Would you buy Remploy

[PaulG]

Going on from the ‘make money’ thread, where I mentioned that Remploy has the contract to pick up the Comet scrap/trade in’s.

The chain goes something like this…. they buy the scrap from Comet, then they syphon the cream and scrap the crap (engineers descretion). The Cream then goes on a work bench were an engineer diagnoses the fault. The cuer for the fault is then explained to a Remploy employee (physically/mentally disabled) and he/she carries out the fitting of new part/s. Then, I assume the engineer would put it on a loaded test, pass it and put it up for sale to trade or public.
So, would you buy in recon stuff from Remploy? As far as I know, they don’t have field engineers yet, so any garantee given would be a return and exchange.

[Penguin45]

Had a very steady property customer who tried out with Remploy last year – bought 3 machines for various rented properties – two of which I had to go and repair immediately and one which lasted a month before the brushes finished. All old Logics by the way – haven’t we moved on from them by now?

Needless to say they are now safely back in the fold buying Bosch and AEG and paying the proper price for them.

Regards,
Penguin.

[kwatt]

LOL, we used to do recons and it’s a nightmare!

Would I buy a recon, no! Would I sell a recon, no! And with appliance prices so low these days I really don’t see any point in it at all now other than perhaps the likes of American FFs, but we’re not exactly tripping over them.

I can sympathise with anyone doing recons as I know the score first hand and getting a 40 footer or two of these is no fun, I can assure you. Paul, the scrap ratio is very, very high as many are just not worth the effort to even look at let alone repair. The good old days when there would be a load of Hotpoint 95’s and Logics are long gone and you tend to get a load that is very highly mixed. This makes keeping parts, even off scrapped machines, very difficult indeed and buying new spares for these is economic suicide!

Me, I’d go get a deal on new machines, far less hassle and when they break it’s not your problem.

K.

[Alex]

Re: Would you buy Remploy

Goes anyone remember Down to Earth Electrical.

They used to take back all the Comet scrap and recon, they operated out of this town, but sold throughout the whole country. Used to have 22 staff reconning all the time and sell to the trade, either raw or reconned products.

Run by a bloke called Tim Grabham. Comet changed their strategy and he was left with nothing.

[PaulG]

Re: Would you buy Remploy

The good old recon days 😀 . If I had a shop I wouldn’t dream of buying anything from Remploy, to quote Penguin

” – bought 3 machines for various rented properties – two of which I had to go and repair immediately and one which lasted a month before the brushes finished.”
.
That is what I suspected would happen.

Before Remploy got the big Comet contract, I used to go to the washer grave yard who had the contract and buy Whirlpools for £20, usually under 3 years old. I would bring them home, strip them down totally. I would give all the bits to my wife to clean, every button,knob and bit of plastic, removable. I would repair or replace what was needed and check the brushes to make sure there was sufficiant life left in them.
I would sell them from £120 to £160 with a years garantee. I could justify this because I knew they were done properly.
They were only sold to friends and friends of friends and relatives etc. But when I became self employed, I got 2 small verbal contracts to supply property companies. This time, I bought in trade ‘graded appliances’ cheap and cheerfull, nice profit….NOT. Been as they were on a return for exchange/repair and that almost every machine went down within the 12 months garantee, it proved a nightmare.
It has to be new, with manufactures garantee or reconed by myself, once bitten and all that.

[sparkey]

Re: Would you buy Remploy

Paul Wrote

They were only sold to friends and friends of friends and relatives etc.

Have you not heard of the old addage that you never sell or repair anything for friends, neighbours and relations? if you do it’s bound to go pear shaped leaving you with egg on your face 😳

[PaulG]

Re: Would you buy Remploy

Yes ive heard that sparky, but I was moonlighting at the time of the recons, so I could hardly advertise them. Out of the scores I sold, only one went down within the 12 months. Unfortanately for me, it was an over heat problem. It stripped my mates wall paper in his kitchen, I gave him a tumble dryer in compo along with the repair. 🙂

[Dave_Conway]

Re: Would you buy Remploy

I had a letter from Remploy this morning inviting me to visit their new facility at Bristol.

Thanks, but no thanks ! The recon market here is no more, it has ceased to be and gone to the great scrapyard in the sky.

Dave.

[kwatt]

Well when you can buy a 1000 spin washer (okay, it is an Indesit) for £150 plus VAT in Makro, I’d be forced to agree.

