In my working life I was a mechanical services contractor….I owned and ran an air conditioning company.

No ethnic origin mentioned here, but we did find customers from one particular European country difficult to get along with and please! They always wanted something for nothing!

We had a ‘client’ come in one day and ask one of my sales guys to design an air-conditioning system for his house. Our salesman, Garry, did, and had the recommendations and quote delivered to the client. We didn’t hear back from the ‘client’ and presumed that the business ended up somewhere else.

About 9 months later a very irate ‘Person’ entered the building wanting to talk to the manager……me! He fumed his way into my office and proceeded to tell me his air conditioning didn’t work and he required compensation!

I calmly said to him…. “Are you a customer of ours?”

He said… “Yes. I came here 9 months ago and you designed an air-conditioning system for me.”

I said, “Sorry, I can’t place you. What is your name and I will get the file out, tell me when did we install this system for you?”

He said…. “No, you didn’t install it, my family members are all competent tradespeople, they did the job, but you designed it, and it doesn’t work!”

I said to him…. “Are you seriously expecting me to take responsibility for something I did not have any part in supplying and installing? If you are, you are seriously mistaken.”

He got up and said ever so aggressively “See you in court!”

I said to him…. “Now hang on, this is not an admission of any liability but would you like one of our guys to have a look at the unit and see if we can find an issue for you?”

When you run a business you must be a diplomat and a conciliator!

He agreed….and there set in chain the most amazing sequence of events!

Backtrack: About five months before, our unit lock-up had been broken into! The bastards had one of those roaming scanners that searches frequencies until it gets a match and as soon as it does…..bingo, the electric roller door opens. They cleaned us out….took eight brand-new units, copper piping and electrical gear!

Back to the present, I organised for one of our service guys to go and have a look at this unit. He did and reported that the installation was fine but the unit did have a faulty “reversing valve” and refrigerant was bypassing, compromising the performance of the machine. I got the fridgey to get the details off the machine and I would try to get some manufacturers help for this “customer”!

When our guys brought back the information, it turns out this non-performing unit which was going to end us up in court was in fact one of the units that had been stolen from our lockup five months before!!!!

I rang the “customer” and said to him…… “The unit does indeed have a problem and I would like to get the manufacturer to accept responsibility. Could you please give me the purchase details for this unit?” The reason I made that call to him was, I wanted his version of the purchase, and of course, that conversation was recorded! This was what I wanted to hear!

He said…. “My cousin bought the unit from xxxxxxxxxx and sold it to me as part of a family deal!” There you go…….. noose around the neck!

I said to him….. “Well, mate, you have shafted me twice.”

“1/….You came in here after free advice which you then wanted to use against me for your advantage!

“2/…. The serial number of your unit matches one that was stolen from my premises five months ago…..At this point it’s become a police matter, goodbye!”

I hung up the phone and I thought ‘sucked in you prick’…… I gave all the serial numbers to the police for a second time, and this time as they had a red hot lead, they managed to track down all but two of the stolen units.

It was three months later when I next saw him and his cousin in the dock, and the judge asked me if I could identify anyone in this courtroom, and I said to the judge……

“Yes, your honour, that person over there, the one on the right said, he would see me in court!”

Cheers……Rob

EDIT: As this post is having some interest I would like to add….

Yeah Karma happens just enough to make you realise, never do the wrong thing to anyone!

What appalled me about the whole thing, after the initial break-in and theft, a report was made to the police and they were given the serial numbers and invoices for all the equipment that was stolen. They never managed to make any progress in tracking down our loss or the culprits! So much for police effort. Insurance was considerably more effective and we were compensated for our loss and, that would have been the end of the matter.

It was just sheer luck that this turkey came back in to lodge a complaint presumably uninformed by his cousin of the history of his unit.

And one of the reasons I lean heavily towards being a conciliatory host with my short term renting is the lesson I learned from that experience! I could have told this character to get lost and stop wasting my time but, in the back of my mind was the desire to know what actually had gone wrong here. Even though he had clearly taken advantage of me, I still had a desire to see things right.

Once we actually sighted the unit, well.....the rest was history.

A chance in a million but, I took great delight in granting that thief and scammer his wish......

To see me in court!

Cheers.....Rob

Edit 2: Can I just say my punctuation may seem odd at times and I may also phrase things in an odd way (…….) I do it for effect!! I have done it this way for a reason. I can assure you all I do have an excellent mastery of the English language!

Cheers……Rob