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There must be some very good reasons for us all sticking at the whitegoods repair game, as we all know, it doesn’t pay spectacularly well.
So, what are they ? 😀
Dave.
Re: What do you love about this job ?
I have always liked fiddling (no sarky comments please) with things, something to do with my age, we had proper toys when I was a lad, Mechano, Bayko building kits ( I had a Bayko No:4 the biggest one you could get), Hornby Dublo train sets, etc, real nuts & bolts, spanners & screwdrivers, none of that poncy Lego stuff. 🙂
I still enjoy the driving, but I have always used a good spec estate car, just about to buy my 7th Volvo, I am the one getting out at 7.00 am, six days a week so I do not intend to wait until I retire to drive a decent motor.
Believe it or not, I enjoy meeting most of my customers, there are always the odd ones but by and large people round here are “gradely folk”
I enjoy being in control of my destiny ( health & taxman willing) to a point.
After 37 years, I still get a buzz from cracking a difficult fault and the satisfaction you get from grateful customers is also something I enjoy.
I just love ‘fixing’ things. 😀
Re: What do you love about this job ?
I left school in 1969 started at Hoover then TDA and then for Zanussi for 20 years then being made redundant started on my own and I love it, your right Dave money not good has its ups and downs but at the moment my work load in dead and I might have to look at calling it a day and go to work for one of the big boys its sad but I don’t know why the phone has stopped ringing people are not buying new whitewoods but they are not having them repaired in my area anyway at the moment I am wasting my money on advertising I’m getting depressed typing this
John
Re: What do you love about this job ?
I think I was born with a spanner in my hand. I left school in 1977 and took an apprenticship with a local engineering company and then joined Hotpoint in 1987. In those days Hotpoint was a prestigious company to work for and I was really proud to be part of the team. God!! What went wrong!
I have always loved mending things, meeting customers and driving. For me being a Hotpoint Engineer was a dream come true. It went a bit stale when Creda amalgamated and right downhill when Merloni took over. I was so sad that my dream job was no longer quite the same and I decided to get out when redundancies where being offered some three years ago.
I tried a few other ventures but quickly realised that Service Engineering was my ‘thing’ and I quickly set up on my own with exactly the same principles that Hotpoint taught me in 1987. (I even wear a shirt and tie to work!)
I haven’t looked back.
Re: What do you love about this job ?
Lots of screwing and satisfying eight to ten houswives per day!!!!!!!
Re: What do you love about this job ?
litlor wrote:on my own and I love it,….. but I don’t know why the phone has stopped ringing…… but they are not having them repaired in my area anyway at the moment…… I am wasting my money on advertising I’m getting depressed typing this
John,
You answered Daves question with your heart and soul attached as well and we all thank you for that. We all share your heart felt reasons for doing the job that we all share with you. The abiliity to be able to go out and fix something that is broken and to make money from it is our only driving force. Job satisfaction is more guaranteed in our game that in any other I reckon and that is what holds us to it.
As to the downturn in the work, I can only hope you can hold on a while longer as things will improve. Just read the headlines in the press for a moment, the public cannot afford to shop in the High Street, sales are on the downturn and costs are increasing. That will mean more work for us in the long term, inflation and a depressing economic forecast will be our overall saviours. History is repeating itself and we in the whitegoods business will be needed more than ever sooner than you may think 😉
Re: What do you love about this job ?
Well I got into this industry totally by accident – I missed the train when I went for my CITB interview to become an apprentice electrician & by the time I got another date i’d had an interview for a YTS placement and took it.
Everyone had their own opinions of the old YTS schemes and looking back it was frustrating at times when youre earning very little and working as hard as the qualified engineers but It got me my city & guilds 207 and i’ve stayed in the industry ever since with a long spell at a Zanussi / Serviceforce agent and a brief stint at Hotpoint.
As a kid my folks dreaded Christmas & Birthdays because they knew my pressies would be in bits within days, its the same passion for taking things to bits thats kept me in this industry, that and the fact that this is the only thing I know!
I’ll never be a millionare but money cant buy you everything – I have a decent house, 2 cars, 3 cats and a fantastic wife, it’s all I need. When the boss in one of my previous jobs offered me a sizeable sum to stay i turned him down flat, sure the money would have been nice but as i pointed out to him money was never an issue – sanity is more important.
I share everyone elses frustrations with the cost of machines and the throw away culture – I was dead chuffed when the guy who posted here recently with the Zanussi FL1085 needing bearings stuck with it & got an engineer from the listings here to repair it.
Anyway i’ve dragged on a bit here so I do this job because I love what I do, I enjoy the variety, the freedom of being out on the road all day and even some of the customers.
Re: What do you love about this job ?
I have made more friends doing this work than I ever did in the factories and labs where I worked before I came to Scotland. When I started this business in January 1998 my only experience with whitegoods was repairing twintubs and spin dryers for the family and neighbours 20 odd years earlier! Like others have said, I was always a tinkerer though and knew that I should be able to pick it up as I went along without too much trouble. I do it because it enables me to live in a nice part of Britain. The work I did before in the aircraft industry was highly specialised so I’m never likely to find any demand for my expertise.
Re: What do you love about this job ?
I’m the same to be honest.
I can’t resist the thought of getting something going that doesn’t work and the satisfaction of finding that oddball fault (you’ll never forget the solution either I’ll bet, I don’t ;))
Happy customer and the banter that goes with it all makes for a good day when you leave them with a working appliance I find.
