are your ears burning?

Re: are your ears burning?

Hi

Thanks for the tip mrspapalaz and as you say “all good so far”. If anyone wants to take a peek then please click here for the forum. It`s a small thread so far but I`m sure the word will spread.

Don

Re: are your ears burning?

Martin,

Stop trying to cause trouble. You’re trolling again. And don’t try to defend it, you are, deal with it.

You’ve picked up on the quotes that suit your tired old arguments and using those only. What you forget is, like many spin doctors, that there are other more positive things in there and in other threads in that forum about UKW.

In that thread…

“If you are thinking of buying an appliance or have a problem, take a look before you do anything else.”

There’s loads more along the same lines, many promoting the use of the repairs@ service for good quality repairs.

So please, present a balanced view, not just the one that fits with your own sordid little agenda.

K.

Re: are your ears burning?

I`d have to agree with Martin. 😥

Re: are your ears burning?

We have been over this time and time again but Martins feelings, I would imagine, are felt by a high number of engineers on this site.

Personally I have had one repairs@ job since joining. No work via the Trade Association. ISE is working well for me. The information obtained through this site priceless.

Tim.

Re: are your ears burning?

I don’t much care what Martin or anyone else thinks about the public forums to be perfectly frank and honest.

Harsh, but true.

Asides from the fact that, as I pointed out, you can’t change it, you can only roll with it.

What I do care about is that we all get washed with the same brush. I care that we’re not viewed by the public as a bunch of rip-off, cowboy merchants that prey on people’s lack of knowledge.

So, UK Whitegoods has always been presented to the public as THE source of information on appliances in the UK. It is populated by professional, respected trade members that are only too willing to help people should they need it. We give advice for free, to a point, then we will happily call and solve the problem in return for payment.

That means that we live in a goldfish bowl as Sean likes to remind me, often. We, as a business when it comes to spares or accessories, have to be a cut above the rest. We must be better because that is the level of service that people will expect from you and, more often than not, get… from you.

We go to great lengths and considerable expense to promote that, whether you appreciate it, get business from it, or not.

We can do it this way and keep the status quo or…

As someone said earlier this evening, who will remain nameless lest he wants to make it otherwise, we can charge for access. That’s the only ways. There’s only two, simple, choices here.

I don’t like or agree with the second option, never have done and never will do. I think that the support from repairer to repairer and from the resources we bring to the party as well as people I have to personally beg, borrow or steal favours from is far preferable. Asides from which, to provide the support that certain members especially do for free currently to trade as well as public, would cost an absolute fortune.

The cost of all ancillary things that are often forgotten, such as the fault code guide, would go through the roof. Sure, you’d get it faster (maybe) as it then becomes part of the way we fund the site, but you’d be looking down the barrel of a massive increase in cost, not just the cost to basically print the things. That’s just one small example.

Meetings would not be possible. No cash to do it.

Bandwidth would perhaps become restricted.

ISE payments for warranty service would have to be slowed as we awaited payment from the insurer before paying out.

… I’m only scratching the surface of the changes that would have to take place as it’s late, I’m tired and, I’m tired of having this conversation quite honestly.

If you think that us selling a few parts is harming you well, eSpares, Ebay, 4 our whatever, elementman, spares2go, apart4u and a raft of others, including many members of this site are competition to us on that front. It’s not exactly plain sailing or an easy ride by any stretch. It’s b00dy hard work! We’re only a miniscule part of the internet, not the whole of it. But I guarantee you this, we are the ONLY one that gives anything back to the repairers.

I also have other interests totally unrelated to this before someone has a pop at what car I drive as well. :rolls:

We’ve (I’ve) done the best we can with the resources that are available. Which were, nothing.

It’s free to you. Costs you nothing. Not a bean. You’re not even required or expected to help the public or anyone else. You don’t even have to look at the public forums, there’s no requirement to do so.

Point me to the other business that runs that way and gives away for free so much for nothing to repairers, not a thing is asked in return. Show me that and then we’ll have a conversation about how wrong UKW is to provide the services it does to the public.

Show me the other business or website that promotes local repairers for free.

Show me the other business or website that provides meetings for free to repairers.

Show me anyone else that provides the breadth and depth of information, help, advice and all the other stuff we do, for free to you.

It may well be that not everyone agrees with everything we do but, heh ho, you can’t please all the people all the time.

I can live with that if we accomplish the original goal of making the repairers look better than being a bunch of cowboys that rip people off in the eyes of the public.

Look back in the forums to the very start, you’ll see the goal hasn’t changed since the inception of UKW. We’ve had our ups and we’ve had our downs along the road and I have always said it’d take time. I didn’t promise it’d be easy either.

But, little victories like the thread that was pointed out above and the recommendations for ISE I see, which supports (or at least helps to support) the repairers from members of the public is, IMO, a great thing. Not good, great.

We’ve done most of this in four or five years. ISE has only been around since 2006, it was late 2005 I came up with the concept to try to help repairers based on the feedback and comments from all of you.

It should be celebrated, not slagged off by people, especially repairers. It all shows integrity and trust. You can’t buy that, it’s earned. We’ve done a lot in a very short space of time in fact, it’s astonishing what has been achieved at times.

You can slag me or UKW all you like, as I said, I don’t much care. The proof as they say, is in the pudding. I think that the people on here do a phenomenal job, I think the moderators especially deserve more recognition than the veiled comments that we get when this ugly conversation rears its head for the help they provide, FREE! You can agree or disagree with the public thing all you want, I don’t care as it merely serves a purpose in driving things forward.

If you want more, come to the meeting in September. I’ll be there yapping as usual so if you want to take me to task on any of this stuff then you’re more than welcome to heckle me on the spot. Or, you can find my address and phone number at the bottom of every single page of the site, feel free to have a pop if you like.

But what makes my blood boil is the likes of P45, IADOM, Jackal, R600A, Dales and the rest that you slap in the face with this conversation. They all freely give their time, knowledge, help and expertise for nothing, we don’t pay them a penny. They don’t care whether it’s public or trade, they just help. For me, that deserves massive admiration and respect, not this cr4p.

That stings and I sincerely hope none of those guys take any offence at this debate then decide it’s not worth the bother. Should they do so, it’s on the people that want to tear it down.

You have P45 and IADOM especailly giving a ton of help and tech info to repairers. FREE

You have Jackal representing members in court and offering free legal help and advice. FREE

Then you tell me that we shouldn’t help the public!?

Eh, what? What’s the difference between free help and advice for the public and free help and advice for the trade?

And, should these kind souls decide it’s not worth the bother, what are you going to do when it’s you that need that help?

This is a community, it always has been. A family if you like. There’s good, there’s bad and there’s everything in between, deal with it but, the intentions are right, of that I am 100{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} sure. Long may it be so.

All that’s left to say on this subject and, it should be tagged for the next time this conversation comes up as, it will and, that if you don’t like it… there’s an “off” button on your PC, please feel free to use it.

Meanwhile, if people want to sing our collective praises, brilliant. It means we’re all doing a good job.

K.

Re: are your ears burning?

Well said Ken, totally agree with all you said there. Time for you to chill out now me thinks

😆

Andy

Re: are your ears burning?

lee8 wrote:I don`t post advice on here.

But I oftern post wrong advice on other sites and I know a few who do it as well. 😆

Do you mean deliberately misleading postings?