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Re: RepairCare Rate reduction issues
Interesting conversation today ,apparently it was NESN who tendered for the DSG work and they were going to pay £48 to the agents out of what they bid .
Connect were told match it or lose it but because there costs are higher they passed the hit onto the engineers ,I thought this was dubious until I Also heard of someone high up in connect commenting that the trouble is they are just too greedy ….Re: RepairCare Rate reduction issues
I personally believe that Lawrence, not just about NESN, don’t really know what to believe about the competition, but about passing cuts DEFO! I asked in their forums (As it states on their letter they have made internal cuts also) what cuts they have made to share this burden, it was deleted!
I agree they don’t have to publicly announce what they’ve done to soak up some of the loss, but it should have been replied to! Even if it was speak to RC Management!
I’ve started to think about other things now TBH, this trade f**ks me off. I have an opportunity to venture into something different which I’m seriously considering… Not that I’d ever quit the appliance trade, or would voluntarily change my Business role model, but this b00locks has made me think f**k it! My life AINT going to depend on other people pulling the strings!
Sadly, for me the answer isn’t go get more contracts or work to spread the load if one goes or pulls the rug, but more along the lines of this Business is NOT going to be my sole dependency much longer! F**K that! No-one will EVER sit with a gun to my head, at MY desk, as my RC Manager / Friend had to do the other week without me being in a position to say on your bike mate… Like now!
The knife for me, was not the reduction, but the way they went about it. There’s loads I can say about that, but can’t be ars*d! Can tell you more over a beer, but IMO, they’ve been very decieving over the past 4 Months in things that have occurred and things that have been said to us!
Grrrrrrrrrrrr, I hate this thread! I’m leaving it here or I’ll still be talking to myself at 1AM!!!
Ade 🙂
Re: RepairCare Rate reduction issues
washdoctor wrote:
I’ve started to think about other things now TBH, this trade f**ks me off. I have an opportunity to venture into something different which I’m seriously considering…Grrrrrrrrrrrr, I hate this thread! I’m leaving it here or I’ll still be talking to myself at 1AM!!!
Ade 🙂
You considering a career change its not to be ‘a man hoe’ you stud at least you can work the hours you want, earn loads a dough and best of
get f**k ed all day, a bit like working for RC then :rotl:& No you not talking to yourself we’re still listening here:lol:
Steven
Re: RepairCare Rate reduction issues
I’ve been told ‘OFF THE RECORD’ by a RC employee, the cuts have been passed 100{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} to the engineers. RC still make the same as they did last Month, we lose out.
I was also told, that some Management members of RC are worried that the powers to be at CDSL are leading RC down the road of Expert Appliance Care (Which I know little of, bar they did any work for any fee that failed) and have ‘Mooted’ a worry for the future!
This person also indicated, that it was an insult to us engineers, that higher members of CDSL park Ferarri’s etc outside the main door, when we attend for meetings / training. As if it’s a ‘Rub it in your face’ kinda thing!
I was at a complete shock to recieve this type of info from a RC employee that sat at my desk today, maybe testing my ‘Gob’? I don’t know, but that’s what I was told! As for testing my ‘Gob’, I hope this forum is secret, or I’m in the shit! Lol
Ade 🙂
Re: RepairCare Rate reduction issues
Steven wrote:You considering a career change its not to be ‘a man hoe’ you stud at least you can work the hours you want, earn loads a dough and best of
get f**k ed all day, a bit like working for RC then :rotl:Nope! Not changing career, but am sticking fingers in other pies 🙂 It’s actually a Baguette bar believe it or not 🙂
Re: RepairCare Rate reduction issues
Well I told them I wasn’t doing it for that price and they still sent a job through. I sent it back and haven’t heard anything since. Watch this space…….
Re: RepairCare Rate reduction issues
It’s a tired and old story I’m afraid Ade.
Basically with volume work where it exceeds the point at which you (or the majority of agents) cannot afford to lose the work as they have to lay off staff to drop it, then the client calls the shots and can (often will) try to squeeze the price down.
This can be for several reasons, greed being the most prevalent or in the case of WP’s, the thought of losing a hunk of cash if a competitor steals the account. Manufacturers and insurers tend to do it as part of a cost cutting drive. But, the net effect is the same.
EAC are pretty well detailed in the forums, along with its collapse.
Essentially they sucked up work from anyone and at stupid prices all too often. They found out the hard way that they couldn’t sustain the 200 odd field engineers or control the costs to run a service operation of that size and, on top of that, they had all the admin that went with it.
I think that the comments in that respect may well be in relation to the fact that RC now employ some engineers, at least two that I am aware of and that if they were to go down that road that they could well end up experiencing the spiralling costs of employed engineers. The reason being that, once you go beyond a certain size the costs to manage and administrate really ramp up as does the number of employees to provide holiday cover etc.
