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Went out to a dishwasher yesterday for a continuing fault that BG engineers couldn’t seem to fix . Found 2 faults with it . The first was a sticky level float but the drain pump was also quite noisy too so i decided to have a look/replace that too. It was obvious as i pulled the appliance out that it hadn’t been out….ever !! It was about 6 yrs old but just looking at the filth around the back of the machine made me queasy and the lid was covered in mouse droppings. Ok , i thought , thats not unusual , so i pointed them out to the customers dad , as the customer herself was at work.
Being a plastic base model , they need to be tipped to access the base panel…..and as i turned it over , a yellow liquid started to ooze out. Possibly old dirty water i thought or maybe the motor was leaking but the piecé de resistance was when i took the bottom panel off. I have never seen so much mouse sh*t in my life !!! Add to that 3 dead mice in various stages of decomposition and what i knew now to be mouse urine and i really did gag.
Now , i should have really just walked away from it there and then ( Not sure of company policy TBH ) BUT….and this is where the conundrum was…..there were 3 litttle kids running round and a couple of dogs. My conscience wouldn’t let me leave the kitchen and dishwasher like that , especially with the toddlers there and so i donned some protective clothing and spent the next 45 mins cleaning out the dishwasher of all the muck that was there , bleaching everything and scraping….and this is no exaggeration…..about a pound and half of mice crap :eeek: …off the panel/components and base interior. I also bleached the surrounding floor/worktops that i’d touched and my tools. Weirdly , none of the wires /hoses/polystyrene etc had been chewed.
I couldn’t even take any pics of it because i didn’t want to get my phone out in that enviroment. I had to keep telling the Grandparents to keep themselves and the grandkids out of the area :rolls:
It wasn’t perfect when i left but at least it was safer ( They had no bleach initally and had to nip down the shops to get some !!! ) I think if the actual customer had been there , i might have still done this but made sure she helped.
This was actually on an insurance job but i just couldn’t walk away from it and sleep soundly…….i actually ripped off all but my base layer clothing once i got back into the van as i felt so filthy.
Where do you chaps stop if you find this situation ?
Re: Where do you draw the line ? Rodents !!!
When do I stop…………… as soon as I see it, one of the very few benefits of being a sole trader. 😉
If it was like that now then all of your admirable efforts will count for nothing, it will be just as bad within weeks. If the kitchen is like that then the rest of the house will be the same.
If you really were worried about the kids then a word to Social Services would be worth considering.
Many years ago whilst working for Hotpoint ( BDA at the time ) I went to a Hotpoint top loader in Salford 7. This is quite close to the Cheetham Hill, Prestwich, Whitefield area of Manchester and has a significant Jewish population. Salford 7 is/was an area that was very much on the orthodox side of the religion.
I went to pull out the machine and my hands slipped off it as if it was a bar of soap. 😥
It was covered in slimy grease and fat, a consequence of being next to the cooker and their practice of removing all of the hardware on top of the hob and cooking chicken livers laid out on foil directly in the flames.I told them that I was not prepared to work on the machine in that condition and asked them to contact the office when they had cleaned the machine.
My actions caused a bit of a stink, turns out they had a large number of shares in GEC, owners of Hotpoint at the time. The boss of GEC was Sir Arnold Weinstock a man of a similar religious persuasion. They complained directly to him and I’m glad to say that from my area manager to the big cheese himself I was fully supported in my actions.
PS. I am not averse to getting smelly or covered in good ‘honest’ sh*t, I worked full time on a farm for six years and spent many hours helping out at weekends and evenings for years after I came into this trade. 8)
Jim.Re: Where do you draw the line ? Rodents !!!
iadom wrote:When do I stop…………… as soon as I see it, one of the very few benefits of being a sole trader. 😉
I can’t say, hand on heart, that in discovering a situation where there’s evidence on rodent infestation that I’ve ever walked away. My latest confrontation was only the THE OTHER DAY as it happens. Often as not the owners are blissfully unaware such a problem exists and likewise blameless toward their home being invaded in this way. So you have to take a front line approach as Paul demonstrated so stoically and deal with it best way you can.
Then get your customer to inform the local council’s pest control department especially if rats are the culprits.:wink:
Re: Where do you draw the line ? Rodents !!!
iadom wrote:My actions caused a bit of a stink, turns out they had a large number of shares in GEC, owners of Hotpoint at the time. The boss of GEC was Sir Arnold Weinstock a man of a similar religious persuasion. They complained directly to him and I’m glad to say that from my area manager to the big cheese himself I was fully supported in my actions.
PS. I am not averse to getting smelly or covered in good ‘honest’ sh*t, I worked full time on a farm for six years and spent many hours helping out at weekends and evenings for years after I came into this trade. 8)
Jim.
