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Re: Messrs Knowles & Ibbotson
Anyone know what these are like now? I guess Malcom Knowles is part of this.
Reason I ask, Ibbotson is sniffing around my patch looking for a repairer. May be a way of getting rid of some MFI bits.
Alex
Re: customer wants money back!!!
As rare as I watch ITV, I caught last night by accident a programme called Cowboy Customers, and hats off to the guy who set it up.
Here is his WEBSITE
Alex
Re: Watch out for the dodgy doorstep salesman.
hotpnt wrote:
They already did, he lasted all of 3 months before finding the 80+ miles a day on country roads too much!,Wonder what he did in the afternoons? 80 miles aint that many
Alex
Re: yell.com
Used to be. If I Googled somthing Yell.com used to appear as one of the results. seems like they don’t now and I suspect it is because they would prefer to stand alone & not pay Google money.
So in the last year I’ve looked, and have only had 1 enquiry passed via their web-site, then it was for something we don’t do. I know my website is difficult to find, due to lack of time at my end.
Alex
Re: ing tv advert
Called poetic licence. Just watch a Bond film, you can tear it to shreds regards mistakes.
Sounds to me like the advert belongs in among the programme they placed it.
Best fix, don’t watch ITV; or get Sky Plus, start recording, sit down 10 mins in, watch what you are recording and skip the ads, you will catch up just right. If Compare the Meerkats come on, I may watch that, and that is it, Simples
Alex
Re: yellow pages
This is the way I look at it. From a consumers point of view, even a “silver surfer”
I’m in the plus 55 age bracket, I never use the telephone book, nor do I use yellow pages. I Google everything. Like many I have wireless B/Band and apart from accessibility in the office, the home machine is on-line all day. A few years ago we all had 1 phone and that would have been on the hall table with the books underneath, now we all enjoy cordless handsets, and consequently the books could be anywhere, (in my case so could the phone). So much easier to press a button, and see instant up to date information on the screen.
Therefore I have no need for books or directories which end up at the back of the cupboard or wherever. So being a typical consumer, despite a lack of youth, my first port of call is the web. If I’m doing it that way, you can be sure so does most of a younger generation.
Now looking at it from the business point of view:-
I used to spend £6k p.a. on Yellow pages, now reduced to less than £200 p.a. The Y.P. salesmen cannot deny they are finding life difficult. Even Yell.com is a no brainer.
When the Y.P. rep met me 2 years ago he told me I was mad. I keep everything on spread sheets, and I can confirm there is no drop at all in chargeable work. My warranty work and insurance work has increased, and so has the chargeable pro-rata. I was prepared to take a drop as I never thought I was pulling in enough traffic from Y.P. to cover the outlay, and I’ve proved it.
WASTE OF MONEY.
Alex
Re: Worst Week Ever
iadom wrote:
LJDomestics wrote:
Martin is surely choosing what he specialises in because after many many years of trading hes probably only a pound behind jimI wish, hes a Merc man with a swimming pool whilst I am a humble Volvo bod. 8)
Blimey, we are flat out, and I drive a Peugeot 407. Don’t ask why? Downgraded from a Passat and decided I would buy a simple conveyance 6 speed auto, bluetooth, all whistles and bells, but I dunno not the same. I even took it for an MOT this year, and normally I dont keep them that long, usually chop-em in. Never feel comfortable buying anything too flash otherwise there will be a “union meeting” in the carpark.
Alex
Re: The Other Engineer
Of course Ken can look from 2 angles.
1: The angle of looking at invoices crossing his desk regards ISE.
2: From an engineers point of view regards competion, and your associates that share your patch.I make a point of NOT slagging off my LOCAL neighbours, they have their customers, and I have mine. I find in all cases the customers are pretty loyal to most of us. Like me the LOCAL other engineers are well established. We often recommend them to would be customers on makes we don’t repair.
I emphasised LOCAL as there are those that do exactly what is described below.
LJDomestics wrote:Well i’m fully with you on this.
However, To call at a customers house and not take in your tool box, not pull the machine out and try to diagnose the fault BUT basically B.E.R the machine there and then, try and sell them a new machine and warn them they will charge for installation….in my personal view,might not be a cowboy..but should NOT be in the trade AT ALL.These are the types that blitz Yellow Pages with “Ghost” phone numbers, and purport to be local, yet are 2 counties away. They walk into customers homes with a sales brochure, and luckily have a new machine on the van destined for another customer at the end of the day, but “available to you madam now” (before your husband has a chance to intervene) Those are the types that give us all a bad name.
Apart from the above, I like to live & let live.
Alex
Re: Worst Week Ever
Got out of Yellow pages last year, saving £6k. Since then, took on 2 new engineers, and we are booking Thursday, with a couple of odd available slots for Weds.
Normally I have at least one on holiday, but last week and this coming week they are all in.
Alex
Re: scrappage scheme …..for white goods…!!!!
leavemetogetonwithit wrote:It’s the economy, stupid.
Gotta get it movin’ anyhow we can. So chant the mantra and believe, “Buy more stuff! Buy more stuff!”
😆 Mike.And get factories in China and Eastern Europe to turn out yet more rubbish. The only change this will generate, if at all, will be the footfall of customers in the sheds. The admin will be a nightmare, and OUR economy will gain sweet F.A.
Would be different if we actually made something!
Alex
Re: £144 up front wanted by De Dietrich?
All Brandt official work will be carried out by whatever company whom Repaircare set-up use for that area, and looking at the code the agent concerned was, like You & I both, old Brandt agents in the days of yore.
None of this matters in any case, as it looks like the “Offer” was declined by the customer, hence your involvement.
Suggest case closed.
Alex
Re: £144 up front wanted by De Dietrich?
Done some research, the outfit under consideration here are NOT Repaircare agents. It seems there was dialogue but for operational reasons they were not taken on by Repaircare.
Make of that what you wish.
However the agents that cover your area Martin are colleagues of mine and do not come under the band of nefarious repairers. Therefore the job sould have been attended with full professionalism, and any issues would purely be administrative.
Alex
Re: £144 up front wanted by De Dietrich?
Martin wrote:
I am however aware of the repaircare agent that works the patch to which I did refer. And, as it happens, so does Alex. 😉Oh no, not in a league of their own are they? If so I am disappointed at R/Care. If that is the case Martin I have to agree with you, and take your point that your comment was not intended to be a generalisation.
Alex
Re: £144 up front wanted by De Dietrich?
bazza500 wrote:The repaircare guys are Independent repairers. And therefore why does Martin think every Independent that works for Repaircare is untrustworthy and unable to repair “a simple fault”.
Hear! Hear!
Alex