What many often don’t see but come to realise, just as Indesit, Candy, Electrolux and Whirlpool all have, is that it is far, far cheaper and a lot less hassle to just use sub-contractors for service. Some don’t suss it, like CDA, Miele, BSH and a few others. The point being that most use sub-contracted service agents because it’s a shedload cheaper to do so. If it wasn’t then they wouldn’t do it, they’d all employ engineers directly or, employ in high density areas and sub it out in sheep country. But that leads to other issues.
As to RC not cutting their margins… would it surprise me or anyone else?
Probably not and no in my case.
As for the Ferraris well, I couldn’t say I’d be particularly surprised if it were true.
No-one can see this forum bar the council members, Tracey and Ian so it’s safe as safe can be.
K.
Re: RepairCare Rate reduction issues
washdoctor wrote:Set up our own network! Flip it!
Might take years yeah! But we all young pups! Lets do it?! I’m some young dude that’s losing faith in this trade! Lots like me out there… Need to keep them! And me! 8)
Well, according to reports from the DASA meeting, you’re not alone in thinking this way.
There are several problems that stand in the way however. Not least of which, where DASA & the WTA are concerned, is that a TA cannot be involved directly with a commercial endeavour. It’s just a taboo, deal with it.
That doesn’t preclude other ways. 😉
Assuming that this can be gotten around which, if you’re a sneaky, no-good b4$t$rd then, it can…
You still have several hurdles to cross.
The first is some sort of call handling service. This is a biggie as you need to be able to deal with the calls somehow or, you get someone else to do it for you. There’s a few options here, it depends very much on the client, what they want and how much they want to be involved.
The second is centralised billing. Not an insurmountable problem in and of itself but it does require some planning and costing.
Then there’s the whole IT thing. I’m working on something there, I can say no more and don’t bother asking me as I’ll probably not be ready to talk about it until at least next year. But, it’s a passion of mine as some of you will know. My intent is to deliver a few bits and bobs for free.
Then there’s the admin side of things. You need the admin in place or, a way to quickly get it in place.
Then there’s all the actual infrastructure to make all the “stuff” work. You know, things like an office, phone lines, IT and so on.
In short, there’s a sh1tload to consider and, I’ve only just scratched the surface of it here. There’s a few key elements that need to be in place before you progress to Step 1.
I’m not saying it isn’t possible to do such a thing, I’m saying it’s not quite as easy as a lot of people assume it is. It’s a big commitment, it would take a lot of effort and time to get off the ground and, in the end, there’s no guarantee that it’d succeed as you’d either have to be a lot better than what’s out there already or, you do something different that others can’t do, in other words, you have a USP.
Apart from which, there’s the cost.
The costs can quickly spiral out of control or, at least, to the point where you find yourself doggy paddling like hell just to stay afloat. You can negate a fair bit of that as well but, it has to be considered from the get-go so you don’t end up flailing about like a man with no arms trying to survive the sinking of the Titanic.
And, this is why I’ve always said that UKW (me!) would never, ever undertake a “network” in the traditional sense as, in all honesty, it’s a fool’s errand.
The trouble with this business is that there’s a no shortage of fools ready to do something stupid.
K.
Re: RepairCare Rate reduction issues
kwatt wrote:The trouble with this business is that there’s a no shortage of fools ready to do something stupid.
🙁 Just thought it’s either roll over and be tickled whenever any suit decides to change things etc, or do something bigger & better for the future. I can’t see & definately am not silly enough to think we / someone could have this massive operation set up and running this year, not even next year, but with the right ‘Team’ with the backbone / drive & desire to make a new way for us guys, why not one day? 🙂
Re: RepairCare Rate reduction issues
Yup, I know. It could be done but it’d be, as you rightly say, a while out before you could do it.
The point is that to set something up to compete with what’s already out there would take a lot of effort and a fair old bit of funding which is why no-one’s ever really done it.
It was tried in the late eighties/early nineties but it never got anywhere, Mainland Services who set up to compete with NESN at the time among others. Then there were the others like Anglo Iberian who have fallen by the wayside for many of the reasons above I expect apart from the fact that they didn’t keep up with the technologies, which is something else you need to do.
I’m not saying that it’s impossible, anything is possible, it’s just that it’s not a two minute job to do and not a thing that should be taken lightly.
The impression I got from the DASA download was that someone thought that they’d just say, booger it we’ll do it on our own, which raised an eyebrow apparently but I doubt that whoever was discussing it actually realised what they were proposing if they were trying to take on that which already exists.
K.
Re: Rate reduction issues
Do you know if this person was a DASA council member, or an engineer member?
I’d assume DASA’s involvment in a Network would just kinda be a link from manufacturers & Ins companies to direct engineers, as opposed to forming and administrating a ‘Bonafide’ UK Service Company?
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