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I went to a customer today who had got me off the Internet (no surprises there.:wink:) However, he tried to get his Zanussi w/m fixed having been told how to do so using JUST ANSWER
Apparently you type in as much info of your problem as you can and then several ‘experts’ are on line to answer and solve your problem. In an instant several ‘experts’ pop up to volunteer their help. You can then select from their ‘CV’s’* and photo’s*, who you would like to help you out. AND if you are happy with their help you pay a 3 tier fixed fee for the result. It’s up to you to select whether you want to pay £7, £11 or £15?
Anyway, my customer opted for £7. Firstly he gave the bloke the wrong model number of his Zanussi, he went back and put matters right. The ‘expert’ asked if there were any LED’s flashing on the panel and to make note of which ones? He later asked him to count the flashes of the lights and so on…..after 4 or 5 exchanges of information the ‘expert’ suggest either the Interlock was at fault? the main circuit board? or both?, though he added he’d never known the interlock to blow the board on that model before? He was then asked via the system if he was happy with the solution? He clicked on the yes box and his credit card was debited by £7.
Spookily, the ‘expert’ was well correct in his diagnosis and his £7 (or proportion of it – whatever that is?) well earned as it happens. How I got involved was that the customer cocked-up the repair by unscrewing the interlock and not being able to put it back together again! 😆
A classic case of an Internet numpty getting the right answers but not being able to fully pull it off when it comes to the practicalities of hands on repairs……There’s hope for us all still in this game and no mistake! 😀
*Try it, see if you recognise any ‘expert’ on that web site? 😈 😉 🙂
Re: Just Answer
It’s very American, did your customer get a UK ‘expert’ to answer his question Martin
I suppose its the same as the public forums on this site, giving technical advice to anybody regardless of their practical abitities or safety awareness.
Re: Just Answer
Jonah wrote:It’s very American, did your customer get a UK ‘expert’ to answer his question Martin
Yes, it switches to UK ‘experts’ automatically based on the type of question.
Re: Just Answer
The more popular these site become the more hassle, yes they’ll call us when all else fails.
Imagine you get called to an appliance that has had a part fitted and blown, you go out and re fit a part without finding any other cause and to cut a long story short your new part blew because the wiring was messed with and incorrectly placed and as you did it wire for wire you messed up as well.
Who then is responsible.
It could happen.
It’ll become another question to ask, soon well need to be trained as CSI investigators before we touch something. :rolls:
Re: Just Answer
seems they know everything,i just asked a bogus question about a combi boiler and was directed straight to someone.spooky 😯
Re: Just Answer
lee8 wrote:It could happen.
I think you may at best be straying away from the point of this thread Lee, at worst missed it altogether? The site just does what it says ‘just answer’ that’s all matey! 😉
What anyone does with those answers and whether they be right or wrong is down to fate, pure and simple. As you saw from the example I first gave, I got a call from it and the guy from Just Answer got it right too. Everyone wins! 😀
Fitting parts wrongly diagnosed, incorrect wiring, bodgers and numpties….all goes with the territory in our daily working lives. The trick all the while is making money from others misfortunes and in many cases others mistakes and misgivings….it’s what we do ATEOTD. 8)
Re: Just Answer
Martin wrote:
Fitting parts wrongly diagnosed, incorrect wiring, bodgers and numpties….all goes with the territory in our daily working lives. The trick all the while is making money from others misfortunes and in many cases others mistakes and misgivings….it’s what we do ATEOTD. 8)My point was these sites encourage people to step further than they they would normally.
That internet numpty may well have had you repair it before that web address excisted, so you haven’t gained a client, my point being that for every numpty who lucks up there are many who don’t, thats my point.
Once simply removing the lid was enough to deter a person.
For every idiot that lucks up there are probably hundreds solving the problems.
Imagine if that person had fiited the interlock, thats one you lost.
If your hoping this site is goin to bring future business, I’d recommend you didn’t hold your breath, future headaches, more likely.
In the 90’s I’d change carbons several times a day on various machines, now I rarely change a set.
Same with Fan oven elements, now Mr Smith goes on line, gets an element from E spares, watches a demo, job done.
I prefer Mr Smith to ring me, I guess the 8 or so repair businesses including spare suppliers near me that have gone belly up would prefer it too.
The hard jobs now mean they purchase new, quoted £20.00 labour to repair an oven last week and was told that was too expensive.
With the closure of competitors business should be increasing, its not, people on this forum are reporting quiet periods and askin themselves what is goin on.
Simply.
The internet has reduced repairs further, people are managing to fix themselves or goin to purchase cheap replacements, the rest are the scraps we fight for.
Re: Just Answer
Martin wrote;
Everyone wins!
I’m not so sure? I have to agree with ‘lee8’ on this one.
I wonder, Martin, how many jobs you’re not getting because of these sorts of sites?
I had a job last week;
60 something widower bought a new door seal for her creda washing machine, watched the espares video tutorial and then thought I don’t want to risk it, and called me out to fit it.
From that I didn’t think that we are all winners, I thought thats another nail in the coffin.
I wish I shared your optimism, what lottery numbers are you doing this week?
🙂Re: Just Answer
timdowning wrote:I’m not so sure? I have to agree with ‘lee8’ on this one.
In part I don’t disagree with Lee but just pointing him back on track that’s all.
timdowning wrote:I wonder, Martin, how many jobs you’re not getting because of these sorts of sites?
