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Yep, you’ve pretty much got it with the first three.
Pricing of the repair does not in any way bear a relation to the RRP of the appliance (bad term, I know but you get the point) as often the repair cost regardless of the nature is 25{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} or more of the cost of a replacement product. Ergo, the customer sees that as being ripped off by us or by the manufacturer so, for example, when you give a retail price of a motor that is 75{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of the cost of the appliance the customer sees you as taking the Micheal.
We will scrap, on average, about 8-15 machines a week for being what we class as BER. You manufacturers don’t know that because you don’t track it and you don’t ask the likes of GFK for those figures either. Potentially, that’s 8-15 customers a week from just us that will, in all likliehood, buy another brand. Not that all those will be buying your brand obviously.
Pricing is really irrelevant so long as the customer will accept it, after that it comes down to how much and if I can be bothered to shop around.
With regard to the Partfinder CD, that’s fine if you do enough on that single product to justify the cost, many of us do not do enough to justify it or buy manuals unless we’re really in a jam. Then there’s the time facctor in obtaining manuals as well when they are required.
To be quite frank, if I need that CD for let’s say three jobs a month that I will maybe earn 15{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} on over all, call it £50 then £130 a year seems expensive to sort those three I get stuck for. But what you have to remember is that it’s ALL the major manufacturers almost that are at this, not just you, so the cost escalates considerably in obtaining that information.
K.
Dunno Don, But I’m willing to bet that Dave will not be a happy puppy upon his return to work, or here if he looks in. 😕
K.
Re: Patten or Genuine Spare Parts ????
brian wrote:Thanks for your reply.
What percenage of patten spares would you fit compared to genuine ???
You are welcome.
I don’t fit a lot of pattern at all, only really when I’m stuck as the vast majority of work I do is contract work so I have to fit genuine to manufacturer specification. Where it is a chargeable repair I will use pattern to lower the cost to the customer and maximise the profit on the job. That is not to say that I will copromise on the quality of the spares used, offering a 12 month warranty on any spares makes that a given as I don’t want to go back.
However, I like most in the trade, are finding more and more that any “major” repairs are not being carried out purely on cost to the consumer. Even a reasonably priced motor costing us £60 or so is a non-starter as it puts the repair cost at £125 or so plus VAT, so £150. The customer can buy a new washer, albeit I think they’re garbage but still, for about £200.
K.
In all honesty Brian I don’t use pattern if I can avoid it unless it’s the same thing in a different box, like pumps for example. I mean we know in some cases what the manufacturers are paying for them, we can buy the Askolls for a fiver and yet some of them are taking the Mickey with the prices of spares, it’s a well known fact. Just last night you saw me post on a Brandt door seal, which doubtless costs a quid to produce and has a sales price of £18.89 ex VAT and Comet will charge the poor customer £50 for the same part, how can that be justified? The worst are PCB’s though as all the manufacturers are taking the Mick with those!
Faced with the choice of using a £25 pattern PCB and getting the call or an £80 genuine PCB and losing it, what would you do? So yeah, there is a pricing element to it especailly as the retail prices of a replacement have dropped to stupidly low prices making it easier and more cost-effective to replace as opposed to repair in many instances.
Yes, I did wholesale spares for a bit and as you rightly say the wholesalers can make more on pattern and any of them in their right mind will take that route if possible. It’s just business, nothing personal.
Availability is not a problem with pattern as you normally have to order masses of the stuff to get the price for wholesale. From a service point of view, yes those points are important.
Technical info, maybe if manufacturers opened that door a bit they may find that they sell more spares and better targetted as well as general customer service levels being improved. But alas, most manufacturers regard tech info like the crown jewels and refuse to impart it without payment and, the guys that need to use (for example) the Hotpoint disc three or four times a year are not goint to pay the money you ask for it.
So they go in, look blankly at the product and tell the customer that they can’t repair it, good impression of the product eh? Even worse, they go in and don’t have a clue and simply tell the customer it need a motor and module and BER it, again there’s a customer lost to the brand.
The manufacturers need to have a rethink IMHO on a lot of this.
K.
Re: NESN in a Spin Mode
As ever Rudi, spot on with the comment and the timing. Your return is most welcome, as are the comments.
I got a copy of the letter last night and was, frankly, stunned by some of the comments. Just one of which was Dave who I know is on holiday this week yet according to Ms Madden CES (his company) was re-integrated to the network on Monday, I’m sure Dave will be pleased to hear that somoen else is making such decisions in his absence despite the fact that he runs the business.
