- This topic has 6 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 22 years, 1 month ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Thanks to all who came to the meeting over the weekend and I hope you found it of use and interest to you.
Some of the photos (from my crappy phone camera) are up now but there should be more in the next few days, I’ll let you know when they are uploaded, which are a lot better.
Also there was some really interesting stuff that went off at the meeting/s all of which will be posted in the next couple of days as soon as we all get some kip and time to type it out. 😉
K.
The minutes, written by me, are now available in the downloads section as a Word document and I’ll transfer and upload a PDF version tomorrow
Please bear in mind that I have never taken or written meeting minutes in my puff so if they’re rough then they’re rough okay? 😉
K.
Re: The Second Meeting
It was a good session. A lot of useful insigts were gained from Richard Dalley as well as David Parker. Can I thank them for their valued input.
I would have loved to have seen more representatives from work providers as well as manufacturers. They could keep us updated as to how the industry looks from their side of the fence. This is information that is useful to all of us, W.P’s and agents alike. It helps us all when we can be in the picture, and it appears they are screwed down themselves sometimes.
In answer to Richards criticism regards pseudonyms, I admit I’m an offender, but if I came clean I would not be able to voice an opinion on contentious issues. Perhaps the day will come when we will be able to work with an even closer relationship, then we can voice our thoughts without the fear of legal retribution. Regretfully as long as there are Work Providers out there who gain pleasure in litigation, then some of us have to remain underground. I’m am fully aware that we could be taken more seriously had we been allowed free speach.
Rudi.
Re: The Second Meeting
Rudolph_Hucker wrote:In answer to Richards criticism regards pseudonyms, I admit I’m an offender, but if I came clean I would not be able to voice an opinion on contentious issues. Perhaps the day will come when we will be able to work with an even closer relationship, then we can voice our thoughts without the fear of legal retribution. Regretfully as long as there are Work Providers out there who gain pleasure in litigation, then some of us have to remain underground. I’m am fully aware that we could be taken more seriously had we been allowed free speach.
This is something that I tried to get to at the meeting but most likely I lost the plot there so it’s easier to do it this was anyway.
This was the initial reason for the whole privacy thing over who’s who, however we’ve moved on a bit from that. In recent months many a manufacturer, insurer, work provider or employee thereof have subb’d up to UKW and I do not, will not and never shall unless it is desired tell anyone who they are either. Privacy cuts both ways. 😉
A lot of these people wish to view the forums, know what’s going on in there and the trade in general yet not to comment. Fair enough, but even if you do agree with a post or do have a counter point/argument to make then please do so. We all learn by that and probably could help each other a lot better with more input from “the other side of the fence” as it were.
I know that there have been some adverse comments, in particular regarding some WP’s and a couple of manufacturers, but some of those have adressed the problems, worked with the agents and at least made the attempt to put it right. The point is, they’re listening and trying to work with us.
But I’m not going to force anyone to speak up nor am I going to tell anyone who an account belongs to, if the user chooses to reveal themselves then that’s their call, not mine. But since we’ve already had one instance of a WP more than rattling the sabres and quoting some information posted on UKW I can fully understand and appreciate the need to remain anonymous in a way.
K.
Re: The Second Meeting
kwatt wrote:But I’m not going to force anyone to speak up nor am I going to tell anyone who an account belongs to, if the user chooses to reveal themselves then that’s their call, not mine. But since we’ve already had one instance of a WP more than rattling the sabres and quoting some information posted on UKW I can fully understand and appreciate the need to remain anonymous in a way.
K.
Dear All
Please remember that this a private site with only a few forums open to the public, most of the “dirty washing” (if you’ll pardon the pun ) is done within the closed off trade forums. Yes, people actually have to ask to join !
That membership does not come with a cast iron guarantee that you will like every opinion or post that you read on it.
Of all the w.p.’s and manufacturers that we know of how many have invited any of us to join in and contribute to thier private web sites ? yes you’ve guessed it, not a single one. At least on whitegoods they are given access so they can not only see what the trade thinks of them but they also have the right to reply.On more than one occasion this site has saved me money! i’ll give you a few examples :-
1) We were all warned by this site when power network (pesn) were about to go tit’s up and as a result I was able to minimise my losses.
2) when Powerhose went I heard it first on the site and refusefd job’s that were still being passed to us
3) when Bernstien’s ran into trouble the rumblings were first reported AGAIN ON THIS SITE.
Let’s not beat ourselves over the head with a big stick just because we are not running our site the way w.p.’s or manufacturers would like us to.
It was a site created for the Independants by the Independant’s to try and
help us to communicate better with one another rather than be kept seperate and divided as we had been before it’s inception.And let’s face it, to who’s advantage was the situation before ukwhitegoods arrived on the sceene, when we were all played off against one another.
I can see that we are tempted to start minding our P’s & Q’s as we are starting to be accepted as a voice within the industry and halaluya all of a sudden people actually want to know what we think on certain topic’s.
instead of the usuall time honoured protocol of telling us what we should think or accept.
Just like any reasonable person I agree that it’s nice to be nice, but just because we’ve won a battle or two let’s not kid ourselves into thinking that the war is over. There are still some W.P.’s and manufacurers out there that still deserve a good slappin’ and if some members feel safer using thier site names then so be it.I just hope that the day will come when the need to do so will no longer be felt.
Regards as Ever Del
I dunno Martin I reckon that many of the manufacturers are just as interested in what we’re doing and trying to accomplish as anyone else in the industry. In the end we all have to get on with the job and, regardless of how the manufacturers regard service and service agents, they need the services provided.
Also bear in mind that the independent trade used to be a breeding ground for multi-skilled engineers and everyone is feeling the lack of decent engineers now, so I reckon they’re most likely suffering that as much as we are.
I am more than happy to talk to any manufacturer at all, as many of them know, as are many others that read these pages. The problem is that demanding what you want and working with people to achieve what you want are two very different things and often produce very different responses. 😕
Short version, they have nothing to lose from talking to us and trying to help us as well as themselves.
K.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.