K.

[timdowning]

Re: Would you buy Remploy

Two points;

1)

Have peoples feelings changed in regards to Remploy? In the fact that using Remploy could get ISE agents out of a financial burden due to the WEEE Directive.

2)

I have, in the past year, covered numerous repairs on machines sold through Oxfam / Remploy. I have been suprised at the number of repairs that have been due to worn carbon brushes, poor looming, blocked pressure systems.

In Example; yesterday, I had a Bosch wff1201 bought 6 months ago. The faults were worn brushes, noisy pump, and totally blocked pressure reservoir. Now this machine was sold for £110. My cost of repair was just under this. The repair was authorised.

Now my point is Remploy surely won’t survive if this is a trend seen nationwide.

This obviously has implications to all of us if we are relying on such companies to help us avoid WEEE Directive costs.

Cheers.

[nationalhomecare]

Re: Would you buy Remploy

Hi Guys
I was on my own for 4 years and did recons, used to put them in the free-ads etc, it was a case of making ends meet on quiet months!
We used to recon Zanussi FL1012, 812, 811s etc, even the odd tidy washcraft! and would sell for £85 upwards and proved almost bullet proof.
Iwas very particular about what we sold. even paranoid!! especially when I took on a verbal contract to supply one of the local retailers wit 95 series hotpoints. We would strip it completely, fit a brace bar, new pivot cups on suspension legs, bearings brushes and doorseal & timer connections, had an old hoover single tub boiler that we used for the cleaning of all plastic bits, they looked superb! The retailer sold them for 160 and covered the warranty work but I would supply any parts needed, was all done on trust. Believe it or not, in 2 years i only had 1 fail!
Then the retailer started buying in ‘recons’ on a cost basis, I never seen nothing like it! Half of them didn’t even work to start with and none had the brushes replaced, some were even worn out to start with!
On this account i’d never buy a recon from someone else unless i knew them personally, further more, I WOULDN’T BUY GRADED!
Needles to say, I would never go back self employed by personal choice as its so hard for independants these days and I wont repair/recon anything for anyone, there are people out there trying to make a living from it, i’m on PAYE now and its not fair taking the bread out of other peoples mouths, well thats how i feel!! :rolls: 😳
Steve

[kwatt]

Re: Would you buy Remploy

See, here’s the thing…

I used to sell recons, both bought in and also done in-house and, to be quite honest, there’s no easy answer as many engineers will never be happy unless they do it themselves, thier way, to their standard.

When there’s commercial pressure brought to bear by putting your margin on top of the recon company’s to the customer there’s gonna be compromises made. If they were too expensive then nobody would buy them.

But then, with crappy machines new with a 12 month warranty selling out at under £200 you have to compromise on recons anyway.

In short, there’s no easy answer.

K.

[aqualectric]

Re: Would you buy Remploy

This subject is closely linked to the ‘WEEE directive’ posting (General Trade Forum). If what Ken says is right, the WEEE means it’s the end of the road for the recon trade anyway!
I’ve encountered some “reconditioned” machines from these outlets in the recent past. Now, as Nationalhomecare says, a true ‘recon’ is a strip down and rebuild; ground up; anything worn, change it scenario. These machines are simply “repaired secondhand” at best. A bona fide recon today is not a viable proposition due to the cost of spares – and the fact that the manufacturers’ short production life of each model makes the designs date very quickly.
I gave up recons 4 years ago concluding that, given the time and care I was taking with each machine and honouring the guarantee, the customer got a fantastic product. BUT….. in ££’s per hour, I’d would’ve been financially better off with a paper round!! :bang:

Steve.

[waters]

Re: Would you buy Remploy

Well as yet i have a shop and still do recons.I have been there 9 years and can still sell hp wm and wma machines for 120-140 pounds with 3 month or 6 month guarantee option.Argos and big w up the road sell new at 165 pounds.
However ,this is the limit,I am now worried that if these come down more in price i am finished.I cant compete on new prices,even buying from d.a.d.New cookers are being sold in local hardware store for 135 pounds,washers 165 pounds.I have c&guilds in domestic appliance repairs and but who wants an hotpoint engineer.Also qualified to repair refrigeration but these are very hard to get hold of now.

[kwatt]

The only ray of light here is that WEEE is being billed as pushing up the prices. 😈

K.

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