Repairing Car Washes - Just Another Day for an Electrician

                As an electrician, I never thought that I would end up specializing in something so strange, but after several years operating my own business, I find that a lot of my time is spent servicing car washes! It seems that these fairly complicated machines go wrong with regularity. The first one I saw was having all sorts of electrical problems, and it actually took me quite a while to diagnose the problem. It turned out that the machine had a faulty circuit breaker which was of course pretty simple for me to repair. I told the garage owner that the car wash would be out of action for a few days whilst I waited for a new breaker to arrive. I went back to the office to order a new breaker online, and when I was having a look around for the best deal, I came across used breakers for sale. This was something that I had just never considered before, so I decided to read up on used breakers. It turned out that used breakers go through a vigorous set of tests to make sure that they are suitable for retail sale, and they even come with a full warranty! They would be cleaned, refurbished and have to be in perfect condition to be sold. The warranty on these used breakers was exactly the same as the warranty on new breakers, so I couldn't see any reason why I would need to buy new breakers again! Before I went ahead and ordered the used breakers, I called the guy who operated the car wash. I told him what I had discovered, and he jumped at the chance of saving the money. The used breakers were half the price of the new ones! Once I had fixed his car wash, the owner was absolutely thrilled, and he was particularly impressed that I had saved him so much money and that I had been good enough to passed the saving on to him. As the months and years went on, I got called out to more and more car wash jobs, and the fault always seemed to be the same thing. I always explained to any of the owners that I could save them a lot of money by buying used breakers for them, and this seemed to really help develop a bond of trust with the customer. This is the great thing about used breakers. Not only are they just as reliable as new breakers, and not only do they have a full warranty, but they can also be used as a tool to develop good relationships with clients. Every time I tell a client that I can find them a used breaker which is fully warranted but will save them a lot of money, they feel like I am doing them a favor. I suppose in many respects this is exactly what I am doing, because I could be selfish, and just keep the difference between the price of used and new breakers and never tell them the difference, but I think that doing things the honest way has helped me get more clients who keep coming back to me.