There seems to be something about A/V integration that is just a wretched hive. It’s not like slightly shady MSPs want you to ask questions that suggest independence; but they generally keep that to implication and will cave under direct requests. Not so much in A/V hell; where both the ‘value added’ resellers and the hardware vendors will act like the request is crazy and then point-blank refuse. I’m reminded of some product announcements from Netgear(far from the worst offender; but, because they have a real-products-with-real-prices division, much more visible when they get into that sort of thing).
It’s not like I want to get into the gory details of how specific Samsung ‘smart’ TVs misunderstand HDMI CEC; or whatnot; but the shift from “hire us to handle the ugly details you don’t want to” or “we get to treat Cisco list prices as the jokes they are, how about we quote you the hardware as well as the installation?” to “this deal is so obviously in your interest that you aren’t allowed to see any of the numbers or touch anything” is deeply unpleasant.
they mention they do turn off most of the breakers, there’s one set they don’t. i’d guess they need emergency lighting, electronic door locks, cameras or the like to still be running. the article didn’t mention those specifics though
Also alarm systems. Generally speaking, people will refuse to hire anyone who is honest about these kinds of dumpster fires, so all the vendors are usually charlatans and the customers are usually gullible and/or fools.
That being said, I could pull $200 an hour plus expenses fixing these kind of things when I was still in my early 20s… including travel time…
