It Takes All Kinds...

 ...Of people to make the world go 'round. At work we get our fair share of examples of some very odd varieties. I went through my phone and picked out a large sampling of oddities but decided to limit myself to just one for this post. 

 It started out innocent enough. The complaint was that the recoil handle jerked out of his hand while trying to start the machine, breaking the rope. He was mumbling about warranty. I think when people talk to the counter staff they think they can say whatever they want because the staff isn't smart enough to know the difference. The truth is that they know plenty and many times when I pull a work order they'll warn me about "special customers".

 When I got this particular saw the first thing I noticed was that the recoil rope he used was too thin in diameter. It was also way too short. The next thing I noticed was that this saw was neglected and had probably never been serviced or even blown out. It needed a tuneup and then maybe some of that rope pulling could be kept to a minimum.  

 I cleaned it up and did some basic maintenance along with repairing the recoil. When I called to tell him the saw was ready for pickup the only thing he was concerned about was the recoil. Something must be wrong with it because the handle kept pulling off the rope. He stated he put three knots in the rope and the only way the handle could come off was if something was wrong with the saw. He was expecting a new rewind assembly free of charge and when I told him I just replaced the rope he about lost his mind. 

 "How many knots did you use"?

One.

"What? Thats not gonna work. I had three knots in that rope and it still pulled through the handle". (as seen in the pic above. I saved the rope as a reminder)

Sir I'm confident in the repair. You should be all set to cut some wood.

"I'm not happy about this. What happens if I pay for this and it breaks again"?

I explained that he was putting undo stress on the starter mechanism because the saw was lacking in maintenance. Thats why the rope broke the first time. The rope was so short it would come to the end of its length before the pull was over, thus jerking the handle out of his hand. I also told him we would be happy to go over maintenance with him when he picked up the saw and that if it broke again we would stand behind our work and fix it free.

"But I had three knots in the rope and it still pulled through".

This went back and forth a few times and I didn't know if I could hold back. Here was a grown ass man with a drivers license and a job. Probably even raised some kids. How could he not figure this out? I took a deep breath and found an opening in his verbal rampage to tell him this: 

Sir I saw what you did. You put three knots in a row. Because you chose a rope that was too small in diameter the handle pulled through the first knot and there was no reason why it wouldn't pull through the second and third knot because the knots are all the same diameter. We use a special recoil knot thats much bigger in diameter. I'm sure the repair will hold.

I guess he just needed to know he was getting the "special" knot because he came and got the saw weeks ago and I haven't heard back from him. BTW, there really is a special knot but I'm not authorized to reveal its secrets.

Later.