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As I've mentioned before, my company deals in security systems to keep your older relatives safe. Alot of times, when someone calls in with a problem, we can usually solve it over the phone, saving them the cost of travel/labor/parts. Once in awhile we get someone who just doesn't want to work with us over the phone and demands we send someone down to fix the system. This is one of those tales about how 15 minutes on the phone can save you hundreds....
So we get a call that one door in paticular is not locking when a tagged resident walks up to it. It will go into alarm when the door opens though. The way it should be working is that the when a resident walks up to the door, the lock engages, preventing the resident from opening the door and getting out. Normally, our service department wants to go over the settings before sending someone out since it could be a quick fix, this customer refuses and just wants someone down there now....
I arrive there, Syracuse to NYC a long trip, so the customer is already paying for 8 hours of travel time. They show me the door in question, and sure enough it's not locking. This can be one of two things, either a relay has gone bad, or the controller board itself. Since this unit is about 10 years old, it's not uncommon that the sensitivity has dropped and the board needs replacing. I determine that the relay is good, and proceed into explain about the age of the board, etc. I had one with me, and show it to him as I'm talking.
Me : me
FP : Facility person
Me : I can replace the board with this one and that'll take care of the issue
FP : How much is that?
Me : I'll have to check with the office and find out your price on it
FP : I'll give you $20 for it
Me : I guess I'll leave now since you don't want it working (I know this is not going to cost $20, or $100, they are in the hundreds)
FP : Okay $25 then
Me : I'm calling the office
At this point he wanders off and I get through to the office to find out their cost will be $960 for the board. I'm given the go-ahead from the office to swap it out since we already have a credit card number to charge for it, and the Health Dept would not like to hear that this facility refused to fix a security system.
Part of the process is writing down the settings from the old board to transfer to the new board. As I'm writing them down, one setting doesn't look quite right to me. Swap the board anyways since it's only a 5 minute job, test it, and it's acting just like the old one. Change that one setting to what it should be, and sure enough, it's working perfectly. Swap the board back out, change the setting on the old board, and it's working perfectly.
So, in conclusion, I saved them $960 on the cost of the replacement board, but they are still paying 8 hours travel, plus 1 hour labor, which ended up being over $700 when a 15 minute phone call would have cost them nothing.
So we get a call that one door in paticular is not locking when a tagged resident walks up to it. It will go into alarm when the door opens though. The way it should be working is that the when a resident walks up to the door, the lock engages, preventing the resident from opening the door and getting out. Normally, our service department wants to go over the settings before sending someone out since it could be a quick fix, this customer refuses and just wants someone down there now....
I arrive there, Syracuse to NYC a long trip, so the customer is already paying for 8 hours of travel time. They show me the door in question, and sure enough it's not locking. This can be one of two things, either a relay has gone bad, or the controller board itself. Since this unit is about 10 years old, it's not uncommon that the sensitivity has dropped and the board needs replacing. I determine that the relay is good, and proceed into explain about the age of the board, etc. I had one with me, and show it to him as I'm talking.
Me : me
FP : Facility person
Me : I can replace the board with this one and that'll take care of the issue
FP : How much is that?
Me : I'll have to check with the office and find out your price on it
FP : I'll give you $20 for it
Me : I guess I'll leave now since you don't want it working (I know this is not going to cost $20, or $100, they are in the hundreds)
FP : Okay $25 then
Me : I'm calling the office
At this point he wanders off and I get through to the office to find out their cost will be $960 for the board. I'm given the go-ahead from the office to swap it out since we already have a credit card number to charge for it, and the Health Dept would not like to hear that this facility refused to fix a security system.
Part of the process is writing down the settings from the old board to transfer to the new board. As I'm writing them down, one setting doesn't look quite right to me. Swap the board anyways since it's only a 5 minute job, test it, and it's acting just like the old one. Change that one setting to what it should be, and sure enough, it's working perfectly. Swap the board back out, change the setting on the old board, and it's working perfectly.
So, in conclusion, I saved them $960 on the cost of the replacement board, but they are still paying 8 hours travel, plus 1 hour labor, which ended up being over $700 when a 15 minute phone call would have cost them nothing.
wave goodbye to your cash. Have a nice day.
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