[kwatt]

E7 should be no drain, what the cause could be is not explained. Blockage is likely or component failure possibly in the pump area. 😉

K.

[kwatt]

E6 is indicative of a heating circuit failure, but that could be caused by any one of a few components.

We do have error codes lists for many appliances but we can’t publish them, hence the poll I put on the front page. Even if we were allowed to publish a “short” form of them it would be a help, but many manufacturers wish them to not be in the public domain I’m afraid. 🙁

K.

[kwatt]

Just ask in here n2o as many of us are Smeg stockists or repairers and think yourself lucky, a bulb for the dispenser on my Maytag badged as a De Dietrich was £34 ex VAT TRADE for a 10W capsule!

K.

[kwatt]

Re: Merloni

Yeah Martin, there just isn’t enough hours in the day in all honesty.

I have loads of stuff in my head, but all in good time and certain events have to come to pass and things put in place before many of them can come to fruition. As I am fond of reminding people, a plan is merely a list of things to go wrong, so I remain very fluid in my approach to most things. 😕

There is loads of stuff we can do, but e-jobs is the start, if that can be made a success and give all the guys a bit back then we’re on the right tact. Plus it may allow a lot of us, if we can generate enough volume through it, to become not just so dependent on contract work and inject a bit of value back into our businesses. That’s a positive start.

However, before you go banging the drum about the media et all as to how good UKW is you need that online to capture that business, once it’s there and running then you get the maximum potential from it and some of those hits can be turned into pound notes for the guys. At least that’s the hope for it and we move on from there.

Do one thing, make it work (hopefully well), move on to the next.

K.

[kwatt]

Okay I think we should open it up as well so I’ll do that later on.

Martin, will that do to keep your old knees warm? :rotfl:

K.

[kwatt]

Oh and BTW, I don’t have blinkers on. I KNOW we can and will affect sales eventually, just not today. 😉

K.

[kwatt]

Martin,

I’ve already started work on “The Engineer’s Opinion” I just need another few hours in the day to get it done. 😉

The trouble is that as I have said before, walk soflty but carry a big stick. That means in effect that everything has to happen in a set order and pattern to ensure that all the pieces fit and you maximise the potential of each developmental stage. Ergo, you get the big stick. Jumping the gun serves no function in that at all and in fact can do more harm than good.

I have a set plan of things to come in my head, cause it’s the only place I know it’s safe and bits of that are starting to gel together now, albeit way, way ahead of where I thought we’d be by now.

If you look at the bits out there now you can see the scope of it, corporate looks using workwear and livery which sustains and further feeds the work levels on chargable work, software handling systems, potential deals to enable us to be more profitable and a host of other things including, very importantly, working with some of the big names in the industry and government. But all these things take time and a hell of a lot of effort.

The other thing is that we have to change the thinking, the whole concept of service is wrong and that will indeed take time.

But here’s something for you to think about…

e-Jobs has to be online so as we all can profit from the endevour at least to some degree right now. Consider it a gift to those that take part although you have to remember that it could in fact open Pandora’s Box in many ways.

Then we need to build the image of UKW up a bit using various means.

Then we have to launch and make a success of the opinion thing.

Then and only then can we really go to town on the sales aspect and trust me, I won’t miss and hit the wall. 😉

And in the meantime I have a few mini-projects bubbling away as well!

K.

[kwatt]

Well I’ll be having:

4 trousers
3 jackets
8 Polo shirts

All with both the NWAR logo and the UKW one.

I said to John that UKW will pick up the tab to get the UKW artwork done, which is fair I think and after that it’s just a case of requesting it really.

Damn good deal, well done John. 😀

Now, do we offer this to everyone else, i.e. non-subscribers, or not? I think we should really.

K.

[kwatt]

Re: Merloni

Yes, enough free market analysis for Merloni methinks, the points have been made and are hopefully not lost on them.

Martin, your comments regards the manager’s statement about quickly and cheaply… welcome to our world! This is the sort of shit we put up with day in, day out and have done for many a long year.

