How to choose an elevator service contract ?

In order to reduce the elevator failure rate and improve the equipment safety factor, elevator maintenance is essential.

Maintenance of the elevator needs to find a specialist company. Because there are many elevator brands and origins, the elevator company that signs the contract should preferably have experienced technicians who are familiar with the brand. In addition to this, the logistics of spare parts is also important, as the vast majority of companies do not prepare large inventories.

Content

The service contract provided by the elevator company mainly includes two parts, namely routine maintenance and breakdown repair.

Routine Lift Maintenance will inspect and test elevators on a regular basis, in order to take corresponding preventive measures before failure or abnormality occurs, such as adding lubricating oil, cleaning inspection of circuit contacts, working status of safety switches, door opening and closing speed and limit adjustment , discover the impact of the external environment on the elevator in advance, and so on.

Breakdown Elevator Repair does not belong to routine maintenance, and is mainly aimed at finding and dealing with faults after the elevator is out of service. Breakdowns may be caused by factors such as the use environment, operating habits, external interference, etc., or it may be that the elevator components have reached the service life or are not set up correctly. If an existing design, or a component presents a safety hazard, it must be upgraded and replaced with a new component.

Drafting of contract terms

New elevator companies will evaluate and investigate the actual operation status and working environment of elevators on site before offering new service contracts. If defects and hidden dangers are found, rectification opinions will be put forward. If the cost of rectification is not covered by the current contract, the customer should consider requesting a quotation for this work separately to decide whether the previous company or the new elevator company should complete the work. In short, under normal circumstances, the later elevator company will ensure that the elevator is complete and reliable before the contract starts, unless the new contract contains relevant disclaimers.

In order to snatch customers, some companies make their terms particularly attractive. This may be okay for the first two years, but once the elevator reaches its useful life, it will become a huge burden.

Type of contract

If the contract covers more free-of-charge situations, of course the price of the contract will be higher.

A comprehensive contract tends to cover most of the possible repair costs, but the price is also high, generally above 5,6 thousand dollars.

The ordinary contract price may be very low, because it is mainly to cover the maintenance cost. And when breakdowns occur, it is separately chargeable.

Choose a giant or a small company

For large companies, they are more inclined to offer comprehensive service contracts, which are more like selling insurance, because they consider the total benefits and expenses of these thousands of elevators. Because of its large profolio, it does not care much about which elevator loses and which one wins, as long as the overall profit target is achieved.

Although the insurance example is used here, it is not possible for all repairs to be covered, which depends on the specific terms of the contract.

The cause of the failure is the first thing to be considered. If the failure is due to a user problem, or a building, weather or external disturbance or power supply problem, it will be classified as a client issue and becomes chargeable. Few contracts will cover failures that are not a problem with the elevator itself.

To small companies, ordinary service contracts seem more reasonable and safer. Otherwise, when a comprehensive contract is put on table, if you do not consider wording and definition carefully, subsequent failures may need to bear the cost by self, resulting in expenses exceeding income.

Here, let me share some internal information. Big brands do not necessarily service better and repair faster because the senior technicians of small companies are mostly the good from large companies. Second, big or small, most companies all buy parts from overseas OEMs.

Comprehensive  or ordinary service contracts

In fact, it has been said above that no matter what the name of the contract is, the specific implementation still depends on the terms. The so-called comprehensive or ordinary is just a framework. For higher-priced contracts, you should look carefully at the terms to see if they are valuable, and you can’t assume that they must include more warranty items than cheaper contracts.

As a friendly reminder, once extra costs are incurred, generally large companies will be much more expensive than small companies.

If you choose an ordinary contract, it is also a good choice for elevator companies and customers. Customers can clearly know the use of each expenditure. I think the reason why such contracts account for a small proportion in the market is because customers want less worries, and most companies are also convenient for management. However, there are indeed many customers who are willing to choose ordinary contracts, because they want to save money.

Alright. The above seems not just an introduction to the elevator service contract. It is a summary of my years of industry experience. I hope it will be helpful to you. Follow us to learn more about elevators.