I could barely understand her.

[corey2444]

An Oriental woman called that I could BARELY understand. I had to have her repeat everything 3-4 times. It was very frustrating. I was able finally understand she was locked out of her house, and needed a key remade. Gave her my price and I was omw.

When I got there she was trying a whole bunch of keys in the locks.. None worked. She pointed at the locks she wanted picked. Total of 4. So I opened the doors and I realized I made a mistake when the sight of "rental" entered my mind. The tenants clearly did not move out yet or they were running from something. I told her I could not change her locks unless she showed me the eviction notice. She insisted they moved out, and demanded I change them. I took her word "they be gone very lun time" even though I had my doubts, and as I was taking the second lock off the door, guess who shows up? Yup, the tenants!

Tenants were pissed, cops were called, they asked everyone's side. Calmed the tenant/landlords to a reasonable tone. I didn't get in trouble, and the clearly saw how a mistake like that could have been made, blah, blah.

Moral of the story is.. Short of learning Chinese, what could I have done to prevent this?

she was pretty though. WOW!

[nostromo]

Did you check her driver's license? The address on the license is supposed to be kept up to date. Or match up ID to anything to prove residence?

Does your shop have 'hold harmless' clauses on your work orders that you get them to sign? Not wanting to sign or waffling is a good clue you need to "get another tool from the truck", call the cops, and stall.

The Bulls**t alarm shoulda been clanging loudly when you saw her trying keys in the door.
Since I have the benefit of 20-20 hindsight and am comfortable in my easy chair, it's easy to say I woulda backed out of there. Some of those are just so hard to call in the heat of the moment.

The funny things people do. My favorite one so far is "ahhhhh, just make the keys for the Caddy Biarritz and bring them to the TipTop club on the corner. I'll wait for you there."

Yeh, sure. I'll be right over.

Glad you made it out alive. Say, by the way? Did you get paid?

[unlisted]

Don't provide a service for a person who has to repeat themselves more than twice on the phone. Nuff said.


Trust me, I heard this "rule" about a decade ago, and it has kept me out of lots of troubles..

[allamericanlock]

had the same thing happen but when i went to pick the lock her husband opened the door, i thought he was going to deck me! He was locking her out.

[Rickthepick]

Iv had a few customers of foreign origin that forget the entire english language when i hand over the bill

[Varjeal]

You were -very- lucky you did not get in serious trouble. If the tenants were smart (no offense) and mean you could've easily lost your business and perhaps more.

I've encountered your situation more than a few times, and I understand the "zomg I can't understand what she's saying".

In short, you messed up. Bad. What you need to do is after you show up to a job like that and find out the place is being rented, you need to take time to find out who has legal access to the place. In most areas 24hr notice must be given for the landlord to gain access to the property. Emergencies are, of course, the exception.

No paper-work, no access. If you feel that she likely does have legal access to the property, get the police there. Yes, it takes time. The other option is to just refuse the work, which you have every right to do at that point if you do not want to waste the time to do the research necessary.

Hold harmless invoices will not necessarily protect you if you give someone access to property without doing "due diligence".

Protect yourself, don't do work without paperwork or authorities present.

[Marcus_uk]

Yes Oriental people can be very hard to understand, especcally the women they speak very quietly.