[APG]

Re: employment with merloni

IMO, silly mistakes and poor homework I suppose?

I had just come out of employment and everybody has to start some-where.
Unfort’ I picked Berloni.
I was then a sole trader too. To increase my money, I eventually moved my call level up to 17 calls a day (no thanks to the DG6100 and DG6145 dishwashers) just to earn more money to live, eat and support my family as well as running costs of the van. To increase the money even more, outer tank changes I use to do on my own and get paid for 2 man, 2 unit job slots (which means you are killing yourself) and the little money left over sat in a high interest bank account.

I now employ two office staff, three engineers and I still go out on the road. I know what you’re going to say “whats the point of having a dog and barking yourself. The fact is I like it out on the road and could not sit in an office all day long pen pushing. I certainly could not afford to do this with the merloni franchise I had because when I was doing their work it was even worse!!!!! I was getting paid £15+vat per completed call.

I don’t think I have done too bad considering ther work load and poor call rate.

Still, I am standing in the light at the end of the tunnel and not prepaired to go down that road again, even though it costs me £28.47 to go to a call.

I have learnt my lesson and learnt it well

Andy G

[APG]

Re: employment with merloni

Correct, Correct and Correct

£16 per completed call, 15 calls a day
My completion was 87{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} after the initial 3 months, as then you know what stock to have on your van at your expense.

£16 * 13 completed calls=208+vat per day as long as you do not get any recalls, otherwise you loose £16+vat to the engineer who fixed appliance after you had been there.

Had to give it up in the end as could not make the franchise pay 😥 as £16+vat per call is not enough. 😯 Plus the district manager in our area for Merloni pinched one of our engineers who I trained up myself. 👿

What does the old saying say “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you”
I’m not bitter really 😕

Andy G

[APG]

Re: UK Whitegoods Meeting No.4 – Feb 2005

Hi Dave

Any chance of booking me a room for the Friday and Saturday. The meeting sounds very interesting from what I have heard, plus I need to get away from the missus and kids. They are worse than my customers at the moment!
Much appre’

Andy G
APG LTD

[APG]

Re: Unpaid customer invoices

Hi Guys

At the end of the day, non paying customers we can all do without.
Contact this company, they have never let us down and always made the customer cough-up.

LPL COMMERCIAL INVESTIGATIONS
Newbury House
890-900 Eastern Avenue
Newbury Park
Ilford Essex
IG2 7HH

Enquiries: 02085972229
Fax : 02085971180

Hope this is of some help

Andy G

[APG]

Re: Terim

Thanks Chris 😆

[APG]

Re: Amusing Anecdotes & Other Tales

puff?

I wish my customers would puff!!

latley, all they do is toot when I give them the bill.

Guess, you can’t win them all?

Just be happy and enjoy

[APG]

Re: Bosch wft8010 washer dryer

Hi Guys

WFT8030 is a gloryfied WFT7010
Several mods had to be carried out.
1. Turbo motor has changed to the one with duct/breather slots in the metal casing
2. Tumble dryer thermostat which sits in top duct should be changed to a re-setable thermostat
3. Rubber gasket must be fitted to inside of fasia to protect front display board against condensation build up

The turbo motor assey is problematic and so is the triac behind the left suspension leg if looking at rear of machine.

Hope this helps
Andy G

[APG]

Re: Bradshaw Group

Hi Ken

Sounds like you need to speak to Dave Newey or Toni Challis to sort this out.

I have been in the same boat, but I just sent the parts back with copy of invoice and reason why sent back, as their mistake. 😯

P blar blar blar is the new name for the Bradshaws company to which you should have received a letter from them explaining what it is all about and that you should write your cheques out to. 😕

Andy G

[APG]

Re: Commercial Repairs

What we found was the following feed back from our engineers:

1. They had to wait around until the area was clear to repair the appliance which was dead time and costing us money.

2. Engineers were ok with the work but landlord/keeper moaned like mad when we had no replacement parts as they expected the appliance to be repaired right away, there and then. This was due to the amount of profit sitting in that unit which they could sell and if it went bad, they wouldn’t meet their bonus figures.

3. Our public and employers liability insurance went up through the roof as we were told we had to have minimum £10,000,000 cover.

4. Heat permits had to be obtained before commencing with any naked flame and the area heat/smoke sensors had to be turned off. This normally took time as different people are on different shifts and no one knows where this is or where that is and your standing around waiting to get going. It’s easy to say use lokring BUT some commercial appliances are imperial and not metric.

5. Parking is a problem in some cases and can cost a fortune.

6. Would engineers know a high back compressor to a low back compressor on refrigeration to which they would HAVE to have conversion charts to order correct part/s for the job.

7. Some engineers run a mile when you mention the word COMMERCIAL. Until we dragged them out on site and showed how easy it was to repair such units, then they were ok.

8. Most parts we have to overnight which increases the cost of the repair as carriage charged is a lot higher and the price of spare parts are more expensive.

9. Rolling around in fat, scum, spilt beer and alcohol, yesterdays left overs and having to contend with rat and mice poo. You’ll have to pay your engineer a lot more.