Mr Weinstock,bless him,shredded my old company of Ruston & Hornsby in the late sixties just after I had served my apprenticship,many hundreds were finished.
I left and joined Electrolux!
When I worked for them a call to look at a vacuum cleaner ,3 months old, “we think weve pcked up some dog dirt”tipped it over said yes I ‘ll agree with that.
Sorry,I’m not doing that one,and left.Re: Where do you draw the line ? Rodents !!!
The odd piece of mouse crap is one thing, Paul asked what one would do in the situation he found himself in. 😯
I cannot believe that if the machine was as Paul describes that this customer was unaware of the infestation problem.
Mouse damage to the hoses on washers and dishwashers that the customer is unaware of I can sort out no problem. 🙂
Jim.
Re: Where do you draw the line ? Rodents !!!
Working in such a rural area means I get quite a few ‘mouse jobs’ over the course of a year 🙂
Last one was 10 days ago in fact, drain hose on Hotpoint dishwasher took their fancy.More power to their little elbows I say 😉
Re: Where do you draw the line ? Rodents !!!
There’s been a few…
Worst one I can think of is when I was six months into starting work with Indesit. I was out learning the ropes with our senior engineer when we went to a house in Clay Cross Derby’s.
I can still picture it now. The naked baby crawling around on the chequered kitchen floor, weaving in and out of the shit and piss puddles left by rover. Then we came to the washer which had been ‘faulty’ for at least a week before the lady of the house got around to calling an engineer.
It was piled up on both sides with terry nappies still full of the babies best and half of the contents smeared all over the machine.The smell was unbelievable, just unbearable. The shit covered machine was just the excuse my mate Dave needed to get us out of the house.
The ‘lady’ of course couldn’t understand and complained about our attitude. 🙂
Re: Where do you draw the line ? Rodents !!!
Same as Madmac, have done three dishwasher and one washing machine drain hoses last week.
Servicing a country area the moosies are heading indoors for the winter.
silverbroom
Re: Where do you draw the line ? Rodents !!!
Mice no problem but walk away if its looks like rat sh**t. If the house is that bad i’d turn around 😮
Pinky
Re: Where do you draw the line ? Rodents !!!
I once changed a mouse damaged Hotpoint dishwasher hose, funny how they always attack the exact same spot. told the customer she had mice but she was adamant that she did not. Less than one week later I was back to the exact same fault. I think she got the message after that. 😀
Had another one that also refused to accept it was mice, she said it must be squirrels, :rolls:
When the local council chap confirmed my opinion she was not best pleased.
Jim.
Re: Where do you draw the line ? Rodents !!!
PINKY wrote:Mice no problem but walk away if its looks like rat sh**t. If the house is that bad i’d turn around 😮
Pinky
3 mice were still….errr….hanging around in the base !!! I’ve re-booked it for one of my buddies 😉
Re: Where do you draw the line ? Rodents !!!
I think we have all had this.
One near Winchester, dog crap on the front and rat living in the machine. Bye Bye.
In Ashburton should have noticed the pile, about 2 foot high near the front door, crap on the kitchen floor and the dog peeing up the machine. They were most surprised I turned around and left.
A bit of dirt, yes but not my job to get sh+tty as there are other customers to get to. âž¡Rob
Re: Where do you draw the line ? Rodents !!!
iadom wrote:I once changed a mouse damaged Hotpoint dishwasher hose, funny how they always attack the exact same spot. Jim.
180724 I presume? 😉 now it’s Bosch DW drain hoses.
Mice/rats bless their little socks, good earner come the autumn.I have a customer (regretfully) who can only be described as as wealthy fat slobs (probably politically incorrect).I wish there was another to describe them but this is the truth 😳 First time I went to the property the builders were in fitting a new kitchen and a new ceiling, the guys pointed out the rat runs that were in the ceiling, straight from above the cooker extractor to the rest of the house. Now this house is only 10 years old. New kitchen fitted two years ago, mice and rat dropings still behind the DW.
The biggest laugh is that they own 5 cats all as fat and lazy as the owners.
Last visit I made was to the DW, they had left me the usual dishwasher soup, two weeks old 👿 . I opened and closed the door and advised her to bail it out and disinfect, then clean the filters out. Never heard from them since, posted them a bill and they have payed up 😕 Either I’m the only daft sod who will go to their house or they were sent here to torment me 😳Pass me another invoice!
Re: Where do you draw the line ? Rodents !!!
maltheviking wrote:
180724 I presume? 😉The very same, in fact its the only reason I have ever changed that hose and always the same bend in the hose.
Had a couple of ISE (Beko) machines with the plastic outlet hose chewed through just above the drain pump.
Jim.
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