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I have had this ready for a while and, so as you all know what’s going on I’ll let you have sight of what’s been written thus far although, the final release version will probably alter some.
This is obviously not public knowledge and, until a final outcome is reached, I’d much prefer it to remain so if you don’t mind.
What Really Happened
ISE was bimbling along quite nicely, not exactly making money but, it did okay until 2012.
I’ll give you the (very) condensed version of what’s gone on since then. Much to quell rumour and heresy as much as anything as, this is from the horse’s mouth as it were, not a third hand speculative bunch of crap.
In 2011/12 the whole Whitbread/Graffters thing haunted us, the effect of it was deep and put a hole in ISE. That year also John left, another hammer blow in many ways but, with the downturn in turnover it was the right choice.
At that time Gorenje bought Asko Sweden.
Toward the end of 2012 I got ill. I had some virus thing (still unidentified) that took me out for the best part of six months or more and, in that time we learned that the production was to move from its traditional home in Sweden to Slovenia.
It was a fact. It was happening. No choice.
Production would be closed from the end of January 2013 for three months. Turned out it was a bit more than that but, not really relevant.
January 2013 Which? gave the Eco a glowing-ish review and the sales flipped on their head from being primarily W256 to W288. We didn’t have the stock or, the stock on order to be able to supply the demand.
Tried to alter that, not possible.
Ran out of W288 and needed more but hadn’t sold through the stock of W256 that we had on stock. So, not enough money to replenish it.
Asko (now I call them Gorasko) said that if we paid what was outstanding they’d supply but that now credit was removed and so we’d have to pay up front to get stock. Of course they did the dirty and told us this after we’d paid up, changed the deal after the fact basically. This didn’t just cause an upset, it completely altered the business model at a fundamental level, essentially turning it completely upside down and to compensate would have required an immense investment that we simply did not and, do not, have.
Aside which it broke trust and these events tainted all that was to follow.
This was July of 2013.
Much to-ing and fro-ing later they agreed to supply one container with a partial up-front payment and that was done.
It was at this point that I/we sussed or rather, begrudgingly accepted, that this was not a sustainable model. The bottom line being that, the bottom line wasn’t good enough as ISE was not profitable and, without a massive price hike, wouldn’t be.
More debate and not a lot of info from Gorasko which dragged on and on.
Then in July/August time this year, Gorenje decided that they’d also pull the credit on spares as well (without notice, again), even knowing the ongoing issues.
With hindsight we should have probably closed the doors on ISE right then but, we didn’t. We carried on in the hope that a solution could be found, a compromise made.
Alas it wasn’t to be.
Over one year later, from the initial problem of funding ISE from what was there, everything that was there as well a a whole heap that wasn’t there and had to be funded from other sources I finally called a halt to it. You can only haemorrhage cash for so long before you get the message that it cannot be sustained.
Were there mistakes made by ISE, probably but none that I can see you could avoid or make any better in that, you’d arrive at a different outcome.
Before you offer your own critique however please stop to think that, unless you have something like £100-200K to put it right and are willing to put that money where your mouth is, your opinion may not carry a lot of weight with me.
Likewise, if you reckon you can do better then do so or I’ll even sell you ISE lock stock and barrel if you like to give you a headstart. There is a chance ISE will find a new owner but, I cannot say anything about that for now.
In the absence of either though, please keep your own council.
Let me say that ISE isn’t the money machine that many appear to think it is, quite the reverse it’s cost me a damned small fortune to try to give the engineers ISE and all it entailed.
With heavy heart in all of this I had to make two people redundant this week, a part of the job I utterly despise but sadly required. Others had to be moved into different roles.
Due to that ISE will move to email support only for the interim until a new owner is found or whatever will happen, happens. We will endeavour to support the products out there as best possible but it will be restricted for obvious reasons.
ISE is a wholly separate business, in part for this reason, so it does not affect anything else at all, it is completely limited to ISE by design. To me, it was a hobby and no more than that to the extent that I have never drawn from ISE (other that £50 one time) so it’s not of any huge practical importance to me personally really.
There is of course more to this story and this is, believe it or not, the very, very condensed version as I’ve skipped over loads of contributory factors but this is the pertinent stuff an where it’s at now.
It was given the best shot. The best chances all along. It didn’t work.
