Haha, yeah. There certainly is no shortage of Cats out there!

any pics??

HAHAHAH. I went to visit a job I'm taking over from one of the other local "custom" installers..... I think I've got some serious competition. I wish you could make out the garbage bag twist ties he used attempting to clean up his wires

CDN that looks like some DIY action.

he is a C4 installer, nuff said ;)

There were a few more location around the house jimmy rigged like this and the home owner just didn't want it to go any further. I cant say if this was his "finished" install but still fun to laugh at.

I bet you that this started because the guy was taking to long and the client wanted to 'temporarily' have this room going and 'temporarily' have that one going and the next thing you know the whole house looks like that and you cant get any freaking work done.

NEVER LET THE CLIENT USE THE SYSTEM UNTIL ITS DONE!

AMEN AMEN AMEN

Thats F&%^in hilarious BTW. post that in the hall of shame. i think everyone on here forgot about that thread. I miss it lol

Met with all the new members of our "NEWCO". Had a good meetiing, plus my mechanic called me to inform me that he got my old Benz started (electrical problem) --- after working on it for (10), yes, TEN days of troubleshooting!!!!
Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!

Arrived this morning

inserted my pin number to open the metal blind in front of the shop...

5 cm later, complete black out of the shop, the blind stopped...

Had to go by the wharehouse, run into the dark to stop the alarm that went on for 'sabotage' turn on the electricity ... reboot the server, reboot the register program (very large database and block consistency check took like forever) crawl between the glass and the blind to manually roll up the blind... to open at approx 11.30 after all this crap...

seem that the motor of the blind is short circuit... the company that installed it 4 yrs ago told us they had the same problem with this series and they have to uninstall and reinstall a new motor into the blind that is 8 meters long...

So pratically no way for a customer to enter the shop as they will perform this action on the sidewalk in front of the shop tomorrow...

aaah one of those days...

Went by a sports-bar that currently has a decent set up that he ran himself. Roughly 11 TV's, basic DirecTV receivers, basic cable, controlled by a Cinemar remote system that he programmed. Wanted to update all his TV's to flat panels and upgrade to HD through DirecTV and cable. We placed a bid in for just under 30K about 2 weeks ago, so we decided to stop in and have dinner and see what he thought. Of course I got the usual I can buy this and that cheaper online, so I agreed to still do the install but labor would go up and I couldn't stand behind any of the work cause it wasn't my product. He wanted to use basic CAT5 from monoprice and a few other things. Talked to him for about an hour and he showed us around the back room and then all of a sudden said "you know what, you're the pro, so just go ahead and do the work, how much u need down?". He wrote the check for just over 18K and wanted to save some labor by pulling the cat5 that I am ordering. I wont complain as its about 6,000 feet of wiring total and its about 20 feet up to the ceiling. I must say, I'm kinda geeked to get this thing fired up. I am a 2 man company and this will be the largest job under my companies belt since our inception about 3 years ago.

Went to a new customers house for a bunch of little stuff. 

1. Hang a new Sammy on a cantilevering mount.
2. A bunch of cable Mgmt.

We were there for about 4 hrs.  I made the decision at the beginning of Dec. that we were raising our rates at the beginning fo the New Year.  So it comes time to write up the bill.  I get everything totaled up in the van, I think to myself this job was pretty easy I should give him a break on the fees. 

Then I say to myself NO.  You're the one who decided that you're raising rates. Stick to it Dummy.  I walk in with the invoice give it to the customer, and he drops an extra hundred on me for a tip.  Nice. 

Earlier, we got into a conversation about some old speakers he had in the basement that weren't hooked up.  He asked me if I could hook them up to his Bose 321 system.  Nope can't do it.  He says go ahead and take the old speakers.  He could see my eyes circling in my head when I was checking them out.  They're OHM Walsh 2 speakers.  I don't know alot bout'em except they were made in the mid 80's.  And retailed at $6-800 pair.

I hook them up to my system, they actually sound pretty nice.     So all in all, it was a very good start to the New Year.

Congrats dave! glad to here you nailed it.

Thanks!! I'll be in touch about that remote, I'm going to call the bar owner to see if he wants it redone. As I said, I have the original file so it shouldnt be to hard, Im assuming some tweaking and it should be good to go.

Good job sticking to the labor rate increase! When i was putting together my online store i said "im going to sell my templates for half what the pros are selling theirs for". My boss said "dont be stupid, they are not buying your template because its cheaper, they are buying it because they want it". I decided to list mine for $1 more than the pros! :)

You are the pro. Your rates are based on your business model. If you dont stick to them you will be unhappy, may lose employees and end up with clients who cant get you on the phone because you are heading out of business. So do you and your clients a favor and bill them what it costs to provide the level of service they are getting from you.

You gotta remember that this guy did it himself last time so hes gotta have his paws in it or he wont be able to sleep at night :). Let him tinker on the stuff he wants to and you handle the rest. This is a great step for you guys. Good Luck!