[andy_art_trigg]

Re: Free Estimate.

I can imagine people working in a village or other relatively small area having no problem at all with offering free estimates. I think some of the clash of opinion can be explained by the fact that people are talking from different perspectives.

When I tried free estimates I was specialising exclusively in Hoover & Hotpoint washers and dryers only. That’s all I did, and we needed to cover a large area to get enough work. We covered all of Sheffield (5th largest city in the country) Rotherham, Barnsley and Dronfield. We even covered parts of Chesterfield and Worksop. Clearly there’s no way free estimates can work. It can take 50 minutes to get from one side of Sheffield to the other at certain times of the day and it’s totally impossible to travel for 50 mins, spend 20 mins or so looking at a machine and then be 20 mins at least away from your next job for nothing. Knowing this I suspect anyone happily doing free estimates under such circumstances is probably making a good whack out of enough customers to cover it, or they are talking people into having things repaired that should be scrapped – if that’s even possible these days.

If you have a business that covers enough product range to be able to work a small area then I imagine things are quite different and you could be able to make it pay and be happy without needing to rip anyone off.

So I suppose the fairest thing to say is that Free estimates and no call out charges are not impossible to offer for every one and not soley the tool of cowboys, but for most repair businesses they are just not acceptable as a marketing tool because the economics just don’t work.

[andy_art_trigg]

Re: Free Estimate.

petalpop wrote:i hate to go against everybody but we do no call out charge and get between 30 and 40 calls a week
of that 2 or maybe 3 we dont repair or sell a machine too
on the other hand another guy with an ad in y/pages next to ours with a call out charge of £40 gets 5 to 10 calls a week
now you work out which is the better way to do business
i go out for meals with the wife in the evening he is driving a cab
i know what i prefer

You can’t put down the differences in your businesses to one offering free estimates and one not. There could be dozens of reasons why you apparently do better including attitude, drive, personality, quality of actual advert, size and position of ad and engineer skill, how you are with customers and what prices you quote etc.

With so many machines beyond economic repair I don’t know how you do it. If you are getting very few actual estimates you are doing very well. My experience was that it was unacceptably high.

[andy_art_trigg]

Re: Free Estimate.

No one would willingly give a service for free if they believed they could charge for it with out repercussions.

Some presumably do so reluctantly believing they have no choice because everyone else offers free estimates or because they believe they would hardly get any work otherwise. This may be true but it also may be false and they lack the confidence to charge.

There are hopefully few, but presumably some, that are happy to do so because they can charge those that have things fixed a lot more than they would otherwise have needed to, which covers the costs.

I’m with those who would rather go out of business than be at the beck and call of customers who have no respect for my services and insist on using me for their own ends. I suppose it’s an emotive subject. My views are coloured from the 80s and early 90s when the trade was rife with cowboys taking £8000 full page ads in Yellow pages offering everything a customer could want apart from actual free repairs and proceeded to rip them of left right and centre.

Things are different now – aren’t they?

[andy_art_trigg]

Re: Free Estimate.

Martin wrote:I got a rare as hens teeth repairs@ emailed request today and in their comments section of the email: “do you do free estimates?”

I’m not even going to bother to go to the expense of phoning that one! :rolls:

I can understand that, but many people can be dissuaded about free estimates quite easily. I found most people accepted my (admittedly nominal) call out charge when I explained it allowed me to be honest about whether the machine was worth fixing or not.

Besides, just not calling them looks bad on repairs@

[andy_art_trigg]

Re: Free Estimate.

I’ve written extensively about free estimates and no call out charges ages ago. I hope I’ve been balanced and covered most bases. The reason for writing them has been to try and persuade the general public that engineers charging for estimates and call out charges is not only acceptable, but it’s wrong to expect it for free and that (in the past at least) they were much more likely to get a cowboys if they pursued the free estimate no call out way.

I just put a Blog article up to see if anyone had any comments http://www.whitegoodshelp.co.uk/wordpress/free-estimates-and-no-call-out-charges-are-they-realistic/

[andy_art_trigg]

Re: Servis UK (Antonio Merloni) Bust!?

