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Re: New way to replace Bosch brushes.
Oh and I nearly forgot while some people are bitching about the public getting free help…
It’s not that when you want help through this FREE medium, on a FREE site with help and advice given for FREE by people like P45!
What isn’t given to the engineers for free is at a very low cost or things are devised to help you make money and retain customers, like ISE or the insurance products.
Spot the hypocrisy. 😉
K.
Re: New way to replace Bosch brushes.
Well the internet has been around for quite some time now but Penguin’s video is the best I’ve seen yet of its genre. What happens when I look for info about how to repair something outside this trade, though? (e.g. binoculars or a camcorder or a DVD recorder – items I have looked for advice on recently). I’ll tell you. I find only snippets of information, of varying quality, and professionals mostly asking money for any slightly better info.
I don’t see so much evidence that the world is changing that fast.
If the day should dawn when Tesco start delivering free food to my door, the landlord comes round and says there’s no rent to pay from now on and the council write to tell me that all services are now free, I might consider posting in the public forums.
Mike.Re: New way to replace Bosch brushes.
Priceless…
P45 is one of the most upright (if a little short) and decent people I have ever had the privilige to meet ,so what..if he has posted on you tube ,the people that would fit there own parts would find out how to do it wether by borrowing the haynes manual from a library,or diving on the internet,How many of us when we have a problem on something google first ,I take Mike’s point about snippets to an extent ,however if you join enough forums then you can find the info one way or another .
There is also a flip(per)side to this once people see that you have to get your hands dirty then they may well be put off anyway.
And as for the public ,the reality is that a lot of them are stupid but don’t realise it until someone subtly points out how out of there depth they are .
Another reality with regard to the public is that we need them to financeand maintain this site ,they drive traffic towards us and with out them we would in an entirely different place .
LawrenceRe: New way to replace Bosch brushes.
People that are going to have a go will, you won’t stop that. End of story.
As soon as they lift a screwdriver, you’ve lost almost any chance of getting a call from it.
Out there there is, as Lawrence says, most all the information that you may ever need, if you look hard enough. But it is getting more commercialised as businesses start to realise that they can make money from giving information out, I’m quite sure that there’s members of this forum that get paid to do so on some sites. I don’t believe in that but, if it’s what people want to do and they’re stupid enough to pay for help that they can get for free, that’s their problem, not mine.
The decline in this industry is due to cheap appliances and higher incomes, it’s got nothing to do whatsoever with the freedom of information to repair being available. In fact, the reverse is true if anything, people dump cheap machines and buy another as they assume it will be cheaper to replace than repair or have repaired.
leavemetogetonwithit wrote:I don’t see so much evidence that the world is changing that fast.
Less than a decade ago there was a spares supplier for out industry in almost every city. Now there isn’t.
Less than a decade ago there was some little shop in even most every middling sized town that people could buy parts from. Now there isn’t.
Less than a decade ago most of us would phone or fax an order for parts. Now you don’t, most of us order online.
Less than a decade ago if we hit a problem we had to try to find someone that would help by calling round manufacturers or friends in the industry. Now we don’t.
Less than a decade ago people had to travel round loads of shops to compare machines and prices. Now they don’t.
Less than a decade ago the only danger to the large, established retailers was someone big setting up shop beside them. Now it isn’t.
Less than a decade ago people sat down and called round looking for information from Yellow Pages. Now they don’t, they look online for reviews and pricing, even for repairers.
Less than five years ago we got all our spares information in a book, a photocopied manual or off a CD ROM. Now we don’t, we use the internet.
Mike, maybe you’re right and it hasn’t changed much eh?
But on balance, I’d argue it had. The world has changed substantially and a lot of the old rules no longer apply. 😉
K.
Re: New way to replace Bosch brushes.
P45’s video is interesting but makes very little difference to us earning a living out of it,he is of great value to this site especially the trade with knowledge and help etc,never failing to despatch info at the press of a button.
AS a younger man you do try and do jobs yourself it’s natural to those who have skills with family expenses etc to try and cut down costs,as folks get older it ‘s not the case,some who would have done diy in thier 20’s and 30’s won’t consider it in later life and get someone in.
I personally think the helpful approach if you are generally like that probably attracts more work overall,although sometimes you can be taken advantage of.
A lot of knowledge is gained by using the forums on this site even the public ones just by reading through.
We are all different thank goodness, else the forums would be very boring, and long may it all continue.Re: New way to replace Bosch brushes.
spimps wrote:I personally think the helpful approach if you are generally like that probably attracts more work overall,although sometimes you can be taken advantage of.
