Some of the most recent news on this community pertains to the corporate competition potentially creating increased opportunity for shoddy work. So lets see some examples of jobs where you came in to fix somebody else’s work, whether it be Geek Squad, your local electrician, or the homeowner’s “friend.”

The most obvious one is unlabeled wiring. We’ve run across this in almost every job where there was any other wiring done previously, from DIY to electrician to builder to custom installer.

We’ve also run across a number of circumstances where the wiring is run to the completely wrong place. For example, all of the 5.1 or 7.1 speaker wiring is run to the TV location above the fireplace. There’s no way I can put a receiver up there! Most often, this comes from a builder or electrician pre-wire, where it’s clear they are going on rules of thumb, not actual well-thought-out designs.

And, of course, there’s the inevitable “too much equipment” problem, where the job is made much more complex than it needs to be to accomplish what the client wants. Just yesterday I had a team at a client’s home where they ripped out more than half of the A/V routing equipment in the wiring cabinet because it wasn’t needed. And this wasn’t a “future-proofing” kind of thing, either - the equipment just simply wasn’t needed. I don’t know if the original installer didn’t have sufficient grasp of an elegant design, was trying to stuff more equipment into the job to increase the sale or profit, or if there was some other thinking going on here, but it really didn’t make sense.

That said, I’m really glad there are installers out there that do this kind of thing. When we finally get connected with those clients, and let them know what can really be done, and at what price points, they become extremely loyal clients for us! (NOTE: Sarcasm intended here! I *never* want to see a client taken advantage of, under any circumstances!)

Thanks -
  Rob

In addition to shoddy workmanship, wiring, and equipment installations, we are often called in to repair other dealers programming. Our intent on every project is to provide programming that is very easy to navigate with little or no direction.  Many times we are told by the homeowner that they want to ‘rip out’ the system, it is too hard to use, my wife or husband hates it.
By the time we leave the project we usually furnish more equipment in other areas of the home, to further incorporate these areas into the system.

Send me your pics! I’ll post them on our consumer site ElectronicHouse.com as a warning. jjacobson at ehpub dot com