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Re: Beko fridge freeze recall
kwatt wrote:Indeed. TBH I don’t think it’s even been proved that the fridge caused it.
You have to wonder who’d steal a burnt out fridge though.
K.
Exactly, however, to be fair the fire brigade were reported as having blamed the fridge – but they apparently said it was too badly damaged to be able to identify it. If the fridge has been “stolen”, (which is being blamed on scrap thieves) then it’s not possible to implicate Beko without evidence.
When I first saw it had been stolen I suspected Beko, but quickly decided that was a pretty crazy – if funny – thought 😉
Re: Beko fridge freeze recall
The family were told by Beko that their model wasn’t affected when they phoned about it prior to the fire. It’s either a separate unfortunate instance caused by something different or more models than currently advised are affected.
Unfortunately the evidence has apparently been stolen..
Re: Servis UK (Antonio Merloni) Bust!?
If they’ve any sense they’ll not use the Servis brand name, which after going bust a few times has surely lost all credibility.
Re: eSpares Bought By Connect?
Martin wrote:… But, given that most manufacturers provide their own spares availability on-line service ..
4Hotpoint.co.uk
4Hoover.co.uk
4creda.co.uk
4indesit.co.uk
4candy.co.uk
etc.All run by Connect if I’m not mistaken
Re: 0800 Repair
I think a lot of so-called work providers have no idea how difficult the modern whitegood’s engineers job is, and most consumers have even less of an idea and expect way too much.
I simply could not do the job any more, not working for a multiple, manufacturer or “work-provider”. I reckon it’s a young man’s game, you need to be either full of over-confidence and love a challenge – feel invincible (as you do when young) or frankly to simply not give a toss about giving good customer service.
I wrote a lengthy (as usual) article on the subject last year http://www.whitegoodshelp.co.uk/wordpress/why-are-there-so-many-appliance-repair-horror-stories/. I wrote it to try and lower the expectations of some customers who have no idea how many different products and what large areas and numbers of jobs a typical foot soldier engineer has to do these days.
Re: 0800 Repair
Martin: I agree with your concern about the apparent 0800 bashing, I was one who spoke up about it earlier in the thread. However, the CRB point is valid. It’s obvious that CRB checks guarantee nothing other than the police have no previous convictions on file but if they mean so little why do companies proudly advertise that their staff/engineers are CRB checked? The answer is that they know many members of the public find it important and it can attract business. Rightly or wrongly, wisely or foolishly it means something to certain people who for potentially various reasons feel extra vulnerable.
Quite apart from this fact I raised the point in my last post that if you advertise all staff are CRB checked, and they aren’t, and something happens then you could find yourself at best heavily criticised and covered in bad publicity and at worst sued. Therefore it’s self interest that should prevail. Of course it guarantees virtually nothing, but your ass is totally covered and asses are usually best covered.
Re: 0800 Repair
washdoctor wrote:I’m quite surprised that you are ‘Mocking’ this issue TBH Martin…!
I’m not.
Re: 0800 Repair
washdoctor wrote:.. DASA would have no power over the engineer regarding any complaint or mediation. Nor would 0800 Repair (With exemption of the fear of losing work for the engineer ;))
Does DASA have any power over anyone? Surely DASA still has this (perceived) power over 0800 Repair. I would argue that in a situation where an engineer has acted undesirably and is being unrepentant then 0800 repair have far more “power” over him than DASA ever could. If DASA had teeth, and could do anything other than rebuke his membership I’d agree it was an important point but 0800 have the power in any situation where a customer has a dispute with an engineer.
The main concern would be if 0800 Repair were equally unhelpful in resolving the issue. In such circumstances the customer surely still has redress with DASA because their dispute is NOT with the engineer, it is with 0800 Repair.
There were lots of issues with Repaircare when they tried to fob many customers off with an – it’s nothing to do with us attitude – it’s a problem between you (our customer) and the engineer (we sent), which is an outrageous response. I would hope 0800 Repair wouldn’t dream of trying the same stunt. Potentially they could of course, but if they are DASA members DASA would still have responsibility to mediate regardless of whether the individual engineer was or not. They would have to do so on the basis that they have granted 0800 Repair membership and (maybe) part of the membership requirement is to send DASA member engineers or at least send engineers who are qualified, fit for the job, and follow DASA’s code of conduct???
Farming out the work
If a consumer employs a company to send an engineer and pays them to do so – it matters not who turns up at their door, even if they hand out the job to a sub contractor, who in turn passes it on to another sub contractor, who in turn passes it on to a mate down at the pub. Whoever turns up, and whatever he does, or cocks up, it is the first company who took the money and arranged the appointment that it totally responsible.
