[Alex]

Re: “New” Coverplan

kheath wrote:We all at some time suffer a shortage of manpower due to sickness and external circumstances. It certainly raises the stress levels of our own staff and that of customers.

…………. but consider why should any organisation want to undermine the network by demanding more than is possible, in the current climate of no available engineers and low returns? If they hack you off to the point of no return, where are they going to go?

I think we have all pushed for reasoned debate rather than action and feel sure here if there’s any truth to this, that is the way forward.

Kevin

Update.

This morning first thing another engineer has dropped with this flu bug. That makes 3 out of action from 6 engineers and another is complaining of the symptoms.

This is not a good time for this new initiative to come along. We are now looking at week after next in some cases, how does 2 day response fare with the customer who has been rescheduled 3 times already? and has not been assured then that we will be able to make it.

Alex

[Alex]

Re: “New” Coverplan

This bothers me, reason being, Iv’e lost an engineer to Brit Gas, and now I have 2 off sick. This is having a serious impact on my business, and the last thing I need right now is a new regime which due to issues beyond my control, I cannot address.

Without blowing a trumpet, I or rather the company, have always been at the top of the D&G survey for the area, whether that be under the Service Force umbrella or as an individual D&G agent. In addition I’m sure the likes of CDSL and MFI cannot complain of service issues where we are concerned. Now we get hit by this bad spell and it looks like we would be in trouble if this comes in to play.

I spent Sunday lunch time on the phone cancelling service calls when one engineer went sick, he was fully booked all week. Tues 8.30 we get a call from the wife on another engineer who went down with the flu, & I mean flu, not just a cold. We then spent a good bit of that morning cancelling his calls, as with the 1st guy, he was fully booked for a whole week. That means up to 90 calls have now had to be put forward a whole 7 days, imagine the stress that has put on my girls. Where in that can I possibly attend a 2 day Currys screamer? It is that bad, I’m out doing 9 calls a day, and My Doctor told me to reduce my workload by 30{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}. Yeah o.k.

I would like to know if the likes of us will be remembered or even recognised for our efforts when things are running well, or are we going to get brow beaten when we have internal issues that are beyond our control.

If this is more than a rumour, I’m not happy.

Alex

p.s. As regards this “New Coverplan” I have not been advised of this through the Service Force network, so maybe it is all speculation or rhetoric at this stage.

[Alex]

Dave_Conway wrote:

kwatt wrote:
AGORA can be accessed without each manufacturers permission apparently

Can it ? 😯

I always thought that each area had to be authorised by the manufacturer and have the relevent account in place.

Let’s see what they say anyway 😀

Dave.

I have to say I thought it was restriced according to whom you are given permission by, if you get my drift.

We can access the Brandt section only, and I’m expecting that to end soon. It isn’t the best of sites, but better than some of the far eastern ones.

Alex

[Alex]

Re: British Gas…time to tell all

I want to keep this live as well, but we want to try & keep it relevant.

Mr Fly on the wall, who has moved over to them is in darkest Rotherham this week traing a bit more so we may not learn anything from him for a while.

One tit-bit though, he has been in regular contact with one of my Techs. Apparently there is a new logging system coming into effect Feb, they will pass one call only at a time, when the engineer finishes his call and downloads his info from the terminal, they will then pass the next call. He is well pissed off, they have him on a tracker system and now this. Before he worked for me he was self employed, I’ve since learned he kept up his private work and made his own calls between doing a day’s work for me. Now he can’t do that. Tee Hee.

I’m waiting to see if he will be posting anything, so may be interesting to see what he may have to say.

In the meantime though as Martin says, let’s not get sidetracked on the public forum. If I get any feedback from customers I will point them to UKW.

Alex

[Alex]

Re: quiet as a mouse

Not Quiet in Somerset, North Dorset and East Devon either. We are booking Tuesday next week, being 1st Feb.

Engineer off sick and has thrown us into apoplexy. I sat in the office Sunday Lunchtime and was unbooking calls that were booked for Monday. It is that bad even I’m out doing calls. They will be back as recalls next week I suspect as I’m rusty to say the least.