I think that sentence sums it up very well; you have to keep a balance and watch you don’t go too far one way or the other.
Ken, I agree there have been plenty of changes but has it made the world any more egalitarian?
You know the old saying about only the flies changing :wink:. Still true IYAM.Another thing is, it bugs me when I go to an appliance and find the panels off already and things have been messed about with by some amateur. (I mess about with stuff I don’t fully understand, too, but I don’t then call in a professional.)
Mike.Re: New way to replace Bosch brushes.
Can I just ask how everyone who is in favour of the video will feel when Connect, Masterpart and Qualtex et al start providing DIY videos on their public websites? Cut out the troublesome middleman (US!) altogether.
😯Re: New way to replace Bosch brushes.
looking at all the different views and opinions, maybe im a bit old fashioned,
maybe i should change my ways,
maybe i should start supplying parts to the general public and send a little doit yourself cd with them.
maybe as time progresses,i could be a hollogram, and hold jo publics, hand and show from start to finish how to do a repair.
just because times are changing doesent mean to say, that WE have to take part in the extinction of the small, independent engineer, yes the internet and technology are the future, but what is the long term future for our trade? nobody nows. but what i do now is, that i do not support the idea of showing jo puplic how to do my job.
maybe its time for a career change, looks like there may be good prospects, as a short film producer, maybe if i go on the internet,i will find out how. damn im to late looks like the market is over run,
to much competition,making small films for the white goods industry.
at the end of this rant i hope that i have not have offended, anybody,
but i do believe topics like this should be brought up more often, it would be daft if all of us just followed the flow. so it is good to hear other opinions, and points of view. but at the end of the day i believe only the larger companys doing repairs and supplying large amounts of spare parts to the public may only survive.
as a small independent, i do not want to expand in order to keep up with the jones:es, been there done it, just happy to pay the morgage and have a decent quality of life, without the worry of PAYE, working 24 hour days making sure your making enough money, to pay someone elses holiday pay,like i say been there done it, and if that pleases some people that is fine but, but im just happy trying to make a respectable modest living. but i feel the nails in the coffin lid are getting closer.Re: New way to replace Bosch brushes.
I think we’re missing the point here.
The point is that you can replace a washing machine or most other appliances for £300 or less.
To most people that’s easily affordable. They might not like having to splash it out on something as unsexy as a washer, but you get the idea.
Appliances are too cheap and that holds a mammoth danger for manufacturers and insurers down the road a bit, if they suss it.
Balance that against the public thinking that it will cost £100 or more to repair, they’ve had a few years out it…
Then take out all those that are on policies from the likes of British Gas, apparently 1.5-2 million households out of the chargeable pool of work just counting BG on it’s own, never mind all the rest and them all telling everyone that repair costs are scary to frighten people into buying a policy.
The decline in repair work isn’t due to the internet, yes, it may play a part in it all but it’s only one small part of a much larger picture. However, if I were to point to any one factor, it’d be cheap machines I’d point to as the single biggest culprit. Then high spares prices.
The rot set in a long time ago, the 80’s in fact, long before the internet was a “problem” although, more like it is used as a scapegoat.
To try to peg it all on people simply sharing information is very narrow minded IMO.
K.
Re: New way to replace Bosch brushes.
kwatt wrote:As I have said on many occasions, to Martin most often as he has a go at this regularly
I did have a certain notoriety I must admit but in the intervening years I’ve mellowed a lot. 😉
In fact it may come as some surprise to certain parties but I cannot disagree with anything Ken has posted in this thread. The bloke is spot on, no question, the appeal and mix on UKW is all things to all who bother to log on, everyone gains, very few and probably, nobody loses ….so there! 8)
leavemetogetonwithit wrote:Another thing is, it bugs me when I go to an appliance and find the panels off already and things have been messed about with by some amateur. (I mess about with stuff I don’t fully understand, too, but I don’t then call in a professional.)
Now, if I may just butt in on this point Mike, but that is somewhat contradictory don’t you think? OK so the panels are off but the guy has called you and it’s not a lost cause but more your gain surely? Now if the guy took the panels off having gained some insight from somewhere on the Internet to venture such action. And then calls you “the professional” because he can’t fix it, you must thank the Internet rather than the other way about!
