Forum Replies Created
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Re: A certain poster!
Now we have another one, needs a bedside manner. Even Martin is with us on this guy. THE GOOD DOCTOR
He was looking for a fight at the last Coventry meeting. He is the same on the Repaircare forum. Has a pop at the system, then next time he is their biggest fan.
As far as the medical profession goes, I suspect he is not on Ade’s Christmas card list.
He comes in like a tsunami, and will disappear just the same. Worst thing we can do with this guy is to keep feeding him.
Alex
Re: DSG/RepairCare Rate Cuts
Ted wrote:Repaircare agents are getting phone calls from Connect.
Fascinating point number one. Phone rings, and on comes this cheery voice, goes along the lines of that in view of the situation regards bad feeling and drop in profits on the Repaircare account, they are looking at altering the parts discount structure. By that they mean not increase possible profit on spares against the service work, but improve the margins on parts purchased for cash calls etc.
I was another of those who had such a call.
Ted wrote:I daresay the responses on that must have been interesting. No doubt a lot of the repair agents are only buying bits to service the contract, and source the day-to-day bits elsewhere. Hence the phone calls as they have seen the general sales take a drop.
I didn’t see it at first, my reaction was a margin on spares to service the Repaircare work, naïve or what? Soon realised not the case, so had pleasure in telling the guy “no dice, not interested”.
I was asked what other contracts I hold and did I shop elsewhere? I made it clear that since the changes last July that I have altered my business, taken on lots more work from other sources and set up a healthy trade account with perhaps their biggest competitor. I stressed that with the present structure regards rates & the reduction thereof, I was not interested in any special deals. I also made it clear that I source nothing from them apart from goods to fit on their repairs. All stock comes from other suppliers.
I hope he has been recording the calls, the reaction on play-back to his team leader may be interesting. Not the poor guy’s fault I have to add.
Ted wrote:Fascinating point number two. Another Connect operative is phoning around agents and querying performance results etc.
Haven’t phoned me on that one, yet!
Ted wrote:I bet once again they are getting interesting answers as I’m sure most agents are no longer applying any sort of urgency around this work at all. No reward, no incentive why bother.
Maybe I’m still a high performer, somehow I don’t think so. Used to get engineers to phone in at the end of the day to close down jobs, ensured all parts were added in plenty of time, and cleared if possible with a 2 day turn-around. We now use them as a schedule filler, all urgency has been removed.
More likely they realise they are leaning on an open door, and I will remind them that the rate is too low to expect us to drop everything, and the loss of speed of service fee killed the account dead for me.
Ted wrote:Engineers will do what suits in the time scale that also suits, and so be it.
You may be right there.
Alex
Re: Bookkeeping software.
You don’t have to buy Sage stationery. You can use plain paper & set your own headers and footers if needed. If you do payroll and online submissions, Sage is pretty darn good as all is integrated nicely.
Downside with Sage is they keep “updating” their software, and you are forced to upgrade after a while as you get to the point where your old package does not fit the version the accountants use.
Reading the other posts, Quickbooks may be all you need. I used to use Quicken which I believe was the forerunner.
Suggest you check with your accountant, and perhaps tell him what you want to use and make sure he is familiar with it. Don’t ask for a recommendation as he will say Sage at once.
Alex
Re: Bookkeeping software.
Surprised your accountant hasn’t pushed you in the direction of Sage.
Sage Instant should suit you, available over the counter from the likes of Smiths, Office World or PC World or on-line. Dead easy to use & the support is good, and yes you can e-mail invoices.
Alex
Re: Repaircare…
Another one bites the dust. P Jay has posted on the Repaicare forum he has had enough and is rejecting all calls at below £37. We have been doing that for ages, but not told them why.
If it looks like a loser, then we reject the call, and if busy we are requesting cancellation. So far 4 out of 10 calls are refused. They will get fed up very soon I’m sure.
Alex
Re: Online Tax Return
You could appoint your accountant to be your agent. They do on-line returns for the bulk of their clients, so it shouldn’t cost you a lot.
I do all my own for Staff PAYE and VAT but I leave my personal to the accountant.
Alex
Re: S’now joke
Unbooked all of today, looks like the same for Tomorrow, (Tuesday). Problem is knowing when to re-book them as this week is full, and no doubt some customers will be without cookers.
Managed to struggle in this morning, but had to close the office at 2 so we could get home.
Will endeavour to go in again tomorrow to face the next load of abuse.
Alex
Re: S’now joke
Can’t say I’m looking forward to tomorrow.
Friday we had to postpone some calls, and that was bad enough. We are full tomorrow (Mon) Tues and most of Weds. Knowing what was coming we purposely left Thurs free to drop Mondays calls into, but the problem now is all that comes in this week will now get after Christmas.
The roads here are very icy, and there is every chance some places we won’t get to.
Something tells me there will be some abuse on the phones.
Alex
Re: RANGEMASTER DATE CODES??
The 1st 4 digits give you the actual model details. The rest I can never work out the date code.
Alex
Re: RepaircareTalk
Yes you suggested to me to do something similar, and I wanted to do it in a way the made it look like you come out of it unscathed. Worked a treat. Max1 has picked up the ball, and we are both running with it.
What I have tried to do is make it look like there could be others out there that have managed similar deals. Because there are, but they have kept their traps shut.
What I needed was an excuse to tell them how I feel emotionally regards Connect as a whole and perhaps justify why we are rude and unhelpful on the phones.
I’m waiting for Bernard to bite.
Re: RepaircareTalk
Ade. It may look like something is going on at the Repaircare talk forum. Please don’t think it is levelled at you.
You managed to pull something off, and one or two have wondered how?
Alex
Re: Repaircare…
This is interesting. They make 3 “managers” redundant. Then they post on the forum the following.
Regarding contacts-we are finalising our brief today and we expect to be able to post this out to SPs early next week. This brief will provide the names, contact numbers and e-mail addresses of the new Internal Regional Executives whose role is to contact you and provide assistance in any matter you may raise. Naturally you can call them at anytime (office hours) to raise or discuss a point
Now then if you close a position and make persons redundant, you cannot re-advertise the role for at least 6 months. I suspect the word Internal will cover them.
Back tracking I suspect
Re: RepaircareTalk
Interesting.
I wonder if anyone at RepairCare has the balls to pull the plug on DSG?
They ought do it now with Christmas round the corner.
Alex
Re: Repaircare…
They are going to love me. I have rejected 6 this morning, all pre-booked.
2 are W/Machines model “STD WASH”, 1 is tumble dryer Model “DRYER”. Another a fridge, make FRIDGE, model STD FRIDGE. We know it is a Samsung American cabinet.
Another incomplete address, and another where they pre-booked as Weds, and we cannot do this week.
Now then, Ade, I read somehere your exit strategy and what was going on etc. What I don’t get is if they are giving you grief why have you not told them you are kindly working out your notice.
Alex
Re: Taking bread from a mans hand and giving back crumbs!
As per Washdoctor.
If you are like me with an office staffed full time, staff holidays, training etc all the computers networked, vans electricity, four figure phone bills and everything else that goes hand in hand with capitalism, then the contract is poor to say the least.
When I started it was me in a van with a pager, and my missus answering the phone. If a call came in at 4 p.m. and I was in that area, got done that day. I expected to do 13 calls a day on average and the van would be showing over 100,000 miles at 1st mot.
The tight area calls, and if the repairer has a smallish operation it will pay. Even more so when the repairer is the boss as he will manage the calls and engineer the repairs accordingly. On that basis he may well make a job of it, and it gives him the opportunity to grow his business.
Alex
