A Simple Plan

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Riograndeelectric

Senior Member
Location
Lakewood Colorado
keep us posted on the reply from the engineer you there under the bus and what the customer has to say. got to over it when the Engineer says you are over priced with no clue how these things work.
Good luck with your customer.
 
J

jmellc

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
Occupation
Facility Maintenance Tech. Licensed Electrician
Engineer sounds like a cross between a jerk and an idiot. He specs that you do it a tedious way, then tells customer your price is too high? I'd be on the phone to his boss the next business day, and maybe Inspections too. Is that a locality that requires all new services be underground? If so, why did he back off on that?

Replacing just panel in such an old install would be asking for trouble. Then your feeders will crack and split, try to replace them and the meter terminals will break or seize up, ......

In my area, we don't have to call poco for a svc chg unless some wierd situation exists, like them having to set a pole or new transformer, etc. We just get permit and do work, inspector notifies poco and they reconnect.

Is that routine in your locale to check with poco first?
 
growler

growler

Senior Member
Location
Atlanta,GA
George Stolz said:
Since the customer made a point about reminding me the engineer said I was over priced .
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"Over priced"? There really is no such thing, you quote a price at what it will cost to have your company perform the work in a certain manner. The fact that someone else may do the job cheaper doesn't mean you are over priced it normally means the other contractor is willing to cut more corners and may not do nearly as good a job in the long run.

If the customer thinks the engineer is right then have him get a quote from the engineer and then have him do the work. I believe it's good to be nice to a certain point but there is a time to tell people to either put-up or shut-up. There is also a time to tell a customer just where he can stick a job.
 
George Stolz

George Stolz

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Windsor, CO NEC: 2017
Occupation
Service Manager
growler said:
"Over priced"? There really is no such thing, you quote a price at what it will cost to have your company perform the work in a certain manner.
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That's the funny thing - I quoted him a pair of prices over the course of events - one was for overhead, and one was for underground. At the end of the day, I stuck by my price for underground despite the fact that I had to deduct $24 from my ticket to get it to balance.

I could understand if he was confused that a 200A underground quoted was installed as a 100A, and cost the same - which is what I figured the call was about. It wasn't about that at all, it was about the fact that overhead was $1400 and underground was $2600; "So you're telling me it cost you $1200 to dig a trench and toss a piece of #2 AL into it?!?"

It's like saying, "Well, why can't you squeeze orange juice out of an apple?!?" Two completely different jobs, two completely different prices.

Lessons learned:

1. NEVER do work for friends, or friends of friends. I will encourage the next one to get a quote elsewhere first, and then we can talk.

2. NEVER let the condition of an existing installation make you feel obligated to be the one to cure it. I didn't put that panel in the closet. I wasn't the slumlord that allowed that house to deteriorate so badly over the years, and hacked in all sorts of unsafe wiring because I was too cheap to have it done right. It wasn't my problem to begin with.

3. NEVER disregard the warning sign when a customer is very concerned about price.

4. NEVER allow a third party to disrupt communication. From now on, nothing but signed contracts by customers, and signed memos from POCOs, every time. And the next time a customer tries to butt in, I will have a nice anecdote about why I won't work for them if they try. :)

There is also a time to tell a customer just where he can stick a job.
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I'm learning. Slow, painful, but learning.
 
weressl

weressl

Esteemed Member
Location
Texas by the Gulf, geat crab, great shrimp
growler said:
"Over priced"? There really is no such thing, you quote a price at what it will cost to have your company perform the work in a certain manner. The fact that someone else may do the job cheaper doesn't mean you are over priced it normally means the other contractor is willing to cut more corners and may not do nearly as good a job in the long run.

If the customer thinks the engineer is right then have him get a quote from the engineer and then have him do the work. I believe it's good to be nice to a certain point but there is a time to tell people to either put-up or shut-up. There is also a time to tell a customer just where he can stick a job.
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Yes and no. It is relative. Things can be overpriced to the custormer if he expects to get a different job. If specifications are in place it is easy to find where the differences may be. It can be a result of the supplier side for several diferent reasons. If it is a larger company for a small job the overhead can be greater. If it is a small company for a large job, the Contractor may need to increase his staff - temporarily- or hire services that adds to his cost or overtime whoch is an adder. These are all well reasoned cost diferences.

Then there are the price gaugers - present ompany and Companies excempted :) - where the supplier is in a non-competitive situation.
 
P

petersonra

Senior Member
Location
Northern illinois
Occupation
engineer
It would not surprise me that the customer had a chat with someone and misunderstood what was said, and instead heard what he wanted to hear.

The problem with the low end guys is they only care about price. They do not care what it costs you to perform the work, all they care about is what it costs them.

These kind of people can be either avoided or managed. Managing them sucessfully is a skill few people have.

This guy may be looking at a bill to fix his rental property that exceeds several years worth of profits. Thats not your fault, but he still has to lay out the cash to get it fixed. That frustrates him and you are handy as the whipping boy, especially if the POCO guy did indeed suggest you were overpriced.

Not a good situation for you. I hope you learned your lesson about trying to help out a cheap SOB.
 
jwjrw

jwjrw

Senior Member
I would be on the phone to an area supervisor for poco and have him meet me and the customer at the house to make a final determination on what needs to be done. If the engineer originally told you no way I would want the supervisor to tell me why now its ok but wasnt then.
 
N844AA

N844AA

Member
Location
Los Angeles
George Stolz said:
So, essentially, there's someone at the power company telling my customer that I am overcharging, doing more work than is necessary ostensibly to drive up that bill, and that I should have illegally performed a panel change on the quiet with no inspection.

How would you react? :)
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I'd ignore it. You have no proof the POCO engineer actually said these things and even if he did, there's nothing you can do about it.

Just another "expert" with no idea what he's talking about. Hardly worth a second thought...
 
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