BTI and the Boggers

Well, life as a pending owner becomes more interesting every day. Today I received two emails from Steve and Tracy and had a lengthy conversation with Steve in response to an email I sent asking about costs relating to inverters, battery chargers, and solar regulators. Those emails which BTI requested I post are in the next two threads. I thought I would provide my thoughts and other comments that came out of the my conversation with Steve. I have not been around a long time as a Bogger; howver, I surmise the following history. Anyone and everyone is free to comment on my hypothesis! Prior to the Boggers being created it has been stated to me on more than one occassion that everyone was basically accepting what was said by BTI, and purchasing what was offered by BTI. There was no collective exchange of information, and no forum to voice your personally held concerns about something in relation to your BT or your dealings with BTI. Depending upon the person I spoke to, some said they got lucky doing it on their own and it was 90 - 95% right. Today, a new Boggers hopes that his van when delivered will be 99% right - whatever that means. The evolution of the Boggers has had many impacts upon BTI. 1. It customers (us) believe (rightly or wrongly) they we are more knowledgeable in making our purchase having read a year's worth of threads, and participating in the site or at least reading what is posted. 2. There have been many instances when Boggers have brought products to BTI that ultimately have been adopted as standard - Anthony can name several; others have not been adopted. 3. They say a little knowledge is dangerous - I know because as a medical-legal lawyer I would drive doctors crazy with my questions and opinions based upon my newly learned knowledge. Well, legitimately, BTI can say that there time with customers (in person, emails, and phone calls), especially Boggers, has significantly increased because we know a little more and we want to talk about all aspects of our new and exciting purchase. We hear something, read something, or discuss something and we contact BTI and ask about it. Clearly we do this because we all want the perfect BT; at the same time, this increases BTI's cost of goods sold. 4. Prior to the Bogger site I would guess that very little out sourcing of equipment occurred by purchasers of BTs. Having decided that the BT was the best for our purposes, we had no reason to question a particular item, e.g., battery chargers, and when there was a problem BTI corrected the problem. Purchasers knew that they could purchase certain items for less money but didn't because the price charged by BTI included installation et cetera. Now the Boggers get together and start talking about all the things we could buy for the BT and how so many of the items can be purchased more cheaply.Absolutely true and all accounts. Then we go out and buy an item and ask BTI to install the item. BTI does so and when they look at their time sheets they realize that they cannot charge the true installation cost because of customer relations so, since it isn't happening too often, they eat part of the labor. I did that often as an attorney. Then we say to ourselves, wait a minute. If I was able to buy the item for $700.00 less than charged by BTI at wholesale prices and it only cost me $500 for the installation I am $200 ahead of the game. So, I had this exact conversation with Steve today and he pointed out that sure they charge retail prices, and charge what appears to be a reasonable add-on for labor; however, in fact, part of the installation is buried in the "profit at retail prices" and part of the installation is the "add-on". As a result of the proliferation in out-sourcing by purchasers of BTs of items to be installed in the BTs, those of us trying to do that know who we are, BTI has now adopted a new policy that all installations will be charged at $60 per hour for work performed, time sheets will be kept, and an additional charge for materials. No estimate of the installation cost will be provided in advance "because every installation is different and there is no way to know what problems we are going to run into doing a particular installation." Well fellow Boggers, now you can read the next two threads which are the Directors response to my initiation of what will it cost for the installation of a Prosine 1800i, TrueCharge 40amp, and Plasmatronics PL40. tgintl/jay