10. Hours can be long, are you charging or being paid the correct amount of money to repair that appliance. Engineers moan if they have to work past 18:00

I can honestly say, the money is good, the hours can be long if you or your engineers can put up with the conditions they will have to work in.

(the good side of it all is free breakfasts, dinners, drinks and sandwiches. We even got free tickets to take our staff to an opening evening of a new club and got free drinks all night)

I say yes to semi-commercial, commercial because of the earning/profit margins involved with such work if you can complete the jobs first time.

Andy G

[APG]

Re: UK Whitegoods Meeting No.3

Well what can I say?

This was our first meeting with UKWhitegoods.

The hospitality, discussions, the jokes and you people in general who make this site possible were great. Meetings I have been to before have not been quite like this one. Congrats to you all 😉

Also it was nice to talk to and see faces of Ukwhitegood members.

I will be subscribing Ken, the cheque is in the post along with all of our details and areas covered. I posted it this morning.

Just one thing though, could we stay at a hotel were the bar is open for longer than 23:00 😆 💡

See you all at the next meeting

Andy G

[APG]

Re: Indesit C239NF Frost Free F/F

Laurenceuk

Take the board from out of the fasia panel and look at resistor in R51 position. All the boards we have changed, R51 has gone up in a puff of smoke.

Why?

Who knows we were told. I tracked it down to the defrost circuit. Sent a load back to Merloni and still had no reply. Fitted new boards and never gone back to them. Phoned up the customers and everything is working ok.

Check wiring to evaporator fan, as had a lot of loose wiring connections on internal connector block at top left corner of freezer cavity. It envolves removing evaporator false plate at rear of freezer compartment.
Make sure air flow vent is clear for the fridge as also blocks with ice. It is coloured black and a transom wire element sits in it from the evaporator tray (the cause of trouble I think)

There is a modification kit. A larger wattage defrost element for freezer evaporator. I can’t remember the part number though of my head. I will send it to you tomorrow.

Andy G

[APG]

Re: Proline EF6200

bmoynihan

I presume you are talking about the fan element?

Fan element is quite easy to replace without taking out the oven from its housing. MAKE SURE you take the plug out /disconnect appliance from its power supply. Fan element is behind the rear panel inside the oven cavity and is held in place by two torx20 screws.
We tend to fit the Homark three turn element instead of the two turn as we find they last longer.
If require element, Email us on apgappliance@aol.com

APG

[APG]

Re: Gas cooker engineer required – Bexleyheath, Kent/SE Lond

Hi Tony

We cover all DA post codes, some SE, BR, TN, ME post codes.

If you are interested, give Lorna at APG LTD a ring on 01268-449675 or fax 01268-285147.

Inside M25 is £55 + vat + parts
Outside M25 is £45 + vat + parts

Regards

Andy Goodman
(APG LTD)

[APG]

Re: Shop@

Hi K

If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t but worth a try.

We have one year left on our commercial CORGI certificate and I am in two minds whether to renew it again. If this work picks up, I will renew it and really push for more work as it is good and easy money to earn (costs in rubber gloves though as each engineer has their own box)
Then I will sort out working hours and shifts.

You are right about the engineer side of things. If they don’t want to do the job, i’ll go out and do it. London is only 35 minutes away on the new A13 and by the time they’ve thought about doing the job, I would have done it, got home and boiled the kettle. Attitudes have changed. They want to earn loads of money but do not want to work for it. For some reason they leave school thinking they will walk right into a 30K a year job and have never heard of the words TRAINING or APPRENTICESHIP.

Saturdays not a problem, 98{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of customers are always in. The way round it with us was to tell them at the time of booking the call “Everyone wants a Saturday call, we can squeeze you in but if you go out you will be looking at a NO ACCESS CHARGE of £35.00” This is fair in our eyes as we could have gone to another customer who would be willing to wait in for us to repair their machine and not lost a live job slot.

We have not exercised the charge as yet as customers now phone us to let us know what they are doing. Before the no access charge it was bad, 76{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of customers were in for the repair to take place. It was costing me money to send out an engineer. I have looked at my figures and it costs me £28.79+vat to go to a call. Much improved I do think.

Do you think this is fair?

Sunday for me is paper work day and family day. Nothing will change that unless a job is above £600 (wishful thinking I hear you say)
In an ideal world, it would be nice to go out to 3 to 4 calls a day and earn enough money to live on for the rest of the week. My friend has just done it. Sold up everything, gone to Spain, purchased a nice villa with the swimming pool, 13 acres of land and fruit trees. What is he doing?
Carl is repairing appliances for Thomas Cook, First Choice, etc,etc. I have told him to be very careful as the work is seasonal and to watch the money but he is doing very, very well. So the question I keep asking myself is: what are we all doing wrong, how can we improve just to stay alive in this industry which is not well paid. I have not got the answers but will give it a real good go in the area we have just started.

Regards

Andy G

[APG]

Re: AEG Dishwasher 545 ENr 606 281 387

Hi Laurenceuk

Part number required is 899646403223/5 and retails at £31.56 + VAT

apg

[Author]

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