ASME AIA Withholding Services

[weeeds]

Has anyone experienced the withholding of services by their AIA for failure to pay their account?
In Canada we are forced to use the government appointed AIA so have no choice but to meet their demands or are subjected to withholding of inspection and design review services. This seems very unethical as the fabricator has no choice but to meet the demands of the AIA.
I believe that this is an issue of professional ethics and I'd like to know how others have dealt with a similar situation.

 

[TenPenny]

Are you saying that the AIA should be forced to do work for a client when they haven't paid for previous work? Are you sure that you've got the ethics question pointed in the right direction?

 

[glass99]

weeeds: Depends on why you didn't pay your bill. If you simply did not pay because you are having cash flow issues, they certainly are within their rights to withhold their services. If on the other hand they either failed to properly perform their services or overcharged you, it is a different story.

 

[hokie66]

AIA? Some seem to know, but I need a translation.

 

[IRstuff]

Authorized Inspection Agency (AIA)

If everyone is subject to the same "demands" what's the problem?

TTFN
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Of course I can. I can do anything. I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

 

[weeeds]

As a point of clarification the issue is specific to Canada only where we have no choice but to deal with the regional AIA. If you develop a bad relationship with your AIA then there are no options to take your business elsewhere. This leave the company as a servant to the AIA where a wrong word can lead to significant problems. The only option a company has is to withhold payment to get their attention but since they control the situation they can simply withhold services and starve you into compliance. This is the ethical question that we have.

 

[glass99]

weeeds: if the question is whether its unethical for government mandated monopolies to be slow, inefficient and offer terrible service, the answer is yes. If you have an acrimonious relationship with a government mandated inspection agency, you all have a problem! As a practical matter, the best you can probably hope for is that they assign a different inspector to your company. To a degree you are right to push back on them if they are being excessively picky or slow. Its kind of baked into the job description that they are going to be "independent minded", AKA "dicks".