Undercut again ....20 characters

[telectrix]

4 bedroom house. total rewire, customer has had a quote for £2800. £1200 below my minimum estimate. words fail me.

 

[Deleted member 9648]

ask the board of governors if they have an installation certificate.

I'm not going to get involved mate. The thing is they went down this road about 10 years ago ,and it all ended in very expensive tears when a periodic (as it was then known) picked up loads of dangerous alterations carried out by the head caretaker, who was 'let go' very soon after.
Lots of remedial work for yours truly.
Short memories they have.

 

[Pete999]

I'm not going to get involved mate. The thing is they went down this road about 10 years ago ,and it all ended in very expensive tears when a periodic (as it was then known) picked up loads of dangerous alterations carried out by the head caretaker, who was 'let go' very soon after.
Lots of remedial work for yours truly.
Short memories they have.

Can't help but wonder why the caretaker was "let go" sacked. fired a scapegoat if ever I saw one, doubt if he was in a TU the would have kicked up a stink, or at least I would have in my Prospect Capacity.

 

[Deleted member 9648]

Wonder how many backhanders got him that job, hope you chastised him well & made the school pay a stiff financial penalty.

I happen to know the person carrying out the work is concerned over whether he should be doing it at all.....but appears to have been rather stitched up over a perk he signed up for on agreement of additional duties being carried out. I believe those additional duties started out as grass cutting etc and have rather snowballed but they've got him by the short and curlies.
Biding my time, it'll come back and bite them again.

 

[Pete999]

I happen to know the person carrying out the work is concerned over whether he should be doing it at all.....but appears to have been rather stitched up over a perk he signed up for on agreement of additional duties being carried out. I believe those additional duties started out as grass cutting etc and have rather snowballed but they've got him by the short and curlies.
Biding my time, it'll come back and bite them again.

He can't be totally to blame, just doing what he was told to do by Cretins.

 

[Specialist]

Maybe true, but that's no excuse for the way he butchered the conduit switch drop & dragged the wiring out.
He knew what he was doing & that it was dangerous and wrong, that's no one else's fault but his.

 

[Pete999]

Maybe true, but that's no excuse for the way he butchered the conduit switch drop & dragged the wiring out.
He knew what he was doing & that it was dangerous and wrong, that's no one else's fault but his.

Agree to a certain extent, but ultimately the buck stops with his boss for sanctioning the botch job, yes it was wrong of him but shame on the upper echelons for hanging him out to dry, seen it many times a s a civil servant, did a course on it once called A--e covering.

 

[Specialist]

Don't think we're ever going to agree on this one Pete, no his boss shouldn't have sanctioned him doing the work or coerced him into it. I seriously doubt though that the boss got up on a ladder to see what had been done above the ceiling.
Yes I've had bosses who tried to coerce me into doing things on a job that I knew were dangerous corner cutting, I've always refused. Twice I've been told to either do the work or look for another job, both occasions I told them where to shove the job.

 

[Andy78]

I've usually seen it go the other way. Many a time when working doing local authority work have I turned up to schools to change lamps in fittings because the caretaker has been banned from going up steps due to "working at height" panic.

 

[Pete999]

Don't think we're ever going to agree on this one Pete, no his boss shouldn't have sanctioned him doing the work or coerced him into it. I seriously doubt though that the boss got up on a ladder to see what had been done above the ceiling.
Yes I've had bosses who tried to coerce me into doing things on a job that I knew were dangerous corner cutting, I've always refused. Twice I've been told to either do the work or look for another job, both occasions I told them where to shove the job.

I don't want to fall out over this Andy, I've had lots of experience dealing with this sort of issue, and I agree and applaud your actions in refusing to be coerced into doing something dangerous, and rightly so.
But look at it from the Caretakers point of view, he liked his job, he thought, maybe his boss was in charge and he knew what he was doing, I feel we have to look further than whose fault it was, the supervisor for sure was wrong, but Mr Caretaker probably didn't know any better, it was totally wrong for the management to use him as a scapegoat, immoral at the least, if it was me that got "let go" I would be fighting tooth and nail for reinstatement and compensation. I've been there and seen it, get solicitors involved and watch the toilets become full up. Sorry Andy I feel so strongly about these sort of shenanigans by managers it makes my blood boil. And before any comedians assume this conversation is a mutual thing between me and Andy all I can say is grow up.

 

[telectrix]

agree with you there pete. poor caretaker who didn't know any better than if it works it's OK, told by his boss to do it or look for another job.

 

[Specialist]

Hi Pete: Never had any intention of falling out with you over it mate, got too much respect for you for that to happen. We just have differing opinions over this, is all.

 

[7029 dave]

4 bedroom house. total rewire, customer has had a quote for £2800. £1200 below my minimum estimate. words fail me.

Let them crack on, better to be skint on the sofa.

 

[Deleted member 9648]

I've usually seen it go the other way. Many a time when working doing local authority work have I turned up to schools to change lamps in fittings because the caretaker has been banned from going up steps due to "working at height" panic.

Spot on....there was a lot of that a while back. And not long ago we were asked to provide risk assessments before every visit to this particular site, and now they are doing their own work!
You couldn't make it up.
To add insult to injury on this one they have employed a plumber to carry out alterations in the toilet where the electrical work has taken place. It seems they are prepared to fry themselves but draw the line at getting wet.

 

[Toneyz]

I remember being at school in the 70's & 80's the caretakers seemed to do all the small maintenance jobs from painting and decorating, carpentry ,plumbing & electrical work now when I walk into a school all they are allowed to do is call in trades.

 

[Specialist]

Bit different with us, our school caretakers still do all basic maintenance including electrical. But no capital work, that all goes out to preferred contractors.

 

[D00DY_T00DY]

It's at this point you wait for the job to be completed and you being called out after things start tripping

 

[Jay Sparks]

It's at this point you wait for the job to be completed and you being called out after things start tripping

 

[Brains]

At least you have not lost any money on that one!!

Regards

 

[Santa]

A point from the other side:

When, as an ordinary householder, you ask for quotes, it's very hard to sort out the wheat from the chaff. It's a few years back now but I remember when I had my house rewired. I got three quotes - one guy arrived in a smart new van; insisted on putting covers on his shoes while he had a look and subsequently quoted what I thought was a silly price. (I assumed that he had decided that he didn't want the job).

Number two, I don't remember much, but he was in the house for barely five minutes and his quote was the lowest of the three.

The guy who got the job was a one-man-band and it took him a lot longer than he had thought - I suspect that there was not a lot of profit left at the end, but he did a good job (I think) and I got a certificate to prove it.

It's possible that the first guy would have been a lot faster, or the second one may well have just counted sockets @ £30 each and added 50% - then gone on to do a decent job and saved me some money.

My point is that when someone says they are a qualified electrician and offers to do the job, all we can go by is a gut feeling about them and the price. If number two had turned up in smart overalls with a logo on the pocket, and spent an hour taking notes with a stubby pencil, he would probably have got the job.