oldtimer,
good on you to apologise, that takes some guts.
Mind I only skimmed the thread, but I would probably agree with you.
IF these 70p/item guys were so good, how come they never actually tested the appliances they stickered in on e of the local colleges here, well at least in the ELECTRICAL staff room, that is unless they did it out of hours!
Another thing is why do I find so many dangerous appliances with "passed" stickers on them?
Oh one more, how do these 1 day trained persons undertake safe isolation, inspection and testing, then, reconnection on the hard wired appliances that I see with "stickers" on them?
I reckon you would have to be a cyborg to capture and record correctly and accurately all of the appliance information required in the IET CoP
How many of there "50/70p/item" companies actually undertake the I&T at the frequencies required by the IET CoP & the HSE documents on the subject?
I would guess NONE, they will ALL do everything ANNUALLY even though there is no need, that's how they make their money, they are the ones ripping off the customer.