Stirling Electrical Services Ltd. - Blog

Latest News is also on Twitter

2009-07-11T22:20:00.002+01:00

Just a reminder that most of our daily updates take place over on Twitter, this is where you will find out what we are upto on a daily basis.

Click here to follow us on Twitter

Steamship Sir Walter Scott

2009-06-22T19:17:00.003+01:00

Today I attended a special sailing of the Steamship Sir Walter Scott on Loch Katrine.

The sailing was to celebrate the completion of a three year refurbishment project and for the 110 year anniversary of the launch of the steamship. 1899-2009.

Click here for photos of the event.

Click here for Loch Katrine website.

Save Gillies Hill

2009-06-21T20:03:00.003+01:00

Today I attended a walk in the Stirling area from Cambusbarron to the Battlefield at Bannockburn in support of "Save Gillies Hill".

Gillies Hill near Cambusbarron is regarded to have played a pivotal role the battle in 1314, when the people who lived on the hill moved towards the battlefield banging pots, pans and anything that made a noise. This in turn scared the remaining English off the battlefield thinking the noise from the Gillies Hill folk was another large Scottish army coming to back up their counterparts on the battlefield.

Gillies Hill itself is now in a battle to survive after quarrying began a number of years ago. This is now on temporary hold after local protests and walks like today must continue to gain maximum publicity to the Save Gillies Hill cause.

Click here from some photos from todays walk.

Click here for more information on Save Gillies Hill.

Cambusbarron Gala Day 2009

2009-06-13T17:17:00.003+01:00

I attended our local village Gala Day on Saturday. Thankfully despite the weather forecast for heavy showers it stayed dry all afternoon with some sunny spells, and it looked like a very enjoyable afternoon was had by all that attended.

Heres a link to some photos from Cambusbarron, Stirling Gala Day 2009.

Photos.....

Are You Job Seeking? - If So, Dont Fail Yor First Test!!!

2009-06-12T13:23:00.002+01:00

I'm going to re-publish below a blog post I made in November 2007 regarding under paid postage from mostly job-seeking apprentices. Its that time of year again when we receive numerous enquiries per week from job-seeking apprentices. Its good to see young apprentices being pro-active and seeking employment but if you enquire to Stirling Electrical Services Ltd about an apprenticseship, you may not be aware that the minute you post your CV to us, you are actually taking part in our first aptitude test.

- Taking the time and effort to make sure that your important CV actually has the correct postage stamp on the envelope.

The biggest mistake made is enclosing A4 paper into a large envelope and only puting on a small first class stamp - Large envelopes at A4 size require a LARGE 1st class stamp. That's your first test and if you fail this basic task and not bother to find out proper postage prices, it doesn't give us a good first impression of candidates who we will be trusting with potential dangerous electricity.

Here's the blog post from November 2007:-

Attention All Job Applicants - especially apprentices

I am very big on attention to detail, so when it comes to job applicants many fail a very important hurdle before we have even collected their CV from Royal Mail.

Since the introduction of the new postal prices and size of stamps in April 2007, we have had to collect and pay for underpaid letters 16 times from job applicants. Most of the applicants are school leavers looking for an apprenticeship who having printed off their CV and do not want to fold their CV and enclose it in an A4 envelope and then fail to correctly put a large 1st class stamp on the envelope, instead they put on a small normal sized first class stamp. Hence, we receive a note in our normal daily delivery from Royal Mail, saying we have underpaid mail at their depot, we then have to fight our way through traffic, wait in a queue, pay a handling fee of £1.00 plus the remaining underpaid postage price which since April is approaching £25.00.
I know this is a lame blogpost but it just irritates me when people who are trying to impress a prospective new employer, cannot at this initial stage pay that little bit more attention to detail and find out which stamp to use.

Audio Visual Work

2009-06-02T17:50:00.005+01:00

I've been kept busy this last week working on audio and lighting equipment at a Visitor Attraction we maintain. The attraction opens next week for the summer season and a lot of the equipment has been switched off for the winter and as well as getting all this equipment up and running again we have took this opportunity to give the equipment a good old spring clean.

