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hi
does anyone have contact details for mfi as was sent it ages ago but moved since then
regards
tonyRe: mfi
I’m just checking this out among other MFI agents.
For a few months now I have been receiving B.A.C.S. payments into the bank account, but without the audit trail advising what invoices are being settled.
Before I get told “You’re the only one getting this problem”, I’m wondering if this is universal?
Alex
Re: mfi
I had this problem as well. This was one of the reasons I stopped working for them, about two years ago. The admin got to the point where what they paid just about covered the time spent doing the admin, let alone going out doing the jobs.
Re: mfi
I’ve had more than a few issues of late, mainly with AIG/RMS/whoever else I have to bill these days to get paid. Apparently, even though MFI sent the work I’ve not to bill them for it… go figure.
I have also heard of others with similar issues.
Yes, I’d agree with Geoff, the admin gets to the point with many clients where it just isn’t worth the hassle in all honesty. What are we paid to do, fix machines or report constantly and fill out forms?
I could say more on the subject, a lot more, but I’ll stow it for now.
K.
Re: mfi
I’m in the same boat with them at the moment, send an invoice to them for payment, only for it to come back 4-6 weeks later saying should have invoiced the insurance company, who in turn seem to pay in 60 days 😯 , so end ‘s up waiting 90 days for your money.
MervRe: mfi
Yes, MFI just didn’t want all the hassle of having to deal with the 3 or 4 different insurance companies themselves, invoicing them and paying us; they just made us do it 🙁 . It simply wasn’t worth it; well, not to me anyway. When I first started with them, only a couple of years previously, there wasn’t any of that; they were very straightforward to deal with and they paid promptly 🙂 . Don’t know what changed, but I’m sure Ken will do….. 😉
Re: mfi
roly16 wrote:Don’t know what changed, but I’m sure Ken will do….. 😉
Moi, would I? 😉
Of course I don’t know but, were I to have an educated guess at it and, from reading the news I sometimes get time to put up (and a lot I don’t) I’d say there was a few factors here.
- MFI ceased to exist as such and became Galiform and Howdens
Tony Brown left who was very “pro-agent” or employed engineer
The accountants took over and looked to cut costs and hasslesThey’ll do for starters.
The first is obvious and there are some obvious effects now being felt, more in a bit.
The second meant that for some months there was no operations person dealing with agents; I am unaware of the situation with the employed engineers. However, it seemed to become a bit rudderless with no clear person having responsibility. Therefore many issues seem to have brewed over time until Mark Riddler was recently appointed.
I’ve met Mark, nice enough guy it appears and he seems to be keen to sort issues but I do feel that he is constrained. Whether this is budgetary or simply policy I don’t know.
The third, well, here’s an old song for you that I’ve sung many times…
The accountants have probably thought, as they do, why should they have to do all this administration when these idiot agents will do it all for them? I mean, if they can get rid of an admin staff or two as they reduce the workload that’s a lot of cash saved, do the math. 😉
It’s us that cop the bill for that, but don’t worry, using online system and billing direct to “speed up” payments helps us. Yeah, right I wonder where I’ve heard that chestnut before?
What it actually does is increase our admin time and makes working out who you have to bill what and at what rate and actually getting paid a damned nightmare. I recently went back on the phones, (still am for a little while) and I can’t work out what to bill to who for several contracts, it is just ludicrously complex. MFI especially so, is it this insurer, that insurer, how do you tell them apart, what’s the rate, is it online, is it offline billing… it just goes on and on. There also appears to be absolutely no documentation to explain these overly complex systems.
I prefer the fixing stuff, it’s a whole lot easier… well, it was until they decided in some sort of twisted logic that defies all common sense, to have a range for Howdens and one for MFI, which are different! There also seems to be a steep decline in technical information as well.
This is not a dig at MFI alone, there’s a few out there that are doing the same thing, I note. As well as a few that are creaming off by paying warranty rates for insurance work then, of course, billing back to the insurer at a much higher rate.
To be fair MFI are not the worst people to work for even though, at present, I do have issues with them over a few of the points raised here. However the most annoying part is that (again not just MFI) nobody seems to care or care that its just not worth the hassle anymore of jumping through all these hoops.
That is until we get to the likes of GBDAR which SEEMS to be imploding due to poor service. Well, if you pay crap rates and ask for so much then really, what do think is going to happen, you’ll not attract the better repairers as they will find something more worthwhile to do.
As Servis seem to be finding out as well now, if you don’t invest in your service network, you won’t have one. I could imagine my engineers being paid more for flipping burgers at McDonalds as working for what appears to be on offer from there at present. And, trust me, flipping burgers is a lot less hassle than running about trying to keep someone else’s customers sweet and, you don’t have to report three times what you did or wait 60 day or more to get paid either.
I thought that UKW (and especially myself) didn’t have to be as vocal as this anymore on the absolute rubbish we get thrown at us at times but, it seems, I was wrong.
Administration is an absolutely HUGE cost on contract work. It’s all very well getting paid (eventually) even if the rate is reasonable but you simply must consider the whole cost of doing so. This is why, lately, NW have either dropped a couple by design or simply let them fade away as, frankly, they’re not worth wasting time on anymore for what is paid.
I must stress that this isn’t a dig at MFI as such, I know that they have had some of the issues mentioned in this post and I also know that if you ask anyone from MFI they will tell you that nobody else has these issues. I’m sorry, but that simply is not true and MFI are not alone in this.
I have always gotten on just fine with MFI, very rarely ever had a problem at all until recently and, I’m sure that in time, those issues will be sorted out. I’m just a little disappointed that the agents were not asked about all these changes (as usual), it was just expected that we would all simply comply and act like sheep.
When will these companies wise up to the fact that we all talk to one another these days and that bad news travels fast, very fast.
K.
Let’s just park it with, what you invoice and what the insurer is invoiced can hold some dramatic differences.
MFI are not guilty on that count so far as I know bar that you will more than likely be paid more doing a call on an MFI product from the likes of DAG than from MFI. Other’s however, are guilty.
K.
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