There is a strict policy at my company that we do not complete any service work unless there is an adult over the age of 18 years old in the house.
- We had a couple of problems many years ago and we had to start strictly enforcing the policy to cover our company.
A few months ago, a lady called me to schedule a repair on the AC in her apartment. The lady sounded really young. She tried to tell me that she was going to use her parent’s credit card to pay for the repairs. I told the lady that I needed a verifiable adult in the house. She took a small pause and then she said that would not be a problem. I sent one of the new guys over to the address, because I knew it was a good way to test the guy on the policy we have in place. The technician called me about twenty minutes later. The homeowner wasn’t home and the person trying to use the credit card looked like she was twelve years old. The girl was trying to pass off a neighbor as the owner of the home, but the guy didn’t have an ID to match the name on the credit card. I told the technician to stay there and I met him at the address. After talking with the girl and the neighbor, I found out that the girl is frequently left alone while her mom is out of town with various men. She leaves a credit card for groceries and emergencies and the girl didn’t have any AC in the apartment.