- Nov 24, 2010
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So a regular customer of mine (a landlord whom we have a good relationship with) phones up for a PIR on a new property she's bought. I take details, set a price and arrange for one of my guys to visit the property and carry out the report in a week and a half from the initial phone call. The customer isn't ecstatic about having to wait but we're busy and she books anyway. Three days later I get a phone call saying that she's had someone else in to do the report as it was urgent because she's renting to the council and can we quote for the remedial work and carry it out on the date originally arranged for the report as the price quoted by the guy who did it was too high. No problem, I visit the property that evening with her to be presented with a report which is well, probably the worst I've ever seen!
The guy that carried it out had picked up on a few minor things but essentially everything had C1s when at most there was maybe one C2 (no bonding to water) and the rest C3s at best (lack of RCD protection, trunking looking a bit worse for wear etc....). Funnily enough, I quickly whipped my tester out and checked for supp bonding in bathroom and realised that he had missed a C2 right there and the worst thing was that during his testing it was evident that he'd taken the boiler apart (which is against the law) for some reason because the panels were all loose and upon closer inspection was a nice little neon screwdriver sitting atop the PCB! The customer swears the boiler was not like that before he came. Now despite being a registered NIC DI the guy clearly had absolutely NO idea what he was doing whatsoever! Anyway, turns out the guy was £50 cheaper than me on the report but I would be about £300 cheaper than him on the remedials so hey ho. The customer says that he was recommended to her by a friend and she is now upset because she was recommended a cowboy which in fairness to me, I picked up on and said that from what I could see in the report, there's nothing to say he's trying to rob you, he just seems VERY inexperienced. Either a Electrical Trainee I told her or he's fresh out of college.
At this point the customer is also concerned because she now has a report full of C1s that she has to give to the council to which I tell her that I would recommend either completely re doing the I&T as the report is essentially meaningless (she doesn't seem keen at the prospect of shelling out more cash) or at the very worst, I can carry out the work that does actually need doing, have a general root around and check for the obvious dangers you'd expect to find in such a property and supply evidence that I have assessed the observations made on the initial report that don't need remedial work and can testify to the fact that each of them indeed doesn't need to be addressed, this information can then be supplied along with the report to the council. I told her at the very least this should be enough but I did however express my concern that in their eyes, they are going to have a report from one 'spark' saying one thing and evidence from another spark saying exactly the opposite. We can play that one as it comes I suppose.
Anyway, a few days later myself and a colleague are round there for half a day carrying out remedials and doing a bit of general tidying up (electrically speaking) and when we're done she comes over to pay and let's slip that she spoke to the guy who did the report and told him that she'd had some professionals in who said that half the work he'd quoted for was completely unnecessary (swap 16th for 17th DB, up size tails, MEC and gas bond etc...) And that he'd missed the supp bonding in the bathroom. The guy responded by telling her that whoever told her that is chatting rubbish, that everything needs RCDs, the tails NEED to be 25mm, that the bonding NEEDED to be 10mm, that supp bonding wasn't required, that the property is a fire hazard blah blah blah, jeez, this guy evidently couldn't even tell the difference between TNS and TN-C-S!! Anyway, to get to the point, he told her that we were chatting sheeet because he had just finished college and that means he knows what he's on about! I asked the customer how old he was and she reckons about 19/20. This guy has a website and everything and is whizzing around MY PATCH (lol) and masquerading as a blimmin' fully qualified spark! Now I think about it, he's also robbing work because I essentially missed out on the original report (in part because the customer got a little impatient) and I can't help thinking that if this guy wasn't specifically recommended to her we'd have got the work. Now it isn't really the work or the money that is the issue here, I've plenty on not to have to worry about the odd domestic PIR being snatched away and yet I'm still livid. The guy is clearly a danger to himself and others. He's still a kid really, he doesn't even know he's been born and yet he's out there doing work for people not only unsupervised but on his own completely!
