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Hi,
I only found out about UKW a few weeks ago and already I am very impressed with this site. It reminds me of when your working for a large company and get stuck you have someone to ask. This is now available to the one man band from this site, be it part nos. or technical help. This is why I had no hesitation in paying to subscribe to UKW as the benefits already are worth more than £60.
However I have one concern and maybe someone can put my mind at rest.
It seems that UKW are trying to become bigger and better and I have no problem with that. The bigger voice we have the more clout.But….. if UKW are offering spares to the public is this not taking the sale away from the very people we are trying to attract. i.e. independent repairers?
I already realise that repairs can go to registered repairers in the customers area but shouldn`t requests for spare parts be directed there too?I know I am new and I may be missing the point and if I am then I apologise but if someone could reassure me I`d be grateful.
I`d love to write more but there is a pint with my name on it calling me. :beer:
Re: spares from UKW
Ok Bazza,
That is a very fair and reasonable point, which has come up once or twice before. There are three types of posters in the Public Forums with regard to machine repairs. The first type want to know what is likely to be wrong before sending for us. The second type tend to be a bit more “have a go first”, and finally there are those who are going to fix it themselves. As such, they are already a dead loss to the repair trade and I see no reason why UKW should not profit from retail sales to this (relatively small) group.
HTH,
Cheers,
Chris.Re: spares from UKW
My personal view is we border on telling some of the general public a little bit too much and allow some good repairs to slip through by telling them too much but I guess it is very difficult to know when to stop being helpfull and to recommend pro. help.
Bryan
Re: spares from UKW
Thanks for bringing this up Bazza 😀
There are several points here really.
Firstly the reassurance that the subscribers money belongs to the subscribers , there is no profit or gain from that money, it goes in to a seperate account from UK Whitegoods Ltd, as does the money earned from the Amazon links and the Google Ads.
There are very few Independant repairers that want to sell spares to the public, as it can be time consuming and troublesome.
UK Whitegoods has to make some money from somewhere to pay for the hosting, IT support etc, as above, no money from the subscribers is touched.
Subscribers have the oppurtunity to place their “unwanted” spares for sale in the shop which I will gladly do and if you sell them, UKW will take nothing from that sale.
I hope that answers your question, anything else, please ask.
Dave.
Re: spares from UKW
And Bryan posted while I was composing the last one 😆
Yes, I agree, there are repairs we could pick up on at times but generally the public poster (as P45 says) has no intention of calling an engineer and will battle on regardless of what we tell them… 😕
Not an easy one really, if we say “you need an engineer” to everyone the posts will dry up, but we also can’t go in to specifics…
You hit the nail on the head Bryan 😉
Dave.
Re: spares from UKW
I’d rather we sold them than some generic internet seller or the manufacturer, whatever.
That asid, if the person is going to attempt a repair then they’re going to attempt it themselves and that’ll be that. The good thing is that when we do recommend that someone has a repair carried out it carries SO much more weight just because of the honesty that we demonstrate on a day-to-day basis. And, consider, how many people will tell others that they know that they got sound advice here, further boosting the actual repair work.
For all things there is a reason. 😉
K.
Re: spares from UKW
Ok, somebody explain Yurtesen…………. :rotfl: It only took a total of 12 pages, but by God, we sold him something in the end….
Sorry, think the AAARGH!! switch clicked in for a moment there.
Chris
Re: spares from UKW
Penguin45 wrote:Ok, somebody explain Yurtesen…………. :rotfl: It only took a total of 12 pages, but by God, we sold him something in the end….
Sorry, think the AAARGH!! switch clicked in for a moment there.
Chris
Even the very mild mannered Dave fell out with him in the end , did he not? 😆
Re: spares from UKW
And don’t forget that even some distributors are now selling direct to the public, they don’t do the trade any favours at all.
UKW is a free resource for members but we do have expenses to meet and selling spares is one of them.
Just think of the buying power we could generate if independents bought from the site too!!!! 😉Kevin
Re: spares from UKW
Then of course there`s the odd one like craigybell who gets all the good advice and diagnosis , then buys his thermostats from e-spares.Now that is annoying and if it happens to me during my working day it`s bl**dy annoying. 👿
Bryan
Re: spares from UKW
Yeah, I just spotted than one Bryan, there’s always a few I guess.
It’s actually one of the reasons years ago I put a stop to free estimates etc on the road, as we also sell spares…
An engineer returned one day with his completed calls, one of them being a Hotpoint brushes required job which the customer refused, she was only stood at the counter buying them !!! 15 minutes after he left the bloody house :haier:
Dave.
All I can say Bryan is that most people have a concience and anyway, I bet that others that view that also think the guy is what we think he is. 😉
We do our best, what more can you do?
K.
Re: spares from UKW
Thanks for the replies folks.
All fair points guys especially the point that if they didn`t buy from UKW they would buy from some other e-site as a lot of peoples mentality is that “it must be cheaper coz I bought it on the internet”
Also if the money goes into UKW then I suppose we all benefit.
However if it`s going to take 12 pages to sell a spare……. you must have the patience of a saint!!!
Re: spares from UKW
Guess who subscribed?
This is all facinating reading! I just wanted to try and revive it.
I also wonder if handing out too much free advice affects the number of repairs that independants recieve.
But then again….the washer forum mainly poor b#####d Indesit/Servis customers, that wouldn’t put their hand in their pocket for an engineer away. And the d/washer forum the same, with poor Dilomat owners.
Or is that abit harsh?
ps. poor as in woeful, not skint.
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