MVP 2023 Joe Tauser Posted January 14, 2017 MVP 2023 Report Share Posted January 14, 2017 So I answered a post yesterday where the user was concerned that the cost of the controller was over $500, implying that this amount was putting the project out of reach. This morning a few of the things we take for granted and never question came into my mind- Decent tires for my Jeep cost about $1,000 A new cell phone costs $600, but it's a "free upgrade" because it's rolled into your next 24 payments A trip to the grocery store for a week or so of food is $300 for a family of four My furnace/AC upgrade to a high efficiency unit was $7,000 Getting my car fixed by someone else is usually about $600, no matter what the problem is. Sometimes it's a lot more. Health insurance is >$700 / month And so on..... It seems like machine controls get the short end of the stick a LOT. Why is the perceived value of what we provide so small? Systems I've installed are still running fine after 20 years! I know not every customer feels this way, but it get this response frequently with people new to control systems. I'm afraid I'm not far from becoming a full-fledged curmudgeon. Joe T. 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MVP 2023 Flex727 Posted January 14, 2017 MVP 2023 Report Share Posted January 14, 2017 +1! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MVP 2023 Ausman Posted January 17, 2017 MVP 2023 Report Share Posted January 17, 2017 Yes to all of this, and you're not a curmudgeon, Joe. You are a person who has experienced all the things that life throws at you, and get rightly annoyed. Many of my much younger associates think that I'm old and grumpy. I counter that I have heaps more life experience that they will eventually catch up on, eventually realising the things they now see as normality are often really stupid. They'll eventually be annoyed at all the ridiculous things done by government, morons, losers, users, and all the other human failings/characters one encounters. One of my favourites is the client who whinges about annual maintenance fees of complex stuff. They don't understand my insistence that routine servicing is necessary and think my minor bills are high. It's essentially a big, complex machine running 24/7 and doesn't miss a beat because of my care. Yet these same complainers think absolutely nothing of the vastly larger annual service costs on their whizzy cars that maybe work 600 hours annually. When I bring this up it is "different". What garbage.....cars are just machines! There's nothing wrong with having a rant now and then! It lets steam out of the boiler. cheers, Aus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hotwires Posted January 19, 2017 Report Share Posted January 19, 2017 Preach Joe! Truth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cara Bereck Levy Posted January 30, 2017 Report Share Posted January 30, 2017 On 1/17/2017 at 11:37 PM, Ausman said: ...they will eventually catch up on, eventually realising the things they now see as normality are often really stupid. They'll eventually be annoyed at all the ridiculous things done by government, morons, losers, users, and all the other human failings/characters one encounters. Optimist. They'll be too busy watching reality TV. As long as government doesn't interfere with the Kardashians, they won't care. A few weeks ago, a house guest turned on the TV and tuned in to that show. I had never seen it - I average maybe 3 hours of TV a month, and it would never occur to me to watch something like that. I was stunned. The absurdity is that people care about these reality shows more than what the government is doing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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