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Re: British Gas Homecare
sorry to every one but am not trying to wind anybody up…am just telling it from my own point of view , and my knowledge of employment…the rosey tinted glasses GC is 77….. they are fittn ok just now but like everything in life ” its what u make it”….am not intrested in a slaggn match wi anybody , if your intrested in anything relating to ?? ask + if i can answer it i will….this forum seems to be trader heavy and maybee its time for UKW to hear more points of view from more sources within the industry…..you all seem fairly level headed smart bunch and the door swings both..
ps b/g are currently setting up whitegoods trainging schools and will be seekn apprentices nationwide as the realise this is the way forward….
age groups to be anything from 16 -up.. this will hopefully help the engineer retetion in the independant sectorRe: British Gas Homecare
Yes but if BG find out that you called in a faulty socket when there wasn’treally a fault and were getting the extra job you’d be out the door faster than you’re feet could touch the ground, or booking in the easy jobs like door handles and the likes for the Saturday for extra bonus on OT.
Just because BG management is either too complacent or too stupid to see the ways in which engineers fiddle the bonus figures right now doesn’t mean to say that they won’t eventually cotton on to the scams. You see, when you run your own business and you’re watching the pennies we have to care about such things and believe me, many of the guys here running any size of engineering force has probably tried multiple different methods over the years to fairly allocate bonus and we’ve seen all the scams before. One day they will cotton on and if you happen to be consistently high with your bonus you’ll be put under a big microscope to find out why.
Any manager worth their salt will look for abnormalities like that and take action based upon the findings.
That aside it wouldn’t be long, as has happened to me in the past, where you get cries of “foul” from the engineers that have not got a prayer of hitting targets due to the area or the type of calls that they do. It’s only a matter of time.
But you’re right FB, BG is a hornets nest as many here have been put out a lot by their antics and it’s left a very bitter aftertaste.
K.
yeh kwatt their are many bonus hunters and b/g are aware of that>> it wont be long b4 bonus thresh-hold … it used to be calls complete per day which was unrealistic as their backup at that time wasnt good> so they lowered bonus to 5 completes/pd, i kid u not their spares dept still have issues that any multibrand repairer has …but you can get 90{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of the parts u req next day which isnt bad in anyones shoes..as a result engineers who have the luxury of tight areas can achieve very good bonus..and yes their are some who rip the p-sh which will end in tears..
exaple of bonus = if u work 3x saturdays and complete 30 jobs, and if ur over the bonus threshhold u will be entitled to 30 jobs @ £16 per job..bonus threshold will be met if u comp 25 jobs per wk, recalls have to be considered…if anybody thinks is this is unachievable then maybees its time to look for alterative work…there are nothing hidden here this is the facts..you dont get overtime on sat,but everything that u complete goes towards bonus ..so it up to u what calls u choose to rebook for saturdays….all above board it is the engineers choice to work sats for bonus…no one elses…so if ur a good engineer who knows their stuff you can make decent money.. a bit harder if ur rural…it can be done…
=Yes they have been saying that the ESD side has been making money, but that lumps in the alarm side on which they make good cash as well as the electrical work also a money spinner thus far, but Part P has still to bite there.
I should doubt very much that the appliance repair business is as profitable.
What BG is aiming for is to insure the entire house by the looks of it and, when you actually analyise the figures, it’s actually not such a good deal for the customer. Albeit I would concede that the concept has been extremely well thought out and marketed thus far.
That does not however detract from the damage that BG are doing by way of their marketing currently and the methods employed to gain staff. It also does not excuse them from the shocking ways in which they have shown a total disregard for the damage that they have done to the independents, I’m just glad I never took them on.
K.
as far as i know the alarm side has not been performing and has recently been put under the esd umbrella, which will efect esd rather than enhance it…electrical side of things is as u said and more…as far as am led to believe and this is my educated quess that part p has been taken care..and i think part p is when u alter or add to an existing circuit which b/g doesnt get involved in..dont hold me that because it is only my understanding of it… but i will find out…also i red somewhere on UKW that there were some concerns over part p and whitegoods…again my humble understanding is that it doesnt relate to anything inside the casing of an appliance…dont know about the cable though??..
staff…. my stories different i was working for comet and could not turn down the chance to join b/g…comet was a whole new education that no-one should be forced to suffer..its my understanding that a lot of engineers have been rescued from comet …with reguards to the independents all i know is from local knowledge and that the co,s involved made a bit of money..i dont know about the poaching side though,maybe u could tell me about that to help me understand the situ….cheers FB………Re: British Gas Homecare
Well, it works a bit like this Funky….
Forgive me if I’ve repeated anything 😉
BG and Comet will sit on the sidelines waiting for the Independants that employ school leavers and the like to train them up to a reasonable level then steal them by offering salaries that are beyond our reach.
Once they have them tied in to a work contract that is pretty much a “can’t get out of” situation they treat them like sh*te for 6 months then sack them if they don’t meet expectations or make them work Sundays and generally give them a miserable time until they leave.
The figures you quote in the earlier postings in this thread are unrealistic and unacheavable by virtually all engineers working for either of the above, they simply don’t pay that much, and YES I do know as I have lost to date four engineers to Comet and I know three other guys that went first to Radio Rentals which then became part of BG.