Other nice little bits of spin were that the agents contacted NESN, well as far as I am aware it was the other way around. I also hear tell that they have been back to some former clients, cap well and truly in hand.
Ms Madden was offered to attend the upcoming UKW meeting in Stafford but she is on holiday, her secretary was supposed to contact me regarding a substitute that was to attend, that has not happened. This despite an email from Ms Madden telling me that her secretary HAD been in touch with me! So I sent her an email explaining this nearly two weeks ago explaining that I was on holiday intil the 16th Aug….no response to date.
I had broached the subject of money, i.e. the unwarranted and sudden termination of me basically and the money owed for old jobs, no response on the unfair termination and a “please put it on a spreadsheet” response for the unpaid work, why as they have all the details at least seven times over?
Then there’s the issue of what they did to Kevin which I and others are still well hacked off about, again ignored. I’ve still not made that little saga public knowledge but I must admit to losing patience. I have left NESN alone to get itself sorted out, it appears that they are more interested in spinning the situation than resolving the issues created by the previous management which, in order to be able to move forward I think they really have to do.
It’s this simple, NESN caused great pain for many people within the industry and they have to apologise, free everyone from the ludicrous contract and make financial ammends for some of the damage they’ve done. Without that they will toil IMHO. They haven’t even had the decency to issue a public apology as far as I am aware let alone tell members that they will nullify the contract.
Interesting that Mr Trubshaw is the subject of a disiplinary hearing, so we were right all along and that, IMO, vindicates a lot of the critisism aimed at NESN during that period.
Looks as if the Elesco thing has fallen down.
Waste under WEEE will cost money, end of story! 😉
On finances, my take is that they don’t have any and are scratching a bit there and anyone that signs up with the caveat that they will not be paid on full or on time until (at best) Feb 2005 must be off their rocker IMO! I’m sorry but they’ll have to do better than that, especially in light of the above. And in addition to that, I happen to know that some that have been re-approached are still owed money from before they terminated over three months ago, what does that tell you about the financial side?
I also note that I have not been asked to rejoin the network, nor another former member who is in the process of court procceedings to try to get money owed back from NESN, which of course is being disputed. Funny old thing that isn’t it?
I had to laugh though at the figures to install a system in there. It costs NESN all that money and that’s cost, yet we are expected to run around the country for next to nothing and attend meetings taking days out of our businesses for the price of a cheap buffet sandwich, nice.
As to the DASA tie up, well I’m a DASA Council Member and I am totally unaware of any communication between DASA and NESN. To my knowledge NESN dropped its associate membership some years ago and only recently re-applied for the same status, no doubt in an effort to gain some much needed credibility. However, as a DASA member, I would be extremely concerned about the nature of this work from a legal standpoint and it would require to be thoroughly invetigated with CORGI as well to ensure we were not opening a can of worms. I certainly don’t fancy taking the responsibility in the current culture of “blame and claim”.
I sincerely hope that NESN gets itself sorted out, but they have to get themselves more organised and start telling the truth, not the truth as they want it seen by everyone. Only then may they start to earn some respect back IMO.
K.
Sorry, meant to get back on that. 😳
Yeah, it’s pretty clear TBH what I’m about with this, I hope, as it gives a nice easy way for the customer and the repairer to communicate.
Hope to be live with this shortly after the September meeting and it’s all rumbling ahead nicely ATM.
K.
Okay, it’s up and running with a small survey about spares suppliers for now on there, details and URL are in the “trade spares” forum.
This can and will allow us to carry out our own market research and retain the information for our purposes. It puts us in a far better and more knowledgable position when dealing with manufacturers etc. despite the other obvious benefits.
So, do the survey that’s there please and let me know what you think. Also we need to take a lead here and think what we want to do with it.
Obviously getting opinion on CORGI is a given after the September meeting as we’ll then have cold hard facts to approach them with and the numbers to back it up. 😉
K.
Yeah, I know Machiavelli and some of his works and I do not agree with the level or means of control employed.
She should have read Plato. 😉
K.
I’ve not seen that particular model Martin but check the microswitch on the side fill chamber on the left as they give grief. Other then that it’s just the usual pressure balanced fill affair so I’d say it has to be down to that in some way, probably full of gunk as usual. 😕
K.
If it won’t open without force then don’t try as you could potentially do more harm than good. The only option I’m afraid is to go back the retailer for an exchange, refund or to arrange an engineer’s visit.
K.
