- This topic has 23 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 15 years, 7 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
I was going to tie this in with the current Repaircare mess in ‘The Rumour Mill’, but this is factual, so here it goes instead!
I recieved a debit note for £100 last week. On looking into it, it relates to a Repaircare Chargeable job that went bad, and in the end, was cancelled after many chats with Repaircare Technical! This dates back to Feburary 2010.
The first thing I did, was ring the customer, as this was a complete suprise to me! I was even more suprised to hear, that as of August 12th, the customer had no refund, NOR any compensation agreed with Repaircare, although I have a debit note for £100 on my desk.
Called my area manager, he didn’t know what it reffered to. Put a post in the Repaircare forum regarding this, had a swift reply RC Management and a call on Monday from another member of RC Management.
I was told Richard Lawson had raised the debit after agreeing a £200 compensation claim with the customer (Even though the customer told me prior, he hadn’t agreed anything) and from his desk in Birmingham, had decided that MY company, would contribute half, and raised the debit.
I was NOT contacted / consulted or even asked if I’d contribute to this.
This £100 has been deducted from my August contra.It seems Repaircare may think they have the power of Independent company Directors to make these decisions, on behalf of the company, without consulting its directors or proprietors.
Adrian Welke
Beech Appliances Ltd
South Wales.Re: Repaircare Agents… Beware of ‘Compensation’ debits.
Is it not part of your contract with Repaircare.
Who was liable for the client being pi**ed.
Re: Repaircare Agents… Beware of ‘Compensation’ debits.
lee8 wrote:Is it not part of your contract with Repaircare.
No. Nothing about Repaircare making financial decisions on behalf of company Directors at all.
Ade.
Re: Repaircare Agents… Beware of ‘Compensation’ debits.
lee8 wrote:Who was liable for the client being pi**ed.
Who did the client pay?!
Re: Repaircare Agents… Beware of ‘Compensation’ debits.
When you say the job ‘went bad’ Ade, was this entirely due to the lack of logistical and tech support from RC, was your company in no way responsible for the delay in completing the repair?
Jim.
Re: Repaircare Agents… Beware of ‘Compensation’ debits.
Ade,
Is that part of the contract I think is what Lee’s getting at as in, is there a provision within your contract with RC that provides for them being able to debit back any compensation offered to customers or a part of?
If not… I’d write to Richard Lawson who has agreed this and ask why he thinks that you should pay this and what the justification is for debiting your account without prior consent or notice. You should, at the very least, be entitled to an explanation and the chance to defend your corner with any contract.
On the face of it, with the limited information and from only one side it does appear a bit harsh to say the least.
Or, is it still that “Head Of Agreement” thing that is being used? I never liked those, all one sided and my understanding is that it isn’t a formal and binding contract, more a kinda formalised handshake sorta deal. DSG used to use them all the time, then wiggled out of any issues using it as it wasn’t exactly tight. At the time we took legal council on it and found that, basically, in legal terms, it wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on pretty much if you wanted to challenge anything. Things may have changed on that front though as this was a number of years ago but, I will ask Jackal to have a look at the agreement if you like and, if you want to push it that far?
I would have thought though that RC would have cleared it up PDQ as, with all the other stuff going on I’d suspect that the last thing they want is to hack off the agents even more. Unless you’re being lined up to get the bullet of course as you’ve spoken out about it, dunno, don’t work for them, I can only judge on the info I have.
But if you do get the bullet in the next few months at least you’ll know why.
Still think that RC would want to square it up without any hassle though, doesn’t seem worth creating a stink over £100.
K.
Re: Repaircare Agents… Beware of ‘Compensation’ debits.
iadom wrote:When you say the job ‘went bad’ Ade, was this entirely due to the lack of logistical and tech support from RC, was your company in no way responsible for the delay in completing the repair
Was a Smeg dishwasher, that after the first visit, spoke to RC Technical employee, was told, order X X and X and that will sort it. We did this. Didn’t cure fault. Then by RC Technical employee was told it has to be X, so did this, still not resolved. At which point we were told, try the appliance in a different power socket, at which I cancelled (Sent back) the repair for RC to deal with.
Regardless of what occurred, even if it was my engineer that had torn flooring / damaged property / misdiagnosed a repair, my point is, that I agree to contribute towards any claim, and only after being included in any investigation. I do not & will not accept 6 Months later, a £100 bill for something I knew NOTHING about.
kwatt wrote:Or, is it still that “Head Of Agreement” thing that is being used?
Yes. Still the HOA, which mentions nothing regarding compensation.
Ade
Re: Repaircare Agents… Beware of ‘Compensation’ debits.
Thanks Ken.
Did this all happen after you sent the new terms you mentioned or discussed the issues you have with them.
If so this could be the corporate way of doin business with peeps they want out, rather than simply ending the contract and both parties walking away, the bigger will oftern (In my Experience within them) flex muscle and teach a lesson, making the smaller one financially hurt or morally dented.
