What's the worst installation you've seen

[Service Engineer]

LOL Dale, the boss in his infinate wisdom sent me to do an upgrade a few weeks ago. I was meant to include all existing devices and add 2 passives, a bellbox, an mrs, an internal speaker, and change the panel.

Anyway gets on site and has a quick look round to see whats existing:

Front Door, patio door, hall panic, kitchen doors X3, bedroom panic, back door, and all upstairs doors, and a landing pressure mat, the existing bellbox was to be replaced and the existing panel.

On further investigation at the panel I determine that only 4 wires are actually in it, 2X 8 cores, 1X 6 core and the mains cable....? and only 3 zones are currently wired up...? There`s no walk test on the existing panel, so i dont know what zones are which devices, so in my infinate wisdom i decided to carefully label all the wires noting where they were connected, and then removed the panel and refitted the new one, wiring everything in place as per the panel i removed, right then i thinks to myself now i can walk test and see whats connected where The Nightmare began.

After an hour all i could determine was that zone 1 was the front door, and noted that the cable disapeared under new laminate flooring...!! the customer arrives back from shopping and proceeds to show me where i could take of the skirting board to find a few cables and also points out a glass ceiling hatch which she said the previous installer had been in...? anyway i remove the skirting board to find 4 wires 1X6 core and 3X4 cores twisted together and taped, ahhhh Front Door, Hall Panic and Lounge Passive..? Feed by 1 6xcore cable..?

Then i finds the 2X8 core cables in the glass thingy in the ceiling with another 9X4 core cables coming from them.....?

At this Stage im in deep shock, and totally horrified. After regaining my senses i decide that i must attempt to make sense of all this, but four hours later im only a pressure mat and a kitchen door wiser, Desperation sets in........and to make matters worse the customer starts to hastle me how it all worked before i got there and then goes shopping again...... The husband turns up, and sees my desperation, then proceeds to tell me how the system hasnt been used for 4 years because it developed faults after some house renovations #'/;###';[]#.

Its now nearly 2PM and all ive done is fitted the panel and wasted 1/2 day trying to make sense of the mess.

I could go on and on, but in the end the job took me 2 1/2 days, and i ended up re-wiring what i could and fitting the extras i had turned up to fit in the first place. Bearing in mind the boss had only quoted £300 ish for the upgrade he made a major loss.

[Guest Deryck Tintagel]

Just recently weve took over some big jobs from another big company.

The control panels are unbelievable,if i had a dig camera i would show you what i mean.

ATOTAL BIRDS NEST.

open the panel and the wiring comes out to meet you.

How do you define the "bird's nest"? I have seen a panel that looks quite well installed - all cables are marked and wires are twisted in appropriate pairs. However, there's quite a lot of slack in the amount of cable within the panel - probably about 12". Again this is quite neatly twisted and placed looped-over in the panel.

I normallly use just enough slack within the panel an tuck the extra up into the floor void - looks a bit neater but isn't obvious that there is slack remaning.

[Guest Helen]

The worst installation I have ever seen was by an 'engineer' who came to us for an interview. He interviewed well, listing the major installers he had worked for, and made it to the shortlist. We gave him an installation to do in one part of our premises as a test. I explained that the installation should meet all the standards and it should be carried out exactly as if it were for a customer.

Eight hours later I was horrified to discover he had installed a spider in our office. Basically the control panel was in the middle of the wall with the cable coming out at all angles up to the pir's. The cable was stapled to the walls!!! To say inside the panel was a birds nest would have been a complement.

Obviously he was just what we were looking for, we started him the very next day and he has happily been installing spiders around the North east of England ever since!

Helen

[paul fae kings]

i better redefine "birds nest"

Some cables far too short, some far too long .

None twisted in pairs. Markings few and far between.

And all this like a mass of matted hair in the centre of the panel.

scared to touch anything in case it falls to bits

[Guest Andyp]

A while ago, when I was a service engineer at a well respected National company, I was called to a site that was responded to by the Diplomatic Protection Group.(Say no more). The house owner had decised to take advantage of the lovely oak floor boards in his property by removing the carpets and polishing the boards.

