We service gensets on farms, in hospitals, long term care facilities, waste water treatment plants, auto manufacturers depending on large combined heat and power units and many other industries.
1) Is the company you are considering as a service partner worthy of a relationship with you?
Many so-called "generator service companies" are simply mechanics that service the engine and have no understanding of the business end of the gen-set or the switchgear – and because of this, these critical parts are never serviced. In the short term, these companies rely on low rates to get the job but they do not invest in technician training or proper tools. Try calling them after-hours in an ice storm when there is no utility power and your generator will not start. These companies have no reputation to maintain and will cut and run at the first sign of trouble.
2) Are they able to get parts? Do they have experience servicing your type of generator?
T&T Power Group not only services generators, but we build them. This includes diesel, natural gas, propane, standby and prime power units as combined heat and power gensets. If we don’t have the parts on hand to repair your generator, we have a relationship with the manufacturer who built it.
Since we build generators, we have the technical expertise to fix them. Most gensets operate on the same principles: A combustion engine turns a rotor inside a stator kept to specific conditions by a genset controller, which receives feedback from various sensors. Once a technician understands the basic operating principles of a genset, they only need exposure to the different models of generators in use, as well as the training support to lean on when they cannot diagnose a problem.
3) Is your generator service provider able to offer a straight forward service quote?
Our customers have shown us many service quotes and invoices over the years. Many generator service companies rationalize the total amount they charge by breaking down labour into several categories depending on the technician’s experience, mileage and travel, tool charges, truck charges and environmental charges for getting rid of oil and coolant. But the reality is; customers don't care how creative your accounting department is, they just want a good job done at a fair price.
At T&T Power Group, our service quotes are one flat rate determined by the particular requirements of your genset. We spell out what we do when we service your generator and charge you only that flat rate unless there is a deficiency that would prevent your generator from starting in the event of a utility failure. If we find such a deficiency, the technician will inform the customer immediately with a cost and timeline for repair.
A T&T Power Group invoice will never list charges not quoted and previously authorized by the customer.
4) Do they follow a logical service routine that demonstrates their ability to service your gen-set?
T&T Power Group follows the standby generator inspection guidelines of the Canadian Standards Association’s Section 282 – Emergency electrical power supply for buildings. Our technicians are trained to use this guideline to service all generators providing a methodical, step-by-step instruction list to run a preventative maintenance program on your generator.
5) Do they provide a report that covers all of the bases and satisfies the documentary requirements of your insurance company as well as any other organization that may require a report as proof the generator has been properly maintained?
T&T Power Group technicians complete their inspection report while still on site servicing your generator. Our electronic reports are completed on the technician’s phone or laptop and submitted to the service manager each evening. The service manager reviews the generator report and submits for either further service action or invoicing the next day. Once accounting receives the manager's approved generator service report, an invoice is generated and both the service report and invoice are emailed to the customer.
6) Are they committed relationship builders?
T&T Power Group offers a planned maintenance schedule, and a coordinator will call you at each service interval to arrange a convenient time to ensure your generator is there when you need it. We provide 24-hour emergency on-call generator service through a call centre staffed in Brantford. When you call after-hours, you will speak to a person who will relay your emergency call to the nearest technician.
7) Are they able to stay in tune with current technology while keeping costs down?
At T&T Power Group we are always on the lookout for better ways of doing our business. We replaced hand-written service reports with electronic reports emailed to customers, thereby slashing the cost of the reports to nearly zero and saving our customers money. Our endless quest to make a better generator less expensive, has led us to make our own enclosures, sub-based fuel tanks and, in many cases, our own control systems.