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That moment when a building manager tries to tell you how to fix the elevator | Elevator Mechanics - Guest Forum

That moment when a building manager tries to tell you how to fix the elevator

Was doing a routine modernization job downtown last Wednesday and the building manager comes up telling me the controller needs a firmware reset because he read it on some forum. I just nodded and went back to checking the door lock circuits. Took me maybe 10 minutes to find the real issue which was a worn out roller guide shoe throwing the car out of level by a quarter inch. He kept hovering and second guessing everything until I showed him the wear pattern on the shoe. My takeaway is that a lot of us probably deal with this kind of thing weekly where someone who never touched a machine thinks they know more. Has anyone else had a customer or manager try to override your professional call on a job? How do you handle it without being rude?

2 comments

2 Comments

wendy2053mo ago

Worn out roller guide shoe throwing the car out of level by a quarter inch" - I mean, come on, is this really that big of a deal? You found the problem in ten minutes, so it sounds like a pretty easy fix. The building manager was annoying, sure, but hovering and second guessing happens all the time in any job. I just don't see why you need to make a whole post about it like it was some major battle. Maybe just shrug it off and move on, it's not worth getting worked up over some guy who read a forum.

thomas_johnson3mo ago

Wait, @wendy205, are you serious right now?! A quarter inch out of level on an elevator car is NOT a small thing! That's the kind of thing that slams doors open and catches people's heels, or worse, it can mess up the whole leveling system down the line if you let it keep running. You found it quick, but that doesn't mean it's a nothingburger, man. And a building manager who hovers like that after reading one forum post is a total pain, that kind of second guessing wastes your time and makes you look bad in front of the tenants. So yeah, posting about it is fine, it's just blowing off steam after dealing with someone who doesn't trust the guy with the tools in his hand.