Installing cable is a job that demands flexibility, but some difficult customers push even the most dedicated technicians to their limits.

When a homeowner refused to share his air conditioning with the cable guy working on a stuffy attic job, he found a creative way to make him sweat too.

Read on for the full story!

Gonna tell me I have to work in an oven ? Okay then…

So back in the day I was, for all intents and purposes, a cable guy.

Lots of time spent in attics, under houses, and climbing poles.

That kind of work.

Largely satisfying, but those hot attics sucked.

Cue this story.

I was at an older home installing new service and had to replace the old wiring because, well, it was old.

It was all ran in the attic.

Normally not a big deal: tape off the new cable to the old cable, get close enough that it’ll pull up smoothly, done.

But not everything about this job was smooth sailing.

Not this house.

Whoever installed the cable stapled it down to the rafters throughout the attic.

Which meant I had to crawl yoga-style (I swear attic yoga should be a thing) throughout the attic, avoiding joists, HVAC ducts, gas pipes, roofing nails, and boxes of random stuff.

I had to find where the cable came up, rip out enough staples to get some slack, and then pull it up and back to the hatch where the splitter was.

The technician decided to try a different technique this time, which proved to be a mistake.

I liked pulling out enough cable down below so that I only had to go up to the attic once to pull it all up.

This is what I had done at this house.

My usual timesaver bit me in the behind.

I could have gone down after each run to move my box of cable to prep the next outlet, giving myself a break from the attic heat, but I didn’t.

I unknowingly set up the homeowner to do what he did to me.

Soon he heard an unsettling noise.

I was working the first cable run when I heard a thump.

I looked back and saw the homeowner had closed the attic ladder.

Um, it was 95 degrees outside, and this was an old house, so you can imagine how hot it was in that attic.

I crawled back and banged on the hatch, not wanting to push it down in case he was still there and I hit him.

He asks what gives.

Seconds later, it pulls down. “Wow, you’re done already?”

“No sir, why did you close the ladder hatch?”

“Oh, it’s really hot up there, and I don’t want the AC running more while you work.”

“Sir, it’s a safety hazard to basically lock me in your attic without ventilation. As you said, it’s very hot up here.”

“Oh yeah? Well, my uncle is the VP of (some department), so if you don’t want to do your job, I’ll see you’re fired.”

So that’s how it’s gonna be? Two can play at that game.

Dang, one of THOSE guys. Fine.

A buddy of mine already told me how to deal with this.

“Apologies, sir. I will work to get this done as quickly as I can and knock when I’m done.”

I went back and, as I noted before, even though the house was old, it had more modern flexible AC ducts.

He begins laying the groundwork for his revenge.

I scrambled down the longest one, which coincidentally went to the master bedroom.

Oh look, it has a thin plastic zip tie holding it to the duct.

Wiggled it, and, predictably, the zip tie broke quite naturally.

Grabbed the duct and pulled it around with me while I worked to at least have some cold air on my face.

The worker decided to keep up the facade for his own amusement.

Whenever the AC stopped, I banged on the hatch to come down for water and made a (not entirely feigned) show of being exhausted from heat.

Whenever the AC came back on, I went back up.

The homeowner increasingly looked worried.

To his credit, he still completed the job flawlessly.

A 30-minute cabling job took 3 hours, plus the time to set up the boxes and remotes to his TVs.

However, I still did it right.

Did the same new service demo I did for everyone, and he was happy.

Service quality tests were spot on.

But he had a surprise waiting for the jerky homeowner.

Prior to coming down for the final not-in-the-attic tasks, I had placed the end of the duct in the general vicinity of his master bedroom vent, making sure the worn zip tie was appropriately placed.

Have fun sweating in your bedroom, jerk .

Never heard a word about it if he complained.

The attic heat may have been suffocating, but it was nothing compared to the homeowner’s smug attitude.

What did Reddit think?

The contractor should find a job with a more empathetic homeowner like this one.

Someone familiar with the job knows exactly how claustrophobic those jobs can get.

Clearly the homeowner in this story doesn’t know a thing about humility.

Treating your contractors with kindness may even get you a thing or two in return. Who knew!

The homeowner spent his nights battling the heat, all thanks to his own hot-headed behavior.

Treat others how you want to be treated, always.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.