Re: How to find a reputable installation company

[Frank Olson <Use-the-email-links@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Robert L Bass wrote:
>>> Where in the UL standard does it forbid hiring
>>> an ex-felon to work in a central station or even
>>> as an alarm installer?
>> It does not, however these alarm companies
>> are more likely to do business with "certain"
>> customers who are quite picky about how the
>> alarm company screens their employees...
>
> Perhaps that's true but over the 24 years I ran a
> small alarm company I think there were at most
> two or three customers who asked if we were
> bonded.  Although I didn't do banks, we had a
> number of jewelry stores, lots of city government
> clients and so forth.

We will of course ignore the fact that most insurers of jewelry stores
require UL Listed installations and monitoring (in Canada that's ULC)
and that by your own admission your company wasn't certified to do
either.  As to Hartford's "City Government", I can't comment on their
particular requirements.  For Vancouver, and the surrounding environs,
you can't even qualify to bid a "City Government" job without the
requisite licensing, bonding, insurance and ULC certification.


>
> I don't recall if anyone ever asked me how or
> even if we screened our employees.  We were
> a small company though.  I mainly hired people
> who were referred to me by other employees
> and sub-contractors.

I did that once.  In Edmonton.  A company I worked for hired a guy that
was recommended by the manager of one of the distributors we used.  We
wound up dismissing him a few weeks later when he couldn't provide a
clearance letter from the City Police Department.  It's just plain
*stupid* for any security company not to screen their employees (or
their sub-contractors).  The very LAST THING I would want a competitor
to be able to use against your company would be the fact that you're in
the habit of hiring a person without performing your due diligence.