CDSL

[admin]

I had Gary in the other day, wants direct call booking as something like 60{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of the Network is on is now, I ve yet to find someone. Told him NO what about the rest of my clients ? Suggest that they try call forwarding if they really want to persue this avenue. The problem with this is that it will cost CDSL money to do this.

Thats three of us together that have said no now, Myself Kev and Phil

[admin]

Re: CDSL

Probs four cause Mark has resisted too!

Kevin

[kwatt]

😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆

No chance of making that work, ever. Even if they force it through it’ll fail, just as every other attempt previously has failed and usually caused us all the grief and heartache.

K.

[Del]

Re: CDSL

They keep going round quoting this 60{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} which is probably nearer to 6{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}
as I havn’t come across anyone who has agreed to it yet.

Might be worth asking for Rudi’s take on the situation, as they appear to be starting to apply pressure to push this through.

plus all the 18 month old rejections are worthy of a little more attention, might even be worth taking a staw poll to see how many others have recieved theirs yet.

Perhaps it might be an idea to ask how many think that they would be paid for submitting an invoice 18 months after a job had been done.

Their are still a few people out there who believe in the tooth fairy I suppose.

Could it be that more and more indies are opening accounts with other spares suppliers because they are getting more than a little pissed off with CDSL and the strong arm tactics they are now just starting to employ. The term thin end of the wedge seems to spring to mind

Their own Rep Mike Thomas told me of his fears of this very thing happening right back when the work switched from Nesn to CDSL how right he was. I must get the part numer of his crystal ball before I change suppliers meself

Sean

[kwatt]

Re: CDSL

It’s the Holy grail for these people Sean to be able to do that as it negates the need to show ANY loyalty to the agent as it then doesn’t matter where the call goes. Make no mistake, if you agree to this they can switch service provider at the click of a mouse now, not that it’s hard as is, this just makes it still more seemless and hands yet another degree of control back to the WP.

Which is fine, if you trust the WP or person/s with the mouse. In this case I wouldn’t.

K.

[Alex]

Re: CDSL

Del Said…They keep going round quoting this 60{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} which is probably nearer to 6{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}
as I havn’t come across anyone who has agreed to it yet.

They have made no mention of this to me yet.

Might be worth asking for Rudi’s take on the situation, as they appear to be starting to apply pressure to push this through.

Assuming he is an agent for them??

plus all the 18 month old rejections are worthy of a little more attention, might even be worth taking a staw poll to see how many others have recieved theirs yet. Perhaps it might be an idea to ask how many think that they would be paid for submitting an invoice 18 months after a job had been done.

That paragraph in itself makes me think. I know only too well from the past the problems with L.G. rejections coming out the woodwork 12 months down the line.

I’ve had a gut feeling for 12 months now regards the real story, and I might be right.

I will not be entertaining direct booking unless the money increases substantially, and we are allowed to source own without question.

Has any-one noticed that single back orders are now being charged postage, even if the part is put into another delivery that did not entail postage due to cost/volume.

They are beginning to screw us down, and by surrepticious means.

By the way, in case you hadn’t noticed, I’m back! but very busy so it is catch up time, and I must get on with it. Therefore may be quiet from me for a day or two, (Who said “that will be a change then?”)

Ciao

Alex

[admin]

Re: CDSL

A gem…..which you must never repeat!

Roy told me last night that he will consider dropping LG because they would reject a claim rather than pay it (as a norm). He is really pissed off with them. He told me last night he could double the network work easily, if he had the capability within it! He has come to the conclusion that working for Koreans is SHITE and will ease himself out in due course. So, gently ,gently (as that is his way) there will be change.

I advised him that if he doubled the work I would have to half the area I do, as I for the immediate future I could not expand the engineering base! Whilst the economics of running enegineers will swing against us over the next 3 years, with the renumeratipon not able to keep pace, we are in for huge change and re-organisation as it is!

I guess the challenge is to survive and prosper!

Think about that for a moment, move it from this thread and start another one. Well worth it!

Kevin

[Dave_Conway]

Re: CDSL

I had a meeting today with an area sales rep from Connect who’s been with them 16 years…

Even though it was a spares related meeting I pushed on about the repair angle of the business:

1/ If it wasn’t for the repairs they wouldn’t have survived

2/ It was NESN’s (Trubshaw) fault for the split as he wanted total control.

