Got called out for a stuck elevator in a fancy hotel last month

The call said the car was stuck between floors, but when I got to the machine room, I found a hotel manager had tried to 'reset' it by pulling the main disconnect. He put it back wrong, so the safety circuit was still open. I had to explain to him, in front of the guests, that you can't just flip a big switch and hope for the best. Has anyone else had to deal with a customer who tried to be their own mechanic?

2 comments

2 Comments

oliviadixon8d ago

Oh man, that's a classic. I've had a few folks try to "fix" things by just cycling power, and it almost always makes it worse. What worked for me was calmly showing them the specific safety switch or light that was now showing a fault because of the reset. Pointing to the actual problem part, instead of just saying they were wrong, usually gets them to stop and listen. It turns it from an argument into a simple lesson.

the_rowan8d ago

I once had to explain to a senior engineer why his emergency stop reset created three new alarms. My own fault codes mocked me from the screen while I talked. It's hard to look smart when the machine is literally flashing "ERROR" at your fix.