Perhaps I might get the blame for pointing out to those that were’nt aware about the Penguin45 YouTube video but ‘hey-ho’ I felt it pertinent toward the thread at the time, interesting even? 😕
Personally, I am puzzled as to it’s purpose? It shows little detail, is fuzzy in places and the background noise from the park bench on which it stood led the viewer frantically mousing the mute button!:(
Some many moons back I made the suggestion that I could take some video of certain relevant dismantling and reassembling procedures. Edited short but instructive video aids for the trade, a TV screen training school if you like. Sadly that didn’t materialise for one reason or another. 🙁
Since that time all things video have taken on big time and the more recent access to HD recording equipment has be nothing short of amazing. Short snippets of instructional video with HD rostrom camera work edited to tell the story as it should be shown has got to be what’s coming next. And here’s the best bit……and most likely, all this for FREE to them what wants it! 😀
Perhaps I could show you what I mean by doing a 3 minute HD quality video on YouTube* on ‘How to take the motor out of a Bosch WFL washing machine, change the brushes and put it all back again!’
As good as the ‘information highway’ is it won’t compromise anyones ability to earn a crust fixing machines no matter where they happen to live and work. For decades in the USA appliances come with a user manual with all the exploded details of each component listed in the back. The local store is full of spares for those that want to DIY and the local ‘Maytag Man’ is still running around town like a headless chicken fixing them with not enough hours in his day to do it. USA websites abound with tech info on ‘how to fix your washer’ but the vast majority of public at large out there even though they know what a screwdriver looks like could not figure where the hell to find it?……
“Wilbur!….the washer in the basement don’t work no more, get your ass down here and fix it!…..OK honey, just dialling 1 800 MAYTAGMAN….be right with ya!”
Much the same goes on in households here in the UK every second of the day. Just figure how many homes there is in your home patch? How many have appliances in them? How often do they fail these days? How many DIY’s out of that lot do you possibly suppose is going to cut you out of a callout?
As my mate Ken Watt often says…..”Go figure!”
The only worry is the cheap appliances, the throw away society. It will get worse and not better and that’s a fact. And you can’t fix junk so the one man bands like me tend to specialise in the more up-market repairable stuff. Larger firms lean on contract work to keep the wolf from the door. The local corner shop trade is all but dead (in most areas at least) and flogging spares across the counter likewise.
The future of white goods is laid bare before us. It was never so obvious back in the 80’s and 90’s. Even Mystic Meg (whatever happened to her I wonder?) could suss this one out, I shouldn’t be at all surprised. If further proof be needed then just glance at the demise of the brown goods servicing history. Try getting your DVD player fixed (eh Mike?) and it’s cheaper to buy new. There’s hundreds of outlets flogging new ones, corner shops and Internet sites, but no bu&&er can fix those what go wrong….fact!
The truth hurts but hopefully using the right medication you may dull the pain…for a while at least.:)
* Only kidding guys on that point….Whilst I have the gear to do it, I’d rather pull all my teeth out with Molegrips first. 😈
Re: New way to replace Bosch brushes.
well said martin and i do agree with the points Kwatt has made, so will now take aleaf,out of your book,and have to concentrate on more upmarket appliances,in doing this i may have to move to a more upmarket area, so could you please forward your postcode Martin, may soon be your new neighbour LOL. 😆 😆
Re: New way to replace Bosch brushes.
Life is a fight for survival to varying degrees, and today it’s all about information …. if you’ve got it, you’re winning. Share it too widely at your peril.
As for Ken’s scepticism about cheap machines, how come Miele and Bosch still exist, but Servis, Merloni and MFI don’t?
People CAN be re-educated away from the throw-away attitude and that is what we in the know should be doing.
Why not a video saying that if your machine won’t tumble, call your local repairer and it’ll only cost about £75 to get another 5 or so years out of it?
Personally, although P45 has every right to make and distribute his video, it makes me livid, and it is probably costing me and every one of us money.
The Magic Circle wouldn’t fancy him at all. 😉Re: New way to replace Bosch brushes.
Martin wrote:
leavemetogetonwithit wrote:
Another thing is, it bugs me when I go to an appliance and find the panels off already and things have been messed about with by some amateur. (I mess about with stuff I don’t fully understand, too, but I don’t then call in a professional.)Now, if I may just butt in on this point Mike, but that is somewhat contradictory don’t you think? OK so the panels are off but the guy has called you and it’s not a lost cause but more your gain surely?
Well I suppose if he doesn’t mind paying for the extra time I have to spend finding where all the screws and wires go back to. But unfortunately I often find myself accepting all that as the rough with the smooth so as not to see it go to landfill.
Mike.
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