Channel 4 dispatches tonight was exposing how vested interests are influencing decision makers ..... not in our industry, but it all sounded very familiar ..
That's the problem, to be fair any organisation needs to take advice from relevant experts, how often have we been annoyed by a customer who has decided something without consulting an electrician first.
The trouble happens when the people giving the advice start to use the request for help as a means to line their own pockets, it's wrong, it's unprofessional and it shouldn't be done, but then again the people asking for the advice, in our case the IET should know this and not be led down a path which while benefitting the product manufacturer, may not actually be of any benefit to the other parties, in other words, us as the electricians and Joe Public as the end user.
If someone asks me to install something, it goes one of three ways, either it's something they've bought or they're going to buy, or they're going to buy it and want my advice first. All I do is offer the best advice possible such as reliability, cost, ease of use etc and let the customer decide. I once got into a discussion about cctv, we know there are some cheap and cheerful systems and there are some really high end ones, now if a customer is lets say having damage done and needs it as a deterrent but hasn't got a load of money, do we point blank refuse to do the work unless he's willing to spend a grand on our preferred system, or do we, on finding out that he's only got a few hundred quid to spend point out the pitfalls with some of the cheaper stuff, but if that is all he can afford install it, knowing that in certain cases any cctv is better than non?
Yes I do have my preferences with a lot of gear, as do most of us, but at the end of the day, after pointing out the pro's and con's of the different equipment I try and go with what the customer wants, unless of course it's dangerous. As I usually say, " you tell me what you think you want, I'll tell you what you actually want, and we'll go from there.