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Re: Hotpoint Advertise Franchises!
Well I got an interesting email this afternoon from an Andy Lane at Merloni with the following attachment to it…
http://www.ukwhitegoods.co.uk/downloads/Merloni.doc
I think that about says it all, don’t you?
Interestingly, on one or two conversations, it bacame abundantly clear that Mr Merloni has used the directory on UK Whitegoods to get the email addresses as one or two are unused anywhere else. But for the benefit of those that haven’t bothered to give us their details I decided to make the document available here. 😉
K.
Okay, Martin suggested the following, just so it’s not forgotten…
Martin wrote:1) . ‘www.ukwhitegoods.co.uk’…The Future? (i.e. Overall aims and ambitions, what is its purpose? how can it be improved? etc)
2). To report on and discuss progress on the ‘UKW Subscriber’ Membership.
3). ‘Retailing’ Spares and possibly new goods direct from the site (i.e. Shop@) or through UKW members?
Comment?
K.
Oh okay, you did but it’s more or less there anyways and there’s not a lot of time on the Saturday. 🙁
K.
Re: CDSL Engineer Database
What it’s about Dave is that CDSL are instigating a national advertising campaign for engineers with the results fed back to the people that take part in the exercise, i.e. the agents that contribute.
I have to say that I do agree with some of Del’s points and I’ve already made it quite clear that, in the interest of privacy, the results should go to an independent third party for distribution.
K.
Re: UK Whitegoods Meeting No.3
Dave_Conway wrote:Are we to assume that the Saturday agenda remains unchanged and is the final version ?
Yes, unless anyone wants a change as no-one’s come up with anything.
K.
Re: UK Whitegoods Meeting No.3
I’m sure it will be good Alex and hopefully very productive as well.
There is now an updated agenda for day one, the Friday, available in the downloads section. There are now 33 people attending the meeting over the two days.
Can anyone wishing to attend that has not made it clear to us please let us know as soon as possible of the intention to attend.
Thanks
K.
Nope I’m all one for new opportunities but this, in so far as I can see and have been told, has just been foisted on the guys with little warning and no negotiation or consultation at all with them, some regard this as tantamount to the tactics employed by some others in the trade and comments have already been made about it.
Personally I think that’s the most important point here, this work irrespective of the content serves only as an example of the phenomena of it just being taken for granted that we’ll get on with it. It seems just blindly assumed by many that we’ll just do it and then they put us in a “take it or leave it” situation, often holding the gun to our heads with veiled and not so veiled threats that we jeapordise other business that we may have with them. The effect and costs to our businesses seem to be given little or no regard whatsoever. NESN displayed this whilst Mr Trubshaw was there very well indeed and already comparisons have been drawn by some of the guys.
The fear from threats is what keeps many from revealing their identity here and some, so scared that they may lose business that they already have with CDSL and others are too frightened to post their comments here. Instead they phone me or others and word soon gets about regarding any dissention in the ranks.
I would say that you are correct Kevin and that dialogue is required but and, this is a most important point, that dialogue should take place BEFORE new contracts are just dumped on the agents, not after the company has agreed to do the work at a rate and with conditions that may well not be acceptble.
K.
No-one said either CDSL or DSG were the bad guys here, I’m awaiting comment before passing any judgement on either.
I am however a bit concerned at the whole concept and of what is being expected of the agents for the rates on offer.
I would also point out that it’s not a service call persay as the customer had no problems before the check is carried out, just as in the case of other safety inspections that have been carried out in the past. Since there is no problem the user tends to pay more attention the the appliance after the fact and specifically look for issues since they then believe that there is a potential for failure, it’s mind games and a bit of psychology at work and facts in that instance are not so important as it’s all about the perception of the customer. The point being that to allay the customer’s fears further service or supposed “recalls” may have to take place and, in all likliehood will, based on previous experience of similar situations.
At present there is no evidence to suggest that this is anything but a trial or an error, however rumour and speculation points to something else far more sinister in the near future. Companies like British Gas tend not to spend countless thousands of pounds without just cause to do so, similarly it is not my experience of DSG to make errors of this magnitude or to spend the money that they shall on a whim.
Rarely does coincidence of CORGI inspections, CORGI installation certification, BG rattling the sabre about annual inspections and DSG rattling that same sabre all coincide with one another. Frankly, it’s just a bit much to swallow.
But I’d love to be proved wrong with the suspicions.
K.
Re: Annual Inspections
Dave_Conway wrote:What happens if you actually find a fault on the appliance while you are there carrying out the inspection ?
You fix on the spot or call back at your expense to repair!
Dave_Conway wrote:I would hope a new call would be raised and paid for seperately as this is just an inspection, not a repair.
Nope, as above one fee only irrespective according to the paperwork I’ve seen.
Whilst I have had some issues with NESN at least they got that right, if you inspect you get paid, if you call back to effect a repair you got paid. Both are seperate things IMO and they should be treated as such, I do not feel that it is the repairer’s place to effectivly become the insurer, we get paid to do a job not carry uneccesary risk.
IMHO, insurance work is premium rate work and yet we are at a point now where we are being paid less for year 2-5 work than we are for some warranty work, is it just me that thinks there’s something far wrong with that?
Dave_Conway wrote:Cleaning materials – for cleaning what ? The appliance ?
Yes, the appliance and also the flooring beneath it, so break out the rubber gloves! I know exactly what my engineers would tell me to do if I ask them to do that sort of thing and it ends in “off”. But I can’t say I’d blame them as if I were asked when I was on the road to do similar I think my response would have been pretty much the same.
However, I did some diging and chatting and the rumour goes thus…
The Insurance Ombudsman which is now really the Financial Ombudsman Service has said that a “safety check” has to be carried out on any insured appliance or device. Hence the panic by British Gas to get more staff of late.
Now, if this happens and it is reality, I very much doubt that the industry can actually cope with the volumes let alone the financial crippling that you’d get from the likes of this. I mentioned Hoovercare earlier but more appropriately I should have mentioned product recalls as they will be similar in the way tht a consumer reacts, anyone involved in the huge Zanussi recalls will know what I’m talking about here.
We were sick of hearing…
“it worked fine until you touched it”
“that scratch wasn’t there before your engineer was here”
“your engineer ripped my lino” or “scratched my floor”
The list goes on and on, in this kind of situation you open yourself up to all manners of complaints and hassles that you have to experience to believe and, in this day and age of “blame and claim” I would hate to be put in this position. You call on behalf of XXXXXXX big company name and Mrs Bloggs sees you as an easy mark and not caring as you work for the big name and, the big name has adequate insurance or loads of cash to pay for her new kitchen flooring. Trust me, I’ve seen it so often and the thing is that even if they find out you are a small company they can’t exactly turn around then and backtrack as they’ve already instigated a claim against you. Changing their minds makes them out to be stupid or liars, even at that some of them are just so pig-headed they’d continue out of badness anyway and the thought that they’ll get a freebie.
Dangerous ground this is.
But as an aside, while browsing for information on the subject I found this article which I thought was pretty interesting….
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/p … anties.htm
K.
