Monday, March 26, 2018

The drain snake sameness fallacy

I'm sure that I've lamented this before. But I'm going to do it again. Because it just happened. Again.

I sell and repair drains snakes, as regular readers know. I took a call a few minutes ago from someone who had a snake to repair. So I asked the natural first question which any repairman of any product would ask: What's the make and model?

"It's got a big round cage, and it's on like a cart, and the cable's about as big as my thumb."

Heavy sigh. That simply doesn't help. It's like going to an auto parts store and describing your car as being a large metal thing with four rubber tires and an engine. As I've explained to people too many times, "Fords and Chevy are both cars, but Ford parts won't fit on a Chevy." Drain snakes are as context specific as most anything else.

I told him he had to bring it to my shop so I could see it, and he heavy sighed. But without complete information I can't help and that's all there is to it.

No comments: