This guy did WHAT?

[Randall]

I have my repair shop in a part of my house, with the entrance being through the garage door. Today, while waiting for a guy who was quite late for his 1:30 appt, I started tinkering with my overhead door. When he finally arrived 2 hours late, the door was down, with me making a racket on the inside. I heard him announce his arrival from the driveway, and in the 20-30 seconds it took me to tighten a bolt, put down my tools and lift open the door, he had already let himself in the front door of my residence. He walked in past my very barking dog, through my house and into the garage, chuckling that he didn't know where I was, so he just let himself in! I was flabbergasted. He acted like it was nothing. I told him he was lucky he didn't get bitten.

My door was slightly ajar open, as it was a nice day, and I like the fresh air, but still! Just waltz right in? This guy is a retired airline pilot, and a hack hobby guitar player, but does he have no sense of what is acceptable and normal? It was half a day ago, and I am still steamed. Can anyone think of a circumstance where it is acceptable to just walk into someone's home uninvited? He didn't wait, he didn't text, he didn't call, he just walked right in.

[glebert]

Sounds like you have two reasons to fire him, the first being 2 hours late for an appt. I hate that.

[The Dude]

Certainly not acceptable, but that's one of the reasons I quit working out of my house. If you work at home, you are always at work. I had people stopping over at all hours with no appointment and unannounced. There were several times I wasn't home so customers just left their crap in the middle of my driveway so I had to move it to get my car in the garage.

I eventually rented a space for the shop (I know, I know- that's not practical for many techs). Even after that, I had someone dump a load of P.A gear at home in my garage one Sunday. He left me a voicemail, "You weren't home, so.....". A few Sundays later he came by again with more repairs. That time, I was home. So, when he backed into the driveway to unload and opened the back door of his van, I put the previously dumped gear back into his van and told him he could bring it all to the shop like the rest of my customers. He said, "The shop isn't open on Sundays". (NO SHI+!) If not for my years of "The customer is always right" training, I would have just knocked him out. There's no use trying to explain things to some people.

[drewl]

Yeah, that's why people don't come to my house too.

Musicians are crazy/lazy/insane people.

[Enzo]

I used to work on arcade video games and pinballs, as well as amplifiers. I had a customer who would bring over a PacMan or an Asteroids, and I'd work on them on the spot at my home. And the time I lived at a country house on the "road to Laingsburg", which was Woodbury rd. The guy had his assistants load up a trailer with a half dozen games, and he told them to take these over to Enzo's place,on the "road to Laingsburg." Unfortunately, they had never been there, so they turned up Laingsburg Rd, and delivered a half dozen big games into some old lady's house. Laingsburg rd and Woodbury rd are not the same road. Lady was not home but house unlocked. I didn't lock mine. My guy called to make sure I was working on them, and I said "What games?" We all figured it out and his guys retrieved the games from the lady's house and brought them to me. I can only imagine what the lady thought when she came home to find scratches on th floor and furniture moved about.

[tedmich]

In the COVID era its particularly galling when boundaries aren't respected, the uninvited person could be carrying something quite scary. That said many older folks are completely ready for a return to historical friendliness and easy social mixing, which is TOTALLY understandable!

Several collogues got called to go to our site in a Scandinavian country and while that place is >60% vaccinated their COVID delta rates are spiking higher than they have ever experienced; people have largely abandoned masks and distance and sadly now is NOT the time to get closer. Pandemics don't just end, they burn out slowly in a last blaze of glory.

[Kevina]

Slightly different. I worked for a guy who had an absolute phobia of leaving lights on.

One day, I had switched the lights on and I was searching for a part in the stores. Suddenly, all the lights went off, and I was left in a tight storeroom with no windows). It took me about 40 minutes to find my way out, in doing so, about £1000 of replacement television boards and displays crashed to the ground; never to work again.

[J M Fahey]

Or worse, they may become endemic.
You never get fully rid of them, always a sizable amount of population working as a reservoir, inside your own frontiers.

[eschertron]

In Ohio we lock our doors

[tedmich]

In Ohio we lock our doors

well it is filled with Ohioans...

[nosaj]

Sucks having to deal with people doesn't it. But without them we'd be broke.
nosaj

[Chuck H]

Get a bigger, meaner dog

[Chuck H]

Sucks having to deal with people doesn't it. But without them we'd be broke.
nosaj

An author I like to read wrote about tourists in his area:
"The same way an exterminator can make his living off cockroaches without loving them."

[g1]

Get a bigger, meaner dog

"lasers" (and those are air quotes )

[Leo_Gnardo]

An author I like to read wrote about tourists in his area:
"The same way an exterminator can make his living off cockroaches without loving them."

That wouldn't be Carl Hiaasen would it? Carl's made a name for himself, capitalizing on TRUE! foibles & fables of Florida Man and other denizens of the swamp. I've heard some great interviews with him. From Miami way, Dave Barry rates too, always finding the absurd twists.

Randall, leaving the door unlocked & all... geeze! Home invasion crimes are no laughing matter & seem on the increase especially "down South." Even with that, I still occasionally have people walk in on me in an unguarded moment, and it IS disconcerting.