————————————–So far ISE has, over the past two years, cost me about £70,000 that I can pin easily and I dread to think how much more that isn’t just a straight out and out loss.
I also stand to lose out as a retailer if it all goes pear shaped as there’s a responsibility there as well. Albeit with what I have learned over the past few years thanks largely to Jackal and a lot of study, that can be mitigated in part but, it’s still a bloody hassle I don’t need.
Other stuff’s gone on but, it’s a long, long story minus a happy ending.
K.
Re: What Really Happened
I know I am not active on here much due to my health, but have I missed something?
Ken if you need some help or advice, email me and I can look at things for you from an outside perspective.
I am around tomorrow till about 2pm, and all day Friday, talk to me!
C
Re: What Really Happened
Thanks but I’ve got that Gas Safe thing going on so travelling and out the office until Monday now as I’ve something else to deal with tomorrow morning.
You’ve not missed anything though as we’ve managed to maintain things in the hope that it would all get resolved for a long time.
There are one or two that may be interested in taking ISE on but, that’s not a done deal at this point.
K.
Re: What Really Happened
Pardon my ignorance Ken, ‘the Whitbread/Grafters thing’ is it possible for you to say what happened?
Jim.
Re: What Really Happened
Yeah, now it doesn’t matter.
Grafters went bust owing us £60K or thereabouts.
Got most of it, eventually but it took the best part of a year and bloody battle.
K.
Re: What Really Happened
You know, in a bunch of ways I’m actually rather relieved that this is now out in the open.
I was thrust into running ISE as such, it was never my bag and it just sorta fell on me after John departed as I was “that guy” more than, “the guy that ought to run this”.
Sure, I did a lot of the writing and tech support to a degree but, actually involved in it all, not really.
I really didn’t want to do it.
It’s really hard to defend the troops when, time and time again a good number of them prove that they are complete and utter f**kwits that should never have been allowed to run a business as, bluntly, they’ve not got a bl00dy clue. Some shouldn’t be allowed to own tools let alone work on stuff.
Generally, their admin is frankly shockingly bad, then they wonder why they don’t get paid or paid on time.
Diagnostics! F me, half or more of them couldn’t diagnose that they trod on broken glass let alone find an actual fault on something. The pain and bleeding wouldn’t give them much of a clue, they’d just order up a new set of feet then ponder why it happened after they walked over the sparky stuff on the floor after they replaced them.
Then you try to help them, point them in the right direction to actually do their job, you know, repairing stuff that’s busted along with working out why it got busted in the first place and all you get is slagged off for it. Apparently if you tell the truth you’re mean, a smart a$$, a bully or some such cr4p.
Someone tells me I’ve screwed up, I look at it, analyse and work out why.
Apparently I’m not doing that correctly. What I should do is just shout at someone and blame them for, well, whatever so long as I get my way.
In part that’s why ISE is where it is, I looked at some of the stuff that’s gone through and on a quick tally over this year I reckon that there’s the best part of £20K worth of calls and/or parts been used that are completely and wholly a waste. And, it’s not been mad busy as sales are down.
But Tim wound me up tonight. Where’s he getting the info from, the Dominic Littlewood hotline?
Customers are just as bad, often worse. Complete idiots that think they bought a machine with a full concierge service as well as an unconditional, all-encompassing warranty that will cover their inability to look after stuff. I think they see it as, it’s a warranty so they don’t have to pay for anything so, they don’t have to bother taking any care of it as good old ISE will stump up for their stupidity. Then they bitch when they find that’s not the case.
Meanwhile, the troops don’t want the hassle of the above so just “slide it through” as a warranty claim.
Some of it is entertaining as it’s so dumb you wouldn’t believe it. Some is just ought and ought fraud. Some is just abject stupidity. But it accounts for about 60-75{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of all calls placed.
So in no small part, I’ll be glad to see the back of it. It’s a money pit, you often find yourself arguing the toss with both the customer and the engineer among other gems and, had I known this a while back before John left and all the rest, I’d have knocked it on the head long ago.
There may well be some sort of glory in having your own brand but, I can assure you first hand, there’s no money in it and sh1tlot of grief.
It strikes me as little wonder the industry is as messed up as it is.
K.
