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Re: JTM again!
This company are advertising for engineers in my area evidently paying 35k a year, do this company have their own service engineers or do they use indies to supply service, they are also mentioning their client 0800 what’s the tie up and how does it all work, are they any good
Re: Pat testing (a query)
That sounds par for the course, we had a gig on a army base in Aldershot one time and it was in a large hall, the trouble was the power system was not up to supplying two bands, two large sound systems, two lighting rigs, and a dj. We could not share gear as it was two venues in one building each with a different theme and crowd. So the got a BIG jenny in for our gear and ran power into the venue. Great we and they thought, trouble was there was mains ripple on this supply which would power ok but for sensitive digital mixing desks, lighting controller it was a nightmare, the keyboards would not work as the ripple was constantly changing the parameters of everything within the keyboards system !
We did get the gig done but I would not want to repeat that oneRe: Join DASA for just £65
Yes we had one too, I have put it to one side, seems to me to be a ploy to get people in cheap increasing the costs next year ?
Re: Pat testing (a query)
By experience you normally find that cabling within a band situation is often not as it should be, its not uncommon to see bands working in any local type venue who have poor quality cables and dodgy power supplies made up. Often or not there is normally at least one person in the band who knows more about such things than the rest and hopefully they maintain some degree of safety.
Things often improve when the band is more professional in that they have a proper PA system which the band runs through. Here one person the techy one or the sound engineer will ensure that there are no annoying ground loops ( Buzzes and the like Continually Audible ) and each player brings there own instruments and smaller backline amplification.
Being a stickler for making sure everything is safe and correctly wired my main concerns are often or not the venues where this all ends up getting plugged into. Over thirty five years of being involved in those kinds of environments I have see some terrible installations which for the people who run these venues they see nothing wrong !
One night In Switzerland I was with a drummer on stage who was blown six feet across the stage by faulty wiring in the venue and a unshielded microphone cable ! The guys face was blue one side !!!.
Many venues have polaritys swaped on stage sockets, Stage supplies on the same leg as the chillers and catering equipment like commercial microwaves which bring their own unique problems to digital insturments.
Its also not uncommon to find stage sockets with NO EARTH !
Bands are often under pressure to just get on with the job and stop complaining as none of the other bands have kicked up any fuss. If in doubt and a safe stable electrical supply cannot be guaranteed my modus operandi is Just Walk Away and make a quick call to H & S.Its good practice for any band or performer to carry a Martindale and at least check that the sockets are wired correctly and get their power supplies and cables checked on a regular basis which I think will cure most problems for the mobile musician or and make their life just a bit safer.
Now where’s that Six inch nail for the fusebox 🙂
Re: Pat testing (a query)
I would not bother with that the instrument is via a transfomer in any case
Re: Pat testing (a query)
I wouldn’t be sticking the megger on the keyboard players synth or any digital equipment, even power amplifiers have digital power control these days ! is the pat testing of IT equipment which I think falls into the same class as MI have to test at 100ma ?
Re: work dead
Well the Mechanic from the garage where we get our vans serviced called in for some motor carbons for his own machine first thing this morning, we got talking about trade and customers and he is just the same as the rest of us, low work throughput, customers calling for prices, can you give us a free estimate, this is not unique to our trade but its real easy to sit there thinking that it is and the trade is dying. Our phone rang more today and we had a days work as a result, tomorrow no work book as yet, Friday no work book as yet, Shop is seeing more customers buying spare parts for DIY.
People are booking holidays and most people I know are taking off to foreign lands for there summer breaks. They reckon sales of new vehicles are up with fleet purchases up 15 {e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}. I think that there is money in the public economy and the media banging on night after night makes folks want to be more savvy with the way there spending what ever they do have.
We all need to put our heads together and think of ways of how to make more of what we have, so if any of you have any bright ideas of how to attract more custom, involve your customers more in what you have to offer then lets hear it !!!!
