My comments were not pointing towards a good old boys network by any means.... it was in response to a comment about a customer who gambled and lost.

In my opinion what makes someone qualified is installer level programming knowledge, backup parts or a loaner system on the shelf to get them up and running no matter what, and tech support from the manufacturer in the event you cant solve the problem on your own.

I have been in the phone business since 1997 ... i know Avaya and ESI systems inside and out and i stock parts to keep those systems up and running at all times.

I wouldn't be doing a customer justice charging them to move an Intertel system. The same holds true of a Nortel, Comdial, Toshiba and most other systems. Phone systems are not like computers where a vendor can work on just about any brand because the operating systems are the same. The process to add a line, change ringing or hunt groups, program buttons etc is different with all of the different brands and it's tough to know them all.

I don't feel right taking on that type or work ..... do i bill them when it takes me half an hour to find out in the manual how to do something?? If it doesn't boot up do i know how to figure out why not and do i have the part in stock to replace it? If not do i have a loaner system for them?

If they can hire someone else who knows their system and works on it regularly and can provide backup parts in an emergency and i can't they deserve to know that option exists.

This is exactly what happened to my customer... and the sad part is the computer guy charges just as much per hour, took longer to do the wiring work so it cost more and then had his phone system down!

John Corrigan
New Phone Systems and Service
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