Re: What's New?

["Russell Brill" <russwbrill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Question: why didn't you FIRE him a long time ago? Do you know the saying,
"sometimes you have to lose money to make money"... :-))

"Crash Gordon" <webmaster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:45e4dbdc$0$10301$815e3792@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Yep, I downsized a few years ago. Then sorta semi-retired in a
> sense...sold
> my building, trucks, let almost everyone go...then decided to just be a
> small family business again. Now it's fun again!
>
> Just got rid of an annoying client though. Pissy little moaning boy-man
> client I've had for 17 years. He had me put in a 7845GSM Saturday at a
> price
> HE SET and at a monthly HE SET...fine with me it was reasonable. Saturday
> my
> brother and I got it up and working fine and it still is. BEFORE we
> installed it I told him his 4285 phone module (on VISTA 20P) would not
> work
> nor would any phone features work now that he is HAVING HIS PHONE LINE
> DISCONNECTED and will only report on the GSM. Fine he says. I had told him
> this before as well, but wanted to have a witness that I told him again.
> Fine, thats ok...I would just like you to reprogram my keyfobs for
> ARM -STAY
> (right now they're ARM -AWAY and DISARM. I told him it was easier to
> program
> that remotely and I would do it Monday.
>
> On Monday he starts calling when am I going out there again to program the
> keyfobs ARM - STAY - INSTANT? ....INSTANT???
> So I ask him how many keyfobs do you really have....4....hmmmm; that would
> be 12 zones eaten up by just the keyfobs plus the 7 points. UH OH!....it's
> only a 16 zone receiver. So I give him a price to install a 32 zone
> reciever
> (cheap) and he says...STAY-INSTANT....UH OH...can't do that from a keyfob!
> Sorry. So maybe you want to just re-think this or not do it ?
>
> Long story short...he wants me to go out and remove the 7845GSM +
> reinstall
> the 4285 and give him his money back because it doesnt work...whoa wait
> thats a totally DIFFERENT radio has nothing to do with not being able to
> do
> what it the panel cant do. So he says just get it done...get it done? You
> want me to re-engineer the alarm panel for your needs? If the manufacturer
> says it can be done then it can't. I told him to have his new alarm
> company
> remove my equipment; my new rev 5.2 chip, 7845GSM, transformer and pack it
> up nice and return it to me  and then I'll give him his 4285, old rev 2
> chip
> and 400 clams back.
>
> All documented in emails...cause he thinks hes gonna sue me. Sue me? You
> named the price, I installed the GSM, it works, and he paid me (I can
> prove
> it since it sends daily sigs) all the other junk is moot since we didn't
> contract to install or collect any money.
>
> Oh yeah...this man-boy is an non practicing attorney!...yah one of those
> guys whose parents made him go to law school, but he's never practiced.
> Idiot boy...I know more about contract law then he ever will.
>
> So he fires me...gotta love it. I feel like a free man after a 17 year bad
> marriage.
>
> </rant>
>
>
> "Jim" <alarminex@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:1172608737.179205.63410@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> | On Feb 27, 9:45?am, "Crash Gordon" <webmas...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> | wrote:
> | > Most of my jobs are nice. I'm pretty selective on what I take on...if
> it
> | > aint gonna be fun/challenging and be profitable I leave it for the
> other
> | > guys.
> | >
> | > Starting on a 6000 sqft livable with a 1200 sqft mother in law house
> and
> a
> | > 2000 sqft RV garage (all one job on same piece of property), this
> weekend.
> | > That one will go about 6K just on the alarm - the "other" guys
> proposed
> 3
> | > systems at a total of 2500$...of course for starters their way would
> cost my
> | > client 75$ per month for monitoring, my way only 25.00...not to
> mention
> what
> | > they left out of a proper system - you really can do a house with 35
> opening
> | > windows, 9 doors, + other stuff on a system with only 8 zones (well
> maybe
> | > they can/will, not me).
> | >
> | > We do custom sound, structured wiring, central vac...all that other
> junk.
> | > But, I love doing the alarm stuff most of all.
> | >
> | Sounds like we're about at the same phase of our careers. I do the
> | nice stuff now. I'm into my third generation of customers and the work
> | is always there and I can choose not to do it if I don't think it's
> | going to be fun or challanging.
> | I do 98% residential now, including LAN and structured wiring,
> | telephone, CATV, home automation, ie, X10 lighting and thermostats,
> | home theater / surround sound setup and/or installation, whole house
> | audio.
> |
> | Don't do vacuum, access control, intercom's ( except video) for
> | various ligitimate reasons.  Vacuum (aftermarket) is a two man job.
> | Intercoms just plain suck and I don't want the headache. And access
> | control requires the use of locksmiths or others for lock
> | installation. I don't like depending on undependable people. I say
> | what I'll do. And I do what I say. Unfortuntely, you can't depend on
> | others to follow the same rules.
> |
> | Just finishing up a 50 thousand sq ft office and warehouse building
> | for one of my long time clients. I wouldn't go out now and look for
> | commercial this large. But this guy's business has grown through the
> | years and he wants me to stay with him. Nice system. Burg only.
> | ( they've got sprikler and someone else who does that) Three
> | partitions. Glass break detectors in most offices, ceiling mount PIR's
> | in halls. Huge glass lobby entrance, rounded out to a half circle of
> | glass wall up 18 feet high. Terazza floors. I thought it was too hard
> | an area to put glass break detection and there was no way to mount a
> | motion detector so that it wasn't looking at glass. The regular
> | ceiling mount units had too big a circle of protected area when
> | mounted that high, so .... I did a few calculations and mounted a
> | regular dual tech unit on the ceiling looking down at the floor. The
> | entry door has contacts and a curtain of protection from the motion
> | detector, just wide enough, starting where the glass ends. I wasn't
> | sure it was going to work, but it does great. You can't make it from
> | the entry door to any of the office doors off the lobby without
> | activing it.
> |
> | Three partitions total, with the main lobby common to two of the
> | partitions. Seven keypads, 12 Glass breaks, 12 motion detectors. 10
> | doors. 2 overhead doors.
> |
> | The job was in progress for about a year as they just gradually moved
> | in from their old location and improved the building as needed. Took a
> | bit of planning and allowing for contingencies, since they didn't have
> | a clear idea of how the layout of office and shop was eventually going
> | to end up. A fun job and a challange for one person to accomplish with
> | out any help. But the great part,  is when you turn it on, and it does
> | exactly what you planned it to do, that's a great reward. And I have
> | to say, that if I were working with help, that it probably wouldn't
> | have happend that way.
> |
>
>