I have a strong suspicion that the fear of UKW from the manufacturer’s perspective is twofold, one is that we can affect a lot of their service arrangements and are breaking up the “secret society” approach to dealing with agents, which will hurt them. But, more importantly, if this site does hit the public domain in a big way then it could very well affect sales. That’s the point I was making in a veiled way in that final post, along with some other little nuggets that, if they bloody well read it, they might just get an inkling of the reality that people like THEM are putting us all in, including them!

If we start telling people not to buy XXXX brand then that’s when the pain for these people will really come. That whole Whirlpool debacle, they didn’t give a shit about the service partners really as they can and will replace those, what they were more worried about was losing a £5 Million contract with someone because it appeared that they were a shower of shitbags. To which my reply was, “well stop fucking up your agents then and I’ll leave you be” 😉

K.

[kwatt]

Not a lot of suggestions I’m afraid as the obvious first thing to check is the fuse.

There are several bits and bobs that can be gotten to from the front but most things will require that the machine is pulled out. 🙁

K.

[kwatt]

Yeah, you got it Brian. 😀

The problem is that I’ve had and, we’ve seen here even just yesterday, examples of customer’s getting these codes flash up, having no idea what the problem is, trying to find out and can’t so they scrap them without even calling an engineer. This is the way things are now, the public see a replacement appliance as more viable than a repair is in many cases.

Hence and, there’s no offence intended here, on lower range products we just don’t want the aggro and it’s not worth learning how to diagnose the faults as people won’t pay for the repair anyway, in fact many won’t even pay a callout! Simply this is because many of the (mainly mass-market) appliances have been systematically devalued to the point where customer perception is extremely low, many of my customers only expect to get a couple of years or so out a machine these days.

This is not just the fault of the manufacturers of course as the big two retailers in the UK have a lot to answer for as well, but in the end the manufacturers let them away with forcing appliances to be designed to a price, not a standard and yet they and consumers still expect the service levels to reflect the standard, not the price.

Ain’t gonna happen!

K.

[kwatt]

Steph,

You’ll probably find that most of them will carry a suitable replacement in the van as those guys are all pretty good at what they do. 😉

K.

[kwatt]

I was thinking on being a bit more technical that the old stickers like that and offering more than a few options on it to suit as many people’s various needs as possible. 😉 It means a bit more work to put them on, but offers a far, far higher level of flexability and gets the vehicle noticed, even with a small sticker, but then getting the van noticed is the point of livery I guess.

I had some thoughts a tad away from the normal approach to such things, as is my way. 😈

K.

[kwatt]

Re: Homark Oven

Any or at least one of the following should be able to help;

J & J Parkinson 020 8303 6950
Sellens Service 01732 521500
Swift Electrical Services 01689 833315
T & J Parkinson 02083036950

All cover the BR postal area.

Please tell them where you got the number from will you Steph so they might get their info up in the directory?

Thanks

K.

[kwatt]

Re: e-Jobs

Thanks Phil, we do try you know. 😉

Which leads me on to an interesting and, probably, topical topic…

Livery and merchandising.

The thought was mooted by Del (so you can blame him :lol:) that it may be worth getting some stickers made up for the vans. 💡

Now in actual fact that’s not such a crazy idea if you ask me, if people would put them on of course! 🙄 As, when you think about it we have a whole load of vans tearing up the countryside being seen by hundreds of people a day. Now they may not remember the full URL and they may not catch your phone number but if they tap “UK Whitegoods” or “whitegoods” into Google they’ll almost inevitably end up with UKW. What with e-Jobs set to go live the more people that remember that the better and, therefore, the better chance you have of getting them to uses e-Jobs and/or the site in general.

So you do in two sparrows with one brick, you get promoted in a place where it becomes easy and the crap calls are already filtered out and the site gets promoted. I can’t see a downside for any of us in that.

So the question becomes, what’s your thoughts on the idea?

K.

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