Tell your best work related screw up story!

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G

Guitar Jones

aka Angry Johnny
Joined
May 24, 2004
Messages
2,937
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Location
Deltona, Florida
I'll go first.

A little background first. We work on heavy trucks, tractor trailers, box trucks, conveyor trucks, bucket trucks, ladder trucks and by far our most frequently repaired trucks are the drywall crane trucks. These things are big 6 wheel drive trucks with cranes that can extend up to 7 stories with hydraulically operated fork assemblies (kind of like a fork lift) on the end that hold 3000 pounds of drywall on them. Well today we changed a couple joystick controls on one and one of the controls was bad, or the installer hooked it up wrong. As soon as it was touched the crane swung wildly to the right embedding the fork assembly into the cab and windshield of a 2004 Freightliner tractor. The really bad part is the Freightliner belongs to the company that my wife works for. I got us the account so I feel really bad.

We will of course take care of all the damage and even rent a tractor for them while theirs is being repaired but man am I dreading this conversation. I haven't even told my wife yet. This is about $4500 in damage plus a lease truck to the tune of about $1000 per week, depending on the mileage.

And today was my one year anniversary.
 
I'm an Operations Manager for a demolition company in NJ. We also have a recycling center for concrete on the premises. About 8 years ago one of our machine operators was stopped in front of a pile of concrete after pushing it up. He was in a Cat 973 track loader still running, can't hear a thing. One of the partners pulls right up behind him bullshitting on his cell phone in his brandy new Range Rover. The operator of course could not see him behind him and starts to back up. Well, he backed up over the nose of this suv the owner yelling and screaming from inside his car. Finally he was smart enough to jump out of the car and rolled into the mud as the loader climbed up on and crushed the nose of his suv.
When the operator finally realized he was climbing on top of something he stopped got out seen what he had done and who he had done it to he started running. Took 3 days to finally reach him to tell him it wasn't his fault and to come back to work. What a site the owner in his $1000. suit in the mud and this loader sitting on top of his suv. He never has lived it down to this day.
The operator is still with us. :D
 
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My biggest screw-up, not selling the stock options I exercised when they were actually worth something..... I would be retired right now if I could do it all over again. :cry:
 
About 20 yrs. ago I worked for an independant exotic foriegn car repair shop on the south shore of Long Island in Hewlett Harbor. BIG money area. We had everything from VW's to Rolls Royce customers. One of our better customers had about 1/2 dozen semi-neat cars. An old 4 dr. BMW....a clapped out late 50's Benz ragtop.....a Siata ( think Spanish Fiat) Nothing really cool except for his `66 Corvette 427 Roadster. I come into work one morning and the car is blocking an entrance to the shop. With one of the owners watching me I hop in the car, fire it up, and slip it into reverse and blip the throttle and coast across the parking lot. At the end of the lot about 25' from a chain link fence I realize the brake pedal just hit the floor. As I pump wildly franticly looking for the e-brake I send the car UNDER the chain link fence with the bottom acting like a cheese grater across the deck lid of the `Vette..... SCRAPE!!!! :shock:

Now my boss that WATCHED me get in the car is running towards me screaming that it had no brakes. I get out of the car and just about pissed myself. At first I was laughing hysterically, then I looked at the car: wow! :( Whatta mess.... The other boss came over and chewed his partner a new one and I was off the hook. Needless to say, this bussiness pairing didn't last long.... :shaking:

Then there was the time I blew past a Nassau County Police car in excess of 135 mph in a Porsche 928 up in Roslyn Harbor..... I was sh!ting nickels until I realized he wasn't even attempting to chase me! THAT was unbelievable...... :prayer:
 
Lets see. I cut trees. Everytime a customer tells us to be very carefull not to drop anything on there (fill in with item here) it gets crushed. Fences, trees, well covers, You name it. We've crushed it.

Its alsways an item that cant be moved or we would move it. Thanks god its never been some major like a house or car.

We've also had truck sunk in peoples back yards, rolled over in back yards. Ive thrown rocks threw windows while grinding stumps. Its very easy to have problems in this line of work.

Anyone need any tree work done ? :mrgreen:
 
AdamR said:
Everytime a customer tells us to be very carefull not to drop anything on there (fill in with item here) it gets crushed. Fences, trees, well covers, You name it. We've crushed it.
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That's too funny Adam! You name it, we've crushed it.... :laughing:
 
EvilScamp said:
One for Adam :D

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:eek:ops:

I took a tree off of a brand new Jag once. It was 1 Day old.
My favorite was cutting the tree up in someones living room.