Do I ring him up and give him a piece of my mind, maybe make some attempt to get through to him that he is dangerous and that he is at best a mate, in a few years he could maybe be a spark (it would make me feel good too tbh) or do I get over it, forget about it and move on knowing that this twerp will never really have an impact on my business despite what I like to tell myself?
Other options welcome!
Votes please
The guy that carried it out had picked up on a few minor things but essentially everything had C1s when at most there was maybe one C2 (no bonding to water) and the rest C3s at best (lack of RCD protection, trunking looking a bit worse for wear etc....). Funnily enough, I quickly whipped my tester out and checked for supp bonding in bathroom and realised that he had missed a C2 right there and the worst thing was that during his testing it was evident that he'd taken the boiler apart (which is against the law) for some reason because the panels were all loose and upon closer inspection was a nice little neon screwdriver sitting atop the PCB! The customer swears the boiler was not like that before he came. Now despite being a registered NIC DI the guy clearly had absolutely NO idea what he was doing whatsoever! Anyway, turns out the guy was £50 cheaper than me on the report but I would be about £300 cheaper than him on the remedials so hey ho. The customer says that he was recommended to her by a friend and she is now upset because she was recommended a cowboy which in fairness to me, I picked up on and said that from what I could see in the report, there's nothing to say he's trying to rob you, he just seems VERY inexperienced. Either a Electrical Trainee I told her or he's fresh out of college.
At this point the customer is also concerned because she now has a report full of C1s that she has to give to the council to which I tell her that I would recommend either completely re doing the I&T as the report is essentially meaningless (she doesn't seem keen at the prospect of shelling out more cash) or at the very worst, I can carry out the work that does actually need doing, have a general root around and check for the obvious dangers you'd expect to find in such a property and supply evidence that I have assessed the observations made on the initial report that don't need remedial work and can testify to the fact that each of them indeed doesn't need to be addressed, this information can then be supplied along with the report to the council. I told her at the very least this should be enough but I did however express my concern that in their eyes, they are going to have a report from one 'spark' saying one thing and evidence from another spark saying exactly the opposite. We can play that one as it comes I suppose.
Anyway, a few days later myself and a colleague are round there for half a day carrying out remedials and doing a bit of general tidying up (electrically speaking) and when we're done she comes over to pay and let's slip that she spoke to the guy who did the report and told him that she'd had some professionals in who said that half the work he'd quoted for was completely unnecessary (swap 16th for 17th DB, up size tails, MEC and gas bond etc...) And that he'd missed the supp bonding in the bathroom. The guy responded by telling her that whoever told her that is chatting rubbish, that everything needs RCDs, the tails NEED to be 25mm, that the bonding NEEDED to be 10mm, that supp bonding wasn't required, that the property is a fire hazard blah blah blah, jeez, this guy evidently couldn't even tell the difference between TNS and TN-C-S!! Anyway, to get to the point, he told her that we were chatting sheeet because he had just finished college and that means he knows what he's on about! I asked the customer how old he was and she reckons about 19/20. This guy has a website and everything and is whizzing around MY PATCH (lol) and masquerading as a blimmin' fully qualified spark! Now I think about it, he's also robbing work because I essentially missed out on the original report (in part because the customer got a little impatient) and I can't help thinking that if this guy wasn't specifically recommended to her we'd have got the work. Now it isn't really the work or the money that is the issue here, I've plenty on not to have to worry about the odd domestic PIR being snatched away and yet I'm still livid. The guy is clearly a danger to himself and others. He's still a kid really, he doesn't even know he's been born and yet he's out there doing work for people not only unsupervised but on his own completely!
Do I ring him up and give him a piece of my mind, maybe make some attempt to get through to him that he is dangerous and that he is at best a mate, in a few years he could maybe be a spark (it would make me feel good too tbh) or do I get over it, forget about it and move on knowing that this twerp will never really have an impact on my business despite what I like to tell myself?
Other options welcome!
Votes please
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