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Let’s see what happens tomorrow first and go from there but I simply will not be doing the Bernstein product range without being properly paid for it.
K.
What’s the model number?
But in essence there’s a baseplate (the names a giveaway ;)) that requires drained possibly. There are other reasons for this to occur but it’s a start.
However, as P says that’s only the start.
K.
Re: After 6pm calls
IMO Mark it purely comes down to costs, if you can do it and sustain it fine. But the home counties and London are a a lot richer than Sheffield or Glasgow plus each area has it’s own little quirks and that’s what really gets my goat when some muppet tries to install a global network policy as they rarely work across the board.
I could not offer a service like that based on my current situation, I’d have a revolt from the guys and, even if they did agree to it, they’d be looking for shift allowances and/or renumeration to offset the unsociable hours. It’s hard enough to get them to work a Saturday! Bear in mind that if you agree to do this on a contract basis you also have to cover the holidays as well, which believe me, ain’t so easy. Then there’s the mad Xmas rush when the guys are overloaded anyway and you ask them to do an after 6, I suspect I know where I’d be asked to insert that job sheet in Xmas week. š
Historically this is due to builders in particular and retailers as they are either not there or don’t want you there out of hours or at the weekend. And, as I have said many times before, doing Saturday work (which I also consider to be out of hours) invariably leads to a 40{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} increase in no-access calls for me, at my expense.
All the above is hard to work out and place a value on and, in the end, it comes down to individual businesses being able to do it or not, justify it or not and make a buck out it.
K.
Hi Fazzer,
If you’re unsure at that stage I would honestly recommend that you get an engineer in to look at the machine. You can try Repairs@ over on the navigation bar or the Directories to find a repairer. If you’ve no luck in either pop your postcode up and I’ll see what I can find for you.
K.
Re: After 6pm calls
I don’t think that there is a fair rate for it Paul, or at least not one that we would get paid. If you consider almost any “emergency service” that does this such as plumbers the rates for out of hours service are extremely high by comparison to having work carried out within normal working hours. But the comparison is being drawn between a house worth thousands and a domestic appliance worth a few hundred quid.
The same thing happens in the car industry to some extent, whilst you can have a car towed to the garage at 6pm you will not have it looked at till (at best) the following day and you’ll still pay more than an appliance engineer would charge just for the repair let alone the cost of having it taken in. Now we are expected to go to the customer, at their convience entirely, repair the appliance regardless of whether it takes two minutes or two hours and charge far less for that service. Which one do you think is more costly to provide?
So, around here, an franchised garage will charge you about Ā£55 an hour labour and a plumber about the same to call then Ā£30-50 an hour thereafter, so let’s say you get a call booked for after 6pm and the job takes an hour, plus travelling to it etc., what’s a fair rate? by fair I mean fair on the customer in relation to the cost of the goods and what’s a fair rate for the engineer who is losing his personal time?
IMO, there’s no easy answer to it.
Many years ago Currys instigated a out of hours service through Zanussi, we’re talking in the late 80’s here, where the customer would be offered an after 5pm appointment for an additional Ā£20 whether the appliance was under warranty or not. Now, remember we’re talking almost twenty years ago so that would probably equate to roughly Ā£30-35 in real terms to today’s money. We had over 10 seervice engineers who did not want these calls, not one of them and we passed the charge directly to the engineers and took no profit from it at all. Even at that they simply didn’t want to know about it at all.
I’ve seen a few such things come and go and they’re fine for a sole trader as you have more flexibility but where you employ and have employees with a contract of employment it is very hard to change that without a major upset. And possibly at considerable cost, especially if one or two of the engineers take the hump and leave and, in the current climate, they would likely not find it diffiicult to gain alternative employment.
Why work for me for ~Ā£18K when you can get paid more from BG for the same crap?
So would I offer it, no. Not without very serious consideration and considerable recompense.
K.
Yes, but getting employed engineers to wear it or to work a shift pattern without considerable renumeration is another thing entirely.
K.
Re: Scandinova Fridge not working
The only refrigeration repairer listed for that region is Expert Appliance Care who you can contact on 0870 90 99 100.
Hope it helps.
K.
Due to the nature of failure on this part and the frequency at which they fail with no resolution of the problem from the manufacturer we have to sadly decline the offer of any warranty on the spare. We are forced into a situation where they are regarded as a consumable spare with customer misuse being the primary reason given for premature failure.
