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Re: Hotpoint Advertise Franchises!
The franchise ads were still there though. Franchise ad on one page and employment ad on the other side.
What are they like to work for?
Re: Hotpoint Advertise Franchises!
don wrote:The last time I heard of company phoning around inquiring about payments it would recieve, the banks foreclosed and the company went to the wall. Surely not 😕
Regards
Don
I must admit that was the thought I had when I read it.
Re: Hotpoint Advertise Franchises!
I stopped getting reply notifications on this thread over a week ago. Don’t know why but maybe this will reinstate them.
Re: Interesting Snippet
Indeed K. I read only the other day THE article in ERT Weekly with great interest. It was headlined “INDIES AT RISK AS MULTIPLES TO BATTLE IT OUT ON SERVICE”
One minute I feel I have to get out of the industry altogether, the next minute I think I should just get a job as a domestic appliance engineer working for someone else but then I wonder who I can go to that won’t go bust or be forced to let people go in the end? Then I start to think maybe if things are a changing I could hang in there and survive another 20 odd years self employed.
I’m not so much indecisive as totally confuddled.
Re: Domain Name cr*p email
zanussi-repairs.co.uk is available for £10 for 2 years.
ZanussiRepairs is rubbish because search engines don’t see that as a proper word. Who would search for “zanussirepairs” anyway? Using more than one word needs an underscore _ or a hyphen – between them.
Re: One Million!
I think the idea is good, and agree with the points raised, but as Penguin45 says, it is very time consuming writing reviews. My own stats have proven to me that there is a big demand for independant reviews and they are very, very effective when written by an engineer.
I regularly get feedback for example, that people have purchased Meile washing machines that they would never have bought before reading my reviews. But they usually take me about 8 – 12 hours including research, doing the web page, processing the digital photos etc..
My big problem is getting access to new machines to review. I can’t get customers to pay for the reviews (like Which?) because there aren’t enough of them and they aren’t current enough, but I also don’t feel I can approach manufacturers, or people like Currys, because they are so independant that they can be quite critical of the products at times, so I’m in a catch 22 situation.
Using the resources and the experience of members of this site is a great idea, but what about discussing how we can make money out of this and other ideas?
I can see that the existance of the group is a totally brilliant idea (I wish I’d fhought of it K 🙂 but at a time when many are struggling and going out of business, I’m struggkling to see how giving very valuable and uniquely specialist information to customers free of charge actually helps any of us?
Re: Hotpoint Advertise Franchises!
sparkey wrote:
“electrical skills £17,402 – £20,891”
“gas skills £19,108 – £21,460Something that’s long since puzzled me is why Gas engineers earn more than electrical. Is it simply supply and demand?
Re: Hotpoint Advertise Franchises!
If people can survive on £16 a job, why don’t they just charge the public the same prices, or go mad and make it £20? Surely they’d be inundated with work. Estimates will be a thing of the past if labour charges are so low, plus they’d make the proper rate on spares.
Re: Hotpoint Advertise Franchises!
I saw the advert last night in the Sheffield Star. I must admit I was surprised to see it. I cut the piece out with a view to possibly, just maybe, probably not but you never know – applying. Mind you, as a self employed engineer for over 20 years I’m well aware of the pros and cons of employment v self employment. Both have their pros and cons. I’m suspicious that a francise like this could be the worst of both worlds though, where you aren’t truly self employed but have ALL the costs. And they could not renew the contract leaving you high and dry.
A guy once offered me something similar many years back when he wanted me to be self employed but work for him. I would have all the costs, including providing my own vehicle. No holidays, no sick pay no pension etc. He would give me all my work, and we would split the profits appprox 3 ways. A 3rd for him, a 3rd for me and a 3rd for his business. I turned the offer down, which didn’t seem very good to me.
Re: Web Site
Martin wrote:
andy_art_trigg wrote:
At this time though I can only consider DASA membersThere you go guy’s! Yet another benefit for DASA members. 😉
Martin
Sorry, I forgot to say that anyone vetted by their local authority is as good as a DASA member when it comes to recommending. Saying why not use one of these repairers – who have all paid me money to recommend them doesn’t carry much weight to me. But being able to say they have all been vetted by DASA or local authority does.
Of course whether this is a “benefit” is for anyone to decide themselves 🙂
Re: Web Site
Alex wrote:… when a customer realises that he/she may not be able to facilitate his/her own repair, or even worse become aware they may kill oneself, money with a guarantee. I do not advocate DIY or self-repair & particularly giving advice where electricity is involved. My grandmother used to say, ?A little knowledge is a dangerous thing?.
Alex
Anyone who sells spares to the public is advocating DIY repairs and making money out of them taking a “risk”. Ironically, few will give any advice whatsoever, preferring to leave them to blindly have a go.
The recent paper cutting that was sent to the mail list highlighted a DIY repairer who was killed because he forgot it was plugged in and reached inside. This is very tragic, and it made my heart sink, but the fact that he forgot it was plugged in is not rellevant to the fact that he was a DIYer is it? We’ve all done that haven’t we? We’ve all had shocks, and we are all professionals. Quite a few professional engineers have been killed also.
My DIY safety advice page advises –
“The most important thing to watch out for is becoming distracted, or so involved in the battle to fix the washing machine, that you forget it is plugged in (especially if you are constantly having to plug and unplug the machine while working on it and testing it.”
I would argue that the less information and advice people have, then the more potentially dangerous it is and that by selling parts but refusing advice is ironically putting customers at more risk than helping them. Surely a DIYer is less likely to get electrocuted than a complacen engineer who repairs dozens a week. Not getting electrocuted isn’t a skill that needs to be learnt, it’s pure common sense and respect for electricity.
Re: Web Site
Martin wrote:
Alex wrote:
Perhaps Washer Help could put up a postcode direction field onto his site.
Good point ❓ How about it Andy 🙂
Martin
I’ve already written a full page dedicated to promoting DASA and its members and I link to the DASA members list from my site. The link is on the repair FAQ page, which has been visited 20,000 times this year so far. However, the dedicated page to DASA which can be viewed from this page has only been visited 552 times in the same period. Unfortunately most people are looking to fix their own these days, but at least there were 552 potential customers sent DASA’s way and 20,000 visiters may have read about DASA and remember where to come back if they need it in the future.
I am considering creating a list of washing machine repairers and linking to their sites for an advertising fee. If anyone is interested let me know and they may be the first ones listed. At this time though I can only consider DASA members, otherwise I can give no assurances that any vetting or accountability exists for my list, which would seriously undermine its validity.
Re: Web Site
Martin wrote:To heck with web site optimisation, unless you have pages and pages of text, search engines will give you a lower ranking however much you try.
Actually this isn’t true Martin. Many pages get to number one with just one page and hardly any content. Some pages can also get to number one for a search and they only mention the term once.
Re: Web Site
Alex, I’m sorry I upset you with what you have seen as unecessary critisism. I did say that the site was a great improvement. I did consider emailing you privately about it but I like to do things in the forums where other people can see. I thought maybe someone else might be inspired to think about looking into making a few changes to improve their search engine ranking too.
I wasn’t talking about extensive changes or expensive changes. With the right knowledge it is surprisingly simple.