Its been fun working with a different type of electrical equipment away from the normal day to day electrical work we carry out.

The photos below show some of the equipment used in this attraction - accent control system, alcorn mp3 players, soundstores, amplifiers and amx controllers. All this equipment is required to play various sounds and narration.

Interesting stuff !!

House For Rent in Stirling

2009-05-19T21:48:00.002+01:00

Our previous home in the heart of Stirling is now available to rent from the middle of June 09

To view the 3 bedroom semi-detached house and contact the agents Clyde Letting - click this link

Bank Holiday

2009-05-18T09:05:00.001+01:00

Stirling Electrical Services Ltd. will be closed for business on Monday 25th May 2009 - Spring Bank Holiday.

In extreme emergencies we can still be contacted on our normal telephone number 01786 813916.

Normal working service will resume on Tuesday 26th May 2009.

Local Paper Story on Ashwood Scam Invoices

2009-05-14T13:03:00.002+01:00

As a small follow up post to my posts below regarding the invoice scam by Ashwood Institute of Industry Accreditation, our local newspaper has run the story on the front page of the weekly newspaper.

Over 80 companies have reported being targeted by Ashwood, with presumambly many more not reporting the scam to the newspaper or to trading standards.

Our local newspaper the Stirling Observer deserve praise for highlighting this scam in such a prominent position in their newspaper.

The article from the newspaper can be viewed here...

Council Now Onto Scam

2009-05-08T22:13:00.002+01:00

Further to my post earlier today about a scam by Ashwood Institute of Industry Accreditation its good to see that our local council and trading standards have now issued an official statement and warning about this scam. Well done to them for putting out the warning to other companies so quickly.

Beware Of This Scam

2009-05-08T12:59:00.002+01:00

Just a quick post to make other businesses aware of this scam.

You could be receiving an invoice from Ashwood Institute of Industry Accreditation asking for payment of a few hundred pounds for administration costs, presumably for listing your company name on their website - see link above.

This is a scam and our local trading standards office are being inundated with complaints about this organisation.

Still the invoices they sent will give our shredder machine a little workout this afternoon.

Twitter

2009-05-07T19:01:00.003+01:00

We've now joined Twitter - What is Twitter?

Well according to Twitter themselves:- Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

I wasnt too sure whether to sign up but thought what the heck, I might as well give it a try.

So as Twitter can only be updated in a few short words, I will use this to give a quick snapshot of what I and the company are doing and will continue to use this blog for all the main news which will be covered in more depth.

Although both the blog and Twitter are on different sites, I have added a widget to the right hand menu bar of this blog which will feature the last five Twitter posts.

Happy Twittering.

Teach Kids About Electricity

2009-04-30T09:05:00.000+01:00

It's never to early to understand the theory of electricty and how to use electricity safely.

The Electrical Safety Council have built a fun website designed to teach kids all about electricity.

So why dont you call your kids away from their PS3 and show them this informative and educated website which both parent and kid will find useful.

Switched On Kids - Electricity And How To Use It Safely.

Electrical Safety Advice - In The Garden

2009-04-28T19:29:00.003+01:00

Last year I posted about electrical safety advice that is given by The Electrical Safety Council. I thought I would revisit some of those pages and since there has been some good weather of late - Electrical Safety Advice - In the Garden, is a good place to start.

If you would like to discuss the advice given by The Electrical Safety Council in more detail, Stirling Electrical Services Ltd. would be delighted to offer our advice on the subject.
To do so email us at info@stirlingelectrical.co.uk or call 01786 813916.

CLICK TO VIEW THE ADVICE PAGE - In The Garden

Who are SELECT ?

2009-04-26T20:05:00.002+01:00

We have been a member of SELECT for four years now, but just who are SELECT and what are the benefits to our clients that Stirling Electrical Services Ltd. are a member of SELECT. ?

Visit the website of SELECT - Scotland's trade association for the electrical industry.

Public Liability Insurance

2009-01-19T20:36:00.003Z

Due to Stirling Electrical Services Ltd. continued growth and our expanding portfolio of larger jobs we have recently increased our Public Liability Insurance to £5,000,000.

