Located in Gastown SmartyPantz was the first, theatrical escape room company in Vancouver. As you can appreciate with analog, touchy-feely puzzles and equipment things get broke.
I’m wondering if any members would be interested in helping repair but also build new puzzles?
alastair@smartypantz.ca / 604.779.4392
This sounds like a fun opportunity! Unfortunately I’m full-up on projects at the moment. 
sounds cool, I just heard a talk on escape room design at a meet up this week.
Hi Luke, thanks for getting in touch.
Who is SmartyPantz? Well we are a different kind of Escape Room business in
that we’ve built theatrical escape rooms and use actors who get into
character when hosting groups. I’ve recently joined the team and while I
have some contacts who can help repair and build new puzzles I’m looking
for one or two more individuals who can help.
Case in point, we’ve an electronic switch that works one of our puzzles
that has stopped working. I’ve contacted the guy who created / built said
puzzle but he’s out of town and it needs a hands on fix. In this case I’d
be happy to offer an hourly rate of $25 to get this back up and running
asap. Interested?
Alastair Knott
Corporate Operations Manager
SmartyPantz Entertainment Corp.
Vancouver . Calgary . Edmonton
Yeah, I’m interested. I have been working on a list of puzzle ideas for some time now.
So - please don’t take this the wrong way (with regards to the original poster).
I’d like to hijack this thread to discuss what reasonable payment is for this type of work. I see this a lot with the maker/tech community, where people undervalue what their skills and time are worth.
Fixing something like this requires:
This requires not only your time and skill, but also your tools and equipment (multimeters, soldering gear, etc).
Any other skilled trade that a business would need to book (plumbing, electrical, carpentry) almost certainly would cost twice to three times that much per hour, with minimum call-outs and in some cases, chargeable travel. You wouldn’t be able to get a sink fixed for $25/hr, so why would one expect to fix a complicated, custom-built electrical system for that rate?
Again - this isn’t to take a dig at the original poster; more just to encourage everyone to consider what their skills and time are worth before they sell their time too cheaply!
Personally I’d look at this particular instance of a “broken switch needs fixing asap” as a type of paid interview.
You get to go in and check out an organization that from the outside looks somewhat interesting, assess whether or not they are reasonable and ok to work with. They also get to see the person who comes in and assess whether or not they want to continue working with that person. You fix the switch (or not) and they pay you (or not).
If the switch is fixed then I’d assume that any new work, if forthcoming would be open for negotiation. If not then lesson learned for everyone here and not just the person who went in to fix the switch. 
Mark
I don’t know, repairing gear is not such a rare skill. Storyboarding and originating ideas is extremely valuable… Strikes me as an odd way to package a job. But maybe that’s just paranoia talking as I’ve been cheated on more than a couple of occasions.
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