Whom Do you trust?

Lately I have been thinking about referrals and advertising. We have been in business for 25 years and have never taken out any ads in newspapers, periodicals or even the yellow pages. We have placed small ads in playbills/programs for non-profits putting on fund raising events to support these organizations. This has sometimes made us hard to find but luckily word of mouth has been our invitation to new work.

A few years ago one of our kind clients put our name in Angies List hoping it would bring us new business. The results have been very interesting. We've only gotten about 2 inquires for jobs that were less than desirable. We have however been inundated with email and phone ads from Angie's staff, constantly peddling their services to "boost our sales".

It reminds me of an apple orchard that Norah (my wife) and I would take our 4 daughters to. They had a pen with small goats and a candy dispensing machine with goat feed in it. For a quarter you could pay to feed their animals. Somehow this never seemed right to me. Angie's List reminds me of that orchard. For your monthly subscription fee you get to feed Angie's a list of your favorite contractors. They repackage this info to present their subscribers as "approved contractors" and then have a pool of companies to bombard with opportunities to "boost their sales".
I get at least two of these email solicitations a month plus regular phone calls. I
haven't like the feel of this whole thing and thought it was my duty to pass this information along since they seem so reputable (they are corporate sponsors on NPR!).

There are two more local sources that I think are more reliable. One is the Boston Checkbook. They don't solicit ads and their subscribers do rate companies. One issue that I saw gave lots of information about jobs cost, labor rates, customer satisfaction and any actions taken by the BBB (Better Business Bureau) or the Attorney Generals Office. We are such a small company that we seemed to have flown under their radar!

Another source is Circle Choice . This is an Arlington based organization that mostly lists companies in their immediate area. We do make their list but without any consumer reviews. I have faith in this group because they highly rate Joe DiNatale, an Arlington based electrician, whom I have met and heard many great things about.

In the end I guess my point is get a good referral. Yellow page listings are such a crap shoot, particularly for 24 hour/emergency companies. There are few companies out there that are beyond the pale in their business practices. It's best to ask friends and neighbors who they have used for plumbing, contracting, electrical - really, any service that you would need for your home. If you like one of your trades person ask them for the name of contractors in other fields that they work with and like.

Happy New Year to all in 2009

Happy New Year to all from Robert, Juan, Julia and Marcello!


logo by Sira and Julia circ 1988

Electrical requirements and Insurance

Recently insurance companies have been using a new underwriting criteria for insuring residential property. They are now frequently asking for 100 ampere service to each unit of multi-unit building(2 or more units). It is quite common to find your typical 2 or 3 unit structure with a 100 0r 200 ampere main service which is then distributed to 2 or 3 - 60 ampere circuit breaker panels servicing the individual units. Depending upon the computed load of the units this generally represents a safe and adequate electrical service. These new insurance guidelines are creating some difficulties for both existing buildings which are not undergoing change (ie one or more of the units being sold) and for prospective purchasers of a condominium or multi-unit building. This situation can represent a unexpected outlay of cash to upgrade the entire main electrical service in order to have an active insurance policy on the property. It is very important that you check with your agent to see if this will effect you.
The longer standing insurance issues are the existence of Knob and Tube wiring or fuse type panels in a building. Both of these situations deserve to be corrected. My personal and professional opinion is that the 100 ampere/unit really should be dealt with in a more professional manner than merely dictating wholesale changes to a property's main electrical service. If a load calculation of a structure indicates that a 60 ampere service to a unit is safe and adequate it seems that should be enough to satisfy an insurance company.
I believe that money spent to correct inadequate or faulty interior wiring of a unit is much wiser that have a bright, new, shiney overkill of a main electrical service.