3/ The repair business is worth 10m currently PA but in 2 years will quadruple this if they get their own way 😯

4/ We have three tiers of agents in some areas, who gives a fuck if one of them goes under.

5/ They tried to buy Washvac but failed due to the size of Woolsely.

But I did manage to get a decent discount rate 😉

I’ll leave you to ponder….

Dave.

[kwatt]

Re: CDSL

Basically….

CDSL saw the writing on the wall and tried to rescue the situation through the tie-in with Currys. They’ve done well out that thanks.

Of course they’d blame Trubshaw, nice easy scapegoat and I’m in no doubt that he had a large part to play in it all, but if you recall the timing of RF appearing on the scene and the arrival of software systems, that doesn’t quite ring true. Plans were afoot long before the nasty stuff started.

There are more disappearing that appearing I’m afraid, sad fact it would seem.

I doubt that they can expand that quickly without massive investment and a total overhaul of what they’re doing now. Expansion on that scale also brings with it massive problems too you know and if it is in the service area then the problems are legion.

If they continue to piss people off the way they have been doing, much of that seems to come down to GA ATM, then they may not be able to actually sustain a network anyway. They really have to learn to stop pissing people off so much.

Have you also noticed a trend for quite a few to only buy from CDSL when they have to? More and more seem to be looking elsewhere for better prices, in no small part down to the efforts of a certain Southerner here. 😉

Roy & Co. aren’t stupid but like most WP’s I think that they have a certain arrogance about themselves, they seem to think that they are in a superior position for some reason. For now they may well be, but nothing lasts forever. And if they think that dictating terms and taking the attitude of “who gives if they go bust” will endear them or make their business stronger then they are in for a nasty shock and probably sooner rather than later.

In the end though, it’s just another WP creaming off our graft. I just happen to think that we should attack the core of the problem, not the single issue.

As for the future, well I always believed it was what you made of it. I’ll go with that and make my own plans.

K.

[Alex]

Re: CDSL

kheath wrote:Roy told me last night that he will consider dropping LG because they would reject a claim rather than pay it (as a norm). He is really pissed off with them. He told me last night he could double the network work easily, if he had the capability within it! He has come to the conclusion that working for Koreans is SHITE and will ease himself out in due course. So, gently ,gently (as that is his way) there will be change.
Kevin

I told them L.G. was a potential porblem, but they knew better. Then we ALL told them Brandt were shite, again they chose to plough their own furrow. Comes of being greedy I suppose.

I’m in a position where I could still throw them away should I chose. The figure of 20{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of the workload was bandied about regards the level of “Control”. I terminated Merloni at 40{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} and survived. CDSL are about 12 to 15{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} but I am watching them. If they start giving problems, I will work on it.

Alex

[kwatt]

Re: CDSL

Okay, so if CDSL ditch LG where is LG going to go?

DAG won’t want to know, they got cindered fingers over Samsung (another bloody cowboy outfit). ISDAL are also out given the crap they got.

So that leaves…

EAC who have also been hit with the Samsung stick

GBDAR, mind you they’re probably desperate enough

NESN, they are desperate enough

JTM, who would give it a go I reckon

But then if enough of us say that we’re not touching it what are they to do? And, apart from maybe EAC the rates are almost certain to be crap for it and we all know the score with rejections.

I certainly wouldn’t want to know without some very good assurances and a decent rate.

As for Brandt, those bastards can burn in hell for all I care until they totally re-organise the operation and get rid of a certain person.

K.

[Alex]

Re: CDSL

I have pondered where LG could go as well.

Service Force agents were used for a few years, then ISDA. After the end of the ISDA relationship, they went to D&G and tried to woo back service force. Neither wanted to know. I had LG on stop during the S.F. days, but hollow protest as they all came in through ISDA, at a reduced rate. At least I was assured payment though.

Problems mainly ocurred where LG refused to accept or recognise who had 5 year parts, who were 2 year labour etc. We would get a refusal on a call, no record of 5 year, yet some time previously we had carried out work on the same machine and been paid, with all the same details.

D&G calls where there were a 2 year plus parts was another nightmare. To compound things if you fitted a board, then they would steer the claim through technical to peruse before indenting payment. That could take a year. One department would always steer you to the other, and never take ownership.

Technical would give you a modification part number, yet it would not be on the system, therefore you could not order the part. No interdepartmental communication existed.

If and when an LG posting comes back into the open furums, I may well copy & paste some of the above and open it up a bit.

