Ronnie Sullivan
Member
So, here's a 'good un' for ya
I like to post here with some of the problems I find out in the field...it's not all programming and happy customers.
Customer phones me - says a plc is faulty and keeps going off.
(I say customer, they have called me twice in 7 years and this is the second time)
I get there Friday afternoon and it is already dead. They tell me if they cycle power on/off several times it sometimes comes back on for a while.
I do what I can to the plc - re-seat all the I/O units, check connections, artificial respiration etc but no life.
They tell me 'the man' who normally comes in to do their programming is on holiday abroad - but has advised them that he needs me to get the program out as there is no back-up in existence.
Hours later it comes to life and I manage to get the program out - it then dies again but no worries, I have the program.
The PLC is a very old A series Mitsubishi. Long since obsolete but I tell them it can be converted to Mitsubishi's latest Q series.
They don't want to know when I tell them the price for this. They want to leave it to 'the man' to see what he can do.
I browse ebay and amazingly, find the exact model and show them it.(it is also only 10 miles away) and tell them if they want quick and dirty someone can pick it up.
NO, 'the man' will be back Monday, he'll sort it out.
'the man' lives at the other side of the country and due to being on holiday for two weeks is snowed under with a backlog of work.
He calls me - can I email him the program. He has a brand new A series plc in stock (he keeps stock of all the old ones he tells me - but not backups ???)
He tells them that he will put the program in the 'new' plc and express post it to them and I can swap it out (whoopee for me)
I am called again when it has arrived - to swap it over.
The plc is the exact one that was on ebay (it had a sticker on the CPU in the photo - that is still there)
I change it but now the screen (HMI) is showing all the wrong figures and the machine will not work properly. (apparently it used to have 10 recipes but now they only ever use 1 and this is not the right one.)
I can't get into the screen as I don't have the software for it and the screen appears to be disabled - no buttons work. (The HMI is a model I have never heard of)
They tell me 'the man' has disabled it to stop operators changing things but he can get into it. (He has now become un-contactable)
I have to leave without the machine running properly.
I phone them a few days later and they tell me everything is running fine now. On further probing 'the man' could still not get to site so he talked them through getting it back to recipe 1. (secret button that needs to be held in for 10 seconds - or something like.)
So the crux of the matter; They do not want to pay my full invoice as I have overcharged them and 'the man' really fixed it anyway.
I have charged them just one full day rate which they say I was not on site for 8 hours in total. They do not like the term 'day rate' and no one else charges them like that.
To them, I did little more than swap the plc and nothing more constructive.
The little mater of retrieving the program does not count.
Hmmm.
What do you think?
I like to post here with some of the problems I find out in the field...it's not all programming and happy customers.
Customer phones me - says a plc is faulty and keeps going off.
(I say customer, they have called me twice in 7 years and this is the second time)
I get there Friday afternoon and it is already dead. They tell me if they cycle power on/off several times it sometimes comes back on for a while.
I do what I can to the plc - re-seat all the I/O units, check connections, artificial respiration etc but no life.
They tell me 'the man' who normally comes in to do their programming is on holiday abroad - but has advised them that he needs me to get the program out as there is no back-up in existence.
Hours later it comes to life and I manage to get the program out - it then dies again but no worries, I have the program.
The PLC is a very old A series Mitsubishi. Long since obsolete but I tell them it can be converted to Mitsubishi's latest Q series.
They don't want to know when I tell them the price for this. They want to leave it to 'the man' to see what he can do.
I browse ebay and amazingly, find the exact model and show them it.(it is also only 10 miles away) and tell them if they want quick and dirty someone can pick it up.
NO, 'the man' will be back Monday, he'll sort it out.
'the man' lives at the other side of the country and due to being on holiday for two weeks is snowed under with a backlog of work.
He calls me - can I email him the program. He has a brand new A series plc in stock (he keeps stock of all the old ones he tells me - but not backups ???)
He tells them that he will put the program in the 'new' plc and express post it to them and I can swap it out (whoopee for me)
I am called again when it has arrived - to swap it over.
The plc is the exact one that was on ebay (it had a sticker on the CPU in the photo - that is still there)
I change it but now the screen (HMI) is showing all the wrong figures and the machine will not work properly. (apparently it used to have 10 recipes but now they only ever use 1 and this is not the right one.)
I can't get into the screen as I don't have the software for it and the screen appears to be disabled - no buttons work. (The HMI is a model I have never heard of)
They tell me 'the man' has disabled it to stop operators changing things but he can get into it. (He has now become un-contactable)
I have to leave without the machine running properly.
I phone them a few days later and they tell me everything is running fine now. On further probing 'the man' could still not get to site so he talked them through getting it back to recipe 1. (secret button that needs to be held in for 10 seconds - or something like.)
So the crux of the matter; They do not want to pay my full invoice as I have overcharged them and 'the man' really fixed it anyway.
I have charged them just one full day rate which they say I was not on site for 8 hours in total. They do not like the term 'day rate' and no one else charges them like that.
To them, I did little more than swap the plc and nothing more constructive.
The little mater of retrieving the program does not count.
Hmmm.
What do you think?