Potential problem with SPX

Status
Not open for further replies.
bullheimer

bullheimer

Senior Member
Location
WA
I Read they are going to be installing a train load of these electric car charging stations for somebody, i think nissan leaf, but it well could have been the Chevy Volt, and, so i go to their website to sign on as a contractor in the area.

they hit me up with a Background Check Fee of over $100, which, like an idiot, i pay them. well i looked at that email and it was FOUR MONTHS AGO and i never heard back from them.


Here is their page, and they are a huge company.

home_pix_04.jpg
well, not a page, so their site is here ...............................................and the whole page is here: https://www.homecharging.spx.com/Portal/

please post any interactions with them you may have had.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Bullheimer,
We’re sorry to hear of your frustration with the SPX Installation Sales Contractor (ISC) certification process. We’d like to do what we can to correct your situation.
It appears that you may be in the middle of the certification process. Perhaps you are waiting for us, or, we may need some additional information from you in order to proceed (insurance verification, etc.). If you could contact us at {phone number removed} we will work directly with you to get the process completed and ensure your initial investment earns the return you are expecting.
As you know, SPX requires all ISC’s (electrical contractors) to go through a very thorough (but quick and painless) process to ensure that they are able to meet all program requirements. This includes a detailed background check on the business itself, confirmation of appropriate insurance levels (and other items), and a background check on the individual electricians that will be performing the installations. It’s a multi-step process, and the fees charged simply cover the costs of the independent, third-party certification process.
SPX announced this program in late 2010. Since then, we’ve had many ISC’s successfully join the program, and they are performing charge station installations for us today. Our original priority for on-boarding ISC’s was based around the Volt Phase 1 launch markets (California, New York, Texas, Washington DC and Michigan). In parallel with ensuring that the launch markets are appropriately covered, we are also expanding to provide nationwide coverage. Therefore, ISC’s outside of those launch markets are engaged and prepared for installations. But we will continue to fill out the network.
We actively on-board ISC’s every day and continue to be interested in establishing more partnerships with qualified electrical contractors that register on our site {web address removed}.
Thanks,
Barth
EV Support

{MODERATOR'S NOTE: Contact information removed. Use the PM process, if you wish to contact this member.}
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Have you filled out a pricing matrix? They wont contact you unless you fill thta out and send it back. Once i did this, i received an orientation phone call and 3 calls for estimates the next day.
 
ttbomk, i have not received a request from them for a pricing matrix.

just wondering how big of a company are you westelectric? you can pm me or not.

spx. i have your digits, and will call you. however i sent an email to y'all last week and still no reply, so i will call you now. ps i am in wa. state mve. btw spx, YGM.
 
did anybody get lost on that "To The Best of My Knowledge" achronym?

did anybody get lost on that "To The Best of My Knowledge" achronym?

Hello Guys and Gals. Wow. Talk about faster than a speeding Bolt of Lightening!!

Okay, I heard from Michelle at SPX this morning!!! She said the insurance is what has been holdiing my ap up. She said the insurance requirements are posted on their website under the Contractor registration sequence. $2million required in general liability. This is true, that is what is says.

Back in January, i talked to my ins. co and they said it would be no problem for me to up my ins. to that amount. i forwarded this to SPX's third party who does the Contractor verification. THIS is what held me up..

Because.... They want that coverage NOW, Before you apply, not after, not just being capable of it, but in ORDER TO APPLY. so anyway. that is what they have been waiting for. I will point out to them (i think i am doing that now), that their website doesn't make that clear. Heck when i talked to them in January it obviously wasn't made clear enough to me. So I am just clearing that up.

I am going to do it, because of both SPX's presence here, and also because of WestElectrics post as well. Sure lends an air of respectability to them does it not?

Now i just have to bust a move and gather up the extra money i need to up my insurance. They also want $1 million in auto liability as well, so mo money mo money mo money!

I still have to ask Michelle, however, (she went to lunch), a question my ins. co. asked me. Do they want 2 million in TOTAL general liability (aggregate), or 2 million for each occurrence.

Whichever it is, my application process is stalled until I up my ins. coverage.

I want to thank SPX for being on this website and being able to help me get this straightened out asap. also to westelectric and Mike Holt for having this site.
But i would like to point out that it would be nice if i could just be able to apply without spending this money not knowing if i will be accepted or not. But since it seems like it will be a slam dunk i am more happy about doing it. My main concern is that since i am a one man show i might be automatically out of it before i even apply, (not so), and my general distrust in big corporations, like banks.

So i apologize to SPX for thinking they might be treating me unfairly. As of now, they are smelling like roses.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hope you get plenty of business from them

Hope you get plenty of business from them

This sounds like a possible good business opportunity. Contrast it with this:
Many years ago the EV-1 was coming out here in SoCal. I was approached by SCE to be an authorized installer and would have a (pretty small for Los Angeles) "protected territory" with a maximum of 2 competitors. Insurance was a really high limit (3 Million in 199(3?). Also, had to be able to respond within 4 hours, especially on weekends, since a buyer at a GM dealership would drive his leased car home and wouldn't want to wait several days to have recharging set up.
SCE wanted a flat rate price (to include lets say 2P 40A CB, 30 Ft. of 8/2 romex, recharge unit to be leased with car, and install labor, permit/inspection included. Of course if the actual install varied (isn't every panel big enough and located directly outside the wall of the garage?), I could negotiate with lessee.

