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Re: Which Leads Me Onto…
Simply tell everyone; “chances are your colleagues are on it, your enemies may be on it, your work providers take an active interest and above all there is nothing to lose by being part of your own destiny”.
One important thing; whenever you get approached by RETRA FSB or FPB etc. there is a hefty subscription fee, and doubtless the person sat in your office trying to cajole you into joining his society is on a commission. We are not, just simply on a mission.
Whether is is a sole trader or multi branded agent we are all suffering the same effects this industry has to offer us. Don’t let it die around us, we are professionals and in 10 years time there will be less good repairers out there.
Legislation is getting more stringent, we need to keep together to be conversant with the demands that are creeping in. Added to that, pooling of information, location and identification of odd spares. Tales of woe, and lets not forget the funny stories just to remind ourselves, it isn’t that bad really.
You are not alone, but so easily could be.
Alex
Re: Revenue Report
I’m beginning to like the look of this.
It starts with a germ of an Idea and before you know it up come some very good and valid points. Pat on the back for Martin I think, he has put up exactly what we should be working towards, a case of “Why didn’t I think of that, or why didn’t I put that up”?
The sharing of information has been bandied about before, but never taken off; I suspect because some have this information, but are reluctant to release to a competitor who may be browsing & get something for nothing. Whereas, if in the subscriber forum, you are dealing with a friend and colleague instead of your local unfriendly rip-off merchant. That should raise the credibilty of UKW and set us on the way to more recognition in the trade.
The pooling or banding of companies to create a buying partnership regards insurance etc. Great, will save money; but there are too many doing that anyway, (Corgi, Retra, F.P.B. F.S.B. or possibly DASA if they wake up from hibernation). We could take it further with Diesel cards, stationary or office suppliers as well as block advertising in Yellow pages.
Why not web design? Offer every Subscriber a single page web through UKW, Maybe they pay for their own domain name and we could expand their website and set charges according to requirements. All the links could be put in to other members sites, or even an auto divert to your own site you already own.
The list is endless, and the possibilities are mind boggling.
The trade knows we are out there, and they look in from time to time. It is difficult for us to go anywhere without becoming a Trade Association, Trade Union or Cartel. However we must ensure we do not fall into the category of a guerrilla movement.
We are a group of like minded professionals, and must not be confused with a group of professional minders.
Alex
Re: Customer Stupidity.
You are not alone and this is the time of year they come out.
We had a call from a customer last week, ancient Zanussi D/Washer on/off button jammed in. From experience we knew that a fascia would be needed, so we told the customer we would order the fascia, give her a ring when in & arrange the call. To be on the safe side we took the on/off switch as well as a button as the call was in the wilds of Exmoor.
Engineer called today, found as suspected the fascia was reqd. But, all basket wheels were off, as well as the side runner wheels, the top basket stops all 3 parts of the filter and flap to the dispenser had disintegrated. Added to that the venturi for the top spray arm was needed and the arm was left on the side as the nut on top had lost its thread.
The woman was apalled that we turned up without all these parts. Had the silly moo told us, then at least we could have been prepared, she knew we were ordering parts in advance regards the fascia. Needless to say D&G has now written it off.
The closing comments were, “Will I get a new D/Washer in time for Christmas? this one has been wrong for a few weeks now & I can’t manage without it over the holiday period”! We neded a customer like this when we have 2 engineers off sick and this is the busiest time.
I bet there are similar seasonal tales, I hate this time of year. Bah Humbug!!!!
Alex
Re: Unpaid customer invoices
They say possession is 90{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of the law.
Legally once you fit a part, you cannot reclaim it.
If a customer fails to pay or a cheque is dishonoured, it is a criminal offence, called “Bilking”. Trouble is once the repair is complete, you have a hell of a struggle to get anything back to cover the losses. As with insurance claims, it is left to the good honest customers to subsidise the losses.
We always go the route of the Bureau of Credit Management if that fails, County court summons no matter what. I know in some cases it is a waste of time/money but the success rate makes it viable. We had 3 last summer, 1 was nearly £200 the others about £70 – £80. The £200 one paid up once the bailiffs arrived, that went some way towards easing the pain on the other 2. So it does help.
Alex
Re: Unpaid customer invoices
Might be worth getting registered with the Bureau of Credit Management.
They will send you a pack and then support every claim you have, and you get all the money, there is no rake off for them, It will cost a couple of hundred to register, but it works.
They aren’t a collection company but they will provide you with all the paperwork that will send shivers down the punters spine. It looks very official but you instigate it yourself.
Alex
Re: brandt
kheath wrote:I will receive much more technical help from now, they will make themselves more available, I will receive tech bullitins , all spares will be accepted as returns with no postage charges, any calls cocked up by them which I attend will be paid to me.
Kevin.Sounds good.
Being the cynic I am; Why has this not happened before?
Why did we never get any technical help? never be able to arrange returns? and what bulletins?
What have they been able to put in place to address this? Will we ever see it?
Moreover, why hasn’t Brandt picked up the bloody phone, followed up any of our issues and at least listened to our cries of help? There has never been any effort on their part to work in a partnership & a Leopard never changes its spots.
Regretfully poor old D&G are left carrying the can. Roll on 17th December. Unless Santa has something special for us!
Alex
Re: Ford Connect Premature Tyre Wear
The main tread area is fine, still had 4-mm on the face. The problem is right on the inside & only visible on full lock. Take a look at the link I put up earlier & you will see what I mean.
1 Van was on Bridgestone, lasted 8,000 miles. The other 2 were on Continentals & they went approx 10,000 miles. The vans these engineers used before were Berlingo’s and they got an average of 18,000 out of them.
