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William Underhill

wrote:

1. the two low-ball estimates were proposing to do it without permits
or inspections. This was also a point of discomfort for me. I spoke
with one of these guys and asked about getting doing the work by
getting cable and going through the official process of permits,
inspections, etc. and was told that if I wanted to go that route his
price was going to be just a bit higher than the guy who gave me the
"expected" answer the first time.

Ah, yes, thus leaving the way open to squeeze you when you went ahead
and had the work inspected. Glad your bull**** detector went off.

2. I think one of my problems with this situation was that I knew too
much. My position with Siemens is the safety manager for our
industrial service group...our folks go out and work on 480V and
4,160V, and 13,800V industrial equipment.

You're exactly the type of customer these fly-by-night artists try to
avoid - the educated one. May not feel up to tackling the work yourself,
but you have the background to know when someone's trying to blow smoke
up your ass. What's a crook to do?

3. The final factor that was in the back of my mind was the fact that
the house next door (built by the same developer) burnt to the ground
6 weeks ago in an apparent electrical system fire.

Yup. Seen a very small electrical fire onboard (had to do the technical
investigation for the Engineering Officer), in the hangar; never want to
see another one.

Yours aye,
W. Underhill

--
"Take sides! Always take sides! You may sometimes be wrong - but the man
who refuses to take sides must *always* be wrong! Heaven save us from
poltroons who fear to make a choice!" R.A. Heinlein, "Double Star"