Re: work dead
The British Chamber of Commerce issued a press release this morning as follows:
Despite the encouraging results, the BCC warns that underlying weaknesses in the economy remain, which cannot be ignored if we are to avoid a relapse into recession. The business group highlights sluggish growth in the service sector as a serious concern, and more specifically, a huge number of manufacturers (around 80{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}) are now reporting that the cost of raw materials is increasing, adding to price pressures.
As we operate in the service sector that us ! Coupled with the fact that one of my bank business managers is also a customer of mine, she was in yesterday and I started a conversation about how she in her position was finding that businesses were coping. Her account flew in the face of what I understand and know and she was painting a very positive picture of how she and her business team had started over 130 new businesses this year, she also thought that many businesses were doing very well !
She seemed to be amazed but unconcerned that we were finding it tough going just now and that picture is common across the board with other business owners that I know well from a cross section of the business community. Rose Tinted Glasses she may have had on but as usual I find that most of these so called Business Teams who I have very little to do with have actually never ran a business and whatever their training they are more focused on trying to sell their own business products as opposed to really helping anyone.
Re: ISE10 and credit cards
I have been surcharging customers who want to use a credit card for some years, debit cards no charge, I have as yet never had a customer question or complain about it. It is generally an accepted practice nowdays and lots of companies have surcharges like tour operators who have had surcharges for some years.
Re: Checking-Up?
Yes and Like when I was employed with manufacturers service, supervisors
following engineers around directly, so where you had 12 calls in a day the supervisor would tail you going into each job after you left, checking the job sheet with the customer, checking that indeed you had fitted that motor you just claimed ! checking that you had ordered the correct spares. It happened and engineers were uncovered for all sorts of various capers some even running there own business of the back of it. We had one engineer who could never seem to complete a days work as the rest of us could, the service centre would be on the phone to you late afternoon asking as you had finished or more or less had finished could you take a extra job or two as this guy had so much work on !Turned out that he liked to sit in a cafe until mid morning reading a paper with a large breakfast and then when it got to later afternoon would call up the service centre asking them to take some jobs back !!!
The eagle eyed supervisors staked him out over a period of weeks and found all this out as well as one or two other things, he was gone thank god, one bad apple and all that !
I can see why what has been described happens and if your doing the job right and to the best of your abilities you would have nothing at all to worry about.
Re: I hate Connects new return system
Have had no problems as yet with the returns system which seems a big improvement of the manual one before which seemed to be forever problematic.
Also their restocking charge has recently gone up from 30{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} to 50{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}…
Mm I missed this where does it state that ? anyone know ?
Re: When to ring a customers neck…or not
As for me I went to a fairground to repair a washing machine ! these fair ground folks are crafty as a wagon load of monkeys, I had my Martindale out to check socket polarity and having got involved in a conversation with one of them I forget clean about the tester in this socket, anyway having completed this call I went back to the van and was about to drive away when the old alarm bell rang !!!!!!! Duh ! I have left my Martindale in their, so I get back out the van and go bank on this door, pikey looking guy answers Yeah what you want, I explain that I have left my tester in his socket, he replies, No you ain’t chav, I said well yes I have ! he says you ain;t left nothing in here now just F*** off !
I quickly add up the equation that he is bigger than me, has two angry looking dogs roaming and several other half wits who look like they were all interbread ! Yep its a no brainer I turn on my heels and get in the van while its still got its wheels fitted !!!!
Six months later I get a call to go their and repair another machine, Mm !!! I then tell the fella that I cannot work on fairgrounds or mobile sites as some gypsies have stolen my test equipment and he will need to find someone else to go there ! He said huh ! I dont want nothing tested mate just come and repair it !!! I put the phone down and have never heard nothing more.
I dunno all the fun of the fair !
Re: PAT Testing
Having just become PAT tested I did not know that this was the case, in our circumstances we get passed commercial cleaning machines and they have to be PAT tested, based on what has been said is it the case that if I PAT test these machines at my workshop and they are then delivered back to the user who then uses these onsite at thier premises these appliances are no longer legal as far as PAT goes ?