Re: What Really Happened
That figure of ’60-75{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of all calls placed’ being bogus, misdiagnosed or fraud is very alarming, is it really so high. :eeek:
Re: What Really Happened
I must admit, reading a lot of the posts in the Trade Forums does make me cringe at times, still surprised at that level of incompetence though. 🙁
Re: What Really Happened
I dumb it down Jim, you get this really…
The genuine ones, usually from people that know what they’re doing and there’s no issue with the call. This is the minority.
You get the parts fitters that go, just order up and chuck parts at stuff, no clue why the problem was ever there. They see it as not their problem as they’re not paying for the parts as they are “free”.
You get the ones that don’t bother going, they remote diagnose and order up a bunch of bits in advance then go fit them, whether required or not, whether actually fitted or not they are “fitted”.
Recently we’ve had a number where they will accept the call and attend (maybe) then decide that the job’s too hard, not worth the bother or they’re too busy then just bounce it back. Meanwhile the customer is going ape sh1t.
When the calls come back in, the clever ones (or should that be, more than an IQ of 80) will send it back with a reasonable explanation on it on what was done and fitted. Even although that in a good many cases looking at the machine, age and reported fault you know it’s complete bullsh1t.
Then there’s those that aren’ that clever or, simply don’t care. They are just a complete hoot to read as you get things like, reported fault “not draining” with a “replaced drum bearings” sort of thing on them. Just lies essentially.
The one that really cracks us up is the guys that order up a pump for not draining but will not accept just the pump body, they want the complete filter and pump chamber assy but insist that it’s not been damaged. Ehm, so why do you need that then?
An example I have in front of me right now and, this one may well kick off in the forums is this…
W256W installed 01-03-2013
Report: Tripping electrics
Engineer report: Heater element damaged due to rubbing on bracket for holding heater in place in drum, Removed drum paddle and adjusted bracket so as heater element is held tight in place and doesn’t move. Locking clip on drum paddle broke so asked for a replacement to be sent to customer.
Parts used: Element and drum paddle
Seems okay, yes?
Well on 09-06-14 this chap replaced, guess what… the heater! Apparently going to earth.
We look and, keep in mind this is also the seller, that it’s on a farm and was sold with a 10 year warranty but, not only is it a farm, it’s a business that builds and services agricultural machinery too boot.
Two heaters, in six months, business… it’s not rocket science.
Either that or, the guy’s not fitted the one he replaced little over three months prior incorrectly.
Believe me, this sort of nonsense is so far from uncommon as to almost be regarded the norm.
K.
Re: What Really Happened
Oh how interesting life gets.
Had TS in about that idiot in Stranraer. Essentially they agreed with the position but didn’t like it much and tried to do the old “you sold the machine” thing and all that malarkey but thought better after a few choice points were made.
Told the dude it was irrelevant anyway as ISE was to cease trading. Not much to go at there.
But what really surprised me was when I mentioned the fraudulent or false claims running to 60-70{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of all claims made… the guy didn’t even bat an eye and said, verbatim, “You’ll get that though”!
I was somewhat surprised as I at least expected a sorta, really, that high sort of conversation but, no.
Next up, the MSE forum.
It’s bloody hilarious.
Three accounts, all Adrian talking to himself in a vacuum.
I was going to respond but, to be honest, it’s probably better to let him embarrass himself and realise that nobody cares and as he’s made out that he’s a poor hard done by trader, in that forum, the people there really don’t give a sh1t about him or his woes.
Meanwhile I *may* have parts sorted but it might take a time to come right and, on the down-low, I *may* be able to help people on that score. But, it’s far from a done deal.
However I feel that this saga may well be not quite at its end just yet.
Something happened that is very odd but, I need time for it to play out so I can see where it’s going to go. Might be weeks, might be months, might be never but let’s just say that it involves factory, volume and a national retailer.
There may well be a reason that ISE was torpedoed.
K.
Re: What Really Happened
Just noticed that the ISE advertising banner is still coming up in the Trade Tech forum, should it not be removed for present?
Jim
Re: What Really Happened
I see that Martin has dug out his large wooden spoon again. Sh*t Stirrer :rolls:
Not sure if he has ever worked on an ISE 10 machine to start with, also didn’t he have some involvement with re writing the very first ISE manuals, wasn’t he given a machine to test to assist him in this? Hardly the actions of someone who purports to have ‘seen through’ ISE from the start. 🙁
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