BTW. I’m glad Martin liked the festive Avatar, I got it from a very good source. I owe some kind soul a pint.
Alex
Re: Ford Connect Premature Tyre Wear
I thought It may be a good idea.
Reason being, not only our limited trade may be suffering this, but it seems to be a general thing. Therefore if any member of the public just types into a decent search engine this query, they will see they are not alone. I thought if I put it into a trade forum and any interested persons were browsing the net in search of answers on this, they would at least be aware it isn’t unique to them.
Any problems, and if you think it prudent then by all means move it to a different location.
I’ve found a Peugeot dealer offering Partner vans for £5995 plus vat. I get about 17,000 out of tyres on those, whereas the Ford is about 8 to 10k
Re: brandt
Ken, those figures are frightening.
Regretfully I never had the foresight to separate my Brandt from the rest of the D&G for accountancy purposes. However, I can drill out of the call logging system what has been Brandt & given a bit of time I may do some number crunching. The results could depress me.
The issue I have is related to the manner Brandt have been pissing me about, to date money hasn’t come into it. If I do look at it financially, it could drive me to drink.
If the silly buggers who come out this time every year could give us a bit of a breather; (My cooker went wrong last Summer & I want it done for Xmas) I will pull out some statistics.
Alex
Re: brandt
appboy wrote:, I was thrown off the network and lost all my other D & G work.
I have made numerous requests to rejoin, but because I won’t do the Brandt work they don’t want to know!Good luck!Phil
I’ve been awaiting this one. The reason is, I thought they would have done that to me; then I realised there is no other company in Somerset, South East Devon (where we are only 2nd Tier), South West Wilts & North Dorset that have the skills etc we carry. There are plenty out there, but not with all the skill sets and the staff levels.
They never even threatened to remove me from the network, in fact they are still going to continue passing me all other work. Maybe for the time being, but I will watch how it goes. No sad loss regards the work, but I do like D&G, and it would be a shame on their part if agents are dropped all because of one man; Oh! sorry: I meant one company. (Hush my mouth)
Alex
Re: What is it with Zanussi washing machine drum bearings?
ADD TO THAT:- Over dosing detergent, failure to keep the filter clean, as well as expecting too much out of a product that has been cheapened over the years in line with the demands of retailers.
All too often now products are being sold at a price where the manufacturing levels have to be reduced to keep within the perameters.
30 years ago a new auto W/Machine was sold for nearly £300 (Hoover 3243H) and it lasted 7 years. What was the national average wage then? £30 approx. I can remember quoting customers £20 to renew the timer on a keymatic back in 1974. If you bought a machine today at 10 weeks wages you would expect a lot more than 7 years.
I’ll let you do the sums.
Alex
Re: brandt
I didn’t use money as a weapon, albeit I did tell her the rate was poor considering the “value” of the product.
I also concurred, I had no issue with Agora, they paid for a jolly to Paris a few years ago, and despite the wine I came back fully conversant with the programme.
My agenda centered around Manoj the way we were dumped, the lack of support and where they feel they can ride roughshod over the appointed agents being how they are playing silly little games etc.
Without putting it into words, I hinted if there were any changes due at the top in Brandt, then I may well remain in the frame. The difference with me is I told D&G on the eve of the Karting, I wanted out of Brandt, long before this started to snowball, meaning I amnot part of a bigger plan in this.
By the way I’m more than a little intrigued who the hell it can be that is able to rely wholly on the Brandt work.
Oh! something I just thought of, when I said there had been no increase, she was surprised and said whe will check my records and will get back to me advising if there was an increase, and how much. That makes me wonder if some agents are on different rates?
Time will tell
Alex
Re: brandt
Interesting conversation today with Therese of D&G.
1) She has asked me to keep it quiet regards my dissent as she doen’t want a ripple effect. No shit Sherlock!
2) She tells me there is a rate increase due April 05. Can’t wait!
3) There is a suspiscion in the D&G camp that there is a conspiracy and we as a group are trying to get them to ditch Brandt. Outrageous I say!
4) This amazes me, she says some agents are Solus Brandt, being that is all they repair, and she doesn’t want to jeopardise these agents livelihoods. I pointed out that Brandt didn’t have such compassion when the dumped all the agents overnight.
5) She says there is no other company that covers may area she can call upon as a replacement, and asked If could recommend one of my competitors. There is no-body around here I hate that much!
6) She made a big point out of the fact we have a good reputation and she doesn’t want to lose us. I shan’t lose sleep regards this as any reputation we have gained is being sullied & eroded by the Brandt work!
7) All my rantings, and I suspect some others have been forwarded to Manoj. There will be a Fatwah out on me soon then!
Re: Brandt Review
And remember one thing:-
Brandt chose to remove all their loyal agents and carried out the deed in a very underhand manner. There was little consideration of the fact that a lot of these agents came back on stream via D&G, in other words they never carried out any research into how to run their business.
To add insult to injury, in all this time we have not seen a rate increase, coupled with the fact that due to the lack of support from Brandt, there is a risk of dropping on the D&G survey. All other work I do for D&G I can manage & keep under control. As long as Brandt keep pulling stunts like undermining us the agents, then the whole operation is worthless as there is little credence in being loyal to them.
In essence, Brandt are getting the services of a dedicated team through the likes of D&G at a cheap price and do not need to have, or feel they need the infrastructure to support this. It is soley down to the quality of the D&G set-up they (Brandt) have enjoyed the level of service they have had. Regretfully all actions we seem to be forced to undertake reflects on D&G and not the perpetrator of the crime being Brandt.
Roll on december 17th.
Alex
