at. It's just simple logic and following the logic. Nothing bizarre, and if it is, it's usually computer board that needs to be replaced. Speaker 1: Right. We've seen a reasonable amount of that too. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: And some of the guess work that's involved. Speaker 2: There is some guess work involved, but usually only with computers. Speaker 1: Right, that's the *****. Speaker 2: Everything else you can trace with logic if it's doing something very illogical than it's got a brain of its own and it's screwed up. Speaker 1: Right. That's right. Well, so what advise would you have for somebody starting on service calls based on what you know now being a 3-month veteran, right. Speaker 2: I would say before you go running the calls, read the manual even though I haven't, and if you don't feel comfortable enough reading the manual go to any of your friends houses or take apart your own machine so you can see the inner workings of them because there's no huge difference between you know, one refrigerator or another. Speaker 1: Not really, or one dryer or another. Speaker 2: Yeah, except maybe age, age it looks different and you won't recognize the parts because they have a different style, but they're really all the same, so. Speaker 1: Logic's the thing. Speaker 2: Yeah, if you take one apart and you look at everything that works and if you can take it apart and have it run while it's open, you'll have a better understanding of what to look for if something's wrong. I ended up doing that in people's houses before I went out there. Speaker 1: Now, did you really have any troubles with customers because you didn't know what you were doing, but they didn't know you didn't know, right? Speaker 2: Yeah, some of them think they know. Speaker 1: What they're doing. Speaker 2: They think they know what I'm doing. Like that guy last week . Speaker 1: R****, Speaker 2: Yeah, you said call your father you don't know what you're doing when it turned out I was right anyway. Speaker 1: You didn't have to take the top off that thing. Speaker 2: Yeah, I did have to take the top off, and before that he was the only one that actually said something to that effect, but before whenever I ran into something I didn't know or the customer asked me questions about something unless it was lit was recommendation on new appliance to get or not to get, I would just say something that sounded reasonably like the truth, and they don't really know the difference. Speaker 1: Right, you're helping them. You're not expert, but you are an help Speaker 2: But in terms of them coming in and saying do you need to really do that or take that apart or are you sure you know what you're doing? I never really got any of that because they just assume that I know what I'm doing. Speaker 1: Right. Speaker 2: Because they have no idea. Speaker 1: Yeah they don't. They really don't. Speaker 2: I mean plenty of times I've taken apart an entire machine when I only needed to take 2 screws out. They don't know the difference. It just looks like I'm working harder. Speaker 1: That's right. Speaker 2: And then I don't feel bad about them charging them $160 and they don't you know apprehensive to pay it. Speaker 1: That's right. Some of the most competent are the least competent mechanics make a lot of money because they fumble around and make a lot of noise and sweat a lot. Speaker 2: And I sweat a lot too,. Speaker 1: Right. Speaker 2: Especially in the summer when I'm working. Speaker 1: Right, and then when you are really smart and you can do it in 5 minutes you feel guilty for charging. Speaker 2: Right. Speaker 1: That's when you start to whistle and tap the screwdriver. Speaker 2: Also, in terms of walking into people's houses like that, I mean, a few times I've come up something that I just didn't really know what I was getting in to and fooled around with the obvious stuff and then realized that I wasn't going to be fixing it that day and instead of calling you I just told them that there's nothing that I can do for them on the spot today and then I would have to come back with parts and more information and I would just go and talk to you about it or on the other hand they could go and read up or do some research on the internet. Read the books or do some research on the internet and figure out what's wrong. New people usually don't Speaker 1: You could. Speaker 2: The students could. Speaker 1: Yeah, right. Okay. Speaker 2: People usually don't complain about that though. Speaker 1: No. Speaker 2: They just realize that it's a troubled machine and Speaker 1: You need more research. Speaker 2: Most of them don't expect miracles. Speaker 1: No they really don't and I tell people I'm gonna go get the PDF on this particular model. Not often, but I do do it. Speaker 2: But then again, if you say that, that's different from me saying that because they'll assume that it's a weird thing if you do. They'll assume that I don't know what I'm doing. Speaker 1: But you didn't have that happen though, right? Speaker 2: No, I haven't have that happen yet except for that guy last week. Speaker 1: Right, but he's an old *****. Speaker 2: And he was a jerk from the beginning. Speaker 1: Right, and I knew he was going to be cause he gives me a hard time. