Winding down for Christmas - FAIL!!!

[rikrobson]

In the gentle world of IT is usually get quiet near to Christmas as customers fall off and go on holiday. Apart from this year when our router in our data centre decides it had enough of passing data and stops. On a sunday night. A mild panic after the bloomin' thing dies on its bahookie.
Jump in the car and drive down with some spares and a sticking plaster.
(I'm in Perth, the kit is in Dundee and the Servers are in Leeds)
Yup drivin' all nigh, my hands wet on the wheel, Finally get there at 6 in the morning after no sleep (glad it wasn't brooklyn) Find the server acting as out router has died. No amount of coaxing was getting it back. The only spare is a smaller version, so that gets put in and needs configuring and nothing goes according to the plan and 6 hours later I'm on my way back. We now have a decent replacement on its way, that should land in Dundee tomorrow. I'll then need to configure that and head back down to Leeds Thursday afternoon/evening. Get the unit installed and then I'll be driving home for Christmas (maybe after a kip)
So instead of a quiet week i'll have done 500 miles and then another 500 miles to go back again.
Lets hope i'll finally get a quiet Christmas (apart from Boxing day, when its off to watch the Rugby Derby at Murryfield)

 

[Shox Dr]

Not what you need. Bummer on the route you have as well.

Good reason to let yourself go, over the well earned break

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

The joys of "On Call. Call Outs"

I Hope they are not all this bad and you get a chance to have a break at some point.

 

[rikrobson]

Not really on call. Just the guy that does.
We're only a call company so it's all hands on deck. If s9me9ne else went the I'd be on the phone telling them what to do.
Still get the mileage paid.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

driving home for Christmas

I'm sure it won't be like this, but take care on the journey(s)

 

[rtbcomp]

Bad planning. On two occasions at Christmas time I got callouts to machines that were located near to where I was spending Christmas, so got to travel in company time at their expense.

On the other side of the coin I got a callout from Sheffield to Leeds, the fog was so bad I gave up and stopped at the Motorway services. The annoying thing was the site in Leeds was 1/4 mile from the Leeds office.

 

[atomant48]

Hope you get a quiet Xmas too. Mind you that's a lot of miles; there must be a lathe that needs delivering somewhere for Xmas!

 

[rikrobson]

Bad planning.

I Didn't plan for the server to die.

there must be a lathe that needs delivering somewhere for Xmas!

yup empty audi A6 going up and down. as long as the server arrives

 

[Robotstar5]

I know the feeling, I once had a 180 mile round trip to flick a switch that "no one had touched"

 

[brightspark]

I know the feeling, I once had a 180 mile round trip to flick a switch that "no one had touched"

last year I did a 130 mile round trip to some pricks house just to tell em to put some credit on there key meter mind u I got 100 quid for it

 

[Kayos]

3 hour drive to survey a job that's getting fitted tomorrow, tell the office we shouldn't rush as its a big job

2 minutes later I get a call saying I'm helping in the install so 12 hours driving in 2 days

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Customer demanding a site attendance, despite being informed it is not needed. They raised it as a serious issue. So bad the could not secure the store as, I quote.
"The fire alarm is faulty"
30 December 2015. Deepest darkest Wiltshire to Penzance. 400 mile trip, traveling time 7 hours. We have a 4 hour response time.

Got to site, manager having a melt down, "We have to wait for you" I Go to the Fire alarm, no faults. I down load the system, log and see no action for over a week.
She kicks of again. "it is not that it is the "Fire Door".

We go to said door, she points out a broken door handle. "Fix that now it is a injury hazard"

Me. "No, not in my remit, I suggest you get hold of Maintenance to resolve it, sign here"

I got triple rate, 2 days off in Lou as it was a " Requested call out for a non Contract fault. Oh yes we also charged the site £2 a mile.

 

[Robotstar5]

When I worked for ABB I turned up to a breakdown at a Rover site driving a company Ford, at the time Rover had a strict ban on non-Rover cars going on site, I asked the security guard who was refusing me entry to sign my job sheet to say I had attended site but could not gain access while pointing out production had stopped until I could fix the robot, after a couple of phone calls I drove in with a large "contractor" sign on the dash

 

[julianthegypsy]

I was supposed to be installing a stove on Friday, which I wasn't looking forward to, especially as I had an accident last week involving my leg, a pointy bit of stainless sheet, a&e and several stitches, which put me back a couple of days. I seem to have been utterly manic for the last two months and am well ready to shut down so I was extremely grateful when my customer agreed to postpone till after christmas.
The worst one I ever heard though was my brother when he worked in Hong Kong. One of the customers he supported was the container port and when they called on christmas eve he thought it was a wind up to get him in for a drinkie. No such luck, the software he maintained logged all the containers in and out and issued instructions on which ones to move and where in order to get containers out. You get the idea. Turned out the database had corrupted...

 

[mpats]

Arrived one evening for nightshift, an aircraft had had to land at Inverness due to weather. I had to drive up to the hotel the pilots were in to give them a fresh data card and get the one from the aircraft then back to base so we could check it. Got millage plus recovery allowance and the rest of the night off for 5ish hours of driving.

This is my first christmas off in 12 years so no call outs or working for me this christmas. On the down side I am in work on the 1st.

 

[Turbo]

I was the engineer on call at the factory I worked nights at, mainly because I lived closest (3 miles away). Most of the time it was something simple like resetting a trip switch or the fire alarm had gone off coz one of the washing crew had blasted a sensor with his hose. I got a £20 call out fee plus I usually stayed there an hour. It was an easy earned £30, though it was annoying if you had just got comfortable in bed & the phone went at 4am.

The only time there was a serious incident was the night a refrigeration pipe fractured pouring ammonia gas into the factory. The place was evacuated, fire brigade out with breathing apparatus, the whole 9 yards! It was the next day before they were able to start production as they had to get a welding crew in to replace the pipe. But here's the best part - while all this was going on I was on the other side of the world partying!

 

[rikrobson]

No sign of the server yet so looking more like tomorrow

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

No sign of the server yet so looking more like tomorrow

Fingers crossed.

 

[mpats]

No sign of the server yet so looking more like tomorrow

Drive down on the 23rd and back up on the 24th hopefully? Christmas luck to you mate, hope it gets there in time

 

[tomsutton529]

Technically on call for the whole of xmas but if ive had a drink I cant go to site, therefore I shall be having a glass of something with my breakfast each day, apart from the 28th and 29th where a site in Wales has asked if we can do balance 9 fans in 2 days, Mucho Overtime though..