Apart from one guy who worked for me who was an exeptional engineer, all the others have either left to work for themselves, one went to Merloni 😆 the others remain and can’t see a way out, even though they hate working there, the money is reasonable (not exceptionable).
So ends the advert for BG and Comet employment 😉
Dave.
if they cant achieve bonus they must be in rural areas , or are not thinking/working smarter ………..what about all the big football clubs they attract all the young talent to, dont they
Re: British Gas Homecare
Came home from work yesterday and soon had on of the neighbours bang’in on my door. It went something like this. They have one of these marvellous contracts with British Gas and three weeks ago the dishwasher went down. No problem lets call BG out, 5 Days ! later the BG engineer shows up, Yep its the Recirc Pump thats the problem I have not got one but we will place a order and should be back in a couple of days.
A week later still no sign of a BG engineer or the parts, sucessive calls the BG customer service brought out another engineer a week later ! This time he had the part, having fitted the new recirc pump it failed to cure the fault, the BG engineer then said that further parts were required which again he did not have with him. This time a motor capacitor was placed on order. Again BG have kept the customer waiting and they came to ask me about the parts availibilty, I told them straight that as far as the receirc pump was concerned I had one in stock, the motor capacitor was drawn from my van stock and I fitted it there and then! and the appliance was functioning !This customer is sick and tired of BG who do not care at all about customer service, Our strongest weapon is without any doubt running a tight and adaptable service and that is how I run my business and I can beat the likes of BG everytime. In this day and age people will not wait like this for things to get fixed. People can speak with us directly in a friendly manner and discuss there needs and we can adapt our service at a moments notice BG cannot ! and nor can any of the other boys.
Lets not fix our minds on so many negatives, at our company we don’t have problems only solutions ! leave the problems for BG when people realise that service is not what BG are actually about.
Each to their own but having worked in a enviroment that FB has described I for one would not contemplate going back into a working practice which involves idiots trying to plan and optomise a days work for a engineer, I have seen it all before and Yes the long holidays were great except for when you got home and found that other engineers had been covering your area, Yep loads of Tubs, Bearings, Timers and a million other parts that were not needed ! No Thanks
Re: British Gas Homecare
I agree with You about our response and other latent issues. However, the problem is that adverts and marketing take the work away and it is not until the customer gets caught out, that they realise the error of their ways. Usually by this time they are tied in to a complete house plan and its too expensive for them to get out of it.
Re: British Gas Homecare
The more stories (such as squadman’s) that can be added by the public to this thread in the public forum:-
http://www.ukwhitegoods.co.uk/modules.p … pic&t=3274Our way we can contribute to advising new customers of the pitfalls towards any service contract. Therefore could I suggest that you ask your customer to post their experiences likewise as a warning to others?
Re: British Gas Homecare
Having had the pleasure of working for BG, I can honestly say it was one of the worst run operations I have seen. Engineers poached from other companies to work on appliances of every discription and age that they are not familiar with, leading to a bodgy jobs 🙄 . Most time the fault cannot be diagnosed, leading to ordering and fitting of unnessasary expensive parts which must cost BG a fortune. Coupled with this, there are ” area managers” whos knowledge of appliances is non existent, but making stupid unrealistic demands on the engineers to make the figures look good for their superiors. I fear they are heading down the familiar Hotpoint multibrand route. Im glad I have left this behind now, but is there anyone out there who shares my views?
Re: British Gas Homecare
no comment; i know yer all waiting to pounce…been their;;
my views a slightly differnent from my previous posts,
b/g wont go away..very aggressive marketing project to begin 2006..
dont shoot the messagender…Re: British Gas Homecare
sorry to upset apple cart lads but i,ve been working with British Gas for 3Yrs now been in the trade for 30yrs and it is the only company that has paid me what i,m worth,i know like everything else we have good and bad engineers but in my experience most of the lads in my patch know what there about recently b4 applying to bg i was offered a job with an independant 12000.00 what a joke i turned that one down,but at least bg are now training youngsters to take our place which has got to be a first for this industry keep up the good work lads fantastic site we are all family at the end of the day
DaveRe: British Gas Homecare
Hi Dave,
Welcome to the site, and can I just say for the record that all are welcome here on UKW and that includes all engineers BG, Manufacturers, and most especially the independents who created this site in the first place.
We all come at the job from different a perspective so our loyalties will no doubt be as diverse as our viewpoints. what we do ask people to appreciate is that this site was set up by small independent service companies because some of the larger corporate bodies i.e. manufacturers, and the like were restricting the free flow of information to the trade and where they were supplying information they wanted to charge us through the nose for it.
BG is a huge corporate entity and due to their size are able to throw money at any problem they have. The rest of us who want to try and retain our independence have to try and compete and help one another in an ever increasingly tough market place and when some of your compatriates who have decided to go and work for BG come on the site and start gloating it is quite understandable that some site members take offence.
Especially when it would be a very cold day in hell before BG or any other corporate body would create or provide a website like this for everyone to use freely.
As i’ve already said, welcome to the site use it, enjoy it, contribute toit, through the forums when you can, but please spare a thought for all that use it.
Best Regards
Del
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