HereForTheBeer: A customer has been asking me, once a year for the last four years, for a quote to come do a check-out on four machines. Every year I send the same estimate (I don't quote service - someone always gets screwed), same price, and just change the date.
Customer contacted the OEM a couple months back for a problem on one of those machines, an the OEM sent me over to have a look. Figured it out and they asked me about a visit to <drumroll> check out those four machines. I reminded them that I've sent the same estimate four times to the same guy. "Well, we're actually going to do it this time. Send it to me instead." So I dug up and forwarded the last email.
They got back with me last week. Included was their contractor requirements. Holy crap, these things are ridiculous. Gotta provide five different kinds of insurance - including a specific AM Best rating for each policy - including $1,000,000 on the car forshit'ssake just to park in the same lot the employees use, release the company from any liability even if an injury to me is completely their fault, and provide company records of my safety training program including the schedule of employee safety meetings.
Shit, I'm one guy. I don't hold safety meetings with myself nor have an employee safety manual. I don't have $1,000,000 of coverage on my parked car - I bet the owner of the company doesn't, either, nor any of their employees. I don't have workers' comp because I'm self-employed. More crap like this is stuffed all over this "agreement".
Gonna email her back and explain that they'll have to go through the OEM to get me over there. Initial pricing shows I'll pay almost as much in premiums for temporary coverage for their inflated requirements as I would get from doing the work in the first place. I do have biz liability and car coverage now - at lower levels than they want - but they're asking for $5 million in total coverage to work on used machines for a week. Not going to happen.
Wow - I see you're from the US of A. It's pretty indicitive of what's happening here regarding over-the-top insurance liabilities for small businesses. We're just a few years behind you but we are your puppets, so much so that daytime TV and radio are full* of insurance ads for anything and everything.
*along with gambling ads
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My moan: I live in a village in SE England with a population of 3,000 and we're under 10 minutes drive from a town with a population of 25,000.
My point is that whilst it's relatively rural, I don't live in complete seclusion.
Therefore, why is my broadband download speed (available through all providers) measure in at 1.6MBps! Does anyone have a slower connection? When comparing all sites advised the speed range is between 1mb and 3.5mb.
<bitch over>