When his workman lifted the carpets the owner went mad. Drilled through the centre of the floor was a 25mm hole which went to the cellar. From this hole came 7 x flat 4 core cables which then went straight across the floor in varying directions to feed doors, windows and PA's. In fairness the cables were fastened securely at equal distances and were an absolute pain to remove and reinstall. I think what started as a routine call ended up costing the company the best part of £2000 as we replaced the panel as a goodwill jesture.

Needless to say the customer wasnt the happiest!

[Guest Andyp]

Also, while at the same company, I was called on a Friday night to a nightclub, where they had been experiencing tamper faults with a PIR in the bar area.

So there I am in the middle of a packed nightclub on a Friday night with a screwdriver and a meter only to find the front of the passive smashed by a pool cue (or similar).

Luckily this PIR was quite low so I could reach to unscrew it to replace it. Only I could have unscrewed it if there were any screws, this detector was held up with the engineers favourate, VELCRO.

It want much fun, drilling and replacing this PIR with 800 sweaty and drunk people looking on.

The things you do for a callout allowance!!!!

[Guest Adrian]

B) Had a call to a night club once, Where the door man said I couldn't bring my tools in, Not even a small flat head or my meter as the probs had a point on them.

He even called for back up after I told him that they called me, and I wasn't there for fun, but to fix a fault on the alarm.

I gave up trying to get in the end and went home.

Then the next morning we get a complaint from the owners that we never turned up. We fixed the alarm then told them to view the main door camera for the night befor..... Then we sent them a bill with two call out fees.

They paid

Adrian B)

[Guest granleyss]

Want to know a worst install called at a customers premist she told me she just had an alarm fitted from a company called NSIN and was purchasing it on finance. she tryed calling them to sort out a fault and they kept fobbing her off. So called at her premists what a shock that was in for me. This is a system for 300.00 here we go. Front door contacts and pir wired into it on the same zone for front door and lounge, Pir in kitchen above cooker stupid place to put it, Panic button upstairs wired into the outside bell box with the tamper on the bellbox on the same circuit. no sab or strobe just a polycarb bell box with a standard siren and no fuse spur on panel and inappropiete battrey with a screw put in the 13v fuse bit in the panel little or large told the customer the system wasn,t worth 100 let alone 300 and the work was pathetic and I couldn,t proceed and adviced her to get rid of it and I,ll install for less. Get a phone call from customer the next day they had been out and where going to charge her because I had interfeided with the system they had stuck there sticker with there name and service no which we usual put on the panal, underneath it as a seal told the customer I would call her back and had a word with the company and informed them I would report them to the trading standards and council they removed the system with out hesitation. The customer got an excellent system less for what she would have paid to them and more extra protection the rip off merchants.

[Guest oldtimer]

I was called out to a job where the customer had reported that the alarm was not working.

The panel was a Munford & White (Tunstall) CAB2. As this panel is realy old it did not have an internal main fuse. When I tried to isolate the panel there was no spur

and I thought thats ok it will be wired to a 5 amp fuse in in DB.

When I pulled all the fuses the panel was still live. I eventually traced the problem to the 1.0mm T&E was connected to the live side of the DB mains switch.

The actual fault that I was called out for was that the 4 internal doors were wired in parallel. This was easly fixed but when I informed the customer that the mains supply was dangerous ie 100amp fuse protection and she would need a fused spur fitted to make it safe she accused of trying to find work for myself.

I told her that this was not the case but never the less she was having it. So all I could do was to move the mains supply to the CP from the mains switch to a 5 amp lighting circuit fuse. Yes I know this is not ideal but at least I can sleep at night.

[Guest keith]

one of the worst and most dangerous installations I have ever seen was a cctv with lighting (activated by GJD opel elite external pir's and controled by a GJD saphire control unit. The customer had complained that the system had never worked so I was sent to investigate. I got my ladders off to check the pir, I opened up the cover and reached in to turn the pir around to check the connections. BANG! 230v ac belt had knocked me clean off the ladders and 4 metres to the ground, luckily it was grass so I only suffered a winding. The installer had connected 230v ac directley to the pir. Consequentley all 20 or so of the pirs and control units needed to be correctley connected, and some replaced altogether. It seems that the installer could not read the very simple instructions that came withthe equipment. It came to light the installation "engineer" had not had any experience at all in installing and had lied to get himself a job. A bit of reference checking would have been a good idea I think.