Electrical Selections - HSI

This appointment was pretty straight forward. Id spent a few hours with dad at the display home going through each of the rooms deciding on what power-points we needed. I knew straight up down lights would be way over budget so we didn't consider these. Dad is a retired electrician so can do a lot of the power points for us which is good.

The costs soon add up approx $75 per extra baton and $80 for each double power point before we knew it we were looking at a $3000 quote. So we cut back on some 2 way and 3 way switches, and removed the provisions they charged us for a wall hung TV in 3 rooms which was $165 each.

We also removed the provisions for future ceiling fans too which was $75 for a piece of wood and the extra wiring needed for the fan.

The final outcome looks like this.  Pretty cool seeing how their program works, its very efficient and i love how it did add up things as we went along so you left knowing exactly what you spent - no waiting around for a week while the quote was completed.

Now here's the thing that jacked me off about HSI. I asked if we had a choice in powerpoints. They said no the ones that are standard are the clipsal Eclipse - Something like this.

Anything else was an "upgrade". so we left it at these ones as who wants to spend extra on powerpoints! Defiantley not top of my list as upgrades you need to do to a house unless you have pockets of cash.

 Following the appointment dad suggested we just get the stock standard powerpoints so that wehn he does alot of the after handover points they will be cheaper to buy, a quick call to Middys and they confirmed the 2000series was $4.62 and the Eclipse was $7.92.

I then rung HSI to ask if we could just have the stock standard ones, they are cheaper, you would think they would cost them less. But no they wanted us to pay $80 for the "upgrade" pfft! im not paying $80 for these when they are worth nearly 50% less than the ones we are getting. 

They raved on about buying power and all that jazz, and i get that! no one wants cheapy power-points if they can get nice ones. But really who cares! they aren't something i work into someone else's house and say "woah that's an ugly power-point"  Anyways...........i told HSI that i didn't want to pay for the upgrade can they help me out and waive the $80 fee - response "no its $80", i asked again - pleaded my case, and still no budging. My blood pressure was going up, stress levels were high. A company of this size making a set income monthly due to being linked up  with HOG can not even go that extra mile to help out a customer  They have the attitude that its a given business, they don't need to try and impress us, what can we do about it! Nothing! I was so mad! It was $80 friggin dollars! So if they weren't going to help us out i wasn't giving them anymore business that i had too. 

So i removed the antenna, ill get our antenna guy to install it. Someone who was willing to help us out with our current antenna, and someone i know will go the extra mile to HELP a customer. Someone that you want to recommend to friends! not a company that sits on top of a perch all high and mighty thinking they don't have to please a customer. He quoted us $550 which was cheaper than HSI $635 anyway!

We also took out a few more power points and dad will be able to put them in for us! And what ever he cant do ill HAPPILY pay an electrician to do it over HSI anyday! 

$80!!! seriously HSI! not like im ever going to recommend you to anyone!!  its a competitive industry out there. Its a shame that HSI don't want to please a customer. I get more discounts buying a washing machine in harvey norman then i do form these guys or ANYONE at HOG - maybe that's another post i can write about, without going off on a tangent! the lack of discounts you get through the whole process is A JOKE!

They are worse than the Big 4 Banks trying to get as much cash as possible from us and charging us for upgrades that are 3 times more expensive than RRP. So disappointing!