What a crazy day

MrMike

Silver
Mar 2, 2003
2,586
100
0
52
www.azconatechnologies.com
Days like these make me wish I had a DR1 blog. Then I thank God that I don't because the stuff that happens to me is so bizzarre it probably shouldn't be shared with the public anyway.

Well here's the less wierd of two wierd things that happenned to me today.

It started when I got a call form a old customer of mine in PP who bought an inverter and I guess sold it to the owner of Barco's restaurant.

The inverter is a particular model that has alot of problems but over the last 18 months of doing warrantee service on it we pretty much have the bugs hammerred out, just in time to stop doing to inverter business. Anyway this inverter is installed in a kitchen in a restaurant and although I have never seen the installation myself I suspect this may be one of the reasons we have had to replace the inverter a few times.

For the record don't install an inverter in the kitchen. Small children and inverters should stay out of the kitchen.

Anyway nice guy that I am, I contract an electrician on my own dime to go down and replace this inverter and see if he can observe anything about the installation that is causing repeated failures and a few hours later I get a call that my electrician is in jail because apparently it is illegal to carry an unlicensed inverter in public.

That's right the police arrested him for having an inverter with him and he's in jail now. Such a beautiful country. So now I am calling around trying to get my electrician out of jail so he can replace the kitchen inverter and I get an email about a situation that is much much wierder and more disturbing than the one I just mentioned.

You can't even imagine what the second situation is but lets just say this is a wierd day everybody be careful with your inverters, remember they could land you in jail.
 

Danny W

Bronze
Mar 1, 2003
999
12
0
Mike - What is an "unlicensed" inverter? I was not aware that they needed a license. Were they accusing him of stealing it, and he had no proof of ownership? - D
 

Mirador

On Permanent Vacation!
Apr 15, 2004
3,563
0
0
MrMike said:
Days like these make me wish I had a DR1 blog. Then I thank God that I don't because the stuff that happens to me is so bizzarre it probably shouldn't be shared with the public anyway.

Well here's the less wierd of two wierd things that happenned to me today.

It started when I got a call form a old customer of mine in PP who bought an inverter and I guess sold it to the owner of Barco's restaurant.

The inverter is a particular model that has alot of problems but over the last 18 months of doing warrantee service on it we pretty much have the bugs hammerred out, just in time to stop doing to inverter business. Anyway this inverter is installed in a kitchen in a restaurant and although I have never seen the installation myself I suspect this may be one of the reasons we have had to replace the inverter a few times.

For the record don't install an inverter in the kitchen. Small children and inverters should stay out of the kitchen.

Anyway nice guy that I am, I contract an electrician on my own dime to go down and replace this inverter and see if he can observe anything about the installation that is causing repeated failures and a few hours later I get a call that my electrician is in jail because apparently it is illegal to carry an unlicensed inverter in public.

That's right the police arrested him for having an inverter with him and he's in jail now. Such a beautiful country. So now I am calling around trying to get my electrician out of jail so he can replace the kitchen inverter and I get an email about a situation that is much much wierder and more disturbing than the one I just mentioned.

You can't even imagine what the second situation is but lets just say this is a wierd day everybody be careful with your inverters, remember they could land you in jail.

Mr. Mike, your electrician was not arrested for carrying an 'unlicensed' inverter. He was probably confused with a burglar and was arrested for not producing an 'invoice' which would have proven ownership.

Now what's the other much wierder thing that happened to you today ;-)

-
 

MrMike

Silver
Mar 2, 2003
2,586
100
0
52
www.azconatechnologies.com
Yeah I know he wasn't arrested for having an unlicensed inverter, I was just being, um fecetious or however you spell it.

Basically they accused him of stealing it. Which completely defies any sense of justice I can imagine, I can only assume there is a large number of things in people's posession at all times for which they have no invoice and in a civilized society they police should have to prove that he stole it rather him having to prove that he didn't. At the very least somebody should be claiming that their personal inverter was stolen and that it matches the description of the one my guy was carrying.

My problem with this situation is that it seems like an obvious attempt at extortion.

The invoice in question should be in the hands of the person we are doing warrantee service for but they don't remember where they put it and since the actual business entity that sold the inverter has been out of business for nearly 9 months now I don't have any of those records available to me.