This increase is in line with the minimum insurance cover required by larger public sector bodies.

We Are Based In Fallin - View maps

2009-01-03T21:27:00.004Z

Where are we:-

We are based in the village of Fallin which is only a few miles south east from Stirling.

If you need to visit us please use MAP 1 below.
Our postal address is Map 2.

If you need to visit us our day to day operations are carried out from office premises(Map 1) only a few streets away from our 12 Queen Street postal address(Map 2).

Map 1
We are based in the Dunblane Light Engineering Ltd. building on the main road through Fallin, opposite Gray's Public House.

Use this map if you need to visit us

View Larger Map

Map 2

Use this map for all postal correspondence

Stirling Fire Protection Ltd.

2009-01-02T17:49:00.005Z

Stirling Electrical Services Ltd. carry out installation, maintenance and testing work on fire and smoke alarm system but we use and recommend another Stirling based company Stirling Fire Protection Ltd. for the supply of fire extinguishers, hose reels, safety signage, training and fire risk assessments.

Stirling Fire Protection Ltd. operate throughout the central belt of Scotland and they are a member of the respected British Fire Consortium.

Full contact details can be found on the Stirling Fire Protection Ltd. website

Happy New Year

2009-01-02T16:43:00.002Z

All the team at Stirling Electrical Services Ltd. hope you all had a good christmas and we wish you a happy new year.

The blog will start being updated again over the next few weeks.

Heating Repair Job

2008-11-25T20:53:00.005Z

We received a phone call today at 7am from an elderly customer, who was rather concerned that her electric overnight storage heating had not worked for two nights and that as you can imagine she was beginning to feel the effects of the cold with overnight tempertaures close to freezing.

Our diary for all the electricians was already full for the day but you know that feeling you get when you know you just need to do what you can to re-jig the diary and help this customer. So thats what we did and I managed myself to attend mid-morning and as you can see from the photo, people should never under estimate what electricity in the home can do when things go wrong and why its always a good idea to have an electrician periodically inspect the electrics in your property.

A loose connection within the main switch had went undetected for while which resulted in this nasty burning of the cable and switches, which as you can imagine could have led to a much worse situation.

Thankfully though less than two hours later we had fitted new parts and managed to get some heat back in the home of this elderly customer.

You know after these types of jobs you get a scense of a warm glow that you know that a job you have done had made someone happy and I suppose thats what makes it all worthwhile.

The AA

2008-11-22T10:47:00.011Z

Let me start by saying that when my vehicle did breakdown on two occassions during my initial AA cover, the breakdown service went smoothly and I was certainly grateful for the recovery service they provided me at the time, but I do have a little gripe about The AA now.

If you don't require AA breakdown membership for your vehicle anymore then make sure you cancel the cover and don't suspend cover. Five years ago I had AA cover on my car and when I changed that car in 2005, I called The AA to say that I did not require the cover anymore as the new car I was purchasing would have breakdown cover as part of the agreement.

Well seemingly I did not cancel my AA cover I only suspended it for 3 years. Years on I am supposed to remember this, so much to my surprise I have just received a letter and full membership pack with new membership card etc saying that my cover has been reactivated.

So without warning and checking with me first they have reactivated my old membership cover, so not only is the membership pack addressed to my old home and registered to a car I no longer have, the annoying part is they say money will be debited from my bank account within the next two weeks.

How can they justify reactivating a membership, even if I did only ask for it to be suspended as this is what they are saying to me now that I have complained to them, without getting in touch to see if a) I still lived at the address they have on file, b) do I still have the vehicle the membership is set to cover and c) is my payment method still valid.

If ever there were a waste of money, paper and other costs then this must rank up there.

Obviously when I telephoned up to complain and make sure they cancel the newly re-activated membership and make sure no payment is debited, I get told its all my fault for only suspending membership for a number of years and that I am supposed to keep them up to date with change of address and change of vehicle etc.

Yes like I am going to remember to do that when I know I don't have AA cover for any of my current vehicles.

