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dragonspark
hello fellow sparks
i was hoping that there would be another electrician using these forums who could help me in handling a situation that i will describe below.
I am a self employed sparky with my two sons working as apprentices, over the last twelve months i have worked very hard to obtain new clients, i try to keep away from domestic work, and i have no intention of taking part p, i am far more at home working in industrial premises and on machinery.
While not deliberately attempting to snatch work away from another contractor, i have sent hundreds of letters out to prospective customers, one of whom, a joinery manufacturer, asked for a quotation to disconnect 30 machines from their old premises and relocate at a new premises.
Upon disconnecting at the old premises i found that there were multiple machines fed from one circuit breaker, in one case there were five three phase machines fed from one circuit breaker, in some cases earth rings were not fitted and in all cases there was no earth link from the earth ring to earth terminal in the distribution board, the client was aware that they could not use certain machines whilst others were working.
The client has been using an electrician for years, there are two directors of the joinery who are quite happy with him but a manager who is not.
We completed the machine move in time and machine downtime was minimal, i have been back on a couple of occaisions for breakdown cover which proved to be starter or isolator breakdown on the machines themselves, i did not charge for this, we completed the move in may this year.
last week the manager phoned me up asking to see me, i immediately attended whereupon i was given a copy of a letter from the other contractor with three pages of "faults" that he claims we are guilty of, it also claims that if health and safety were to visit the premises they would shut them down, closer inspection of the "faults" mostly revolve around socket outlets not being rcd protected, i am aware that in industrial premises where rcd can cause nuisance tripping they can be omitted so we did, the other contractor also claims we have mixed neutrals with earths, work untidy, left holes in distribution bards, and have not put identification on old red/yellow/blue phases in an old distribution board, as far as i can tell that is our only crime, the contractor is using words that can only be described as scare mongering.
This contractor in four years has never issued a completion certificate or minor works certificate, i am sure he has not attended a 17th regs course, as described earlier he has fed multiple machines from one supply, has never fitted earth links, and has not used new colour identification himself.
I do not wish to get as petty as himself, but our standard of work has basically shown up his work, he is now attempting to scare the client by using the regulations and blind them with science.
what can be done in situations like this, i am confident enough that our work is of a higher standard than the criticiser, however the client is worried.
any suggestions please
many thanks
i was hoping that there would be another electrician using these forums who could help me in handling a situation that i will describe below.
I am a self employed sparky with my two sons working as apprentices, over the last twelve months i have worked very hard to obtain new clients, i try to keep away from domestic work, and i have no intention of taking part p, i am far more at home working in industrial premises and on machinery.
While not deliberately attempting to snatch work away from another contractor, i have sent hundreds of letters out to prospective customers, one of whom, a joinery manufacturer, asked for a quotation to disconnect 30 machines from their old premises and relocate at a new premises.
Upon disconnecting at the old premises i found that there were multiple machines fed from one circuit breaker, in one case there were five three phase machines fed from one circuit breaker, in some cases earth rings were not fitted and in all cases there was no earth link from the earth ring to earth terminal in the distribution board, the client was aware that they could not use certain machines whilst others were working.
The client has been using an electrician for years, there are two directors of the joinery who are quite happy with him but a manager who is not.
We completed the machine move in time and machine downtime was minimal, i have been back on a couple of occaisions for breakdown cover which proved to be starter or isolator breakdown on the machines themselves, i did not charge for this, we completed the move in may this year.
last week the manager phoned me up asking to see me, i immediately attended whereupon i was given a copy of a letter from the other contractor with three pages of "faults" that he claims we are guilty of, it also claims that if health and safety were to visit the premises they would shut them down, closer inspection of the "faults" mostly revolve around socket outlets not being rcd protected, i am aware that in industrial premises where rcd can cause nuisance tripping they can be omitted so we did, the other contractor also claims we have mixed neutrals with earths, work untidy, left holes in distribution bards, and have not put identification on old red/yellow/blue phases in an old distribution board, as far as i can tell that is our only crime, the contractor is using words that can only be described as scare mongering.
This contractor in four years has never issued a completion certificate or minor works certificate, i am sure he has not attended a 17th regs course, as described earlier he has fed multiple machines from one supply, has never fitted earth links, and has not used new colour identification himself.
I do not wish to get as petty as himself, but our standard of work has basically shown up his work, he is now attempting to scare the client by using the regulations and blind them with science.
what can be done in situations like this, i am confident enough that our work is of a higher standard than the criticiser, however the client is worried.
any suggestions please
many thanks
