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Re: Cold Calls
No Martin, you didn’t get it.
Some, in fact a lot of faxes are with their header on the opening page that would have quite a condensed logo. Or the header would be in bold at 36 font or something stupid.
We had a restaurant once send such a fax in the build up to Christmas, promoting themselves for corporate Christmas do’s etc. They sent 11 pages, including a menu, and there were images (Serving suggestions as they say on packets), depicting what their turkey and all the trimmings looked like. One third of one page had a picture of their christmas pud with a sprig of holly on top. I know what a bloody Xmas pud looks like, I do not need to invest in printer ink which is dearer than Bollinger to see their wares.
I faxed the whole lot back to them from another machine that does not show what number it was sent from. Then I included the menu from the Chinese that was next door to them. I reached the conclusion they must have been either rubbish or desperate, as you need to book these things before end of September, and this came in 2nd week December.
Gets me going.
Alex
Re: How easy we engineers have it now!
Goatboy wrote:GB senior has just seen me reading this thread, and now he’s talking about a Commer Cobb? C-reg, with no heater. What the ‘H’ is a Commer Cobb? Then he says he was upgraded to a Morris Minor, with a heater 🙂 He’s a little upset actually 🙁 He went to fix a twin tub last week. He always asks the customers how they got in touch with us, and this one said…”I rung ********* Services, and they siad that they didn’t have an engineer old enough to fix twin tubs! Ring Grahame 👿
Commer Cob was the van derivient of the Hilman Minx mkIV. C reg would have been 1965 vintage, quite a modern vehicle to have issued. The later Cob was from the Hillman Imp, and became the Hillman Husky. Useless thing, as the engine was in the back, and meant the rear access was poor.
My 1st issue was a 1962 Ford 100E van. Side valve engine with 3 gears & no syncho on 1st. As a result I can still double de-clutch when selecting gears, despite owning an automatic these days. No heater, no screen washers, only one sun visor etc. No radio, there again there was nothing to listen to. (Radio 1 had just been invented and was rubbish, except Peelie, who was on Sundays). The wipers were driven off the vacuum in the manifold. Which meant if the van was pulling, there wasn’t a vacuum, and the wipers would barely move, as soon as you took your foot of the throttle, they would beat frantically across the screen. After commuting to work on a motor bike, this was bliss.
Beats the chariot that was just before this.
Alex
Re: Cold Calls
Martin wrote:[Banning calls???..TPS and FPS…???
Why ever would you even consider such options? Surely running a business requires all calls to be accepted and dealt with?
Earlier this week some postman was showing his customers how to stop junk mail for goodness sake. Its got the Post Office in as flap that’s for sure and will lose them millions in lost revenue. Sack the darn postman I say! Keep that junk mail flowing and all those calls, texts, faxes and emails inundating us with more work, more money.
Get real guys 😀We use the TPS And FPS both at home and business. Wouldn’t be without it, fax ink costs a bomb, and a lot of the junk used to come with a black header page. Have e-mails set-up to remove off the server all messages that contain the words SPAM, IAGR, AGRA. E-mails were running at over 200 per day before that. The E-Mail junk is down to less than 10 now.
Now if we get an illicit fax, I post it to the FPS, and they deal with it. If we get an unsolicited phone call, I request their phone number, name of the person at the other end, name of their company and team leader. Then I tell them they are committing a criminal offence. Works every time.
As you can probably tell by the tone of this, I give them one hell of a hard time. I’m too busy to deal with these outfits, I have business to run. I do not want my phones clogged up with such traffic, I prefer the lines to be clear for the benefit of my customers.
Regard to the postman, if he was mine, I would shake his hand. Just go away for a few days, and when you come home you can’t open the front door due to junk. All addressed to the occupier.
I don’t want a stairlift or walk in bath, (Yet). In any case look at those who are endorsing the products, they look fit and young enough not to need them in any case, and what is the point in walking into a bath wearing a swimming cossie? Then you have to sit there whilst if fills and then empties.
I Have got double glazing, plastic fascia boards etc. Don’t need a brick driveway, conservatory, shutter-blinds and anything else they can offer. There is advertising, and “in your face.” I prefer the former, and I will decide how to spend my money.
No pensioners were intentionally hurt or distressed by the makers of this programme. Must go now, time for my afternoon nap.
Alex
Re: How do dishwasher dry cycles work?
Martin wrote: Those appliances without fan assistance don’t simply rely on residual heat though surely? How does this latent heat dissipate the mass of water droplets from the ceiling of the tub and the baskets?
They surely do. It is surprising how hot 65 degrees is, try holding the back of you hand under a hot tap. Open the door part way through a hot wash, and you will see the water “chase” off the door liner.
I suspect you recall the old 4805 Zanussi/Hoover that used to do a pulsed dry phase off the element. The only other machines I remember doing that was the old Candy “Silent”. (I bet Ken will be shuddering as he reads about those, and now he has sloped off to a darkened room). IThat was when energy was cheap. Can’t speak for Hotpoint or Bosch.
Going back to residual heat, the effects are diminished if the customer leaves the door closed, and unattended for several hours after completion, as there is a risk of condensation.
Alex
Re: How do dishwasher dry cycles work?
