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Automatic doors failing whilst fitting signs. Am I to blame?
Hi all.
Bit of a strange & long one this – sorry.
I was asked to fit some cable systems in a reception entrance the other day & the first cable run needed to be fitted in line with where the automatic sliding door opens, so in order to drill the holes etc, I needed the door to be locked for a little while.
They did this via a convoluted control panel, but no sooner had I drilled the first hole, as sods law dictates, a customer would turn up & want to be let in, so they’d open the door, let them in & re-lock it. This happened about 12 times at the last rough count. Upshot was a 20 minute job took over an hour.
Anyhow. After a while, the sliding doors seemed to get confused with all this locking & unlocking & only opened half way – just enough to squeeze a person through. We mentioned this several times to several different people, that the doors seemed to have become confused & weren’t opening fully. I also mentioned this to the caretaker when we finally completed the job at the end of the day, as I also told him that when the door guys come out to sort it, could he ask them to adjust the opening width slightly as they just touch the leaflet holders when fully open. He said that was fine.
So, this morning I get my customer phone up saying we’ve bust the doors as they don’t open fully. I say we didn’t break them & explained carefully all of the above. I also say I mentioned it to the caretaker who is stood with her, to which this he now denies. He said I only mentioned that they needed adjusting to stop them touching the holders. She said she will have to call the door guys out & will let me know what the bill will be for repairing the doors. Hmmm. She also said that I should have installed them after hours. Whilst this is a fair comment, (A) I didn’t price for that & (B) I saw no problem in locking the main door for 20 minutes & customers using the rear entrance. I certainly didn’t envisage the doors throwing a wobbly! I’ve done this kind of thing many times before when fitting vinyls to door windows etc, & never has a door failed as a result.
So, where do I stand. I do a lot of work for this company, but this is the first time for this department. Chances are, unless I cough I won’t get any more from her but it won’t effect the rest of my work with the other departments. There’s also a feeling that I won’t get any more work from her anyway as there’s a very limited amount of what they can order & they’ve pretty much done it all.
Bottom line is, I don’t want to be held accountable for something that was beyond my control & be landed with a bill that barely makes the job, if at all, profitable. On the other hand, I don’t like to upset the apple cart.
I will also add that I checked, & no cables or wires were damaged or screwed through during the install.
All advice greatly received.
Cheers,
Gwaredd.
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5 Replies
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i’d go over her head before she has chance to slate you, maybe a polite letter to the head honcho explaining the situation, and that you took every precaution to prevent hitting cables, and that you successfully installed the gear with no problems.
i can’t see how you would be liable in this situation unless indeed you hit cables, which as you point out, you haven’t!
HUgh
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Sounds to me someone has cocked the doors up and are passing the buck mate. If you haven’t touched them at all then it’s not your fault. Regarding the time of day for the install if they’ve requested or agreed with you to fit at such a time then you shouldn’t have a problem. Like Hugh has said go above this lady and discuss this with your regular contact who knows you and trusts you to do the job correctly. Don’t offer them any discount on the signs or they’ll take this as you admittimg guilt.
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I’ve had this problem before,the doors get confused, they just need reset. It should be on the keypad, a combination of 3 or 4 keys held in at one time, resets them, if you didn’t physically touch the doors they will reset perfectly,
ask them to produce an invoice from the door guys showing parts needed, if no parts needed you didn’t break them, it’s their fault for not knowing how to operate their own doors. -
it has happened to me too, reset fixed it!! had a similiar situation with the blame game and it is a bit scary, stand up for yourself politely!
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Cheers guys.
Well, she has been on the phone this morning & yes, they just needed resetting 🙄
5 minutes later, she was back on the phone. The window cleaner had arrived & was moaning that he couldn’t clean the window properly as the display was mounted in the window (as requested, to be viewed from the outside) & wanted to know what could be done? I told her to tell the window cleaner to get a longer handle.
Honestly! Next she’ll be ringing me up to say that since I’ve installed them the sun has gone in! 😛
Cheers for the replies though guys, good to know it’s not just me!
Gwaredd.
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