Maintenance Company

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AC\DC

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Florence,Oregon,Lane
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EC
Any of you guys work with these business. They seem like to much of a headache. Most recent one seem to really lowball the job or I am too slow or expensive.

Rewire 24 florescent fixture to led conversion bulbs, by pass ballast, $600. Thats $25 bucks a fixture. I have done this in residential home and by the time you move your ladder around, take bulbs out, rewire, and put new one in and move to next its at least 30 minutes each. This is in a commercial building so you have even more involved on being out of the way of customers.
They supply bulb but the labor is not worth $25 a fixture.

How long would it take you guys to rewire 24 of these. I am debating on 3-4 times times the amount they stated.
Then, are these maintenance company even worth the trouble to deal with. Seems like they might be a good, once you establish a relationship with them, they will call you for everything in your area.
 
If you think it will take you four times as much labor as they are willing to pay, why would you even consider them?

I will suggest this to you though. Most small businesses spend an inordinate amount of the owner's time getting business. If you can pawn that off on somebody else you may be ahead of the game in some cases.
 
I have worked for a couple of them but no more. Like was mentioned, they tell you what they will pay. I was allowed only 30 mins per fixture on ballast changes. That would be fine if they were all on a bench and you could walk down the line replacing them. They don't take into account hauling a ladder in, setting it up, take it down, move it, etc. Biggest problem I had was the stores were always open and customers right in your way. I tried to block the isles off but managers didn't like that. I had one woman almost knock me off the ladder trying to get her cart past me. I made money on some of them but the headache was not worth it.

You have to call in when arriving on site, call back with any problems and get approval if you have to go above the price allowed because of something such as wrong ballasts, no access, need wiring repaired, etc.
Then, when finished, you have to call back and sign off. Had one that kept me on hold for an hour just to tell them I was finished!.

Now on top of all that, you have to fill out paper work and send back to them. Then just set back and wait 30 days for your money.
So it's a fun process!!!
 
Ugggh! These companies are called Nationals. Chains and franchises use them to handle maintenance on their stores. You normally can't work for the store itself. There is a National for every trade. Nationals are the scum of the earth!

Little Bill said:
You have to call in when arriving on site, call back with any problems and get approval if you have to go above the price allowed because of something such as wrong ballasts, no access, need wiring repaired, etc.
Then, when finished, you have to call back and sign off. Had one that kept me on hold for an hour just to tell them I was finished!.

Now on top of all that, you have to fill out paper work and send back to them. Then just set back and wait 30 days for your money.
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What? You got paid?? Just wait. They reel you in by giving you jobs. They pay in the beginning. Then you get backed up with maybe ten jobs and you're wondering where your money is. That's when they stop answering the phone or tell you that the check is in the mail, the bookeeper has covid, or you find they went out of business.

DANGER WILL ROBINSON! Run as fast as you can!

Over on one of the phone system forums we keep a running blacklist of these crooks.

-Hal
 
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Coppersmith said:
In my experience, if a company tells you how much they will pay you to do a job, it's not worth it to work for them.
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Negotiating 101 says never be the first to name a number.
So they're not negotiating, they're saying "take it or leave it".
So they're arrogant. If they can afford to be, then don't work for them. You are outgunned.

I never intentionally worked for a doctor or a lawyer. They're both too rich.
 
AC\DC said:
Any of you guys work with these business. They seem like to much of a headache. Most recent one seem to really lowball the job or I am too slow or expensive.

Rewire 24 florescent fixture to led conversion bulbs, by pass ballast, $600. Thats $25 bucks a fixture. I have done this in residential home and by the time you move your ladder around, take bulbs out, rewire, and put new one in and move to next its at least 30 minutes each.

How long would it take you guys to rewire 24 of these. I am debating on 3-4 times times the amount they stated.
Click to expand...

I did some in an "empty" tenant space working off a 6 ft. ladder (8-9) foot ceiling and 30 minutes seems about right for an average.

If you are in a business or office that's open with people and furniture in the way I don't think 30 minutes pr fixture is long enough.

Another thing to consider is who's responsibility is it to get rid of old fluorescent lamps?
 
