The story of weekend calls, a federal facility, and what “service” and the Power of One really mean to Group CBS.
It started with a weekend phone call. Ben Walterscheid, vice president of power products at Group CBS, was in the car with his kids — the kind of weekend errand run every parent knows well, full of noise and requests for breakfast. Then his phone rang. And then it rang again.
A federal building in the Midwest was down. Switchgear issues had taken the facility offline, and the electrical contractor on-site needed a solution fast. They needed a safe way to operate a pistol grip–style breaker control switch from outside the arc flash boundary. Every minute the building stayed dark, the pressure mounted, so a fix could not wait until Monday morning.
The Problem: Arc Flash Risk, No Time to Spare
Arc flash incidents are among the most severe hazards in electrical work. When a breaker must be operated manually, especially under fault conditions or in aging switchgear, workers can be exposed to potentially dangerous incident energy capable of causing catastrophic burns, blindness, or worse.
The answer is distance. But putting distance between you and arc flash danger requires the right equipment.
The team on-site needed a remote switching solution that could be deployed now — not in days, not after a lengthy procurement cycle. Now.
The Solution: Same-Day Shipment of a Chicken Switch Hitter
Through a series of calls from his car (kids still in tow), Ben worked with the team to evaluate the situation in real time. The solution they landed on was the RSK-CSH-W Chicken Switch Hitter, a remote switch kit purpose-built for pistol grip–style control switches that allows technicians to safely operate electrical equipment from well outside the arc flash boundary.
CBS ArcSafe worked with Circuit Breaker Sales to secure the purchase order and moved immediately to put together a same-day shipment to get the Chicken Switch Hitter into the contractor’s hands as fast as possible.
The Outcome: A Building Back Online
After the work was complete, a note arrived: “I wanted to thank you all for helping us after hours over the past few weeks. I really appreciate you taking my call over the weekend and responding so quickly. We powered the building back up over this past weekend and it seems the worst is behind us. Thanks again!”
That note says everything. This wasn’t just a product transaction. It was a team treating a customer’s emergency like their own by staying engaged across multiple weekend calls, thinking through options in real time, and executing without hesitation once a path was clear.
The Power of One
We call it the Power of One: the idea that our customers shouldn’t have to navigate a maze of vendors, wait lists, and unanswered voicemails when critical infrastructure is at risk. With the reach of the broader Group CBS network, we can respond quickly with boots on the ground, critical equipment shipped without delay, or both.
When a federal building goes dark on a Saturday, the people in it don’t stop needing power. And we don’t stop working because it’s inconvenient. That’s the standard we hold ourselves to and the appreciation from the customer is a reminder of why it matters.