So remember if you no longer require AA cover and you don't want to be surprised in a few years time, make sure you cancel the membership and not just suspend it, or further down the line in a number of years, you can look forward to receiving a shiny new membership pack with probably out of date details and an unexpected expense about to be debited from your bank account. And thats not taking into account the time you will have to spend getting in touch with them, which took me two phone calls for nearly 30 minutes to eventually cancel this reactivated membership.

Apprentice Story in the Press - cont...

2008-11-21T18:49:00.004Z

Our press release regarding one of our apprentices Murray Smith receiving the Apprentice Of The Year Award for Clackmannan College has been printed in Stirling's biggest newspaper.

The article which appeared in the Stirling Observer Newspaper is below.

Hospice Dinner

2008-11-15T12:03:00.003Z

I attended a very enjoyable Sportsman's Dinner on Friday evening at Glenbervie House Hotel, which is situated in the outskirts of Larbert, Stirlingshire.

The evening of dinner and laughter had a very serious note to the event as it was a fundraising event for Strathcarron Hospice - The hospice gives free specialist care to patients with active progressive illness and also provides support for patients families.

Annual running costs total £4.3 million and although partially funded by local NHS boards the hospice has to raise the remainder of its costs through fundraising and donations. This means the hospice has to raise £45,000 every week of every year to maintain the level of service it currently provides to patients and families from all over Forth Valley.

Sportman's dinners are one way the hospice can raise funds and in doing so it involves local businesses and celebrities in as a i say a night of "dinner and laughter", but there are many other way's people and businesses can become involved in fundraising events and even donating without talking part in an event.

Further details of this hospice and the excellent services it provides as well as details in how you can help by fundraising and donations can be found on the Strathcarron Hospice Website.

Apprentice Story in the Press

2008-11-10T17:38:00.004Z

Our press release last week about one of our apprentices Murray Smith being awarded Aprentice of the Year for second stage electrical work at Clackmannan College has been printed in various local newspapers. Below are some of the articles in the press.

Wee County News
Alloa Advertiser

Apprentice Wins Award

2008-10-31T09:42:00.004Z

Press Release:-

LOCAL ELECTRICAL APPRENTICE WINS AWARD

An apprentice with Fallin-based electrical contractor Stirling Electrical Services Ltd. has won the Apprentice Of The Year award, following in the footsteps of company director, Scott McLean.

Murray Smith from Alva has been awarded the Apprentice Of The Year award for 2^nd year electrical apprentice work at Clackmannan College by electrical training organisation, the Scottish Electrical Charitable Training Trust (SECTT).

The award for Murray follows a similar award to Stirling Electrical Services Ltd. owner Scott McLean in 1993 when he was awarded 1^st year electrical Apprentice of the Year for Central, Fife and Perthshire Areas by SECTT.

Murray was presented with his award at a recent awards event in Perth and speaking afterwards, owner Scott McLean said “This is a fantastic achievement for Murray and is justified recognition for the dedication and hard work he has put in over the past two years. Murray has now set a good base for his future training and opportunities for development within the company over the coming years.

Having benefited from a good apprenticeship myself, I understand the importance an employer can play in the development and training of apprentices and how apprentices play an important role in the development and shaping of a company. Stirling Electrical Services Ltd. has grown steadily over the past twelve years, and I believe that this award is not only recognition for Murray but also to our other electricians and apprentices who have all played a part in the growth of the company.”

----------------------------------------------------

For further information please contact:-

Scott McLean
Director

Stirling Electrical Services Ltd., 12 Queen Street, Fallin, Stirlingshire, FK7 7JG

Tel:- 01786 813916
Email:- info@stirlingelectrical.co.uk
Website:- www.stirlingelectrical.co.uk

Note to editors:-

Stirling Electrical Services Ltd. undertakes electrical installation, maintenance and testing work throughout Scotland.

Stirling Electrical Services Ltd. was established in 1996 and now employ seven people working from our Fallin based office and store premises.

Stirling Electrical Services Ltd owner and director is Scott McLean.

Scott McLean is also co-owner and co-director of Stirling based taxi company Albion Taxis Ltd.