Small business unite

[ians]

As a small business ...one of the biggest challenges i face on a daily basis is trying to juggle work load.

Things go quiet so i rush out and find more work... 2 days later i cant keep up with the work load and so i gain 2 customers and loose another...most of my customers will wait 3-4 weeks for me to complete a project... knowing that when i start their project I will have the same focus and attention to details on their project.

Then you get the once in a blue moon customer... the one who calls you every 2 -5 years... who needs their problem sorted out within a day... or the urgent breakdowns.

So i tried using other small businesses to assist with the work load... bad idea ...every 5 minutes my phone is ringing with questions from the person who is attending to the job.

or a couple days or weeks later... I go to site to find the small business has left his card and advised my customer to contact him directly if they need any work done in the future.

Generally these small companies dont last due to their bad morals and work ethic... people talk... a lot more about bad than good.

If small business could unite and find a solution to this problem... I believe it would create a better work environment and keep more one man operation in business.

I spent many years going to ECA meeting and listening to all the contractors complaining about the same old same old ... it's was like a broken record... i could bet my old punctured bicycle tubes that the same old tune is playing 15 years later.

I still hear the same tune at the wholesalers... the low prices... the bad workmanship of the other contractors etc etc.

[ians]

At the end of last year i was too busy to tackle a few projects... so i did what i could and passed on some of the work which included an inspection report and COC ...i made it clear to the inspector that from my visual inspection (just 1 walk around the building) the building was in a bad way...that he should do a thorough inspection... this is the same job which is being rented out by a property management group which had an electrical company fix the wiring and issue an invalid COC at the end of last year.

Apparently today a cable caught on fire

Today i visited a site which had an invalid COC issued a couple of years ago... i got hold of the company owner back then who sent his team back to site to "fix" all the problems... I havent been back since they "fixed" the wiring ..today i had to replace a Day/night switch on the side of the building ...I dont know about you but i certain dont agree with people using the earth wire of twin +e as the return for a day night switch... instead of even bothering to take pic or reporting it to the customer ... i just replaced the 10 metres of 1.5 mm twin with a 3 core plus earth cable... i believe that company owner who send out people to inspect and test installations should be forced to get random inspection done on properties they test and issue COC's

I also had to deal with the gate peoples crap workmanship... i pointed out to the customer that the gate wiring was a mess and he should get the gate people to "fix" it ... i opend the new box they installed it is still just as untidy ...no tape or sleeving over the joints... the transformers are used as supports for the batteries ... pcbs which were double sided taped to the back of the box which have all fallen off and now hanging on the batteries ...i wasnt gona waste my time showing the customer what horse shyte mess it was ...instead i pushed everything back into the box... squashed the lid on and left... i am too busy to waste time with crap workmanship.

I am gona say it again ...the electrical industry and the DOL are a joke.