Educating Customers Not To Buy Tat

[PeterJames]

You say to average woman would you like new kitchen for 1k or a really nice kitchen for 2k 99% would choose nice kitchen..

 

 

as for intruder cctv fire..... As long as it works they would normally choose the lowest cost....

 

Don't think there is much anyone can do about that, it's the nature of the product. it's not a fun thing to be using.

£2k for a nice kitchen???? where do you shop for kitchens?

We have all been up against the B&Q / Screwfix / Maplins tat that is about as much use a rave DJ in an old peoples home but the customer believes what we offer and what they can get in the maplin catalogue is the same and that we are just rip off merchents charging 3 times the price and pocketing the diffrence.

 

There is no realisation that what we are selling probably costs us double what they buy and that is before we make a profite, install it, warranty it, pay our overheads etc.

 

So here is the $64,000 question. How do we sell a market that as professionals we dearly would love to but the customer thinks we are pirates charging what we do as we refuse to use such sub standard gear?

Anyone comparing us to Maplin is not really my market. Most people that have phoned a proper company for a burglar alarm system, want a proper alarm system. The secret is to make sure after the survey they dont want anybody elses but yours regardless of the price

[Scotmod]

I disagree, I'd be far happier for my parents to have a properly installed Veritas 8, with all tampers connected

and all opening doors covered etc etc... if a risk assessment showed that was suitable.

 

Rather than a Yale with 1 pir on entry/exit and a contact on the front door only.

 

But some people just don't care because they don't know the difference. BNQ are hardly going to stick a sign up saying "THIS STUFF IS *****" when they sell it all over the country. It's the same when members of my family want a new laptop or tv. I know what all the tech details mean but my dad wouldnt know the difference between a core2duo and an i7 or the difference between SD and 4K. At the end of the day, Joe Blogs will look at the Yale £200 special and think "Right that'll do me, £200 all in and I can do it myself and save some cash and I have a nice bell box on my front wall" They don't care about insurance discounts, they don't care about grading and they don't care about maintenance. It's all about piece of mind that someone will look and go "New, move on" when they are sussing out places to rob.

 

I'll install what people ask me to install whether it's yale, SWAN CCTV or what other **** they buy from the wholesalers. I stopped caring years ago about trying to persuade people about price and quality. Very few care and it's a problem that has been happening since the 90's.

[PSE]

I very rarely will install customers own kit.

It's all fine until something goes wrong, then they expect you go back for sod all

Take the faulty **** off the wall and go back when they had it swapped to re-install

I would never stoop so low to install the **** that maplins or b&q have, I would rather walk away

I warranty parts and labour on everything we install, if we don't supply it, high probability were not going go install it

[matthew.brough]

Same here

[Adi]

Never done it, never will

[Cubit]

A slippery slope to go down.

Fitting toot for others only reinforces their tightwad mindset and helps it become the norm.

[arfur mo]

tbh i think JP in general is ignorant of less than household names, they have heard of Chubb but most will think of Safes and locks first, ADT due to their heavy advertising, and perhaps Honeywell in relation to security systems. many associate big names with being big on quality regardless of being true or not, but also big costs.

 

don't think you can button hole all clients into one box, those who buy from Ebay Maplins etc will likely never be a customer of a pro installer, if they can't complete it personally there is always the clever computer engineer whatever just up the road.

 

that said no point in dwelling on it, best set about pushing what you offer, i.e. a neat tidy installation, proper design, spares as well as the skills to fix it promptly without fuss, if there is any problem then your company is at the end of a phone etc., 

 

i don't win all i quote for, my prices at aimed at loosing the 'wast of timers' very early on.

[Rulland]

As a sparky as well as a security guy I get asked to mount a 3d telly on a wall whilst doing a rewire, ok so not really a problem- but then it's the 'tune it in, sort out the surround sound, make the back light ambience a little less harsh, sky HD doesn't work sometimes' , etc etc, people assume that because you are there doing one quoted job that you are then available to to all the other bits and pieces because you are 'on site' , and therefore they all take no time at all!........feck that....and then they have the audacity to moan if you put an extra charge in!, ******** to that.

[arfur mo]

messing with gear supplied by clients is always at a risk of tears, DOE they suspect you have damaged it deliberately, or one of their mates will suggest it. They take it back having gone wrong after a short period they don't want to pay for your diagnostics skills, your travelling let alone your time.

 

i view it like subcontracting, you supply labour but they look at you if the kit is faulty, who who really needs all that? having dug their backsides out of a contact penalty default into the bargain.

 

last year a client bought several LED spots, then while i was on a pmv asked me to replace the existing ones which had corroded.

 

So in front of him i look at them, and they rattle as pick them up. open them to see all the transformers had broken away and plastic housing damaged, 3 of them had 2 core flex with no earth to the casing, another had the Brown connected to the casing with no earth or neutral, just imagine how that would have been a surprise for anyone on a ladder!

 

on my advice he skipped them, but not before i had cut of the cables to be sure they were useless.

 

eBay bargain basement prices strike again lol!

 

 

 

 

 

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[Scotmod]

I disagree, I've fitted and run sky, done tellys installed naff CCTV but they are under no impression I'm responsible for it going bang 3 months down the line. If someone wants to pay me money to do something that I can do, I'll do