pros and cons

[cagedanimal2010]

hi guys,
am just weighing up the pros and cons of 24 hour call out?
any opinions???
cheers!!!

 

[alarm man]

hi guys,
am just weighing up the pros and cons of 24 hour call out?
any opinions???
cheers!!!

is it for you or the company? do you get a set rate for being on call + more when you go out?,get used to no life,no mates,your girlfriend leaving you because quote 'your always on bloody call im sure your seeing someone else' (it is a good excuse if your into that sort of thing) moneys good tho.. and thats the only upside..

 

[cagedanimal2010]

that did give me a giggle!!!
no im going self employed! so all the money for me!!!

 

[SirKit Breaker]

It is all well and good if they have the money to pay you at 3am

 

[robsparky1975]

I am going down the same route,so 24hr callout,pros-money-cons-social life,bad payers,lack of sleep/nookie

 

[alarm man]

that did give me a giggle!!!
no im going self employed! so all the money for me!!!

sad thing is its all true(including the other woman thing) if your self employed thats 365 nights your giving up,with no calls thats £0.00 in the bank and no life..i do alarms and if i was on call 365 nights id earn £23k on standby money alone thats with no calls and being in bed,personally id give it some thought or what some in the security game do is have buddy's(fellow sparks you deal with),ie they cover your 24hr call when your busy/on holiday and you cover there's on a strictly no pinching further custom deal..im sure 24hr sparks are in demand so theres money in it..

 

[noidea]

I used to be on 24hr call for McNicholas Communications.
The only pro is money.
There are alot of cons
You might have a pocket full of money, but you ain't got no time to spend it.
Your girlfriend will definately get the hump with you (more than normal).
This might sound obvious, but 24hr means just that. If you get a call at 3 in the morning then you gotta get up and go.
YOU CAN'T GO TO THE PUB!!!

 

[alarm man]

.
This might sound obvious, but 24hr means just that. If you get a call at 3 in the morning then you gotta get up and go.

or worse at 1am and you might get another and not get back to bed till 8am,then what about your next days work,who's going to do that,then what if the same happens the next night etc do you have your 11hrs off between shifts or just crack on,soon you feel like your dying catch every bug going and need to sleep for a week....sometimes if ive been on call say monday to friday ive not seen wife and kids till saturday morning depending on the times ive been out (seen plenty others thojust joking) and you need a oncall bed at home so when you go out you dont wake the house up..call you gotta love it..

 

[ian]

I am self-employed and have been 24 hr call for the last 4 years. For the first couple I hated every minute and was thinking about stopping the call out service, but then I met another spark who was having the same thought, so we now alternate the nights, if someone calls me and its his night on standby I pass the details to him, now works really well. We only get 2 or 3 calls a week and they are almost always around 5 or 6 in the evening when people get home form work. I have only ever had a couple in the “wee small hours”. Its really not a problem.

My advice would be to draw up a call out contract, detailing your charges and what you will be doing, then get the client to sign it before you get the tools from the van. I have been to a few callout where I sorted the problem quickly and the client have wanted me to change sockets, lights etc to use the remainder of the first hour which they are paying for A lot of people don’t like paying for a call out if you fix the problem in 5 minutes.

If you can get someone to share your call outs, it will turn your life around, and keep your GF happy.

Ian

 

[Guest123]

I operate a 24hr call out service. They call me and I promise to be there within 24hrs.

Seriously now, I do operate it and as the lads have said apart from the dough there are no other pro's. The only thing going for it round my way is that not many others offer it so you can gain new customers by responding to a call out if another spark doesn't offer it.