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As an independent engineer who’s income comes only from repairs i keep a constant eye on the average retail prices of the white goods we all repair. Im depressed ! When compared with average wages , large appliances are quite simply getting cheaper & cheaper in real terms. No matter that metal & oil prices are through the roof & WEE is up & running, nothing seems to change. White goods are stocked like baked beans by Te*co & the like, the ‘sheds’ will stock absolutely any crap they can get a margin on so long as the punters bite. There simply has to come a point if this continues that large appliances will go the same way as the small ones which used to be repaired regularly.. straight in the skip.. probably with a 5p in the pump. Would be interested in your views.. Time to plan a career change?
Re: Is the end of our world nigh..?
TBH I’ve been hearing that since… oh… about 1990.
It’s tougher, no argument. Contract work just isn’t as valuable as once it was, no argument. People throw more machines away, no argument. We don’t get paid enough, no argument.
Before though it was insurances, then rentals, then Argos, then Currys/Comet price wars, then insurance again, then Currys/Comet again…
Now we have Tesco and the internet as well as all the above and yet the world still turns.
K.
Re: Is the end of our world nigh..?
Thats true enough ken, its called living with a free market economy i guess. I just find it so frustrating seeing the utter waste generated by the ever decreasing replacement cycles built into almost all appliances. I just wonder what numbers the greed for sales will see us at.. 3 year life & £150 retail is already with us.. Ive got 25 years to retirement & a family to support.. thats why i worry, & despite the normal hassles, its a trade ive enjoyed for 15 years & i would miss it 🙁
Re: Is the end of our world nigh..?
Join ISE – decent product – sales and service – your customers know you and trust you. Tell them it’s good and you’ll look after them, damn things sell themselves.
Works for me.
Chris.
Re: Is the end of our world nigh..?
Yep I know what you mean and I totally get it which is why, wherever we can, we’re trying to fight back a bit as a collective. Many on here and people that aren’t, do so daily as best they can to help you guys.
It may not be a lot of comfort, but it’s what we can do rather than just rolling over and dying.
The big thing I try to focus everyone on, including my own, is customer retention. The more customers you keep, the more chance you have IMO.
The message on here, loud and clear daily, to consumers is clearly buy better, buy smarter, don’t throw it out. But it’s as much as we can do without some serious backing or money.
It’s a regular event that we see contract work charges looked at as well as anything else we can do to add value to our businesses.
A lot of the time I get people having a go at me because I have a dig at the WP’s, insurers and manufacturers but, the reality is, if we don’t tell them how bad it is and how under valued and under paid we are, who will? So okay, I may p1ss a few people off with the opinions but it’s not just my opinion.
As for the retail prices, well until they actually get real with the WEEE thing nothing will change, but we had a go at that as well. John spent months on it and we’re still asked to consult on it with government, which we do freely.
It may or may not help many, or any, but at least we’re having a go back and having an opinion.
And that, we didn’t have in 1990.
K.
Re: Is the end of our world nigh..?
Fear not Madmac for whilst the end of the world isn’t yet in the forseeable future, the imminent threat of a credit squeeze is. People have overspent, there is a huge unbalance in credit card overspending and many are over-mortgaged with the further likelihood of a sharp fall in house prices.
They won’t be able to afford to replace their machines that easily, a repairmans ideal marketplace. 😉
Re: Is the end of our world nigh..?
Indeed Martin…announced on the news this morning by Halifax that house prices fell over 1{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} last month and have fallen for the last three consecutive months, the first time since 1995.
Couple that with the FSA warning lenders yesterday to be more cautious about lending money next year as the money supply to them will shrink markedly (being unable to access commercial loans was what did in Northern Crock).
….and, 1.5m homeowners will find the fixed rate element of their mortgages coming to an end next year which is predicted to cause a hike in reposessions as repayments shoot up at the end of the fixed rate term.
Gloomy for the economy and especially for those who have overborrowed on the strength of the housing market, but all these people are still our customers, and when money is in short supply the repair to the fridge or the washing machine is way down the list of cutbacks 😀Re: Is the end of our world nigh..?
Madmac
Look at it from a customers point of view..The choice of domestic appliance in most large electricals is overwhelming and confusing..
For the average householder swapping a washing machine is a major upheavel, regardless of price, because of Plumbing, ripping of the lino, waiting in for delivery etc. etc
A fast well stocked (thanks martin) efficient repairman will have the machine up and running before cust has had time to flip through the argos catalouge
and its your job to remind your customers constantly of the above
and be careful of self fulfilling prophecies :rolls:Re: Is the end of our world nigh..?
