Dave, Two more pieces... - keep notes and records of dates, times, activities and results for the entire process. - stay in regular communication with your clients, so that you’re working with them rather than for them. Allan Sindelar, Sindelar Solar
> On Jul 2, 2019, at 1:26 PM, Dave Tedeyan <dtede...@taitem.com> wrote: > > Hi All, > Thanks for the thoughts and opinions. It helps me a lot to get other opinions > from people who have been doing this much longer than I. I am leaning towards > the "don't charge any more until the issue is settled and then come up with a > fair price" with the customer. Fortunately, I know that they are good people, > who are also well connected in the area, so keeping a good relationship with > them is certainly important. > Cheers, > Dave > > Dave Tedeyan, PE > Senior Engineer | Taitem Engineering, PC > > 110 South Albany Street | Ithaca, NY 14850 > o. 607.277.1118 x121 f. 607.277.2119 > www.taitem.com > > Solar • Sustainability • Energy • Design > B-Corporation Best for the World 2018 Honoree > > >> On Mon, Jul 1, 2019 at 3:03 PM Jerry Shafer <jerrysgarag...@gmail.com> wrote: >> Dave >> Wow it really sounds like a mess, logically you would charge the customer >> for your time but ethically or morally or as a humanitarian you would >> discount the cost, l have been in your shoes and it is a difficult position. >> I would have a conversation with the customer detailing your time and costs >> and come up with a number. Sure you can say it's this much and that's it but >> we are all in business to stay in business so customer satisfaction and good >> words go a long way to referrals. >> Jerry >> >>> On Mon, Jul 1, 2019, 8:32 AM Dave Tedeyan <dtede...@taitem.com> wrote: >>> Hi All, >>> I thought I would pick the hive mind to get some thoughts on whose >>> responsibility it is when you service a system and things go wrong beyond >>> your control. >>> >>> Here is the situation: >>> Outback Radian GS8048 inverter (out of warranty) goes offline and stops >>> working. Customer calls me to check it out, and in the meantime, they had >>> an electrician rewire the backed up loads to bypass the inverter (not >>> realizing there was a simple bypass switch...). By the time I get there the >>> inverter is working again. I wire the backed up loads back to the inverter, >>> educate them about the bypass switch, and call Outback. We see some >>> erroneous data on Optics, and so they suggest I replace all the ethernet >>> cables with shielded cat5e. I do that, and charge the customer for the >>> visit. >>> >>> A few days later, the inverter goes stops working again. I go back out and >>> this time the issue is still active. Outback suspects it is one of the >>> control boards, which cannot be field replaced. So the choices are send the >>> whole inverter to Outback, or get a new Power stack for about $2500. So I >>> send the inverter in. I offer to the customer to not have them pay for my >>> labor this visit, since they already paid me to fix this issue and it did >>> not work. >>> >>> Outback tests the inverter, finds no fault, although I ask them to replace >>> the board anyway, since the fault was intermittent. They tested it and it >>> was working then it left their facility. I receive it in a rough looking >>> box. I go reinstall it, and the mate3 sees it, and the communications are >>> okay, which is the original issue that I sent it in for. But now it will >>> not put out any AC voltage. So a completely different issue, but still a >>> useless piece of equipment in its current state. Tech support and I cannot >>> determine exactly what is wrong after running through some troubleshooting >>> steps, so they say I need to send it back to their facility. The best I can >>> come up with is that it got damaged during shipment on the way back. (I was >>> not excited to see that they left some poor Fedex driver to handle a 130lb >>> package on their own....) So the inverter is currently in transit back to >>> Outback. >>> >>> Here is the question: >>> Would you all be charging the customer for all the time spent on >>> troubleshooting and shipping, or at some point do you eat some of these >>> costs? Even though (I am fairly certain) that I have done nothing negligent >>> and none of this is my fault... but I am still not sure if it is right to >>> charge the customer for all this back and forth when my actions have not >>> resulted in a fixed and usable inverter. I'd appreciate anyone's thoughts >>> and feedback on this sort of situation. >>> >>> Cheers, >>> Dave >>> >>> Dave Tedeyan, PE >>> Senior Engineer | Taitem Engineering, PC >>> >>> 110 South Albany Street | Ithaca, NY 14850 >>> o. 607.277.1118 x121 f. 607.277.2119 >>> www.taitem.com >>> >>> Solar • Sustainability • Energy • Design >>> B-Corporation Best for the World 2018 Honoree >>> _______________________________________________ >>> List sponsored by Redwood Alliance >>> >>> List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org >>> >>> Change listserver email address & settings: >>> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org >>> >>> List-Archive: >>> http://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/maillist.html >>> >>> List rules & etiquette: >>> www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm >>> >>> Check out or update participant bios: >>> www.members.re-wrenches.org >>> >> _______________________________________________ >> List sponsored by Redwood Alliance >> >> List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org >> >> Change listserver email address & settings: >> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org >> >> List-Archive: >> http://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/maillist.html >> >> List rules & etiquette: >> www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm >> >> Check out or update participant bios: >> www.members.re-wrenches.org >> > _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Redwood Alliance > > List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org > > Change listserver email address & settings: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List-Archive: > http://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/maillist.html > > List rules & etiquette: > www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm > > Check out or update participant bios: > www.members.re-wrenches.org >
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