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Re: Dave and Kwatt
Interesting observation?
kwatt Joined: Jun 15, 2003. Posts: 6885
Average estimated time spent composing a post = 3 mins (and seeing some of the lengthy posts supplied, 3 mins may be a gross underestimate)
Approx length of time (just) spent typing posts so far = 344 hours
That’s approximately 43, 8 hour days (so far) 😯
Re: How long is a 5 year warranty
This may be an extremely grey area (except in America where it would be a gray area) I would have thought that legaly, if we fitted a part to a machine and it failed within a short period, but refused to replace it because the extended guarantee / warrantee has expired, the customer could sue because the part fitted was clearly not fit for its purpose.
I’m not sure we could fit a new pcb (for example) a week before the end of a guarantee but then wash our hands of it if it proved to be faulty say 3 weeks later? I suppose technically we could, and according to the terms and conditions of said guarantee maybe? But I wouldn’t be too surprised if the “fit for it’s purpose consumer law” applied. It’s a delicate situation that fortunately isn’t too common.
Re: Dave and Kwatt
It was nice to see K the other day without the dark circles round his eyes. I bet he looks quite handsome after a good nights sleep 😉
Keep up the good work lads. I think a great team has been put together!
Re: Slogan?
I’ve been giving this some further thought. As its strengths are not only that it has input and influence from the Independent Service Engineer, and that they can give the aftercare service, but that this washing machine is intended by ISE to be repairable – and even live on as a recon when eventually replaced.
The ISE. A modern washing machine with a future.
The ISE. Reviving the past to secure it’s own future. At ISE we intend our washing machine to be repairable like they used to be. We believe it has a fututre working long and hard for you and your family. It wasn’t so long ago that washing machines lasted much longer than they do now because parts were reasonably priced and almost all independent engineers knew how to fix them …. etc. etc..Re: working for indesit/hotpoint
Paradoxically, at a time when there’s never been such a scarcity of white goods engineers, and the average age of a white goods engineer is apparently 54! – working conditions have never been so bad (IMHO)
I blame customers though, they fall for it every time and encourage all the crazy prices because they naively believe they can get something they don’t pay for. They won’t pay a proper price for a decent washing machine with good aftersales service (aftersales is always going to be part of the purchasing price) the result is all this cut-throat pricing, where most of the money set aside for aftersales has been long since squeezed out, leaving white goods engineers in the front line being bled dry so companies can still turn a profit from them.
I sincerely hope we can educate the customer that new ISE is the way to go, where enough money is being paid by the customer to cover proper, quality aftersales service. There’s simply no other way to get things back to how they used to be a long time ago to the benefit of us AND the customer. If customers still won’t pay, they can carry on with the status quo and get what they deserve. Meanwhile the whitegoods engineer will continue to work under extreme pressures – despite being a relative scarcity that ought to be more valued.
Re: UK Whitegoods Meeting – Feb 06
The guy wandering around in his undies – he wasn’t one of ours was he?
Re: UKW meeting is soon, who’s going?
Finally I can get to one of these meetings. I’ve booked my room at the Holiday inn for Friday using the link posted at the beginning of this thread. Problem is I can’t get away until dinner time(ish) and it will take me about 2 hours to get there.
My question is will I be there in time for the new washing machine section if I don’t get there until around 2 or even 3 pm.
The thing is, if it’s going to be all over bar the shouting by then, I might as well not rush down (which is a bit inconvenient but can be done) until later and just have a drink Fri evening and catch what I can Sat AM.
What do you reckon?
I’m not as grey in real life 😉
Re: Bosch v ISE
kwatt wrote:If you want to look at this in a slightly different light just look at Hotpoint and Hoover before they were bought out.
Both were not the best (certainly not as good as the ISE IMO) and they broke a lot, they were also not exactly what you’d called advanced technologically even in thier heyday. They were simple machines made for the UK market and they were, generally, pretty expensive really all things considered.
But they sold bucketloads of the damn things.
Why?
Dead easy to answer that, both were well known UK brands and both were recommended a hell of a lot by engineers because they were simple and could easily be fixed, as well as the local engineers having a stock of spares. And, what spares were not in the van could be gotten within a day or two very easily and often locally, so a high quality of service.
Due to the volumes being driven on spares the spares were also cheap as chips. Both companies allowed that and the cost of OEM service to contribute to thier ultimate downfall as it got too expensive.
People were prepared to put up with the odd fault because when it did happen it was easily, quickly and cheaply put right by almost repairer out there and outside of warranty almost always by an independent.
Why can’t we do that, take the positives and use them to our advantage with out own brand? Since both those companies no longer supply what we need to sustain our repair businesses which is the the quick easy first hit, profitable, repairs that we all love. The answer is that we didn’t see any reason why we couldn’t do it for ourselves and protect our own futures and at the same time give value to our customers.
K.
Nice (nail and head) post. I sold loads of Hoover machines because “I” personally recommended them and “I” fixed them.
Re: Slogan?
I think customers trust an engineers recommendation above anyone elses. It’s a unique selling point that should be capitalised on.
Re: One Man Biz @ Home?
IMHO if you aren’t geared up to sell big heavy washing machines, then it’s not really a good idea to try selling them unless you decide that’s where your future lies and then invest in it. I used to be an Authorised Hoover sales dealer and sold dozens a week but only because I had them in stock and could deliver the same day or the next.
I packed in selling washing machines when I spit up my partnership. I had to deliver them on my own and had nowhere to stock machines so after 18 months I decided it wasn’t worth it. You can sell, and beat the sheds. You can’t beat them on price or on interest free offers, but you can beat them by getting a washing machine to them immediately and “installing, testing and demonstrating it” as I used to say.
The best selling point of this project is that you can now also promise that if anything goes wrong, YOU can deal with it for them. I am sure if I could have offered that as well when I was a dealer, I would have sold twice as many. Plus, the under warranty work is a big bonus.
Whether it’s viable to sell washing machines from home, as a sole trader is debatable. Whatever extra money you can make wont count for much if you do your back in trying to deliver one on your own (unless you have proper equiptment)
Re: Thomson TF49 washing machine spares
Many thanks Dave, I’ve since realised though that the guy is living in Thailand – oops. Apparently “a gecko got into it and fried himself”. We don’t have such problems here lol
