stantonsound
Active Member
I want to vent for a minute. I just designed a lighting rig for a trade show booth in an un-named city, built it, and shipped it. It was installed by union labor.....riggers and electricians. It was 3 sticks of truss with a total of 15 fixtures. The fixtures were pre-hung and cabled, so all the union guys had to do (you MUST use union labor, can not do anything your self) was bolt the three pieces together, plug in the three soca cables into the dimmer, and fly the pieces (a straight 30' long stick).
They charged $5,800 to do this....and I supplied all of the equipment including chain hoists, span sets, dimmers, everything. They charged another $950 for power, which was less than 10' from the booth and we used my feeder cable to power the dimmers. To make it worse, the truss was not level and was 10' off from where it was supposed to be hung.
Then, after the second day, a lamp blew in one of the Source Four's. I had extra lamps, so the electrician came by with a ladder (the truss was 16' up). I used his ladder and replaced the lamp. Guess how much they charge.....$1800.
Then, they never showed up for the load out. I asked, and found out that they charged 75% of the load in cost for the load out, so they were already paid. I had to do it myself and paid them more than $3000 to load it out myself.
I spoke with the union representatives and the show staff, and they said that there is nothing that we can do.....and they actually said that I should be happy to have them do the work for me.
The rig for this show cost about $9800 to buy new and cost more to have it put up for a three day show.
Anyone else have to deal with this?
They charged $5,800 to do this....and I supplied all of the equipment including chain hoists, span sets, dimmers, everything. They charged another $950 for power, which was less than 10' from the booth and we used my feeder cable to power the dimmers. To make it worse, the truss was not level and was 10' off from where it was supposed to be hung.
Then, after the second day, a lamp blew in one of the Source Four's. I had extra lamps, so the electrician came by with a ladder (the truss was 16' up). I used his ladder and replaced the lamp. Guess how much they charge.....$1800.
Then, they never showed up for the load out. I asked, and found out that they charged 75% of the load in cost for the load out, so they were already paid. I had to do it myself and paid them more than $3000 to load it out myself.
I spoke with the union representatives and the show staff, and they said that there is nothing that we can do.....and they actually said that I should be happy to have them do the work for me.
The rig for this show cost about $9800 to buy new and cost more to have it put up for a three day show.
Anyone else have to deal with this?