We need our office PAT testing – but how many appliances do we have?

It happens a lot – we’re contacted for a price for PAT testing an office; the prospective client tells us how much equipment they have, we price it and when we turn up to do the job, it’s a lot more than expected. So how do we prevent this happening?

When this happens it can cause problems for you and us..

• The job is going to take us longer than expected so may affect what we have planned next
• The job is going to take us longer than expected so will disrupt you more
• The job is going to cost you more
• The job is going to earn us more 🙂
• You’re going to realise you have under-budgeted for the work 🙁

Office PAT testing is our bread and butter – we’re experts at it, so trust in us and we’ll help you maintain a safe office without the shock of an invoice twice the expected amount.

One thing we always do if we’re on a job and think it’s going to be bigger than planned; with as much warning as possible, we tell you.

How many appliances do we have? When we’re approached about a job we don’t just assume the client is right; we check, or do our best to. We explain that each mains powered detachable item is going to need testing on it’s own, and will be labelled and recorded as a new item, and so they will be charged for that work.

We explain that a Desktop PC usually consists of 4 items – the PC tower and it’s detachable lead, plus the monitor and its lead. That’s 4 items. If they are plugged into an extension lead, that’s 5 items.

If there are 10 desks in the office, that is 50 items.

Then there are all the other things; the printer and its lead, the photocopier plus its lead, lamps, heaters, fans, radios, mobile phone chargers, the server unit, the kitchen appliances… it quickly spirals.

Of course, we don’t expect you to count everything, we just want a rough idea so the job planning is a bit more accurate. So for example, if you have 10 desks each with a double monitor; tell us that.

We tend to take a figure like that and multiply it by 7 (one screen) or 9 (2 screens) to get a rough idea of how many items are in the office. So if you have 10 desks with 2 screens you likely have around 90 items… not the 40 you thought.

You’ll be glad we do this, because the quote is going to be closer to the invoice.

Remember with PAT testing you pay per item, so we’ll charge you for every item tested. We actually prefer an hourly rate but for reasons unknown to us businesses always want a price per item, even though it always leads to extra charges.

Another way to improve the estimate is to book in a site survey – for this we visit your premises, and do the count ourselves, from that we give you a price for the job. This is a good way for you to secure a fixed price.

We can visit and be shown around your facility. This is also a great chance to get to know each other and for you to ask any burning questions you may have.

That couldn’t be easier. Simply get in touch. Our contact details are at the top and bottom of the page, and on our Contact Us Page.