I guess its just one of those cases of no good deed goes unpunished.

As far as the other thing goes I don't think I can really elaborate, at this point it seems somebody got beat up and is now in the hospital and the people who did the beating claimed that they were doing it on my behalf.

Now there are alot people I would like to see beaten, but this guy isn't one of them, I don't really know him and certainly have no problem with him and besides I prefer to do most of my beatings myself, although up to now I have never actually beaten anyone I am sure that if somebody was gonna get a whuppin' on my behalf I would want to be the one doing the whuppin'.
 

Chris

Gold
Oct 21, 2002
7,951
28
0
www.caribbetech.com
It has to be you!

I have it on good authority that the Earth-facing side of the sun is devoid of sunspots today - so, the other variable must be you.. Which God's did you not appease ;)
 

MrMike

Silver
Mar 2, 2003
2,586
100
0
52
www.azconatechnologies.com
I already posted the details I am willing to share about the second wierder thing above.

Back to the kitchen inverter:

My electrician has been released now and went on to survey the situation at the restaurant. His verdict is that the inverter is fine but the batteries were subjected to some improper maintenance, someone saw the fluid level was low and filled them with something other than water which caused them to stop doing their battery stuff.

Once again I have never been there but this guy I sent is pretty good, I think there are a few people on this board that have gotten service from him and we have never had a complaint.
 

Danny W

Bronze
Mar 1, 2003
999
12
0
Mike - My girlfriend is always getting hassled by the police because they think she's too young to have the things she does, or at least that's their excuse. About a year and a half ago it turned into a pretty heavy extortion, a real nightmare. Last month after a fender bender they went at her again, but a superior officer intervened. It's a hard thing for a white American accept - and I have no intention of letting it happen again. Makes you appreciate how lucky you really are, and how tough some minorities and poor people have it.- D
 

MrMike

Silver
Mar 2, 2003
2,586
100
0
52
www.azconatechnologies.com
Yeah Danny, its true that is pretty messed up and its one of the reasons I don't spend much time on the North Coast, the kind of things that people accept as commonplace up there would just be too much for me.

I am still kind of idealistic in my own semi-delusional way and I don't think I could deal with that on a daily basis.
 

Conchman

Silver
Jul 3, 2002
4,586
160
63
57
www.oceanworld.net
MrMike said:
Yeah Danny, its true that is pretty messed up and its one of the reasons I don't spend much time on the North Coast, the kind of things that people accept as commonplace up there would just be too much for me.

I am still kind of idealistic in my own semi-delusional way and I don't think I could deal with that on a daily basis.


That seems like a weird statement, I have been living on the north coast for 4years and I have 1) never been pulled over or stopped by police even though I am a gringo and drive like a maniac 2) never seen or heard of anybody getting arrested or harassed for having inverters or driving a nice car - things that seem to be going on in the big city. What things are going on on the north coast that amaze you?
 

Danny W

Bronze
Mar 1, 2003
999
12
0
Conchman said:
That seems like a weird statement, I have been living on the north coast for 4years and I have 1) never been pulled over or stopped by police even though I am a gringo and drive like a maniac 2) never seen or heard of anybody getting arrested or harassed for having inverters or driving a nice car - things that seem to be going on in the big city. What things are going on on the north coast that amaze you?

Conchman - I'm sure it's not exclusive to the north coast, but Dominicans get the sh*t beat out of them every day by the police, often without real reason. Gringos don't, even if they deserve it for driving like maniacs. - D
 

MrMike

Silver
Mar 2, 2003
2,586
100
0
52
www.azconatechnologies.com
I don't think so guys.

I have had two dealings on the north coast in the last 6 months, the first time I took my family to the beach and on the way back was stopped by a police roadblock and we all had to get out while they looked through my car I guess waiting for me to offer them some money.

The second was what happenned yesterday and it was the first time my Dominican technician had seen the inside of a jail cell. He works on inverters every day and has been all over the country with any number of inverters and other equipment with and without invoices but for some reason in Puerto Plata this can get you thrown in jail.

So from where I'm standing PP and surrounding area is a good place for decent people to be hassled by police by going about their daily lives.