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Re: Fixed Cost Repairs Are Dead
I got out just over a year ago, do not regret it for one second. The trade has become a pain in the bum, with all the newer models headaches are built in. The fixed pricers and the awful customers. I just could not stand it anymore. One weekend, I parked the van on the drive and never went out again. I had already applied to take one of my private pensions early so I could reduce my hours, that last week was the final straw, every job had problems, nothing went right, I thought, s*d it. I look back on it all now and think why did I not blow it out a few years earlier. I wonder how many independents will be around in 5-10 years.
Re: Masterpart
Stopped using them some time ago, ordered on line, part shown as in stock.
Order confirmed by email. Next day no delivery, called to be told they must have sold the last one before my order was processed, should be in stock again soon. Result one of our customers let down, we had a bad review on Yell.com.
They have called us asking why we have not placed an order for sometime, when you tell them, they say things have improved. Too little too late.Re: Is it just me or is anyone else quiet?
I got out of the appliance rat race two years ago, I’d had enough.
With prices very low and most of the quality of the new machines as low as the prices. I think the trade has had its day, it is dying for the little man.
Those of you with a retail side to your business you are better placed to carry on while you can.
I hear the argument from the same faces saying “you have to adapt, to what the customers want”What the customers want, is a repair that is guaranteed for life, at a price so low you cannot make a living. Who can possibly adapt to meet that expectation.
I’m afraid it is a sad fact, people no longer see appliances as something to keep for 10+ years so the cheaper brands sell well making repairs less viable when the machine gives up three years later.
I resisted giving up for a few years, then one day the phone went quiet once to often. I did miss it at first, in a strange way, but if I’m honest, closing down and walking away was the best thing I ever did. I still run my own one man business but not doing appliance repairs. I no longer work weekends, or crawl around on kitchen floors. I do not earn a fortune but then again. I never earned a fortune in the appliance repair trade. Now my Work is steady all year round, I could never say that doing appliance repairs.
With the skills we have collected as a tradesmen all of us must be able to apply those skills in another occupation. It is just a matter of biting the bullet before it is too late or we are too old. I genuinely do not see this trade existing 10-15 years from now. 30 years ago nobody could have seen the closure of all the TV repair shops, try finding a little man who is fixing TVs now. I know this post will no be popular with many on here but it is a fact white good repair is not the trade it once was and nothing id going to improve it, no matter how you try to adapt.Re: Google reviews.
Glad Yell have seen sense, It must have cost them a lot of lost revenue, having a policy that meant anyone could slag you off unjustly. Damaging a business while charging way too much for the privilege.
Re: Google reviews.
Cras wrote:Chris, have you tried getting the review on yell removed ? I
I had a bad review on Yell when I was advertising with them.
It was not a customer of mine as far as I could tell, they said we had not turned up on the day and when we did call two days late, our van leaked oil over their drive. My van was three months old and had no oil leaks. they also said they had to wait 3 weeks for a part.
I replied to the comments. Contacted Yell and asked for it to be removed, I was told in no uncertain terms, that if I did not like it I could lump it. My advert was due for renewal a month later, I did not renew it. Strangely I had all sorts of premisses from the rep that he would get it removed when he found out I would not be placing another advert. Only a month earlier he told me it was not in his control.Bad reviews can impact on any business, where is the logic in an advertising company allowing damaging reviews to be wrongly posted, it is wide open for abuse. their job is to promote your business not jeopardise your future advertising, Idiots.
Re: Retirement
jag-12 wrote:Still at least 4 guys around here repairing TV’s, fitting aerials and dishes, installing extra LNBs etc
They have just had to adapt to the new technologies.
Yes the small cheap sets are disposable but who is just going to replace a £800 and upwards TV
Having said that they do seem to get far better tech support from the manufactures than this trade does.I bet they are not repairing TVs apart from the odd inverter board you can’t Repair them without hi tech workshops now.
No service information is available for TV most makers will not supply diagrams, it is even worse than this trade. Everything is done in house. At one time the manufacturers would provide diagrams and ran help desks for the trade to call if you had a problem fault. Fitting aerials is not TV repair, it never has been, that was a trade of its own. The work has dried up so much that the few left have to do what they can. The bottom line is, at one time every high Street had more than one TV repair shop, now very few remain, I do not know of one anywhere and those few that are scraping a living cannot repair at component level only a few board swops remain viable for the small outfit due to the technology changes. The TV trade was a licence to print money, in the 70s I know I worked in it form the early 70s and the man I worked for had ten shops across London employing 50 staff and made a mint.
Try doing that now in TV repair trade, This trade will go the same way, you can adapt but you cannot hold back technology changes or machines that cost more to repair than replace.Re: Retirement
kwatt wrote:Things change. They always have, they always will.
See signature.
I’ve come across repairers that refuse to change. Refuse to learn anything about modern machines, modern customers, modern business, the internet and, that’s without even thinking about those that refuse certain types of work or, even certain types of call or products.
Not all can afford to just bin them and buy a new one.