A local company enticed me to sign up to do jobs for them. They build outdoor kitchens. They paid a set amount for each receptacle installed. I immediately thought the price was low, but it seemed like good fill-in work for when I had a hole in my schedule. They sent out orders to a flock of electricians and whoever answered first got the job.

They sent me to a job with a drawing of the kitchen they had installed and where they wanted three receptacles. When I got there it wasn't as drawn and three wouldn't work. I called to verify I could change the install. I waited an hour for a call back and more time discussing the problem. They agreed. Since I ended up putting in two receptacles, they would only pay me for two and there was no compensation for the wasted telephone time. I never accepted another job from them.
 
growler said:
I did some in an "empty" tenant space working off a 6 ft. ladder (8-9) foot ceiling and 30 minutes seems about right for an average.

If you are in a business or office that's open with people and furniture in the way I don't think 30 minutes pr fixture is long enough.

Another thing to consider is who's responsibility is it to get rid of old fluorescent lamps?
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And who is responsible for warranty issues? You can bet you will be expected to work on it if it fails, but will it be at your expense?
 
kwired said:
And who is responsible for warranty issues? You can bet you will be expected to work on it if it fails, but will it be at your expense?
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This should be considered repair work and not new work because the fixtures are existing. In this state repair work requires a 90 day warranty. If you only provide labor to rewire and change out lamps there is not much that can go wrong. Lamps provided by others are their responsibility.

It's still worth more than $30 a fixture. How much more would depend on the area where you are working and local labor markets.
 
growler said:
This should be considered repair work and not new work because the fixtures are existing. In this state repair work requires a 90 day warranty. If you only provide labor to rewire and change out lamps there is not much that can go wrong. Lamps provided by others are their responsibility.

It's still worth more than $30 a fixture. How much more would depend on the area where you are working and local labor markets.
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And this "maintenance company" vey well may provide a different lamp, driver, etc. but expect you to eat labor on it, just like AFCI manufacturers do when they give you a replacement AFCI, although you spent 5 hours determining nothing was wrong with your wiring and the AFCI is what is defective.
 
We'll do jobs for companies like this from time to time--mostly times when business is slow. The check-in, check-out, approval for Not-To-Exceed limits, etc. are frustrating. Some want a bunch of pictures of everything, too. I always factor in at least an extra hour for phone time and paperwork.
 
An acquaintance of mine serviced fire extinguishers for such a company. It worked it out so they basically did all his sales, paperwork, billing, and other administrative work and he just did the "real" work. He liked it even though he didn't get paid for 60 days, but a lot less paperwork. He just made photostats of the forms with the customers info and what extinguishers were there and then filled it in as he did the service. Then he just faxed it in and magically a check would show up in his mailbox a few months later.

He kind of had a regular route of sorts between a bunch of big box stores to weigh all their fire extinguishers every month and service the ones that needed it.
 
petersonra said:
An acquaintance of mine serviced fire extinguishers for such a company. It worked it out so they basically did all his sales, paperwork, billing, and other administrative work and he just did the "real" work. He liked it even though he didn't get paid for 60 days, but a lot less paperwork. He just made photostats of the forms with the customers info and what extinguishers were there and then filled it in as he did the service. Then he just faxed it in and magically a check would show up in his mailbox a few months later.

He kind of had a regular route of sorts between a bunch of big box stores to weigh all their fire extinguishers every month and service the ones that needed it.
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Yeah. There are a few good ones but they are few and far between, it seems. A long time ago I worked for one providing service to sound systems in like the Old Navys, TJ Max, etc. It was good for awhile until I got a new policy from them saying that I couldn't wear any apparel with a company name on them or have a company name on my truck.

BYE.

-Hal
 
I priced to change 40 lamps in 20 fixtures at 12 minutes per fixture plus 30 mins for setup and disposal. with trip charge. And I made it under but was rushing. All from 6' ladder
 
Little Bill said:
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Then, when finished, you have to call back and sign off. Had one that kept me on hold for an hour just to tell them I was finished!.

Now on top of all that, you have to fill out paper work and send back to them. Then just set back and wait 30 days for your money.
So it's a fun process!!!
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You get your money in 30 days? How do you get it that at fast? One I've had dealings with have taken as much as 6 months most times take 3 months.
 
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