I do wish customers would stop and think before giving us grief about an AEG Dishwasher going wrong. How many times do you hear of Hospital appointments being cancelled or there isn’t a bed? Genuine Life & Death situation. Yet a poxy D/Washer doesn’t heat and to the customer it is the end of the world. “Roll up your sleves Madam & Get Real” I say.

Grrrrrrr!!!

Alex

[Alex]

Re: Freezer still not sorted

You should not be writing this off, clowns like this give the trade a bad name.

1) Tell him about this site and that you have posted it, advise him that if he has a conscience he had better respond favourably.

2) Contact your local trading standards who are within your local authority. They may well have a record of any previous dealings.

3) Inform the source of where you found this repairer that you may have been the victim of sharp practice. Whether it was by an advert, word of mouth you will need to ensure this does not continue.

4) Most importantly tell him you will do this unless you receive a full refund.

If all else fails, then name & shame him, you never know he may be well known.

[Alex]

Re: JUST RAMBLING ON

Just go out and buy yourself a DVD player these days. Look at the gubbins in that and compare to a board in a Servis W/Machine.

The DVD player has moving bits, a board or two, a cabinet of sorts, remote control and maybe a licence fee to Dolby, all included for less than £20.

Maybe the money comes in via add ons, insurance and support from the disc industry in this case, I don’t know.

Alex

[Alex]

Re: Fly-on-the-wall?

Dave, Fly_on_the_wall, is he really a friend? He was self employed in the Wells area for a couple of years, but I don’t think he could handle it.

This is the guy that buggered off to B.Gas after a month. He pissed me off at the time, but I’m going to remain friendly with him as I hope he will keep me up to speed with B.Gas. If you know him Dave, you may get some input as well.

He tells me he has spent a week in Rotherham on a course, (Poor sod) the course consited of being told every possible way you can get the sack and how to avoid this. He has now been put out with another engineer to learn the paperwork & practices. Then he’s back to Rotherham for another 2 weeks on alarms. If Kevin is looking for engineers, may pay to sit outside the gates and make them an offer.

He had a manual of ours and he tells me he can’t deliver it back as there is a tracker in the van and they log his movements; that’ll teach him, and he lives about 30 miles away. He tried to drop it in one night using his car, but the manual wouldn’t fit in the letterbox. An engineer is picking it up from his home today.

To add to this, they have a clause that means he will have to pay back training costs if he leaves in a certain time, I wish I’d done that, there again he may have stayed.

Alex

[Alex]

Re: British Gas…time to tell all

I must admit it is losing the plot slightly, Woz got me going on that one, and I suppose there should be a seperate thread relating to how companies are pulling away our rescources.

We need to construct something to put us back on track I suppose.

Alex

[Alex]

Re: British Gas…time to tell all

I think Warren Thompson just dropped himself in it.

If you don’t know what I’m on about, take a look at his posting earlier today. More or less admitted they are tarred with a similar brush.

I’ve a feeling I won’t be on his Xmas card list.

[Alex]

Re: British Gas…time to tell all

Without a doubt one for the Agenda on the Friday meeting at Sibson.

We also need to watch Comet, sources tell me they will be finalising their roll out of in house service to encapsulate the whole of the UK by end 2005.

What we need is a B.G. engineer or even better an EX-Engineer to have the balls to put up on the site how this is actually being operated.

I have a meeting with Steve Clarke on 26th Jan and it is related to rates and the fact this is happening and is beyond our control due to poor returns, being we cannot reward and indeed contain our biggest asset, the engineers.

There may be a good side that perhaps the likes of Service Force & Whirlpool will become a little more realistic.

Like you I fail to comprehend why an engineer feels better off getting an extra £20 per week and suffer the regime they have to endure in order to get this. I would like to think my team have a little more respect for me and remember where they are well off.

2 of them are ex Electricity Board and one ex National Nightmare, so they have the tee shirts and bruises. By the way one of those is 64 next month, your old mate Rodney that is. Still leaves all the others behind on performance.

I bet if it all goes tits up with B.G you would not have those techs. back again!

Alex

[Alex]

Re: British Gas…time to tell all

Pourings from the heart I’m afraid.

You take someone on, start the training then they piss off to the likes of B. Gas.

He left a legacy of recalls, so he will be in good company with that lot.

