Trade Is Dying (Again)

Re: National Hoovering Of Service Work

The big differences are;

Brown goods are primarily electronic with no moving parts and are easily swapped out.

Whitegoods are lumping big things that are a pain to put in/take out and are primarily mechanical in nature.

So no, I don’t think it’s the same or will go the same way, what way it will go I don’t know but it’s a lotta hassle to do swap outs on integrated fridge freezers.

K.

Re: Trade Is Dying (Again)

kwatt wrote:Split the topic as it was going way off on a tangent.

What’s with all this splitting topics recently Ken? The overall theme (topic) is not lost in spite of the odd few members taking the subject off topic. A short reminder by yourself or your lieutenants to those that go off topic is all that is required. Instead of that all we are now left with are 3 topics taking about the same stuff, it’s like a bleedin’ paper chase now. 👿

Re: Trade Is Dying (Again)

On the same subject, it’s not just this industry that’s feeling a draft…

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article … ds-newsxml

K.

Re: Trade Is Dying (Again)

You know, for years and years I’ve heard about the death of this industry among others. The potential threats change from time to time, some cause a problem, others just vanish into obscurity.

With brown goods the problem was that the world moved on. Less mechanical, more electronic and so on combined with a lower retail value, so people are less inclined to repair them and, in the end, they can pop down to Argos or Tesco, pick up a new telly and away they go.

+++WARNING – BIG RANT+++

But it’s more than just that what did it guv.

VHS and all other tape mediums died.

CD is dying.

DVD is more or less dead.

Blu Ray/ HDDVD was all but still born.

Radios are so cheap as to be comparable to kettles.

So, what do I need to watch TV these days?

A Sky box, proprietary hardware, proprietary software.

A Bluray disc, a Playstation.

Actually, nope, I don’t need any of those. I can just pick what I want off the internet from a legitimate or an illegitimate source, watch it on whatever screen I want, wherever I want, whenever I want and whatever format I choose. And, trust me, I am more than able to do all those and store whatever I want for however long I choose to boot.

I’m not chained to a schedule nor to a brand, nor to any one medium.

All I need is a screen.

Even the sonics can be delivered by a plethora of different means, in different formats as I see fit.

What has happened there is the actual hardware has been commoditised just as our stuff has in some measure by large retailers pushing for cheaper and cheaper products but, more importantly, the software has been diversified to a mammoth degree.

The older generations among us (not all) don’t see this IMO. They don’t see that the parallels that are drawn are often wholly incorrect on some levels, completely true on others.

But with our stuff you just can’t get away from the fact that it’s primarily mechanical, not electronic. You have swish clothes about in water, at the right temperature, with the right stuff to clean them and that regardless of what may or may not happen the washing process isn’t about to change in the near future.

Nor is drying them.

Nor is keeping food cool.

Nor is washing dishes.

Nor is cooking food.

I don’t have a smart a$$ way of getting around those problems and, neither does anyone else.

I also don’t have a smart a$$ way of getting around the fact that delivering, removing and installing a big box weighing some 50kg or more is a complete pain in the butt and not as easy as picking up a 32″ FTV and taking it down to the local recycling centre.

Yes, I would agree completely that the industry has changed. Some of it good, some of it bad. That is a trend that I feel is unlikely to stop anytime soon, if ever. We adapt to the terrain or we die. It’s really very simple.

I see, every day, people in this industry that are “repair companies” that are no more than parts fitters at best. No clue about testing, no clue about actual fault diagnosis and, TBH, I have no idea how they survive. All they want is an easy quick buck and to know what part to replace to solve the problem.

No better in some ways than the general public. In fact, some of the general public at times appear to have more of a clue than some in this industry.

So, some of it, is our own damned fault.

Calling in a professional might well only get you a so-called professional, more like a donkey with a toolbox that happens to have the intelligence to drive a van.

But then, the other side of that coin is that many a manufacturer couldn’t give a rat’s a$$ about helping to train or educate people in the trade and, often even if they do, they’re disinterested in helping anyone outside their own little sphere of operation.

Of course neither are exclusive. There are good many repairers out there that are really, really good. Some mediocre that get by with a nudge in the right direction too.

Some manufacturers are utterly brilliant at helping out. Some are mediocre at best and some are woeful.

Knowing what little I know of the browns, it’s not too dissimilar. Or it wasn’t, all of them trying to protect their own little empires. They failed and events conspired against them that probably made any sort of viable future difficult at best given the circumstances.

We have different circumstances.

What never ceases to amaze me about this industry though is it’s inability to pull it’s own head out of its a$$ and at least try to see the wood irrespective of the trees in the way. So many stupid, stupid things are done.

The industry at large has no clue about technology, how to use it. And, a heap of other things because it’s gotten caught in a number of ruts and just can’t seem to crawl it’s way out of the 20th century. At times I wonder if it’s even progressed beyond the Dickensian era let alone managed to get creep past the invention of the database let alone the internet.

There are so many things that are so wrong IMO.

But I’ve got twenty odd years still to serve on my sentence. I don’t intend to end it without a scrap for what I want out it.

Now, the way I see it is this, you can either put your head in the sand and take the King Canute approach that if you ignore it, it will all go away if you ignore it long enough. You can assume that the magic time fairy will come along, turn back the clock and we’ll all move back to a “better age” in the past. Or, you can get with the program and actually move forward and have a chance at surviving.

It’s your call. Take your pick.

I made my choice a while back.

K.