I witnessed one Director mocking Franchiseeee of theirs, they where faced with a business struggling after a bad few months of faulty products/repairs which were not that businesses fault, but left them unable to pay for the goods (sorry details too long s story) decided it wanted out of the contract which allowed the parent company one month notice and buy back stock at the price paid which would wipe out the debt owed.
The director laughed a lot, ordered the High court be used and instructed a partner in one of Londons top law firms onto the case, a Sheriff was sent into that business, it was closed down the day he entered and that business went to court over the contract, it lost and the debt had to be paid, along with cost’s of the law firm of both parties, which I was told was around £5,000 by the end.
I seen it many times, so no I’m not a great fan of large companies and their directors.
Honestly Aide, I no I get under peoples skins, yours as well, but please be careful who you name and shame.
Re: Repaircare Agents… Beware of ‘Compensation’ debits.
What the hell do they at Repaircare think they will achieve by all that?
This is sharp practice to the extreme!!
If they keep up that practice, then surely hacked off repairers will book out a motor or something to mitigate the loss.
I would suspect what they are doing is possibly questionable legally, and for sure morally. How dare they treat their agents in such a manner? If I was subjected to similar I would un-book every call that related to this contract telling the customers why, and refer them to the very people their contract was with.
There is a high degree of bad press regards the Repaircare contract, and reading between the lines lack of support from head office to the repair agents is the primary cause. There are cases of being let down by the system and not necessarily by the engineers.
Here is one http://www.whitegoodshelp.co.uk/wordpress/repaircare/
Here is another, in 2 pages.
http://old.fscked.co.uk/index.php/2009/ … nt-page-1/
This adds to the credence that this is part of the business that doesn’t give a toss about the customers, let alone the poor old engineer on the front line that makes very little out of it.
What a shower of shytehawks this lot are? They even bite the hand that feeds them.
Re: Repaircare Agents… Beware of ‘Compensation’ debits.
Their are simply too many appliances and too few good engineers (ducks down, again) for a company to be successful repairing all makes.
By good engineers I mean people who have knowledge of the range out in the field that Repaircare bring in, add the time factor, demanding clients, lack of parts etc.
In my limited experience most engineers (employed) would prefer to and this career can allow it, finish all calls by 2pm without much use of their tools or brains.
The small one maybe 2 man outfits are very different, if they don’t complete they don’t eat, which is why I would never employee people or grow my business.
Repaircare, the concept is flawed, they want 1st class Service, but are unwilling to or more likely too restricted on costs, after all they are invoicing DSG for work, to pay 1st class costs.
Which is why DSG are watching Comet’s growth so closely and are asking the question, why are we paying Repaircare when Comet are not.
Re: Repaircare Agents… Beware of ‘Compensation’ debits.
Point is, and it isn’t about naming & shaming, but surely an educated man in Richard Lawson must know he should contact independently owned (Not owned or run by Repaircare) businesses regarding any compensation offer…
Simply deducting monies out of another companys account, just tells me he either over-estimates his power as an employee of Repaircare, or has absolutely NO respect for us business owners that are part of his network.
It might only be £100, and people may think why create a stink over £100. Well, apart from the fact that is 2x Full tanks of fuel for my vans, it’s the cheek of it that has made my blood boil about this! Especially occurring during the Rate cut / Work going elsewhere era!
Adrian.
Re: Repaircare Agents… Beware of ‘Compensation’ debits.
It would drive me made too, the principle not the money, although £100 is significant, otherwise why would a company the size of Repaircare take it.
Could this be connected to your recent LTD status, name change or previous company situation.
I don’t know about Repaircare, but most WP or Manufacturers require a Sub to be registered LTD, makes it easy to monitor.
Re: Repaircare Agents… Beware of ‘Compensation’ debits.
lee8 wrote:Could this be connected to your recent LTD status, name change or previous company situation.
Not at all… How could how or what I choose to trade under relate to debit notes?
And it’s my ‘Other’ company, not ‘Previous’ 😉
Re: Repaircare Agents… Beware of ‘Compensation’ debits.
OK.
Wasn’t sure if there where any circumstances that may have caused Repaircare an issue as it seems there getting pi***y with you, you wouldn’t be the first LTD to change hands etc etc.
Re: Repaircare Agents… Beware of ‘Compensation’ debits.
I totally sympathize and agree with you Ade, a deduction such as this is totally outrageous without consultation with you the Agent concerned, I had serious issues with the Repaircare Chargeable contract as I could see many problems with a ‘fixed price inclusive of parts’ deal and after doing about half a dozen calls called time on it as a did a few others.
I believe the T&C’s of the contract have been changed a few times since it’s inception due to bad publicity etc and certain brands like Miele are not accepted because of cost of spares etc, but this type of thing was bound to happen as RC must be losing money hand over fist on this contract, how on earth they can give a ‘fixed price including parts’ to a customer over the phone without someone looking at the appliance is beyond me, they might win on some but I know some customers have had really old appliances repaired at huge cost to RC, appliances like SMEG are also difficult to obtain technical information, parts information as well, but knowing you Ade I am sure you went through PNE system with RC and did everything in your power to help this customer so this arbitrary deduction from you disgraceful IMHO
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.