Need a spare part for that

[Martin]

Most annoying to find that after I have driven 25 miles to fix a dishwasher not pumping and fixed the pump. To then get the comment “Oh, and the Dispenser doesn’t work as well!”

Not being advised originally by the customer about the fact that it needs a new Dispenser as well, I feel on the one hand somewhat miffed they never told me in the first place. And that as a result in order to fix it I would need to call again at great expense, but to whom?

Is it my fault I wasn’t given the full facts? or is it my fault again that I should have a new Dispenser on the van anyway (just in case) but then I would need to carry shed loads of spares in a truck to do that!

And when they glibly retort, “I won’t have to pay another call-out for you to come back and fit one will I???”…….I only see red 👿

[Phidom]

Re: Need a spare part for that

In a case like that I would not mention a second callout charge on the invoice but would make sure it was covered in my margin on the dispenser price.

[bobokines]

Re: Need a spare part for that

I carry a merloni dispenser C00054943. It’s about £12.00 from connections and fits most machines with a single solenoid.

Bob

[eastlmark]

Re: Need a spare part for that

But would you order a part on the customers word that it is faulty? I have a huge box of such parts pre-ordered unnesesarily. And dont even mention to me about getting accurate model numbers from customers. Just the correct make is sometimes even a trying issue.

[kwatt]

Re: Need a spare part for that

Oh here’s a nice emotive subject fro me to get torn into on a Friday night.

We’re all a bunch of absolute fools! Yep, that is correct.

I call up Renault and I tell them, “the gear knob is broken on my six month old car, it need a new one as the painted bits have all come off”.

They’d order a new one right? Wrong!

I’ve got to book the thing in, drive to the garage (at MY expense in both cost and time), to leave it there and make other arrangements for the morning or afternoon (at MY expense in both cost and time), get back and pick it up (at MY expense in both cost and time) only to have to travel back and repeat the process a week or so later (at MY expense in both cost and time AGAIN!) to have the idiots fit the part that I told them it needed a week or more beforehand.

You may well ask yourself why that much of the motortrade does this and I can tell you and, to be fair it’s pretty obvious really, so they don’t end up with a ruddy big box of spares like the ones we ALL have that nobody wants to issue a credit for, that’s why!

In fact a box is being just way too nice about it, I’d measure it in the order of filled skips, not boxes!

So I instigated a simple system to deal with this, bar training telephone staff properly (that saves a fortune BTW and still they insist on call centres for service, go figure :roll:) as well as, if a client supplies the spare and we get there and it’s wrong, damaged or doesn’t solve the problem then tough, call closed and invoiced. That may seem harsh, but we can lose enough money doing wrong ourselves without additional help from some girl in a call centre who’s never seen the inside of a washer and hasn’t a clue but listens to the customer. Pre-diagnosis is a thing best left to engineers or well trained telephone staff and let’s leave it at that.

As was the case with Martin, we don’t always get it right, but we’ve a far better chance at it than anyone else and I will only pre-order for chargeable jobs when I KNOW that the part is right or that we’ll use it fast enough.

I’ve filled enough skips to know better now.

K.

[Martin]

Re: Need a spare part for that

…and on the Renault garage parallel line of thought……Whenever you take your vehicle into a garage for repair they ask you to sign the work order first! 🙄

[Simon46]

Re: Need a spare part for that

Would a list of unused spares bought in error/ customer cancelled repair posted somewhere at discount prices so you at least get your money back, by someone else buying it, work? A search option of part number would probably be required ❓

Just an idea
S.

[Dave_Conway]

Re: Need a spare part for that

There is this option available to subscribers via the shop@ Simon to sell spares at retail to the public..

I know Martin has sold a few £’s worth of spares this way.

But, yes, it’s something we’ve tried to do in the past, I’m more than happy to compile a list of unused spares, all I would ask is that you let me have the part number and the description and how much you want for it. On an excel worksheet preferably and not too many at one (say 10 at a time).

Dave.

[Goatboy]

Re: Need a spare part for that

Maybe you guys have higher morals than me, but those are the spares I throw at the wall, then send back to the all-saler as faulty for a 100{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} refund. 😈

But, the easier way, is to get a deposit off the customer before ordering anything for them; and if it’s a ‘customer-diagnostic’, tell them “If it’s wrong, I don’t care, there’s a 30{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} handling fee, if you got the balls to bring it back at all.”

Typical phone call – “Hello?”

“Rate? How much fer a timer fer me dishwasher?”

“It’s a very expensive part, are you sure it’s the timer?”

“Oh yeah, me uncle in Austrailia is an electrician…..”

etc, etc……

[Author]

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