K.
I think some of you are missing the main point here.
We all know things change and we can adapt but only so far.
What we cannot do is change the technology that is now coming along that makes a repair uneconomical. For example a few years ago bearing change was just a matter of knocking out the old one and fitting a new one, the tub did not need to be removed and it was a job with a good profit margin. Sealed tubs are getting more common, it takes longer and costs more. The machines are getting cheaper therefore the customer is more likely to say “sod that I’ll buy a new machine” That’s ok if you sell them or have a retail side to your business
some of us do not do retail. The changes that we are seeing is not just tubs and bearings. Timers now need to be programed to operate it all adds to the lowering of profit margins. We can chase calls by working for contracts or estate agents but there is only so many jobs that are still economical from the customers point of view. I know people will always need a washing machine or a fridge, the same was said about TV back in the 80s. Who has a TV repaired these days? More to the point who repairs TVs these days.
There will always be a living to be had, but how good a living will that be ten years from now and how many hours will you have to work to make that living when fewer machines are viable to repair and make a profit.
I’m not all doom and gloom I’m being realistic.
Nothing would make me happier than being wrong about this but looking back on my 30 something years in the repair trade both brown goods and white, nothing has happened that points out I might be wrong in thinking none of us will be doing repairs 10-15 years from now.Re: Retirement
I gave it up two month ago, I’m only 56 but I’d had enough.
I do not miss the customers or the dirty flea pits some of them lived in. I have no plans to return to the whitegoods trade. Wish I’d got out a lot earlier, for a one man outfit it is getting tougher and there is only so much you can do to generate work. If you have a shop and want to scale it up, it may very well be a different experience.
I planned my retirement and so far although it is very early days, it is OK. I got out of the TV trade before it folded, I have a feeling this trade might suffer the same death as the quality and repairability of the new machines becomes even worse as each year passes. I know a lot on here will shoot me down for thinking it but stranger things have happened.Re: Suspicious tasting coffee…
When I was out on the road I never once ate or drank anything in a customers house. Too many rough kitchen to even think it worth the risk.
Re: 5 star ratings
I has a problem with a very bad review by a customer on Yell, it was not even a customer I’d been to. I had no recollection of an angry customer who said in the review I had not turned up on the day and broke later appointments and left a mess behind me after I finely called. I contacted Yell to get the details and they point blank refused to give me any information, apart from telling me and area, as in what county the customer lived. I asked them to remove it as I had no idea who or what it as about. They said we will not remove a comment just because it is negative. I pointed out that to my knowledge I had not had any problems. A month later their rep came calling, renewal time, so suddenly you get treated nicely. Told him about it and told him that was the last advert on Yell. Never went back to Yell after that. We all get the odd unhappy customer over the years it is the nature of the business, but an unfair review can wreck your good name. Yell are rather stupid their attitude stinks, until you are ready to spend more money.
Re: Is it just me or is anyone else quiet?
I will not be drawn into to a battle of wits with an unarmed man.
Re: Is it just me or is anyone else quiet?
DrDill wrote:There you go again Gazman, talking rubbish, Cornwall is not the poorest county and to make a statement because of that is not actually true at all.
Are you sure about that.
http://www.cornishguardian.co.uk/Cornwall-UK-s-poorest-area/story-20444842-detail/story.htmlRe: Is it just me or is anyone else quiet?
philfish wrote:White goods ain’t the same as the brown goods there are many many differences. Might be a similar trade but it ain’t the same otherwise this trade would of collapsed at the same time the brown goods did.
PhilI know it is not the same and brown goods died as the TVs got better and almost impossible to repair in a backstreet workshop due to surface mounted components and a lack of service information, flat screens were the last nail in the coffin for most repairs shops. This trade has it’s own problems, that have arrived as technology has taken over, it will not be long before you need special tools to reset electronics to get out of a fault state, some are already going that way. It may yet go away from the smaller outfits due to the way they are made in the future and the cost of tooling. I do not intend to stick around like many did in TV. Let hope it does not happen for a long while.
Re: Is it just me or is anyone else quiet?
DrDill wrote:Again your talking about retailing and even though you have not done it or any intention of doing it you cast an opinion based on what?
And you are moaning about the trade, read your last line. Others have a very different opinion, and location isn’t everything, I am in Cornwall and not heavily populated, and I compete very well against the internet, but then again I am very selective about what I display and sell, so sorry your opinion dosnt really stack up with the facts.I know Cornwall very well, the poorest county in the country and a lot of people who only work the tourist season, so money is tight so repairs are perhaps more freely available. Before you say I do not know the area I am Cornish born and bread and have properties in the county. I bet a lot of your customers do not have the internet, Cornwall has not long got the hang of the telephone let alone computers. 😆
Location is half the battle if people do not want repairs in my area they will not be my customers, I do not do retail so they go to someone who does. Yes I could do battle and fight to win them over, open a shop and start selling but I do not want to, it is as simple as that. I am glad you are busy, long may it continue.
