With every service or good you buy, the general rule applies that you get what you pay for. When it comes to safety training and consulting, there can be a lot of requirements for businesses and employees. These requirements mean spending money on certifications, safety equipment, and other necessary changes.

Most of the time, companies (especially the government) looking for safety training will choose one of the three lowest bidders for a contract. They view everyone’s work as generally the same, so why not get it a little cheaper? You do the same thing when you’re at the grocery store looking at two similar loaves of bread. If they are nutritionally the same, you often opt to save a few cents and get the lower cost bread. Makes sense. However, contract services aren’t loaves of bread.

A local, independent truck driver once called us stating he had been scammed on his recent SafeLand training. He needed the course to gain access to natural gas sites and had heard about a guy who offers the training “dirt cheap and fast.” As an owner/operator, he paid for his own training, so this discounted course was perfect. He signed up for the next session and took the class.

After the course, the driver never received the certification and card. He tried contacting the trainer but to no avail. He asked us to look up his information in the SafeLand database or help him find the SafeLand trainer. Everything we searched for came up blank. The driver had to finally admit that he and everyone in the class had been scammed. He had no name or lead to provide to the proper authorities to potentially get reimbursed.

The driver was in dire need of the course, so we looked at various training options in-house and via our referral network, and we finally found a date that worked for him. After quoting him the price, he stated: “I paid half that last time.” Unfortunately, this gentleman had got what he paid for. Because he only wanted to pay half price for his original course, he ended up walking away from it with nothing. At O’Brien’s, we believe that paying a fair price to a reputable company will benefit you (and your bottom line) better than opting for the least expensive route.

The driver who fell prey to this scam was not using a trustworthy or certified source for his training. In PEC SafeLand USA training, the instructors are pre-certified through PEC’s highly rigorous certification process. They are then able to upload trainee information into the PEC system and issue a certification of training and wallet card that the trainee must present when entering well sites. Linda O’Brien, our in-house engineer (and grammar perfecter) has the PEC certification and offers the course.

At O’Brien’s Safety Services, we realize those fly-by-night consultants who offer deep discounts on training, certifications, and other services are attractive to business owners. Initially, they may even win at the bidding table. But often, we receive calls from their clients after they have flown the coop and left the client with nothing more than an invoice, misinformation, and unanswered questions. Our owner, Gary, has a saying for this. If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional, wait until you hire an amateur.

Don’t hire an amateur. Call O’Brien’s Safety Services today for safety training, safety consulting, safety program management, confined space rescue, and much more.