Therefore if there is a dispute with a customer and an engineer, the customer can complain to DASA who would surely ask 0800 Repair to look into it? And if they felt they were acting badly they should threaten to revoke 0800 Repair’s membership (as opposed to threatening to revoke the engineers – what’s the difference?) I can’t see how it would matter if the engineer himself was a member or not.
The problem is that the last thing any organisation would ever want to do is expel a paying member, which is the fatal flaw in these organisations.
T&C’s
I think 0800 Repair should have something in their terms & conditions that advises that in some areas they may rely on engineers who may not be DASA members or may not be CRB checked. And even remove the “all our engineers are CRB checked” quote if it isn’t 100{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} true.
CRB
Regarding the CRB checked I agree, you can’t advertise your engineers are CRB checked unless every single one of them IS. At the very least they shouldn’t out of regard for their own interests if nothing else. If any one of the engineers they sent (as unlikely as it may seem) was ever caught doing anything very dodgy, sexual, criminal etc and he was one that hadn’t been CRB checked I would think 0800 could find themselves in some bother because they promised to send only CRB checked engineers.
Re: 0800 Repair
I get Ade’s point and it is arguably misleading not to put “Associate” members. However, I think it could be argued it’s only a technical concern if a small percentage of engineers aren’t actual DASA members.
As far as I can see DASA members aren’t better engineers per se, it’s just that if there’s a dispute the customer can complain to DASA? But if 0800 repair are members of DASA a dissatisfied customer can surely still complain to DASA can’t they? They can complain first to 0800 Repair, and if they are still dissatisfied they can complain to DASA?
If, after complaining to DASA, DASA investigate, find the specific engineer isn’t a member and refuse to help then Ade has a very valid argument.
But, if they complain to DASA and DASA get on to 0800 repair and deal with the actual facts of the case then isn’t it just a technicality whether the engineer concerned is a personal DASA member or not?
Re: 0800 Repair
washdoctor wrote:
A scenario:Mrs Consumer employs the services of 0800 Repair after taking in to consideration all the selling points of the business, including TA Membership. 0800 Repair don’t have a Franchise in her area, so passes the job to JTM who in turn, pass it to an engineer.
Engineer turns up and damages some flooring. The consumer contacts the engineer, who dismisses the claim, so the consumer turn to DASA as they are the TA of that member, looking for an investigation of some sort. DASA check their list, and he’s not a member.What happens then? The consumer has NO back up at all…? And 0800 Repair can’t really do anything as he isn’t a Franchisee?
Ade.
Wouldn’t the customer’s complaint be with 0800 Repair? And as associate members wouldn’t they be obliged to be answerable to DASA?
Re: Bosch Dishwasher Fire!
I could edit that down to 30 seconds, add some dramatic music and it’d be a hit. What was his point btw?
Are these heaters protected by more than one cut out device? Remember the Candy washer dryer that killed a woman in the 80s when the toc failed and it was the only protection?
Re: Domestic appliances – reliability and design
I’ll always remember the documentary I saw a while back where an American car company sold a popular car where the fuel tank was at the rear and not well protected. There were some incidents where people were rear-ended and their car burst into flames burning the occupants alive.
The company commissioned an internal report into how much it would cost to redesign and make all their cars safe and how much it would cost to pay out compensation to people who’s cars burst into flames. The report came back that it would cost a lot less to simply let people burn and pay out compensation as incidents were “relatively few”.
Then there’s the cigarette industry who suppressed evidence they had about the link to their products and serious illness and death.
The list, if researched properly, would go on and on and on.
I don’t say all companies are like that, but never underestimate the ability of some organisations or companies (especially very big ones) to put money and profits before people. Never.
Re: Domestic appliances – reliability and design
There’s a difference between things that you wouldn’t necessarily have foreseen such as kids playing inside an discarded fridge or freak accidents, and allowing your products to become so shoddily built that they start to suffer such serious faults. I would say that relatively speaking there are a lot of incidents happening – probably more than at any time in the past. This is starting to look like endemic failure.
Re: Domestic appliances – reliability and design
lee8 wrote:
Martin wrote:
Just to add that lot to Indesit washers exploding it doesn’t take much to figure that modern white goods have a endemic ‘reliability & design’ issue. 😈
Not when you calculate sales numbers V faults.
Its a very small percentage.
And one I believe hasn’t changed with time.
I think what is different is the seriousness of these faults, both in economic terms to the customer and in safety.
Many of these faults are catastrophic in nature and simply should not be acceptable.