So would I have them by the short hairs, or would a few "site conditions upcharges" get me sxxtlisted with the dealer network? Was the upfront committment to higher insurance worth it before I got the first call? Did I want to dedicate the resources to respond that quickly and possibly spend a lot of Sunday afternoons doing these installs instead of with my young daughters and wife.

I passed, but forwarded it to a friend who was more service call oriented already. He jumped through the hoops, plunked down the $$ for higher insurance, and did 3, yes 3 of these in about 4 years. Big whoop.

Todays electric car penetration of the market should be much larger, so you gotta make up your own mind. One reply said several calls soon after qualifying, so maybe it's got potential. Good Luck!
 
Note the "Support the Davis Bacon Act"

Note the "Support the Davis Bacon Act"

Just for fun, I drilled down several levels on the Contractor Application link on their site. If you are a non-union shop, be aware that they may require you to pay Prevailing Wage rates to your guys. Im non-union, but I'm not knocking this requirement, I'm just saying that you should be aware. If you missed the $2 million insurance sentence you might miss this one too. Once again, Good Luck.
 
Gotter dunn. Now i have to remember my journeyman (or two) who was working for me and give them his name. This is for a background check. In the event that i have to handle more than one job at a time. i will also have to buy and insure another car for him , on my policy, in order for him to work for me, so. i will have to install one or two them in order to do that. They want to do a background check on him, so gee, i hope he's not a baby raper or a father stabber. or even a, a, a.... a litter bug! i guess we will be finding out soon enough.

May THE FORCE be with us.
 
Last edited:
When I looked at the website, I was somewhat skeptical, but when I looked up SPX, I learnd that its a large, publicly traded diversified company with a revenue in excess of $4 billion in 2009, so I think its a credible company
 
I thought you'ld never ask... i hope i don't get another in fraction for this

I thought you'ld never ask... i hope i don't get another in fraction for this

"And I, I walked over to the, to the bench there, and there is, Group W's
where they put you if you may not be moral enough to join the army after
committing your special crime, and there was all kinds of mean nasty ugly
looking people on the bench there. Mother rapers. Father stabbers. Father
rapers! Father rapers sitting right there on the bench next to me! And
they was mean and nasty and ugly and horrible crime-type guys sitting on the
bench next to me. And the meanest, ugliest, nastiest one, the meanest
father raper of them all, was coming over to me and he was mean 'n' ugly
'n' nasty 'n' horrible and all kind of things and he sat down next to me
and said, "Kid, whad'ya get?" I said, "I didn't get nothing, I had to pay
$50 and pick up the garbage." He said, "What were you arrested for, kid?"
And I said, "Littering." And they all moved away from me on the bench
there, and the hairy eyeball and all kinds of mean nasty things, till I
said, "And creating a nuisance." And they all came back, shook my hand,
and we had a great time on the bench, talkin about crime, mother stabbing,
father raping, all kinds of groovy things that we was talking about on the
bench. And everything was fine, we was smoking cigarettes and all kinds of
things, until the Sergeant came over, had some paper in his hand, held it
up and said.
...

("KID, HAVE YOU REHABILITATED YOURSELF?")

I went over to the Sergeant, said, "Sergeant you got a lot a damn gall to
ask me if I've rehabilitated myself, I mean, I mean, I mean that just, I'm
sittin' here on the bench, I mean I'm sittin here on the Group W bench
'cause you want to know if I'm moral enough join the army, burn women,
kids, houses and villages after bein' a litterbug." He looked at me and
said, "Kid, we don't like your kind, and we're gonna send your fingerprints
off to Washington."

And friends, somewhere in Washington enshrined in some little folder, is a
study in black and white of my fingerprints."
 
Last edited:
I had that entire song/story memorized when I was in high school. The movie is cool, too, but doesn't entirely follow the song. It would have been better if I saw the movie first, then heard the song. The part in the movie where the blind judge walks in is hilarious.
 
Here is what the song is talking about.

A moral waiver is an action by United States armed forces officials to accept, for induction into one of the military services, a recruit who is in one or more of a list of otherwise disqualifying situations.
The mechanism dates from at least the mid-1960s, and was by no later than 1969[1] part of Army Regulation 601-270.[2] As of 2009[update], the "major revision" effective in March 2007 and titled "Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS)" remains in effect; in that revision, Chapter 9 ("Processing of Selective Service System Registrants"), Section III ("Determination of Moral Qualifications and Waivers")[3] is primarily[4] concerned with moral waiver.
Each disqualifying situation involves at least convictions for multiple minor traffic offenses, or conviction of a more serious charge. The waiver-granting official would be either the commanding officer of the induction center, or the commander of the national induction-center system; the regulations permit even partial discretion as to which of the two applies only in the case of serious juvenile offenses: for adverse juvenile adjudication for 1 or more juvenile "felonies"
(where the quotation marks are part of the regulation), the induction center commander may either reject the inductee on that commander's own authority, or submit the case for consideration of a moral waiver by the national commander. A single adult felony conviction could be subject to moral waiver, at the discretion of the national commander, but multiple ones are completely disqualifying.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top