What also jars me off is he “Borrowed” a sensitive manual of electronic fault codes and fault finding that were issued to all engineers that took a course. Now I can’t get it back. 1st of all he promised he would leave it in his front porch, but it wasn’t there, now he is not responding to my calls.

You can bet your ass B.G. now have a chance of getting hold of this info.

What I’m looking for is evidence that B.G. engineers are being encouraged to poach other techs.

Alex

[Alex]

Re: D&G

I take no prisoners on abort calls. I’ve had them with D&G, MFI Smeg & Service Force. I will NOT re-book unless we get a credit card payment over the phone from the offender for £28 + vat.

If D&G or whoever give me grief, I tell them that it costs me £26.95 to get an engineer to the door, if the customer isn’t paying me for this, are you?

We have an MFI one on the go, engineer goes to the call in the sticks, note on door, ” Cooker man, please phone …… and I will come home”. He phones and bloke says I will be there in about an hour. Engineer says I can’t wait that long, you need to phone the office to re-book, customer tells him to piss off, so he did. I am insisting on a new job number and confirmation that MFI will pay again.

We had a Beko customer that told an engineer who was on his doorstep to eff off, that was early in December, as he was going out. Eng did eff off, and this guy was without his cooker over christmas. I enjoyed my turkey.

I have never climbed down yet & I aint going to start now.

[Alex]

Re: British Gas…time to tell all

Martin wrote:And Dented Porsche may be our man ‘on the inside’ :rotl:

Martin

Not if I can help it.

In this room only, I have set him up to talk to Steve Harrison the service Force agent from West Wales who has recently gained Swansea from the defunct Cardiff operation that was run by TR services of Bristol.

The reason I prefer to keep it in here is because if you read his post, Dented Porsche is about to leave a small family business, a bit like some of us; and I don’t want to make it look like UKW had a part in it. After all we don’t want to be tarred with the same brush as B/Gas.

If this works, it will be a little payback for stealing one from me. I’m not looking at using D.P. as a pawn, I’m thinking of his interests as well, and Steve Harrison is a decent guy.

If there is likely to be a guy on the inside, I asked “fly_on_the_wall” to keep this forum updated, particularly on the B.G. front. I think he is nieve enough to do so as well.

Still pissed off though.

Alex

[Alex]

Re: British Gas…time to tell all

This is indeed a serious problem, and it bothers me. The likes of our esteemed work providers fail to grasp the point that we cannot afford to get near the wages being offered by the big boys. Whether this is a secret agenda by Brit Gas I don’t know, but if they pull away all our staff, that in turn undermines us and they will pick up the pieces.

The reason for this diatribe is; one of the members of this site, “fly_on_the_wall” approached me for a job after I posted I was looking for an engineer. He lived over the border in an area I did not cover for Service Force, so I interviewed him and he seemed experienced as he had worked 3 years Gias & 3 years Euronics AEG agent.

As he resided out of my area I was a bit reluctant, but I got wind of the news that the engineer my Service Force neighbour that worked that area handed in his notice. I spoke to MR. Fly on the Wall and advised him if I can capture his home patch; we were in business. He was enthusiastic. So, after a few phone calls and meetings pouring over maps, I got the area and took this guy on. On top of that I spoke to Dave Parker & we were talking about another 10 postcodes.

Taking this bloke on meant, kitted out van, meters, special tools, phone with blue tooth, uniform, a bit of Lux training. We even put him with the other guys individually for a week to get to know the paperwork trail. So he was up & running for 1 week then Christmas. He dropped the bombshell as soon as he came back after the holiday that he was contacted by Brit Gas several times over the Xmas period and he was off. A mate of his worked for BG and passed on his phone number. Then comes the kicker, this bloody mate then handed in his notice with BG as he was pissed off with the running around.

There was a good side, which is the reason I’ve not made this public. Mr Fly on the Wall was a total disaster. For every 3 machines he repaired, 4 came back as a recall. He kept “losing” stock, failed to get serial numbers or insurance details, sometimes failed to collect the money. All in all glad to see the back of the tosser. But it has left me with a larger area, including a city and less coverage. The result of that is; chargeable customers are voting with their feet and cannot wait a week for us to call.

The moral of the story is, bloody Brit Gas is still screwing me 3 years after they pulled the plug.

A well pissed off Alex

See you at the meeting

[Author]

Posts