Is the retailer still responsible for repairs under guarantee? If they’ve started trading again do they still not have a service network?

[andy_art_trigg]

Re: John Lewis dishwasher

Martin wrote:
I went to a Bosch last week that also had a red light shining on the floor. Curiosity got the better of me and I spotted it had an led unit fitted inside the bottom of the door. 😯 It wasn’t a rebadged Zanussi though but a SGV57T03GB/02

Must be the latest craze or summat?

I have a John Lewis built in dishwasher and it shines a red led on the floor. I too was puzzled by it at first before I realised it was to show the machine’s still on. Handy when it goes silent at the end of the wash while drying and you can see it’s not finished yet by the light on the floor.

I presume it’s on dishwashers where the control panel is in the top of th door and not visible once the machine is running.

[andy_art_trigg]

Re: UKW & WTA Meeting 20th February 2009

don wrote:

andy_art_trigg wrote:
Can you get me a discount on Bacardi next time Bri? £8 for a double Bacardi really stings.

What`s the point Andy you only spill the Coke which is just as expensive 😆 , and as for balancing the Bacardi glass on your knee ……………

Don

I could afford to spill twice as much for the same money if it were half the price. I didn’t technically spill the coke – I just balanced my Bacardi on top of the coke bottle but it stuck to the top of the bottle and lifted and dropped when I lifted my glass for a drink. It could happen to anyone of the thousands of people who probably rest their glass on top of a coke bottle.

[andy_art_trigg]

Re: UKW & WTA Meeting 20th February 2009

I think the Hilton was much better than the Millers in every way apart from the bar prices but we got a very a good price for the rooms when you consider how posh it was and the size of them (nice one). Can you get me a discount on Bacardi next time Bri? £8 for a double Bacardi really stings.

Apart from the size issues Ken mentioned there was one other problem with the Millers, which I thought really spoiled the last few meetings. The Millers had a nice cosy smoking room with overhead heating. This must have been nice for the smokers, but it caused the whole group to be split in two and to me that was very undesirable.

We all started together, but most of the smokers ended up staying in the smoking area most of the night. As the Hilton’s smoking area is outside the main door with no seat or cover it meant smokers just nipped off – did the deed – and returned to the group. I appreciate it might be a bugger for the smokers but I felt it was much better for us to be together.

[andy_art_trigg]

Re: re washing machine for a disabled man

They should come with a free walking stick 😉

[andy_art_trigg]

Re: UKW & WTA Meeting 20th February 2009

Won’t be long now. I’m planning for a preparatory bath on Thurs morning.

[andy_art_trigg]

Re: Was it you ??

r600a wrote:
I have No qualmes in taking civil action against a customer who tries this on.

Bryan

And yet you look so cuddly.

[andy_art_trigg]

Re: Empire Direct Bust!

Good luck Steven. My understanding of the law is also that whoever commissions you to do the job is responsible for paying you. If they have a contract with someone and they employ or pass on to a third party they have a contract with the third party. As you say you aren’t doing the work for Empire you are doing it for them.

[andy_art_trigg]

Re: hoover

I hope Clive doesn’t think I was criticising his decision to start the thread. I just picked up on his reason for refusing to remove it as he seemed to imply that all rumours are by default harmless, which I disagreed with.

This thread reminds us how very grey the issue of passing on rumours is and how a difficult judgement call often has to be made. Even the fact that rumours such as this turn out to be true doesn’t necessarily justify leaking them but I’m sure some may disagree.

If a business is closing down it’s a very delicate matter and people working there should find out from their employer in a proper manner. Hearing it elsewhere and finding it denied can cause great stress followed by relief but then followed by a crushing blow to find out it was true after all. I personally would imagine I’d like the news only the once.

On the other hand employers are often deceitful and through self interest can lie about the truth and keep people in the dark until the very last minute which is why I said if I knew the rumour to be true (of course it wouldn’t be a rumour then though) I’d maybe have stuck by it.

[andy_art_trigg]

Re: Empire Direct Bust!

bagman wrote:No, he’s hacked off because of this: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/drivin … 548705.ece

I would have never guessed that I would one day find out the name of the Stig from UKW

[Author]

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