Hard day's work...

[wedg1e]

So I had a list of breakdowns to deal with.

First job, heater's not working on the developing tanks.
First theings first, let's check the fuse. Pull the plug out of the wall... to discover it's connected to a film viewer. Ah, must be the other plug. Er no, that one's connected to this desk fan. Where's the dev tank plugged inthen? Grovel on floor, find plug wedged down back of unit. So it's not even plugged in. PLug it in, lights come on, unit works fine. Cue embarrassed look from client.

Next job (and the plant maintenance manager has been on the phone screaming for three days for me to get there), x-ray set timer sticking at the end of the exposure, ruining the films.
Get kitted out with dayglo, hard hat, steel toes, safety specs (steelworks). Clamber around the plant to get to the x-ray set... then the operator tells me it's been working fine for two days.
Get back in van, haven't even left site when my office transfers a call to the mobile: the plant manager is on the phone again wanting to know when the hell I'm proposing to get there. I suggest that if he talked to his staff more often, he wouldn't be getting a callout bill for £££....

Now the exhaust has snapped on the van (2 years/ 49000 miles), it's my turn to shout... at Ford...

[ultimasimon]

I miss field service we used to have a good laugh. Its nice to go to a different job and not know what fault you will find (if any) when you get there.

I quit field servive when the company I worked for thought that fitting black box trackers to our vans was a good idea

Strangely after that everyone who stayed started to buy their cigarettes with the company fuel cards

[t1grm]

Used to close calls on an IT helpdesk as a summer job. Hardware engineers would phone in and tell me the closure code. I lost count of the number of calls that were closed with “plugged equipment in” or “enabled power via wall switch” and such like