You can't make this stuff up...

[a3dhunter]

I work in a service department and took a call today from a guy who was very polite, he informed me he was working on his brakes.

After a few simple questions he proceeded to ask me which direction to turn the caliper bolts to loosen them?

I was speechless, I thought I heard him wrong so I asked him to repeat the question. He again asked which direction to turn the bolt to loosen it.

I answered his question and he then asked me to explain it again based on which direction the bolt is facing.

He then said, "okay, I think I've got it"......

REALLY?

I am thinking this guy should not be working on his own vehicle, and definitely not working on his own brakes!!!!

Has anyone ever ran into this before?

Feel free to share other stories......

[Johnny Dangerr]

I sell a lot of headlight plugs that get broken in wrecks. I tell the customer to either take a picture of the broken plug if it is not to bad or take a picture of the good one on the other side of the car.

I get at least one picture a week of 2 wires. No plug - nothing but 2 wires. Uhhh Duh

[mharris1]

you should have sold him some headlight fluid.

[Coach W]

LOL. Thats good. Find out where this guy lives and never go close again. Be interested to hear what hes ran into since his brake "fix."
Just to be clear it is still Lefty tighty, Righty loosy right?

[Mayhem]

guess he has never heard the ol righty tighty, lefty loosey.

[Take em]

sell him some blinker fluid as well, it will keep it from making the clicking noise

[rumbanator]

guess he has never heard the ol righty tighty, lefty loosey.

Wouldn't suggest you try this when taking a wheel off of the left side of a '67 Dodge. Oh and don't jump up and down on the lug wrench thinking its just on real tight.

[boh347]

Wouldn't suggest you try this when taking a wheel off of the left side of a '67 Dodge. Oh and don't jump up and down on the lug wrench thinking its just on real tight.

Or a semi.

[bryan sandlin]

i had a call from a truck driver that needed to drop off something in houston. i asked " o.k. where are you now ? " he said, " i-10 " o.k. where at on i-10? " a union 76 truck stop." i then asked what state? " louisiana, do you know the one i'm talking about?" the truck stop, or the state? as if i needed the answer. " the truckstop" is what i heard over the phone. i then gave the directions as best i could.

[jerp]

I'll tell one on myself. Years ago (I was in my 30's) I was at the lease changing a flat on an old travel trailer. Instead of having lug nuts it had bolts that went throught the wheel into the hub, and dang those bolts were stubborn! I sprayed them with rust buster, and even put a 4 foot long cheater pipe on the wrench and bounced on it with all my weight but that bolt would not budge. As I wrestled with it, the ranch owner's son - who was about 14 - walked up and said "Uh, excuse me sir but is there a mark of some kind on those bolts?" I was exasperated at this point and said "Huh?" I then looked and said "well there's a 7 on each one but I don't know what the hell that could mean!" He said " well, I reckon that's not a 7. It's an L, as in Left hand thread." I did not know that on some old trailers they put left hand thread on one side so they wouldn't back-out as you rolled down the road. I felt like an idiot and I'm sure that kid got a good laugh....

[Bisch]

Maybe he had those propane powered brakes that have the reverse thread bolts on them!

Bisch

[furboom]

I work at Continental Airlines, I use to work the ticket counter. I noticed a man enter the terminal at the far side of the terminal. He was carrying a large box in both hands. When he came to the American Airlines counter, he stopped and looked around. No AA agents had arrived yet and the counter was closed. He looked over and saw our long line and made his way to us. He finally made his way to our ticket counter and as luck would have it I was the lucky one to get to help him out. He told me that he was indeed flying on AA but no one was there. He then ask if I could check him in at our counter. I said no sorry, Dumbfounded by my answer he asked why not. I told him, it's like buying something for something at Sears and wanting to pick it up at J.C. Penny.
So with a puzzled look on his face he said," so you can't check me in?".

[Wall_Hanger]

Ya I've gotten a ton of those. I used to manage an Autozone and I was one of the lucky few that got to work on north bryan. Then I worked at the one on CS where I had frat guys come in and ask me to change their battery bc they didn't know how. Bein the nice guy I am I would and undoubtedly they would get a call and pay no attention to how I was doing the swap and then 15 minutes later 5 more would come in and play dumb too.

[bowhntrmatt]

I am an hvac tech. I get to go into peoples' houses every day. I don't even know where to begin about the stupid stuff I have encountered.

One guy called and said he couldn't get his pilot to light on his furnace. It was an electronic ignition furnace....

That and the countless grown men who don't know to check for a tripped breaker.

And people who haven't changed their filters for like a year.

The ones I like best are the people that say their a/c doesn't work right, but when I get there it is 68 in the house and they are on the couch under a blanket. "but it won't get down to 66!"

[txfireguy2003]

I have a habit of turning bolts the wrong way. Actually, lots of people do. I generally catch myself pretty quickly, but sometimes when you can't see the bolt you're working on, and/or it's pointing toward you, well I get confused occasionally. That said, I would imagine this guy's problem was that h couldn't get the bolt to break loose. Granted, brakes are IMPORTANT, and that bolt needs to be TIGHT, but geeze. It's like the guys at the tire shops that put your wheels back on with the strongest impact wrench in the shop. I can't count the number of lug studs I've broken off because the idiot at the tire place torqued them down too tight. But then again, I've also had aluminum rims stuck on the hub, even after I got all the lug nuts off. Something with the steel/cast iron in contact with the aluminum causing some sort of chemical reaction that virtually welds them together, had to pound one off with a sledge hammer once.