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: I've been going there for years. ***** He just one of those characters that you could just tell him you're busy if you don't feel like *****. Remember our discussion about when you were trying to figure out how the refrigerant flow through a refrigerator. Speaker 2: Yeah. Speaker 1: Now, we worked that through, and you have a fairly good grasp of it now. Speaker 2 Yeah, to be honest I haven't worked on a fridge since we had that conversation. Speaker 1 Well Speaker 2 A couple ice makers. Speaker 1 A couple ice makers in which we see a bunch right? Speaker 2 Yeah. Speaker 1 But you know, the typical refrigeration call has nothing to do with **** you might need to understand it; Speaker 2 But only for the very weird things, and the reason I asked you that was because we ran into a block Speaker 1 Restricted system. Speaker 2 yeah, the day before I think. Speaker 1 Yeah,. Speaker 2 Yeah, the compressor was as hot as a firecracker and no refrigerant as well. It was running but nothing was happening.. Yeah Yeah, that's an exceptionally odd call. Okay, what did you miss? I don't know. We haven't run across much in the way of the exotics, front loaders, Samsungs, ****, ****, Bosch, all that stuff. no,I haven't run into any. We did run into a weird front loader. Which one But that ended being a plumbing problem. When was that one? Off **** raod . There was a hole in the line going up to the sink. Oh, I don't even remember that. I'll say alos got to make sure it's not a problem or ventilation problem before you tear thing apart. Oh yeah, you mean the dryer vent. Yeah. The power's not right. Yeah. The water's not coming in. the water's not getting out. You know all that simple silly stuff. It's just the way the house is working. Now I thought that Tom Cork was a funny call. Yeah. I mean, explain that call, it's a typical call, elderly people. Yeah, 2 elderly guys in a house that looks like a rat. Oh, I didn't know that. just figure just figure out what's wrong with it. and I **** the ice tray and there was half frozen ce cubes in there and before I even put a thermomether in, I checked the setting on the fridge side, open the fridge door and there's a setting for coldest and then warmer on the freezer and it was set all the way to warmer. I turned the dial and called you to make sure that was definitely the problem, and that was it. That was it. And then he said **** electriciaan . He said, well since you're here I need you to check my outlets in my bathroom and my TV remotre. Which is pretty typical of the household, right? What happened? I hit the reset button on the outlets and The GFI, right? I turned his TV on and it was workign fine and I turned it back off. And you we're a star. yeah. Right, just think how much money you saved them and even what he thinks about you. Right? Yeah, well if he wasn't a nice old guy, I wsuld of charged him like $15 charge for his outlet and the TV maybe $5 for the TV. That's funny. All right, you've had about how many calls do you think? 100-150 Yes, and you've really...would you say you got stumped on anything? **** back at it. Stumped. I can only think of 1 and that's the streaks in clothes . Oh, yeah. That we never figured out. That happened before also. A year ago. I think she decided to get a new dryer. **** She didn't call me back. I talked to her twice. Okay. What did I tell her to do. Oh, I told her, the way she referred to the streak as a scorch, a brown scorch, and I said, Mary you didn't say that before. Run the dryer on a lower temperature see if it makes any difference. I haven't heard from her. It could be she's got either ...I don't know why, but usually if you get a scorch **** sky high. **** at around 200 will scorch. You know, I told her we could put a thermomether in it and check it out might have an intermittent thermostat , but that's quite odd. Yeah. So that's 1 out 100-150 of those oddball. Yeah, that was very oddball. The only other ones was the 2 ovens. Well the 1 was the oven and the one was the range that ended up taking 2 weeks to complete and 7 hours or so total didn't get stumped on them they're finished. Right,now they're are gone. If you went back to Charlie Miller to redo that job from the beginning * or that's just the nature of it. Well, half the time was waitng for parts . Right. because as I was taking it apart...there's nothing I could really of done any better.There's orifices gonna break no matter what or who took them out and each one I broke I had to wait another cople of days for the part to come in. I mean as soon as I got that top off another part broke. Right. There's no way There's no way to prevent it, and there was no way to anticipate it unless I ordered all 5 orfices cause I figured out which ones where gonna break. Right, and then return the part. Yeah, But that one, I would have run into the same issues. I'm pretty sure. Now **** I could have finished in 1 day. Right, because that was the **** **** in to that tight space. Yeah. I won;t do that again. Right. We learned onthat one. Yeah, we lost 60 bucks in parts. Right. Well, look if that's the only 1 you had trouble with out of 100 than that's acceptable. *** Yeah. He was happy. Right? You told him it was a tough job and you learned a lot taking that thing all apart. Yeah ,I took the entire oven apart. Right, unecessarily **** Well that's not for sure, not for sure. I think I might take that somewhere open that up and make it function in the air neat learning tool. Yeah, just hope you never have to replace one. All right, this is good. This is fine.