Is a low price the only thing that matters?

[Ken9876]

Gave a deli owner a price on some work he needed, I thought I was fair and honest with my price, I had noticed that his double coffee pot was wired wrong. So I included in my price to correct the problem, and I had let him know this... Did a few odds and ends he wanted, last week I stopped by, I see his coffee pots have been moved, and still wired incorrectly. No permits, no inspection and unsafe crap work. I'm undecided, I'm between calling him and letting him know and make the smart guy that wired this fix it out of his own pocket or call the inspection dept. Whats with people you try to be the good guy and make the job right, but at the end of the day most people only care about money.

 

[ptonsparky]

Don't take it personaly. Hard not to, but you will wear yourself out if you do.

 

[satcom]

Don't take it personaly. Hard not to, but you will wear yourself out if you do.

Good advice

We see it all the time the small store owner starts a business and it never brings in enough to pay all the overhead and operating expenses so they end up trading a few lunches for repairs and installations so some guy that has ten minutes of electrical experience does the job

 

[hurk27]

Gave a deli owner a price on some work he needed, I thought I was fair and honest with my price, I had noticed that his double coffee pot was wired wrong. So I included in my price to correct the problem, and I had let him know this... Did a few odds and ends he wanted, last week I stopped by, I see his coffee pots have been moved, and still wired incorrectly. No permits, no inspection and unsafe crap work. I'm undecided, I'm between calling him and letting him know and make the smart guy that wired this fix it out of his own pocket or call the inspection dept. Whats with people you try to be the good guy and make the job right, but at the end of the day most people only care about money.

To most small business owners, money is a big mater, and if it functions how can it be unsafe? you have to know their mind set to understand this or it will drive us nuts trying to figure the "WHY" While we understand the hidden dangers they don't, I get allot of this from foreign shop owners, as what they have seen operate in their home country for years should work here, they don't understand liability part till they get stung really good by a big law suite once, and if they don't flite back to their country of origin to avoid the prosecution, they will be forever a safety expert after such, as for people here who wish to do things this way, one word "Greed" and some of the above stuff.

When I tell them the liability is to high for me to work like that some will perk up and ask what is it that can happen, thats when I point out how easily electricity can cause death when it is not installed properly, then I give them a story of a child dieing because of some handyman didn't properly ground a pop machine, and it cost his company and their insurance millions of dollars, and the fact he has to live with this the rest of their life, that will get most of them going in the right direction.

 

[knoppdude]

Unfortunately, for many people, price is all that matters. I told one potential customer that the price for the job will be really high if their building goes up in smoke, so go with the low bidder, I don't care. People don't respect electricity until something goes wrong, and the fact is, you do get what you pay for.

 

[nhfire77]

.

I know its frustrating. I have a new outlook on my attitude, a personal injury lawyer, who is not completely morally corrupt, told me this:

Don't get (mad, driven insane, take it personally, try to understand), just bill them.

 

[sameguy]

How can it be wired wrong? It works it never gave us a problem! How much!
You never should look in a bar ceiling as it is mostly old cords, romex,etc., wired by patrons.
Let it go vote with your feet buy from the deli next door. Just think if he is that cheap on the elec. what are you eating??

 

[jmellc]

I cringe for you. I deal with this all the time. If you can't do something for $19, you probably won't get the job. I've been to a certain person's house so many times I don't go back anymore. Go there, have to take my shoes off in his house; look at what he wants done, try to figure the best way to do, wife comes up with some extra stuff, look at that, figure it out. Give a quote, explain why a wall will have to be opened, no there's no other way, etc, etc. Never got the 1st dime from him in work. He calls now, I say I'm not able to come for several weeks or not equipped for his job, etc.

 

[jmellc]

How can it be wired wrong? It works it never gave us a problem! How much!
You never should look in a bar ceiling as it is mostly old cords, romex,etc., wired by patrons.
Let it go vote with your feet buy from the deli next door. Just think if he is that cheap on the elec. what are you eating??

I went to a coffee shop with pendant lights over the bar. As I was admiring them, I noticed they were hanging on MC cable from ceiling boxes. Didn't notice all the detail, but saw they had MC connectors at the box. I think the cable stopped 1/2 inch short of the light & light hung on the conductors. I gave cashier a card, asked for their business if they needed an electrician. She said the owner did all the electrical work. About what I thought. I'll read the morning paper one day & see notice of a fire there.