Well yes there will always be the type of customer who will look beyond the bare economics when faced with a broken appliance, who will think of the environment & the hassle of shopping for a large appliance.I just hope there is enough of these types out there when it gets to the stage where a couple of days average wage gets you a new machine.Hmm.. i dont know..we’ll see i guess. Be in no doubt though, the long term goal of the volume producers & retailers is to change the public perception of large appliances from one of consumer durable which you should get repaired, to totally disposable. But yes, its up to us in this industry to give the public an attractive alternative to just buying new without thinking.. i just hope they will still give us the chance 10 years from now.. 😯
Re: Is the end of our world nigh..?
Traditionally our trade has done better in times of recesions , I was in a B & Q warehouse tonight getting some paint. By the front doors a couple of idots were piling high Indeshit Fridges at £ 130.00 a pop, Indeshit washing machines at £ 199.00 and the Indeshit moon at £ 150.00.
How did I know they were idots you wonder, well because I was looking at the pricing and machines one of them decided he would canvass me for a sale, Oh he said these are for our January sales, two days ago they were stacked to the roof they are flying out of the door you better be quick he advised !
I told him that I was glad that B & Q were selling this crap, he looked miffed. I told him that I was clever as I not only sold appliances myslef but I also ran a local repair company who could fix all of these when that broke down. I said make sure you sell them all as everyone is a potential customer for me either as a repair or replacment of a quailty product.
By now his sales patter had dried up and off I went with my paint chuckling.
Our ISE sales are doing well even if some people told me that they would not sell !
You have to forge a relationship with your customers and considering that NONE of my customers have ever heard if ISE I am having no trouble shifting them.
Once sold these customers will come to me for any service and advise not to the likes of Tesco, B & Q or the sheds.
Go forth and multiply my friends ! 😀
Re: Is the end of our world nigh..?
I have to thank you squadman for giving me just cause to go off on a bit of a rant…
So many people told us that ISE would never fly. It was nothing more than a flash in the pan and that people wouldn’t buy it. We got told that people would only buy the big brand names and that’d be that. We got told we couldn’t offer the support or that we’d not make it stack up financially for the repairers and a host of other reasons/excuses not to support it.
Well, we’re almost two years down the road and I’m happy to report that quite a few repairers are doing very nicely from ISE, the insurance, repairs@ and will, I hope, do well out anything else we have planned. Not that we’d have anything in mind. 😉
If anyone wants to know a bit more about the ISE brand etc. here’s a draft brochure that I did recently
The point of ISE, like most everything UKW related, was to offer the small repairers be they sole traders or mutli-engineer businesses the opportunity and tools to compete in today’s market. So we do a lot to support that, a lot more support than anyone else will give you but with a little twist on it, it’s repairers working for repairers. Individually we couldn’t do half the things we’ve done but, collectively, we can.
Everything we do or offer runs past a simple criteria question at the very start, “Does this help the independent repairers?”. If the answer is yes, we run with it and see where it goes. If however the answer is no, we bin it immediately.
It’s not hard really, trying to retain as much as we can and breed as much within our own ranks as we can as if we don’t help one another who’s going to do it for us?
K.
Re: Is the end of our world nigh..?
Hope you weren’t buying B&Q own brand paint, Squadman…….. The Indesit paint of the DIY world.
ISE works for me, sell steadily to my customer base. I make a profit on the sale. I have had one or two repairs to date. In a couple of years time, I should get a steady stream of maintenance jobs. Profit for my business…. That’s all I want. Mind you, I might have retired by the time the ISE10s start to fault 😀 .
Really, there are tools in place, use them. ISE is good for me – some of the other lads are selling the UKW warranties, which doesn’t work for me. It’s what you want to make of it.
Chris.
Re: Is the end of our world nigh..?
Well said, Ken – but something else to add to this topic…..
WTA. Whitegoods Trade Association. The more independents we can get to join, the more clout we will have. Our collective voice will have to be taken seriously. If you want to fight back at the unfair prices of parts and the lack of technical info available that prevents you from being competitive – then we are going to try and make a difference. But the trade need to mobilise – not just moan and do nothing. That’s what the manufacturers are expecting us to do. We’re all despaired at what is happening in this trade – but we’ve been saying that for years. 😉
The machines at B&Q are for the type of customer I neither want nor need. Typically they will have 6 kids and “only use it twice a week” or they have a £150 washer in the kitchen and a £1000 60″ plasma in the lounge. 😉 Sharp learning curve on the horizon!!!
This is actually good for us, as they will usually only make that mistake once. Then I’ll either repair it or write it off and sell them an ISE. They need me more than I need them.
So who hasn’t signed up for the effort………if not, why not? It’s your livelihood that is at stake.Steve.
Re: Is the end of our world nigh..?
Martin wrote:They won’t be able to afford to replace their machines that easily, a repairmans ideal marketplace. 😉
Indeed 😀
Ps. ISE work well for me too 🙂
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