You could use the above the absolve you so long as you can get it in writing, from anywhere, that they are prone to premature failure. I would also encourage the customer to writee directly to the manufacturer in question with their grievance and ask that they resolve the issue.
But remember, if you use a non-gen set you haven’t a leg to stand on. š
K.
Re: Pay Cut!
Yep you are correct as per the other thread Kevin and much of what you say is echoed by Alex as well.
AIS is the only one I have left paying such low rates, in fact I think it’s the only one under Ā£40 barring DAG now. And it’s right, why shoud we under value ourselves and our staff as well as the experience that we have? How much choice is there for the likes of AIS who absolutely must have CORGI registered agents?
I have already said that, should push come to shove and I do not retain the rate I had then I will either refuse that work from AIS or terminate, it’s their call as I’m not having that.
I have already passed work over, don’t want it and don’t need it. If Walter want to go lose money then that’s up to him frankly. I let him have the Indesit work, turns out that was a good call in the end, as the rate was too low and the support crap. I passed over BG work to Mike the New Zealander in Ayr, another good call as it almost sunk him.
I will continue to work for the others, same as you bar CDSL and I have my installation stuff to boot that pays a lot more again and do a better job with that work, hopefully grow it a bit here and there.
I do not need or want contracts that cost me money and I do not ever wish to be in a situation where the tail is wagging the dog.
K.
Read the “Homark” thread Alex.
And I totally agree with you, if push comes to shove I will ditch AIS as the guys hate that Bernstein shite anyway.
K.
Re: Anglo Iberian
Bollocks, email away to GS with this…
angry kwatt wrote:Graham,
Any official comment other that what’s been posted by others? Questions are being asked and not just by me, Iām only relaying the comments made by many others along with my own concerns and I hope itās PABL thatās causing an issue here as there are a few that are desperately unhappy with the situation.
Youāll also note that āgreaseaterā who is employed by PABL has not commented on the rates adding further fuel to the fire with the sentiment in the camp being that they are the ones at fault here.
To put this in perspective for you, beside the training thing I sent you earlier, there is some things about to happen for UKW which will increase its reach within the trade exponentially and this will be read a lot I should imagine. Hence itās better that you se it now.
K.
As well as the entire thread attached!
Angry, no not me… I’m FUCKING LIVID!!!
K.
Ian,
I was a Candy agent for many, many years and on occasion they still call me looking for me to bail them out the crap. If you got a schematic that was legible and not in Italian then consider yourself as doing well.
And they’re not the worst, the Chinese are better at non-information in pigeon English or, Chinglish as it’s commonly referred to.
Oh and Dyson just don’t do service information, period.
Welcome to our world.
K.
Re: Anglo Iberian
I had a feeling that AIS had been raised here before, a golden oldie you could say, much like certain people who read in here. š
Anyway, I have a choice to make on this currently.
Make a stand for the trade as a whole or capitulate to a pay cut, just because that’s the way it is.
My capitulation skills are a little rusty I’m afraid.
I’m sorry but this thing with the PABL/AIS rates is just bang right out of fucking order and on top of the NESN pay cut what the fuck are these people thinking at all? This has to be addressed.
Alex, you’re in a prime position to have a go about this as well and these guys need to be made to think for themselves a little and not be friggin’ sheep. Or more like lambs to the slaughter as, if they accept this shite, they may as well be.
The NESN pay cut has been accepted, now one from AIS/PABL, who’s next, Electrolux, CDSL, Whirlpool? Fuck me, if one or two can get away with it why don’t they all have a go?
Wake up and smell the fucking roses people, cheap appliances are here and they wany cheap service to go with them. If we capitulate on it then we may as well plan to retire in two or three years because that’s what’s going to happen simplay as there will be no choice in it, or you go and work for British Gas.
So, I’ve had a few borbouns this evening and I’ll catagorically state here and now that unless we, in here, get very fucking vocal very fucking quickly we won’t have to worry about the people we employ, our nice car or our mortage as we won’t fookin’ have them, it’s that goddam simple. Just how long do think the service industry can sustain no increases in pay on top of cuts like this? How long could you survive a 12.5{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} pay cut? Do many of us actually turn in more than that in profit per annum on service alone?
I will be talking to Graham on Monday and, if the answers are not correct, I’ll be pulling the plug on AIS. It will also be very public and very nasty should that have to happen as I won’t miss and hit the wall, PABL will also not exactly come out as shining stars either.
I don’t want to fuck them off, but I won’t be having the piss taken like that.
K.
