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Well, I am a service tech but not in the spa industry. In my industry you can get certified and the techs who do wear it as a badge. Since I repair medical equipment a certified individual would need to pass a test that includes physiology and medical terms. I am not certified.My background is in Electrical Engineering - 3 years into it before life took over. I am not a degreed Engineer. I have knowledge of electronics and decent mechanical aptitude. I don't know anything about physiology except what I've picked up through the years. But I know how a piece of equipment is supposed to work and how to troubleshoot it. And I will work on almost anything. I have had managers say that some of their worse techs were certified and some of their best were not.I have to say that in my industry I would prefer to have people who actually can repair items than people who claim they can. In my career I have "proven" design engineers wrong in their design and they redesigned the item for it to work correctly and have had a company rework it's service manual because the manufacturer didn't know how it's product is supposed to work and how to test it. I have also explained some good techs how to troubleshoot electronics and explained Ohm's Law to them where I haven't studied it in over 20 years.I will say that I have thought about becoming certified but honestly it isn't worth my trouble. I guess if it was mandatory it would be a different thing. I also resent people who are certified looking down at people who aren't - some of us are better than others!
Thank two for your input...I really don't disagree with you but I also have horror story after horror story I can give you of people that call themselves techs and yet really have no ability charging a 1/3 of what most dealers are charging.This is growing alarmingly lately with the economy and craigslist. We have more shade-tree spa service people on craigslist than we have professional ones in the phone (on-line or not). I've got a few guys out here that bypass high limits and pressure switches when they don't work. I've seen someone completely bypass the filter when working on leaks. Everyday I hear a sob story about how they found "some guy" on craigslist, he took their money and ripped them off. Yes I know they will eventually learn but now they trust no one or don't want a spa any longer. This is bad for the whole industry....In the last few months we've even had spa's catch fire from these hack artists....one even has a 50,000 theft conviction from his last employer but is selling and repairing spas under an alias on craigslist. When the American settlers gained their freedom from England they still had laws and rules...We as an industry have very few. IMO, we cannot call ourselves a profession without having a gage for what a professionals is in our industry and policing that. I would rather the industry pull together and ostracize these people but we can’t all pull seem to pull together to even inform the public of who we are without arguing let alone take a stand against wrongs. Without laws and rules you have anarchy.....
I have faith in the free-enterprise system. These hacks can't stay around long. I know one day seems like too long, but people will begin to find out and send their business elsewhere. My hope is that we can scale back the government and wake up as citizens. Check licenses, get references, etc.
Having said that, I'm embarrassed to admit that I just checked on my contractors license number and found that it is expired!! I have to send in a check, and get my bond renewed! Thanks for bringing this up.