Had a chat with a customer yesterday that made me question my whole approach to diagnosing

I was out in Phoenix at a house trying to figure out why their fridge wasn't cooling right. The owner was a retired engineer, and instead of just letting me work, he kept asking about my process. He said, "You ever notice how most guys jump straight to the compressor or control board without even checking the basics?" That hit different because he was right. I spent the first 10 minutes checking voltage and listening for sounds, which I normally do, but he pushed me to explain why I skip the evaporator fan first sometimes. I realized I've been getting lazy and skipping steps on easier calls to save time. He showed me his own notes from fixing his washer where he wrote down each step he took, and I gotta admit it made me rethink how I track my own work. Has anyone else had a customer or homeowner call them out on their method, even if they were right in the end?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_mary22d agoMost Upvoted

You used to catch me skipping steps too, honestly... I always figured if I knew the common failure points I could just go straight there and save time. That retired engineer customer of yours got me thinking though, because I started writing down my own checks after reading this and it's wild how many times a basic thing like a dirty condenser coil was the real issue. My notes are nothing fancy, just a yellow legal pad with bullet points, but it's helped me catch stuff I would've glossed over before.

morgan31622d ago

Oh man, I had a buddy who did the same thing with motorcycle repairs. He'd skip the basics and go straight for the carburetor, only to find out it was just a clogged fuel filter half the time.