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If you have ever been fixing things like bikes, cars, computers, etc. for other people, you will know this one: Ever since you touched X, Y has been acting up.
A few days ago, my wife asked me to put some air in the tyres on her commuter bike. Thinking nothing of it, I found my trusty old Joe Blow, brought the pressure up to spec, and sent her on her merry way. Today she came to me and said that “ever since you pumped my tyres, my brakes have been making a strange whining noise”. That came as a bit of a surprise to me, as I did not know that tyre pressure could have a connection with the noise from roller brakes? Guess I’ll have to open them up and take a look!
So what are some of your best stories of repairs of the “ever since you trued my wheel, my chain has been skipping” type?
Ever since you put up those 5G towers....
I always tell people, if they're bringing it to me to look at, it's because they don't understand it, so if I'm telling you it's nothing to do with what I did, then you need to either trust that, or start taking your stuff to someone else.
No such thing as a coincidence
To be fair it does sound connected. Without air in her tyres then she wouldn't have been using the brakes, clearly your going this one 🙂
My LBS was always having issues with folk bringing knackered bikes in for the tiniest job, then all of a sudden everything that wasn’t working was the LBS’ fault, as ‘it was fine when I brought it in’. Usually BSO ebikes/ebike conversions.
They were then shown the CCTV of the mechanic, not going near the part of the bike with the ‘problem’...
Kind of related, my old boss was convinced her computer ran much worse after an office move. I don’t mean to a new building or anything, I mean she was moved to a new desk, in the same room, 20 feet away...
Yeah the classic you fixed my gears but then I got a puncture on the way home so you need to fix my puncture for free.
Once helped a friend's sister fix her car as the radiator had developed a hole just before she was due to drive back to her uni. Patched it with a bit of scrap metal I had lying around and some brazing, put a jubilee clip or three on it to give it some extra strength for luck too. Pointed out to her a new rediator would be needed very soon as it was very rusty all over, all this at 7pm in a Sunday. Got a text the next day saying she'd made it to uni fine and all was good, she'd even instructed her brother to pop some treats round to me at some point too.
7 months later she sent me another text saying it was my fault she was now sat in the side of the road with a blown engine after it had decided to overheat and nuke itself! Thankfully her dad gave her a proper bollocking before I next saw her.
Was actually quite proud my bodge lasted that long!
The car one is a classic!
I once changed a headlamp on a friends friends car, only to be told months later that "the day after you changed that headlamp, the rear view mirror on the same side of the car fell off".
I used to unbox, build up and safety check new bikes in Halfords. My initial technique was bike straight from box to workstand, check it over, lift it down and then inflate tyres last when the bike was on the ground. I soon learned that inflating the tyres could quite considerably change the shape of cheap new wheels, which would cause problems with rim brakes. Obviously that shouldn't be an issue for roller brakes 🙂
All the extra problems that can be found are why I stopped offering distant family a 'quick bike check up'.
Too many to list. Thankfully I've forgotten most of them!
A couple that spring to mind:
Helped out a mate by replacing the front pads on their Mk3 Escort, no charge. Couple of weeks later one of the coolant hoses split, leaving them stranded on the A2. Apparently it was my fault and I should replace the hose for free and reimburse them for the recovery.
I declined the kind offer. Pretty sure they never spoke to me again, which was nice.
So many computer related ones - you repaired X or installed Y recently (it was several weeks ago) and now my display is fuzzy / PC is making a noise / mouse has gone missing....
People are funny old things.
Si
Yup classic arsehole behaviour that makes most small business owners despise their customers and charge top wack for everything, doing zero favours for anyone!
I'm afraid the arsehole factor in running any public facing business in the UK is a big problem.
Imagine owning an LBS dealing with the worst STW argumentative pedants, you'd end up escorting them off your premises and permanently banning them.
Imagine owning an LBS dealing with the worst STW argumentative pedants, you’d end up escorting them off your premises and permanently banning them.
an LBS can’t possibly know more than they do, so they don’t go in. Not really an issue...
an LBS can’t possibly know more than they do, so they don’t go in. Not really an issue
There's a hardcore who treat it as a sport, talking down to the lesser educated, in a professional environment, where they are unlikely to get punched on the nose!
This is way we stopped offering 'break fix' / Ad Hoc in work(IT Support).
The barefaced cheek of people knew no bounds. Up to and including someone claiming we should replace an office full of PCs because we'd done a couple of hundred quids worth of work for them and this (they say) put so much strain on their network it "wore out" all their PCs.