Oil Refinery

Frank hasn't shut down major portion of my business like he has you and your monitoring 'activities', not to mention him shutting down your warranty service... Sorry but having no license and no way to monitor accounts and no way to provide warranty service would be a step down for me. :*(

ADI doesn't care about anything but numbers. He has an established account and he buys a lot of merchandise from them.

how would you know? crystal ball? swag? or do you just buy the crap he is selling on the GROUP?

I've dealt with ADI for many years off and on. All they care about is money.

Is it? Please show me where I made the suggestion to violate code.

The who? That some American thing? I'm not in the Excited States. Sorry.

No, you're just not reading properly.

Actually, no, and we generally avoid them like the plague. My boss has regularly walked out on bids when customers inform him they plan to go with "the cheapest bid". He simply tells them, "I'm wasting my time here, then. Bye."

But there are also times when you have to cover your own ass on jobs you've already got.

I can't take the credit for that. That's belongs to the great State of Florida.

I can't take the credit for that either. Companies like ADI drop ship parts for their customers (alarm dealers and online stores) that are in turn installed by poorly educated do-it-yourselfers who've supposedly had all the "how-to's the what-to's and the who-to's" of alarm installation explained to them in a twenty minute telephone conversation with some Nimrod in Sarasota. Shutting down warranty returns from anyone but the Dealer is their way of controlling a situation that was probably getting way out of hand. Bass may make it sound "easy", but properly installing an alarm system IS really a science. Bass and Joel Matlin should really team up. The latest AlarmFarce ad states that you'll never get a visit from one of their salesmen so you'll never get pressured into signing up for a long term contract. Instead, you'll wind up with inferior protection and a three year contract. A lot of people haven't the first clue as to how to properly protect their homes against break-ins. Granted, some of the new crop of alarm salesmen don't have a clue either. That's why I always suggest going with three quotes and to make sure that the sales guy knows the difference between a perimeter and an interior system.

It would also result in a damn poor rap with the BBB too. I'd disconnect that 800 line and the email address right away.

You're kidding yourself. Olson hasn't shut anything down at all. His bogus "complaint" bit the dust faster than an inverted airliner.

You're out of your mind. I've never even offered extended warranty service. That's a scam.

There is no license available for an online store in Florida. That's about as relevant as a fishing license is to riding a motorcycle.

As to the rest of your bullshit, you know my address. Check it on Google Earth and see how much my business is suffering because of Olson. You probably couldn't afford a gate house in my neighborhood.

Oh, OK. In that case, feel free to ignore any and all American standards.

regularly walked out on bids when customers inform him

my time here, then. Bye."

I have no idea how things work where you are. In the USA, if you violate code the AHJ (an American thing) will come down on you. You could show the inspector a signed statement from the client saying he doesn't mind and he'd still fail you. In any case, it sounds like your boss understands well enough that there are some jobs it's best to walk away from.

We sell ~$2M a year and it's all hardware -- no labor. Very few independent dealers come close. That's not all from ADI though. We have accounts with most of the national distributors and several regional ones. We buy some lines directly from manufacturers.

I'm about to add a major product division catering to locksmiths. As soon as I get the product feeds set up correctly I'll launch the new website.

I'm also planning to build a separate site just for CCTV equipment. With over 90,000 static pages our three existing sites are getting cumbersome to "regenerate" when we make significant changes and additions. Breaking the CCTV section off into it's own 40,000 page site ought to help.

I never thought the site would grow this large when I first decided to go online. The original website had less than 200 products. Now I'm looking into buying additional machines for "fail over" service in case the primary web server goes down.

You couldn't afford one either. Your father "gave" the house to you. You immediately put a whopping big mortgage on it... Yeah... That's a sure sign of "success" alright.

oh, so you're still monitoring?

who said anything about 'extended'. tuff time staying on track?

couldn't care less

still liviing with daddy, eh?

You didn't actually read what I wrote, did you? I specifically agreed that it's not about trying to impress the inspector... it's about covering your ass with the customer when he insists on using the cheaper wire, the inspector fails it, and then you have to redo it, and charge the idiot customer for it.

Want me to write that again, in case you missed it THIS time as well?

Quote: It also gives you a little protection from the CUSTOMER, when the inspector comes back and says, "Nope, this wiring won't pass, it's not plenum-rated" and the customer either hits you with "Why didn't you tell me?" and/or wants to be difficult when you charge him the materials and labour to completely remove and redo all the wiring you've done already, ON TOP OF the original install.

Nope. I never monitored anything after moving to Florida. I also never offered monitoring services to Florida locations. I did sell third party monitoring to out-of-state customers for several years but quit when it became more trouble than it was worth, years after Olson't bogus complaint was summarily trashed by FL officials.

So what the hell are you talking about then?

You're the one who seems so preocuupied with the progress of my business. The reality is I do better than most of the people who post here.

Nope. I own my home. It's admittedly not much -- only 3,800 sf "under air" and another 2,200 sf of lanai

--but it's mine. In the garage are a 2006 Odyssey, a 2005 Camry and a 2007 Suzuki. The Brazilian condo (our second home) is smaller, two bedrooms plus the maid's quarters, but we only spend a few months there each year.

Yep, life sure is hard with old Franky out there bitchin' up a storm all the time. His actions have sure kept me from achieving any success. Heh, heh, heh... :^)

How's your business doing, pal? Still employed? What are you on now, your tenth job in nine years? I wonder how long it will take before this one fires you like the last nine did.

Again, you're missing the point. Instead of trying to CVA, just do the job right in the first place or refuse to do it at all. How can it be worth the trouble to deliberately do the job wrong when you know it's not going to pass inspection? That's just dumb.

Try reading what I wrote one more time. Instead of me repeating it, just move your eyes up to my preceeding paragraph. When you get back to this point, if you're still confused, repeat.

Why read it? You're talking about something completely different there.

Awww... You're just sayin' that. No one from the State ever contacted you did they? Or, for that matter, me. I wonder why? Could it be they never received the complaint?

Read it again, Shylock.

You've also been saying that for years. It's what you said in your testimonial at Serach Fit that's far more believable... except that bit about "averaging" 1.5 mil in sales does sound like a "stretch"...

Looking back I note that Nick was the first to suggest the silly idea. You only supported it so technically, it wasn't your suggestion. It was nonetheless a bad idea (IOW, wrong) and your support of it was wrong as well.

And where does Nick "suggest" this??

And so why is it a "bad idea" to insist a customer sign off on his own follies that he insists on having implemented?

All you keep saying is that one shouldn't take those jobs. No s*it, Sherlock. Wow, brainiac thinking there. I'm just f****ng stunned by the brilliance of that idea. I have to sit down for a moment here. Wait, I am sitting... I think I'll go lay down and just let that sink in for a decade or so.

Now.

Assuming everyone and their dog has already thought of that and recognizing that sometimes those of us out in the real world who actually do installs themselves are sometimes faced with the need to take on such customers, or worse, have existing customers come up with this kind of idiocy in the middle of a project... do explain how it's a bad idea to insist that the fool sign off on his own follies that he insists on having implemented?