Now if they move over to NESN, or GB Dar, that would suit me just fine.

I have been tempted to tell Roy Fisher to stuff LG as well as Brandt, in effect get yourself another agent to cover the rubbish. I don’t want it. Maybe the answer is to steer the conversation around to both of these every time we contact CDSL, in that way they will get jarred off and perhaps listen.

One point which I find more than apparent, It seems to me the Northern Service manager may be a control freak. The postings I see regards Gary do not reflect the demeanor of Dave Parker. My observation is that Dave may well be a company man, but he has a good bedside manner.

The doobrey I feel is about to hit the fan with CDSL soon in any case, and we may be able to pounce if we can get the right strategy and timing. For now it may pay to keep this in this forum until we have “set out our stall”.

Alex

[Del]

Re: CDSL

So the work is about to quadruple. I’m sorry but that should make the alarm bells ring in your head. A lot of the guys say CDSL are too big now, so when that 15{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} becomes 60{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} Alex will it be so easy to walk away then. If they are turnin’ the thumb screws now, what will they do when they convince themselves that they own you.

We always keep sayin’ to one another ‘DONT HAVE ALL YER EGGS IN ONE BASKET’ Well by the look of it that is just what is about to happen.

When they were lookin for guys to back them during the tussle with NESN
Dave parker was runnin round sayin we were goin to get £40 a call and I know that I wasn’t the only one he said it to.
Well it’s nearly two years on and still it hasn’t happened.

Remember MFI were already paying us that way back then.

What they actually did was renauge on the mark up on spares then chucked in a couple of quid and tried to convince everyone that they were goin to be better off.

The keep it going for another 28 day’s merchants might have been but not the ones who were taking the time to do a proper job

And now it’s the same old tale of ‘JAM TOMORROW’ We have all taken a hit on the recent fuel hikes and has any one of e’m offered you more to cover your rise in cost’s. Not a single one ! and least of all CDSL who are so convinced of the colossal workload they are about to cash in on.

You think that they would be able to dig a little deeper.
At the end of the day the work goes to the network who rates your skills the cheapest and can keep you in line.

Sean

[Alex]

Re: CDSL

Sean, you are so right.

I would not let it get to 60{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}, not even 25{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} I don’t trust them enough to allow them to call the tune to that extent.

To be honest, I could “Burn” them tomorrow. It would not be a sad loss, but I would mourn my customers that we, as a collective Service Force were unable to keep. Hence CDSL picking up the spoils, and we losing 10{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of our customer base, who unbeknown to them (the C/Plan customers) by taking the Coverplan route, were in effect losing the quality service. I don’t speak for the Whole of Service Force here, as there are some who do not perform, but that is not up for debate in this thread.

All I get out of CDSL is enough to cover the running of their work, I don’t make a healthy profit from that part of my business, it seems to be self financing, and that is it.

I like the idea of appearing to be a super agent with CDSL, and to have some form of control over them, but I’m a realist.

The bigger they are, the harder we fall, but the bigger we are, the harder they fall. I proved that with Merloni, they had to take on 3 engineers to replace what we covered, and they found it bloody hard.

We all know nobody is expendable.

[admin]

Re: CDSL

Quadruple work Sean, where have you seen that? Certainly not in my post, and you have selectively missed out “if he had the capacity in the network”.

Whilst I agree with your sentiment and go along with the fact that CDSL are perhaps too much of my business. However I still have to lower their percentage by other means, not by confrontation. I think I do push them pretty hard, as it is. So whilst they have the power of life and death over my business, to a degree, I will bite my tongue.

I agree with Alex, that DP is the better of the 2 managers, mine GA, has changed enormously since his appointment. He no longer solves our problems and quite frankly I have little confidence in him.

What happens at the moment is if we can’t get to a call quick enough to satisfy the customer (perhaps caused by them not being available) they give the call to Phil (Dill). However they give him a new job number and don’t cancle ours. Twice last week we went to calls where one of Phil’s engineers had been the day before. I am unable to get an explanation or apology out of them for that.

I think Alex has hit a nail on the head in so far, we in here should ask the same questions of our reps, and compare the replies.

So we need 3 questions for us all to ask when our area manager makes his next visit.

Can I offer:
1) When will CDSL get rid of LG, who quite clearly are causing financial problems between CDSL and their agents?

Others?

Kevin

[Author]

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