side jobs?
Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: General Discussion
Forum Discription: General Mobile Electronics Questions and Answers
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=98711
Printed Date: April 27, 2024 at 11:26 PM
Topic: side jobs?
Posted By: offroadzj
Subject: side jobs?
Date Posted: November 06, 2007 at 9:41 PM
For those of you who work for an actual company, how many of you do side jobs? I am constantly getting friends, and friends of friends who are asking me to do side jobs, but although Im confident in my installations, I do not feel comfortable doing side jobs. There are just so many factors that can go wrong, even if you are being extra careful, and to me that liability just plain isnt worth it to me.
Opinions?
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Kenny
Owner / Technician
KKD Garage LLC
Albany, NY 12205
Replies:
Posted By: KarTuneMan
Date Posted: November 07, 2007 at 11:50 AM
You need to choose your battles. Do the work that will get the dollars..... and work you will have little to worry about! PLUS the time factor.... this is a problem I have, my time off of work, I don't wish to spend it all under the dash of a car, or something like that. Thats why they call it "time off"
Posted By: offroadzj
Date Posted: November 07, 2007 at 1:10 PM
either way, circuit city doesnt exactly look kindly to completing side jobs... lol
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Kenny
Owner / Technician
KKD Garage LLC
Albany, NY 12205
Posted By: cwwlv
Date Posted: November 07, 2007 at 1:33 PM
at the cc i was at they had no problems with us doing side work if it was jobs that co wouldnt do
Posted By: dwarren
Date Posted: November 07, 2007 at 3:57 PM
I mainly do side jobs for friends. I like to keep it basic too. Decks, speakers, those kinds of things. I will do alarms occasionally, but the price people expect to pay and what I want is usually a bit off. I remeber doing a few side jobs while I worked circuit doodiety, I am sure if they knew I would have been fired. I recently did a side job on a large boat. It was a pain in the ass. I brought as much gear as I could fit in my bag, and I still forgot small things, like certain termianls. The time I spent running back and forth was not worth the pay. Like KarTuneMan said, choose your battles wisely. -------------
Posted By: ibasspro
Date Posted: November 07, 2007 at 7:29 PM
well, do it like this. buy the install with your AP, or company discount, & then scedule the job in & charge you freind what ever you want. this way it is somewhat legit. On the flip side, most box stores don't do what my friends want, fiberglass & big custom stuff, so pick yer battles, & make it worth your while. & just cause they ask, don't mean you have to say yes. & take what you think you should charge & double it. example CD deck, $50ish in most shops charge em $100. ------------- used to be loud, used to be fast...now I am married LOL
Posted By: boogeyman
Date Posted: November 13, 2007 at 12:04 AM
offroadzj if you are not comfortable with doing side jobs just dont do them
Posted By: sarcomax
Date Posted: November 14, 2007 at 4:47 PM
My remote start still isn't done on my bike, my satalite radio is still sitting in the garage and not my wife's car... No time for my jobs, much less side jobs. Do you honestly think that xbox 360 is going to play itself? -------------
Posted By: kassdog
Date Posted: November 14, 2007 at 7:41 PM
My circuit doesn't mind jobs that are done while we are off the clock. I've done managers friends cars while on the clock so it depends on the store. Personally I hate side jobs because they will call you for every little problem. That alone makes me not to want to do side jobs.
Posted By: offroadzj
Date Posted: November 15, 2007 at 9:19 PM
thats prety much how i feel about it. I get enough people through circuit city that come in with every little problem their car has and the dealer said it was the r/s... so I would hate to have to deal with that on my own. Classic example: Last winter I did a r/s or my good friend's grandmother. Well about a week later I get a call that the car died, and the grandmother said she smelled a burning smell and saw smoke. I ended u having to go to her house at about 12am to look at it, and when i got there his grandfather says "someone is gonna pay to have this fixed", which didnt help the fact that i was already nervous as hell about it. Turns out the r/s was perfectly fine. I spent about 2 hours looking at it and finally found that the positive battery terminal had broken inside the battery... nothing at all to do with the r/s. Definately a scary situation (his grandfather was quite a large guy, and not that old... probably could have easily kicked my ***.. lol)
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Kenny
Owner / Technician
KKD Garage LLC
Albany, NY 12205
Posted By: profuse007
Date Posted: November 16, 2007 at 12:52 PM
No offense, but I do NOT think youre confident w/ your installations. Hopefully I can give you some confident. Heres what I think:
1. you do NOT have a good knowledge about car, mechanical side.
2. you know only enough about electrical stuff to do a RS install. However, youre really good at doing stereo installations.
3. You always/mostly rely on tech-sheets.
4. You own both test-light and DMM but you prefer test-light.
5. you do NOT understand half of the functions and features thats on an RS unit.
_____________________
Let me know how many of those are true. Be honest, or else I can NOT help you.
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Houston,TX
"The two most common elements in the universe are H+ and stupidity" (Ellison).
Posted By: offroadzj
Date Posted: November 16, 2007 at 7:52 PM
Wow... that was definately out of the blue... but as for your concern...
1) I have a decent knowledge about cars. Do I know everything, no. But my dad is a mechanic, my roomate is a mechanic, and I do all of the mechanical work on my own vehicles. I dont know everything, but I do know more than the average person.
2) Again, I do not know everything about electrical equipment, but I have a good understanding about how electrical components work. Again, I dont know everything, but I do know more than the average installer.
3)I do NOT always rely on tech sheets. As we all know, tech sheets are not always correct, and and you sometimes have to go in with the DMM and find my own diagrams. In addition, I have done quite a few isntallations without the use of a techsheet by using my DMM alone at the switches to find the wires I needed.... including a few vehicles that required resistance to activate components (ie doorlocks, etc)
4)I do NOT own a test-light, and I use my DMM for EVERYTHING. Actually, I do have a test-light, but the light was replaced with a 1amp fuse to be used as a ground probe only.
5) I know most if not all of the features that the the average r/s has plus some of the higher end models. As well as how they work.
SO do I know everything, NO. But I am very confident in the quality of my installations. But hey, everyone is entitled to their opinions.
Edit: I am EXTREMELY anal about letting people touch my vehicles... and I would be the type of person I would trust.. if that makes any sense.
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Kenny
Owner / Technician
KKD Garage LLC
Albany, NY 12205
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