Although I’m pretty much office based these days it’s still nice to get out there and do a few repairs when the need arises, no matter how dirty the cooker, simple faults etc, job satisfaction is a major bonus with repairing anything 😀
John, stick with it if you can, we at UKW are trying to make a difference, that was one of the main (if not THE main) reasons we started the site/communication levels we have now 😀
Phidom, I know what you mean about friends within our trade, there is a commoradary that is unrivalled I believe, one of the reasons UKW has been such a success, everyone willing to help one another with no exception……..superb in my opinion 😀
Keep the comments coming, excellent replies so far….
Dave.
Re: What do you love about this job ?
i have worked previousley for tv and video repair shops even installing satellite dishes. and moved on to house wiring and slowly into this game
best bit must be the traveling around new places and meeting the married ladys 8) ( when the husbands are at work ) ive also worked subcontracting for a larger appliance repair company when there engineer was off with a bad back doing well over 120 miles a day with at least 12 breakdowns. the money helped but with work like that it makes people think twice about the work. but its all good fun. way better than any factory or booring shop work. 😀Re: What do you love about this job ?
I was born inot this trade through my father, to whom I do owe a lot, but don’t tell him okay. He worked for a company called Turner Refrigeration and was about when Noah built the ark.
When I started to get involved, before I even left school, I was out on the road with engineers doing regasses and allsorts, then Loudoun’s moved into a shop in Dumbarton Road, Partick in Glasgow. Loudoun’s, later to become Loudoun Group Services (LGS) snagged the agencies for Bauknecht (when they really were German appliance and not Whirlpool with a badge), AEG refrigeration, Candy and a host of others, including LEC, Gaggenau, Frigidaire (when it was Frigidaire with Mike McNella if anyoen recalls him, great guy if a rogue and ex-Candy), ATAG (before that “mob” Bradshaws had anything to do with them, remember the Dreefs switches anyone?), ASKO, Philco and a host of others. You could say I’ve been about the block a bit.
Finally this culminated with Zanussi. Fantastic company until Electrolux middle management managed to destroy the best, bar none, service network in the UK. Ah well, there’s corporate politics for you and what happens when you let people that don’t know the industry work with bean counters.
I then moved on to spares distribution, with varying degrees of success, sales of appliances (how the NWAR name started and it wasn’t “North West” at that time) and also doing reworks for Comet returns of Zanussi product. Then onto recons, startling failure but never mind.
But one thing remains a comforting constant through all this change and evolution, the customer. In all those years they still manage to surprise, entertain and revulse me, some even manage it all at the same time which, to my mind, is no mean feat. But the most gratifying thing of all in contract work for me is staying one step ahead of them and the contracts. Having the answer before the question is asked, just because you know what’s going to be asked or said, is immensely gratifying indeed.
K.
Re: What do you love about this job ?
It used to be the satisfaction of a successful repair; making someone’s day a little better. Years passed and my dis-satisfaction with the decline of our industry grew and grew with the descent into rubbish of the home manufacturers, not to mention what comes out of Italy.
These days, I’m quite chipper about it all again! UKW (amongst other things) names and shames the rubbish, supports each other, helps each other and is changing the perception of the business and hopefully the entire direction of the trade for the better.
If you consider your skills, most of us will be : Electrical Engineers, Mechanical Engineers, Hydraulic Engineers, Electronic Engineers, Educationalists, Social Workers and probably a bit of plumbers. Plumbers get at least £60 an hour, and they only do one thing. Look at our list.
What I really love about this business now is UKW. For better or for worse, none of us is now alone, we have support, direction and a future. And a forum to spout off in at 2 in the morning without getting shouted at!
Much.
Cheers,
Chris.Re: What do you love about this job ?
i honestly would not know what to do without UKW,
ever question i have posted there is about 3 or 4 people who can reply saving time and money for both customer and myself.
and i have often asked questions not even related to white goods and people have been kind enough to advise me. even post me manuls for an alarm i brought.
and yes i agree with Chris 2 am is great time to be posting messages
thanks UKW you realy make a hard low paid fustrating job realy enjoyable.Re: What do you love about this job ?
I love working for myself. Well kinda.
For those that haven’t figured it out, ‘The Boss’ I mention now and then is my father. He’s been doing the job for 30 years, and is an incredible engineer.
Between us, we run a tight ship. We have a shop (with workshop) which I run, and he does all the call-outs. Like Dave, I’m flexible. If we’re really busy, I can go and do some calls myself.
The best thing for me is the freedom and the challenge (to spell correctly for a start). We both love a challenge! Also the amount of job satisfaction is great, when you know you’ve really helped somebody.
For example, while typing this message, I’ve just had a sweet, old lady in the shop. She didn’t speak any English, and was holding some stupid, cheap, Samsung, plastic extension rods that had snapped. The new one’s are £30!!!! So I ‘Heath Robinsons’ her some together, took a fiver off her, and she left with a big smile on her face.
That gives me job satisfaction, her a working vacuum, then me more ‘real’ business when she tells her friends.
The boss always says, “It’s not about making money, it’s about helping people.” And with that attitude, our reputation in this area is fantastic, and our customer base is huge. I get phone calls everyday that include the line “My mother/brother/firend told me about you.”
And because I run the shop/workshop I get to play on UKW when I’m not busy. That’s what I love about this job.
Re: What do you love about this job ?
As i read through these postings (with my hanky out) I thought it is a pity that they are not on the public forum. I think a large proportion of the public would be amazed to read the real motives of most of you guys when the perceived motive is often so different ie. money grabbing cowboys just out to make a fast buck.
Sadly this perception is sometimes correct, and due to the much publicised antics of what is probably a small minority white goods repairers have a tarnished reputation.
Having said that, I am sure that UKWG is doing much to correct this situation as the public see a willingness to help them repair their appliances for no reward other than the satisfaction of ‘helping someone out’. Brilliant, but mystifying to many i suspect!
Andy 🙂
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