Residual heat. I’m surprised you asked that question.
Most dishwashers rely on the heat left behind following the final rinse at about 65 degrees. I don’t know of many that use assisted drying. Some AEG have a fan in the door to give a bit of added convection. The ecological rating would be thrown into apoplexy if there was any form of added heating at the end.
Hope that answers your query.
Alex
Re: New Vehicle
Winter is coming, soon be time for Scrapheap Challenge
http://www.channel4.com/4car/ontv/scrapheap/
Alex
Re: New Vehicle
Wot no livery?
Have you kept the pram/push-chair handle to put on the back of the machine in order to make life easier for the one who pushes it along.
If you can change the wheels for some with pneumatic tyres, it would win most soap box derbys.
Takes me back neary 50 years.
Alex
Re: How easy we engineers have it now!
I’m not qualified to say whether things are easier, stuck in an office all day.
There was a lot less traffic in the days of yore.
Customer probably did not have a phone, and you could guarantee someone was home. Usually the lady of the house, you would never meet the other half.
Finding places was just as easy, as you could always ask, and someone always knew. There would be a local post office, and they still delivered the post, if not the milkman or newsagent as they delivered to every house in the area. Ask someone in the village, and they knew who you were looking for, and if out, call just down the road, and she would be in her mother’s, or sister’s.
These days, there are no milkmen, the newspaper came from Sainsburys, the post office doesn’t deliver themselves, and the name you have is unheard of because it is a “dormitory” area, or a Mr A living with Miss B.
The products, I think the job is cleaner. No messing with oil from twin/tubs. No stripping motors to replace clutches or armatures. Alvania grease on hoover 3224 drive shafts. (That was for Martin’s benefit). Timers with 80 odd wires, all the same colour. Remember the early Candy/Zanussi’s where you would struggle to get to the hidden side of the timer.
I recall the Swan-maid D/washer though. Brilliant concept, crank the door handle whilst loading, and the kettle in the base would heat the water in time for you to close the door. The rinse water would then heat up in the kettle whilst the main wash was happening. Timer was a ticckety-tick affair, and in the early days, no pump, just a “dump-valve”.
Alex
Re: British Gas Homecare
Just looked at Gegsies link. As I said, posh corporate speak, probably originated in good old America. In the 60’s was activity sampling.
To be fair to B.G. if managed and evaluated correctly a good means of seeing the true picture on the field service staff. However, being brought up in a nationalised indusrty, the problems are rarely at ground level, usually too many managers who have come in from other industries who know little about the business.
Same with every large organisation I suppose.
I do personally think posts in this thread from the B.Gas engineers have been very good. Such devotion is not easy to find, and I hope they remain passionate to the cause.
Alex
Re: is it any wonder
If they are on Connect, I close the job down, charge labour only after knocking the parts off if it has been awaiting for 1 month or more.
If & when the part arrives we phone the customer to see if they are still alive, and if they still need the repair. Then we raise a recall job and allocate the part as received from previous call.
Keeps the KPI’s looking good.
Alex
Re: British Gas Homecare
philfish wrote:i now im going to sound stupid but what is a kpi 😕
Key Performance Indicator
Posh corporate talk for statistics and being kept up to date by means of facts and figures. Just to make it look good on spread sheets. We can all do the leg work & number crunching, and produce some wonderful graphs if required. Then some manager somewhere can take the credit.
To be fair to the ideal, I do run stuff though an Excel prgramme on engineers calls & recalls, turnover, parts ordering and first time fix, so I’m just as bad.
Alex
Re: Expert / Glen Dimplex
Indeed they are sending it everywhere. I know of 2 local engineers that are ex EAC, as well as Bradshaws of Clevedon.
They sent us some Beko refrigeration, and as we do Beko I/G work in any case, we naturally ordered via the Beko route. That was wrong, they won’t pay us for parts ordered as they insist they supply on a FOC basis. That is all very well until you get a cash call. They won’t supply me for cash work as I don’t have a purchase account. I’m more than welcome to open such an account, but have to guarantee an annual purchase in excess of £3k. A few E1725 stats and doors will never get me there.
So there I am part of the family, and they won’t supply me goods, only the work when it suits them.
Now if they want me to work with them as an agent, they need to work with us. They never return phone calls, are unable to reconcile their accounts, and are a total shambles to date.
In case you hadn’t guessed, I’m tempted to terminate them, unless they open a dialogue and recognise their own agents.
Alex
Re: Bespoke kitchen ding dong!
My guys are instructed the same when it comes to unconventional installations. If all is as per specification, then we carry on, but if there is a risk of peripheral damage then all is pointed out to the consumer, and we benefit by an easy access when calling back, and life will be easier next time.
A classic is a siliconed hob, they won’t even attempt it in case the laminate of the worktop peels or splits. Or grouted in hoods, which they all are, but if we remove and fail to “make good” then we tend to get issues.
If the product is installed correctly, then no problem, we sort it.
Alex
Re: Average wages league table
I would love to pay my staff a good deal more, and make the reward commensurate with their skills. That extends to the call logging staff who despite trying to help the customer, gets more abuse daily.
However, in order to do that, I would need a better income from the work providers.
Just an idle thought!
Alex
