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Update on Above
Spoken at length to Marsh this afternoon, very helpful & friendly; (well they would be wouldn’t they).
The upshot according to them is the Powerhouse Advert in the national press is not strictly accurate. Apparantly all policies sold at the time they went under & the goods were not delivered, they are honouring at this stage. Whether they improve on that remains to be seen.
All policies that start with 4 alpha chracters the 1st 2 being either SP or PH are the only ones Mc Donald are obliged to deal with. Anything that begins EXW, EXU, EXE, EXN, UAC, UAM or UAE were the ones that were not underwritten in the U.K. by an insurer. These are the ones that may not be settled.
I’m owed a few hundred £ and at the moment not pushing it as there are some things happening in the background so I’m led to believe.
Time will tell.
This was “fired across my bows” over a year ago by the same insurer. They told me at the time this was a legislation that someone could make a lot of money over, if it is managed properly.
I received the paperwork yesterday, and have only just opened it.
If it is that good, why not operate it themselves instead of farming it out, or are they on a cost/viability exercise 1st?
Pacific Retail Group
There may be good news on the Powerhouse front. Refer to the home page on this medium and you will see some news dated 25/09/03.
There is a full page advert in today’s Daily Express and they have made some encouraging promises. Certainly they are confident and they are demonstrating their customers are paramount. I hope this extends to the service providers.
For those who are owed or mildly interested, take a look at the following website:- http://www.powerplaninadministration.co.uk This will be updated on a regular basis I am told, so watch this space.
I’m owed a few hundred but at this stage I’m waiting to see what pads out regards Marsh Ltd. None of my Powerhouse outstanding have anything to do with JTM.
I would have thought that by law, the billing address on the invoice shows who is ultimately responsible as to who should settle the account. Failing that, then whoever passed the call would surely be responsible, if the calls have come by fax, then isn’t that where one should seek redress.
Richard Dalley at ISDA once told me they took out insurance to cover any similar eventuailities. AIS paid up when Prochef went under, and I doubt if they ever saw their money.
One for the legal eagles here I think.
I had a phone call today from a non DASA member who feels the proposed network may be an organisation “for the boys”. The feeling conveyed was that his company was well within the DASA criteria but felt there was no need at this stage to become a member. His main concern was the of “The Old School” within the DASA organisation. This is where I personally believe in the importance of attending the AGM. One thing that needs to be done is to demonstrate that the fledgling DASA service operation is a serious viability. On the strength of that then I’m sure members will be keen to sign themselves up, or return to the fold.
If the proposals and ideas fall flat there may be a risk regarding the credibility of DASA, and I’m hoping that will not be the case.
I have to admit the 1st time I ever attended a DASA AGM 3 years ago, it looked like a 1970’s union meeting. I was waiting for the panel to call each other “brother”. I seriously had a job to stay awake.
I always say nothing is forever, and I really believe that the organisation now has the power and the means to leap into the 21st Century. I am eagerly anticipating what can be offered and what the future holds.
In the Words of J.F.K. on his inaugeration, ” Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what can you do for your country?”
Is it possible we can have a confirmation e-mail to the effect our application has been received. The 1st one I sent came bouncing back as “The file was too large”?? Resent next day & assume it was successful.
Alex
As they say on Blind Date, “The decision is yours”, I was nearly stung by being one of their agents. Have a word with Neil Howieson (fellow DASA member).
They set me up as an agent, sent a load of spares on an Ad Hoc basis and never invoiced me. The spares were not labelled and the sort of stuff you would never use. I.E. dishwasher feet, drums, top suspension coil springs, etc. but no seals or bearings, no door locks or anything sensible, looked like Servis was having a clear out.
After 6 weeks I found it unworkable, the parts we ordered would take weeks to arrive, we usually found another repairer had been in the meantime, or worse than that we would get jobs that was originally someone elses. Many a time we would arrive at what seemed to be a new call to find someone had called 3 weeks before & ordered parts.
They would pre-book calls for all over the place, sometimes 15 in a day or where there was an obvious part reqd. we didn’t carry. Worse than that, there was never a contact phone number for G.B.Dar all was through fax numbers, we had to reconcile ALL parts back and it was a rubbish product at the time. To be fair to them though they always paid on time and never queried a payment.