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AdamR said:
My favorite was cutting the tree up in someones living room.
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______________ :laughing: ______ Your killing me!
 
For the record. The tree was in the house when we got the job. We didnt do that.Same with the Jag.
 
AdamR said:
For the record. The tree was in the house when we got the job. We didnt do that.Same with the Jag.
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Just the thought of running a chainsaw in the living room..... :D
 
Mine may sound small compared to these other stories, but I laugh at it now. I was working at Home Depot, and didnt have my contact lenses on. I never worked nights so it was too bad, but this one time I did, and I couldnt really see anything on the ground when driving the fork lift. This customer had a pallet of bricks he had picked out, and I had to load it. I had the pallet about 10 ft off the ground when i go over a broken piece of block. On the way down, the momentum and the height of the pallet was too much, and all his bricks came crashing down, About 9 of them were ok, but he was pissed. :lol:
 
I worked for chrysler/jeep dealerships for a little over 8 years. The only really bad thing I can remember was leaving a wheel loose. Luckily I caught it before I got on the main road. It was still embarrassing to have to drag the floor jack out onto the dealership lot, jack the car up and torque the wheel down. :roll:

I've left oil filters off while doing oil changes, and of course I've double-gasketed a few. What a mess ...

We had a lift bleed down over night once, and the guy's tool cart was under the car. :shock:

A guy was doing some interior trim work on a sebring conv, and didn't disconnect the battery because he wanted to listen to the radio. It only takes less then .5 volt to set off an airbag .. he was poking around the air bag controller with his pocket screw driver. BOOM .. BOTH airbags came out! :shock: :laughing: :withstup: :laughing:

Automatics that would start in gear, people reach in to start the car, and the car drives into their toolbox.

I remember one of the shaggers (while in a customer's car) tried to beat the garage door as it was closing. :eek:ops:
 
I didn't do it, but the guys on the fire department went mutual aid to a call in the next town. In the rush they didn't notice the hose line dragging out the rear of the truck. I guess the nozzle hit a few cars enroute to that call.
My partner, while she was alone was responding back to the station in the ambulance to pick up another medic took a short cut in front of the building between the gardrail and the power pole. She hit the guide wire and it whipped the ambulance into the front door of the building and broke the pole. She sat there until the power could be shut off. The whole town flashed from that one and several transformers were on fire. Very amusing :roll: :eye: I'm surprised she didn't get fired. That one did lots of damage to both the building, ambulance and a bunch of machines around town due to the power surge.
 
i was a bus boy at 'o'charley's about 2 years ago, and i cleared a table of 12 before they were done eating (they all went somewhere for a picture or something stupid, why they all got up at once, wtf...) because the manager kept getting on my *** about not skipping tables. so its his fault.
then he raced me one time because he said i was being slow, i told him he was being an asshole, and i 'oops' broke 3 $12 beer cups, really thin glass.. needless to say, i quit not too long after that.
 
In the late '80 i was working in a company which sell and installed a car hifi and mobile telephones to the cars...
One monday morning came a lady to the shop and said: " i have a brand new jaguar and i have a time for today for the phone and hifi installion, and i was promised that nobody scratch the jaguar"...
Well, my fellow worker goes to the lady and ask her: "who promised that?"
And everybody start laughing exept the lady...
So she leave the jaguar anyway to us and we start working in it , after that when i was promise the lady that i keep good eye for the jaguar and nothing goes wrong...
She pick the jaguar in a late afternoon and leave the shop.
I was very happy that everything seems to go well...
After 5 minutes she left, my phone rings and the lady was there asking me " i know that the jaguar spends gas a lot but when i leave your shop the tank was full of gas (approx. 21 gallons) and now it's empty..."
I'm like :shock: :shock: what the h*ll happened?
I call a towtruck to tow a jaguar back in and pay a lady a taxi and said that she can rent a car and send a bill to our company, she wasn't happy at all...
We start to check the car and found out that one of the installion guys was put the wireholder clips to the floor and use way too long screws which has hitting the gaslinepipes under the floor...
Prices was very high back then and actually our company loose money in that case, jaguar parts was really expensive...
Now i can laugh about it but back then :cry:
 
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