A customer called me today to let me know that my bid was higher than the other two companies that bid the project. He then told me that he did not need UL listed equipment, he just wanted the system to send signals to the dispatch when there was a break in or a fire and to keep it simple.

He proceeded to tell me that he did not need all the horn/strobes and other devices and appliances I had included in my bid.

He said the other two companies were willing to do the project for much less and that they would not apply for a fire alarm permit or get fire marshal approval with plans , battery calculations and voltage line drops.

This is a system I had to say no to because of liability, if I do not install the system to code and I sign off on the project my licence, my NICET certification and my company will be in trouble. It is not as simple as saying we will provide you with half of a system or just part of a system.

I would rather lose the job than do the project wrong and not to code.

There are times when you can do maintenance by replacing part for part on an old system without going to the fire marshal but the above project is new and a new system will be added and code states we must notify the fire marshal when doing that.

I told him to supply me with their equipment list and we can bid out the same equipment and if the fire marshal will sign off on it we would be ok but it sounds like he does not want to get the fire marshal involved which is the wrong attitude when dealing with life safety.

Larry.Love@JCI.com 801 898 6003 We do need to meet code