However, after 6 weeks of this mayhem I terminated. We sent back all the parts via a courier to Servis at Wednesbury and thought that was that. No it wasn’t, I kept getting threatening letters from Servis U.K. followed by solicitors letters regards the stock I was never invoiced for and what was sent back at my expense. On top of the initial stock there was all the additional stuff we ordered to operate this sucessfully, we never received a credit for that so I was several hundred £ down on the deal.
Many moons later we had a phone call from Andy Craw, (J.T.M.) who wanted us on board and part of the work they carried out was for G.B.Dar where there was poor cover. The rates were better, but I declined anyway as “once bitten, twice shy”.
Take a look at the postings regards JTM. There seems to be a common thread on this. Someone has pointed out that the day may come when the service provider in the Midlands may well cut out the “Middle Man”, who is from Stoke I believe. Oh yes the work still needs to be done, but is the money going to come through on all the outstanding as well as what I’m told is a backlog.
Perhaps a moderator can put a pointer to this or something, but it is certainly relevant.
There is a distinct advantage of not having a contract; being, not only can they drop you without a moments notice, you can drop them. Sometimes you need to make a quick decision to terminate and 3 months does tend to put you off. In any case, what service company sticks to their side anyway? Brandt is a case in point.
That was how we had to force one very large national company to up their rates. We terminated by e-mail on a Friday before a bank holiday, giving 3 days notice, unless they put the rate up. That worked, they increased by a miserly £2. Months later we then discovered the customer “satisfaction payment” they always paid of £2 per call, if we kept our noses clean, was removed to cover this. So I terminated anyway.
It appears the Powerhouse insurance was covered by an off-shore account. There is a risk that even the Scottish Power which was supposed to have been “ringfenced” is at risk.
We have put ALL Powerhouse as “pay & claim”.
Try “Gas-On Spares” in Brum. they can get any Leisure, Stoves or Flavel part.
Haven’t got the phone number to hand, but if you phone my office 01278-424550 in working hours of course, and they should be able to find it for you.
Del is totally correct in what he says.
They either set up and direct employ & poach from the likes of us, or they look for agents.
If agents, we have long memories and chaos left behind is a good way of putting it. Especially as they operate on a whim & leave us with the spoils. They would have to recruit new agents, if they can find them.
Don’t know if this means anything to anybody.
There was a Mastercare open day at an employment agency in Lincoln on Friday 5th Sept. (Ambitions Personnel, 19-20 Cornhill, next to the Halifax apparently). Was tempted to go, played golf instead.
I may relate to a stream running under this banner at present.
Alex
I have already expressed an interest in attending the council meeting and AGM to Mr Hayter of DASA. Will be booking my hotel room tomorrow.
This looks as though what is forthcoming will help raise the profile of both this group and DASA.
For those who weren’t at the recent meetings and mystified as to what is going on, all will come clear in the fullness of time I’m sure.
We always book the call live whilst customer is on the phone.
We try to avoid timed slots as we are too busy and it is easier to plan a day’s work without the added burden of time slots. Some of our calls are over 60 miles from the office, on busy country roads. The Summer holiday traffic is a joke & can make times impossible. We advise customers that any time we offer may turn out to be unrealistic due to delays of various types, therefore they are better off with a home all day slot. We will phone mobiles or work numbers in advance to assist the customer etc.
Staff holidays can cause great problems. 50{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of our engineers have school age kids and need to book holidays in the 6 week summer break. This summer we constantly had 2 engineers on holiday, plus 1 with a broken collar bone. We have struggled since end of July with 50{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} staff levels and 3 fridge engineers off for one reason or another.
Saturdays we have engineers working, but that is to our convenience, not the customer’s.
Pre-call planning is important to us as we cannot waste the time resetting timers checking filters etc. In addition we look at each call and do our best to allocate parts etc. Not easy when a customer tells you her dishwasher isn’t draining and when you get there ask if you have brought a fascia panel as hers is split. If the address sounds remote, we always get full directions. It’s amazing how many call their house something but neglect to display any signs, then they say, ” Oh nobody can find us, I thought the girl must have known where we are, she didn’t ask”.
The favourite is Fridge not cold, you drive miles, walk in the kitchen and greeted with a fridge freezer, turned off with both doors open. When I was on the raod I used to say, “no wonder it isn’t cold enough, someone left the door open.” We ALWAYS endorse the paperwork, advised to leave switched on”. If it is off, we walk out immediately and tell the customer to phone the office & rebook for next week.
