• We will be performing upgrades on the forums and server over the weekend. The forums may be unavailable multiple times for up to an hour each. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work to make the forums even better.

Alternate Point of View? Preying on Homeowners

Merry Christmas
L

letgomywago

Senior Member
Location
Washington state and Oregon coast
Occupation
residential electrician
On the point of the thread.

Wa wants an inspection for even this device replacement job so if he replaces the devices he needs to bring up to code the gfi and afci issues. The company wants to cover their butt by having all the devices hold so checking everything as possible and then the Surge isn't for the customer it's for the devices to last through warranty.

I don't think any of this is needed. But if someone wants to change all their ivory outlets to white this is something I'd expect to need to do.

Panel change is just gravy their chasing.
 
junkhound

junkhound

Senior Member
Location
Renton, WA
Occupation
EE, power electronics specialty
busman said:
My old Bryant panel is 74 years old and I don't lose a second of sleep over it. It's in great condition with zero corrosion.

Mark
Click to expand...
I'd go as far as advising OPs WA relatives to writeup the 'free inspectin' electricial as a predator on Yelp or similar?

Will throw in my house age - wired in 1972, lived here ever since. QO panels, never any failures, but was able to get a 1/4. turn extra torque on 4AWG and 2 AWG aluminum connections at the 20 year od mark, last I checked was about 5 years ago, no extra movement. .
20A spec grade receptacle, only needed to replace one at about 30 YO in all these decades, is the one that the vacuum cleaner in typically plugged into.

OTOH, have RR GE low voltage relays and switches for all lighting, about 50 relays and 200 switches and about the same number of diodes for logic in the house.. Have replaced 4 or 5 relays in 50+ years, and at about 40 years of age the SPDT 24V switches started having problems. Switches were only 50 cents in 1972, relatively pricy now so when one starts to have contact problems (bare copper oxidation) simply pop the back off then, sand the contact area, good for another 40 years.
 
L

letgomywago

Senior Member
Location
Washington state and Oregon coast
Occupation
residential electrician
junkhound said:
I'd go as far as advising OPs WA relatives to writeup the 'free inspectin' electricial as a predator on Yelp or similar?

Will throw in my house age - wired in 1972, lived here ever since. QO panels, never any failures, but was able to get a 1/4. turn extra torque on 4AWG and 2 AWG aluminum connections at the 20 year od mark, last I checked was about 5 years ago, no extra movement. .
20A spec grade receptacle, only needed to replace one at about 30 YO in all these decades, is the one that the vacuum cleaner in typically plugged into.

OTOH, have RR GE low voltage relays and switches for all lighting, about 50 relays and 200 switches and about the same number of diodes for logic in the house.. Have replaced 4 or 5 relays in 50+ years, and at about 40 years of age the SPDT 24V switches started having problems. Switches were only 50 cents in 1972, relatively pricy now so when one starts to have contact problems (bare copper oxidation) simply pop the back off then, sand the contact area, good for another 40 years.
Click to expand...
You can do doorbells if you want something cool they have decorative ones
 
James L

James L

Senior Member
Location
Kansas Cty, Mo, USA
Occupation
Electrician
To the OP.....

I hear about these inspections and solutions periodically, and they all have the same themes -

1) your house needs to be "brought up to code"

2) this is an emergency, you need it now

3) I know the price is high...but how much is your life worth?

These are usually done by companies offering some kind of service plan, Or you pay something like $150 a year and they'll come give your house a "free inspection"

From what I've seen, the guy who's actually inspecting it is like a freelancer of sorts. He works for the company full-time but doesn't get paid by the hour. Seems like the company will take 50-60% of the total price, leaving the technician 40-50%

The guy giving the quote might get somewhere between $8,000 and $10,000 including materials for 3 days of work.

Every time I hear about one of these, I tell the people they need to cancel these service contracts. Because all they're doing is inviting people to come in and give them an outrageous estimate for unnecessary work.

But I will say it's not near as outrageous as the prices you'll get from HVAC thugs. What most of them charge should amount to a criminal offense.
 
L

letgomywago

Senior Member
Location
Washington state and Oregon coast
Occupation
residential electrician
James L said:
To the OP.....

I hear about these inspections and solutions periodically, and they all have the same themes -

1) your house needs to be "brought up to code"

2) this is an emergency, you need it now

3) I know the price is high...but how much is your life worth?

These are usually done by companies offering some kind of service plan, Or you pay something like $150 a year and they'll come give your house a "free inspection"

From what I've seen, the guy who's actually inspecting it is like a freelancer of sorts. He works for the company full-time but doesn't get paid by the hour. Seems like the company will take 50-60% of the total price, leaving the technician 40-50%

The guy giving the quote might get somewhere between $8,000 and $10,000 including materials for 3 days of work.

Every time I hear about one of these, I tell the people they need to cancel these service contracts. Because all they're doing is inviting people to come in and give them an outrageous estimate for unnecessary work.

But I will say it's not near as outrageous as the prices you'll get from HVAC thugs. What most of them charge should amount to a criminal offense.
Click to expand...
The hvac combo companies are the worst when it comes to that "service"
 
James L

James L

Senior Member
Location
Kansas Cty, Mo, USA
Occupation
Electrician
Tutone said:
Unethical and borderline criminal sales practices
Click to expand...
I say the same thing.

There's been a lot of talk in the past 20 or so years about "predatory" practices in certain industries, like banking.

Nowadays there's a lot of barking about "price gouging" in the food industry.

But I think somebody needs to look into these predatory and price gouging practices of some of these companies.

I've been on the receiving end of two HVAC estimates where the labor amounted to about $1,300 per hour

Once was at my own house. They wanted $9,100 to swap out furnace and AC units. I found a set online with a regular price of $1,400 which means they wanted $7,700 for markup and labor on a 6-hour job.

Another one was at a camp I just worked at in Nebraska. Installing two dual zone mini splits. The guy gave a price of $25,000 and I found all of the units could be purchased for only $6,000 which means he wanted $19,000 for 2 days of work.
 
Jraef

Jraef

Moderator, OTD
Staff member
Location
San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA
Occupation
Electrical Engineer
My Aunt's house, built in 1956, has a Bryant circuit breaker panel in it. That's the earliest one I have ever seen.

In general, all of the resi load centers as we know them today came into being in the post WWII baby boom times when mass production of houses really took off. Westinghouse (who had owned Bryant outright since 1927) was still selling the old XO residential breakers and brand-labeling them to Square D and Cutler Hammer into the early to mid 1950s, until Sq. D came out with the QO line and Cutler Hammer came out with the CH line in 1955. So I'd guess that 1956 Bryant panel was among the first available as well, when Westinghouse decided to get on that bandwagon with lower cost high volume residential panels and breakers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top