Errr? Hard to quantify Tim but as it stands right now I guess in all honesty mate they make diddly squat difference to my custom TBH.
timdowning wrote:I had a job last week;
60 something widower bought a new door seal for her creda washing machine, watched the espares video tutorial and then thought I don’t want to risk it, and called me out to fit it.
Then there you go Tim, in fact you’re repeating almost exactly my own personal experience here. Your statement a contradiction in terms as it happens, in that example anyway!:D
As I commented earlier…….”Everyone wins”
Now whilst the majority of ‘one man bands’ run the risk of losing out in some way to the likes of eSpares, Just Answer and to a large extent UKW for that matter for the information they provide. All in all it has little effect on grass roots High St businesses. In my ‘patch’alone I reach out to over 400,000 residents in one way or another through advertising and to a greater extent these days, the Internet. My competitors in this vast marketplace are minimal (less than 50 at best? – probably less than that) So in my experience at this point in time anyway the competition is minimal at best!
Let there be no mistake though, the future IS the Internet, if you have no standing on that platform or you have but is doesn’t get you any work? Don’t blame Espares, Just Answer, UKW or whoever but yourself for not tapping in on that market in the right way (as they have). Most indies websites are crap, truth be known, some look real good, true enough, but Google never gives them a mention….fact….just thought I’d throw that one in for nowt in passing.
At the risk of repeating myself to a greater extent, ‘they’ make little of all this in the grand scheme of things but you have to keep abreast of your own marketplace to capitalise on it all the while. And don’t sit back and blame others for muscling in on your action. 8)
Re: Just Answer
I don’t see it as a contradiction, just a different interpretation of a similar example.
You interpret ‘just answer’ as a win situation, albeit based on one job.
I interpret it as lose situation because of the implications it could / does have on our trade.
Martin, when you say its hard to quantify how then do you know its making diddly squat difference to your custom? That could be your ‘win’ mentality kicking in? 😉
On a side issue, but possibly related? Have your calls per day changed over the last six months, year, two years?
Re: Just Answer
Martin might still be floggin his Bosch spares online so that possibly explains his bias 😉
Thats just human nature though isnt it, change will always happen, some will benefit, some will loose out, if you do well out of a major change in the way business is done, like the internet,you’ll view it as the best thing since sliced bread.
If however you feel threatened by it & the changes its bringing, you’ll likely stick your head in the sand & pine for the old days 🙁I’ve really just accepted the fact that we as engineers are going to be much thinner on the ground in the coming years & we’re going to have to be pretty smart in more ways than one if we want to survive in this game.
Kinda analogous to the fishing industry i guess, we simply dont need so many in the fleet these days, sad but what can you do :con:Re: Just Answer
Well today I went to fit a door seal to a WD61 for a customer I’ve had for a long time. It was the first time I’ve been out to fit a door seal for… well I can’t remember… two months at least. Fan elements? Don’t remember doing more than about one a month for the last six months. Interlocks, again one per month. Hang on, what have I been doing? Let’s have a look back through the diary….
Hmm. Three or four brush jobs (Bsh, AEG, Zan etc.), quite a few “NFF = no fault found”, a few filters to empty (despite the fact I usually sort them over the phone), various intermittents, a few BER’s, a kinked hose, a few pcb repairs, dw heater element, dw door wiring, dw blockages, drum pulley, dw interlocks and handles, a cooker stat or two, t/dryer elements and bearings, capacitors here and there, suppressors. A right old mixed bag really. It seems to be mostly older folks who are afraid to mess or too arthritic to.
💡 Don’t get many households where there’s a young / middle aged man anywhere near to hand.
Not sure what conclusions to draw. Maybe the internet is doing it. Maybe door seals and fan elements are becoming sturdier and even brushes are lasting longer???(Tongue in cheek.)
Mike.Re: Just Answer
timdowning wrote:I interpret it as lose situation because of the implications it could / does have on our trade.
I respect your viewpoint Tim, of course, but you must remember that “our trade” is open season for anyone to join in and make money from it. And in the case of Just Answer it just runs to no more than £15. Now I have to ask myself..”Why didn’t I think of that? How many hundreds, no, thousands of customers have I had phone me for advice over the phone? Advice I’ve given out for free all the while. Now if I got £1 for everyone I gave advice over the phone to each year I could afford an all expenses paid holiday for two for a fortnight and more!”
timdowning wrote:Martin, when you say its hard to quantify how then do you know its making diddly squat difference to your custom? That could be your ‘win’ mentality kicking in? 😉
It really does’nt to the first part and possibly so the second.
timdowning wrote:On a side issue, but possibly related? Have your calls per day changed over the last six months, year, two years?
Hand on heart, the answer an emphatic no! TBH I’m turning more work away these days than I ever did 2 years or more back and still doing nicely with what I cherry pick. My local ‘competition’ will ratify that statement (namely appleelectrics & canufixit here on UKW) I pass a good deal of potentially good calls to both those companies regularly.
It works for me and over the last 37 years I have always strived to keep up with the many changes this trade throws at us. I’ve diversified all the while in order to earn a reasonable living from it. The Internet can be your friend if you go with it and share some of the action. There’s work coming off it all the while and contrary perhaps to your viewpoint, nevertheless it’s a fact. 🙂
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