Had a customer tell me my ice maker diagnosis was all wrong

Last month I got called out to fix a fridge that wasn't making ice in a townhouse over in Oakville. I took one look at the water line and figured it was frozen up, so I spent 45 minutes defrosting it. The guy watched me the whole time and finally said 'hey, have you checked the door switch just to be sure?' I laughed it off at first, but I checked it anyway and sure enough the switch was stuck and not sending power to the dispenser. Felt like a real clown after that. Now I always test the door switch first even if the water line looks like the obvious problem. Has anyone else had a customer point out something so basic that you totally missed it?

2 comments

2 Comments

williams.kim10d ago

Holy cow, a customer actually had the right answer while you were working on it? That's wild, man. I'd be kicking myself for a week after that one.

adamgreen10d ago

Yeah "kicking myself for a week" is exactly right, that's the worst feeling. I actually read somewhere that this kind of thing happens more often than you'd think with complex issues like this. Apparently customers sometimes have a weird knack for stumbling onto the right answer while you're still deep in the troubleshooting weeds. It's like they have fresh eyes or something, no bias from all the previous failed attempts. But man, still stings when it happens. You spend an hour digging through logs and they're just like "oh have you checked this one thing?" and boom, that's it.