Our city had a store owner who smelled smoke from some of his equipment one Saturday. Called local volunteer fire dept. They came, found no fire but saw either coolers or HVAC eqp needing attention. They told him. He tried to get them to stay and watch the stuff for a fire. Told him they couldn't do that, had to be at the station in case of another call. Later that night, he burned to the ground. He blamed the fire dept because they wouldn't stay, etc. I knew the issue w/out even knowing him. He was from a certain foreign culture that worships money. He didn't want to pay weekend rates to get someone out and repair the units. Also didn't want to shut down the weekend & lose incoming money. Wanted fire dept to stay & be on watch for free. He lost his store, but he saved the weekend service fees. Brilliant. Since no one was hurt, I got some good laughs out of that.

 

[jmellc]

I had a restaurant partner berate me for not immediately powering up a dough mixer they'd just bought from another restaurant. Had voltage charts inside machine, but not usual charts by any means, & machine had no cord for some reason. So I couldn't tell by NEMA pattern of plug. He kept shouting "it's 220". I said "220 with a neutral or without. 220 single phase or 3 phase".He just kept shouting "220". I called a Hobart dealer in the area & got what I needed. Installed right receptacle & cord/plug. Told him I may have to reverse 2 wires for rotation later when we had power. He called office, furious that I was ripping him off. His partner called office a few weeks later. Partner 1 had absconded 1 night with all the money from that week.

 

[iwire]

Is a low price the only thing that matters?

Yes with the majority of customers .... especially restaurant owners all that maters is price and does it work.

 

[RICK NAPIER]

The hole idea of inspection departments are to ensure a minimum safety level and the installation you describe increases the risk to those who use his store, his neighbors and anyone called to put the fire out. Call the inspection department and let them deal with the issue. When I was contracting it was hard enough competing with other electricians who were all trying to do a safe job then to have to compete with those who either don't care or are ignorant of what it takes to do good work.

 

[renosteinke]

Sometimes there's no 'right' answer. All I can suggest is ...

Remember the parable of the sower? How some seed fell on the rocks, some fell on fallow ground, and some fell on good ground and prospered? Well, look at your sales efforts that way. Sometimes your best efforts will be in vain. Sometimes the 'crows' will pick up your 'seeds.'

As for baseless accusations .... something I learned about when I drove a cab: with some folks, there's just no chance of anythig good coming from the relationship. Best to cut loose immediately, no matter how they protest, calling the law if need be. Find someone else, good luck to you, you WILL let me leave and take my stuff.

 

[growler]

No permits, no inspection and unsafe crap work.

I don't care so much about the permits or inspection because this is not my job but the unsafe crap work really gets to me. Just the other day I found a circuit that was fed by an #18 GA. lamp cord running exposed and naturally it didn't have a ground.

One the same job I found a receptacle installed without a box where the wire was feeding through a mounting hole in a buried panel. I started out to replace a burned receptacle and ended up having to dig out a buried panel. The wires were burned all the way into the panel so I had to uncover it just to get and idea what was actually wrong.

What's really bad is that the new owners of the business had not idea of what they were getting and now they end up paying for repairs.

The good thing is that I think that many problems will show up in the future so there will always be more work correcting all this crap work.

 

[K8MHZ]

People will spend 10,000 dollars on a kitchen floor and crab about a few hundred needed to fix an electrical problem.

 

[readydave8]

You never should look in a bar ceiling as it is mostly old cords, romex,etc., wired by patrons.

or a church

 

[fishin' electrician]

Around here anyways, if you're going to call someone, call the Fire Marshall. They will get them to fix it and are allowed routine inspections.

 

[Ken9876]

Thank you for the wisdom.

 

[bradleyelectric]

The first thing you need to understand is you don't want to work for everyone. The next thing you need to remember is there are people to match with people you don't want to work for. If someone wants the cheaprest price without regard for the quality of work give them the phone number of someone that does that kind of work. It will give that customer who they are looking for and you wont need to waist valuable time with them and it will keep those that want to chase unprofitable work unprofitable work to chase.

Most of the time that my phone rings it is not someone that cares mostly about price. It is usually someone that wants to update my free business listing. That's another thread, but the calls I can make good money on come often enough that we stay pretty busy. Those are the ones I focus on.

 

[brantmacga]

Go there, have to take my shoes off in his house;

you should be wearing shubees every time you walk in someone's house anyway.