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It’s been awhile since I did anything for users on the site, but a lot has gone on behind the scenes. 😉
Anyway, I have this afternoon added the Coppermine Photo Gallery module, you’ll see it in the main menu under “Photo Galleries”. Basically it does what it says on the tin so all you budding David Bailey’s can send in photos and I can get them up there.
Now what was that about a rogues gallery? 😆
K.
Benoit,
Whilst we can offer you advice as far as we can we have to be careful of prejudicing your case against the manufacturer. Whilst I would have no issue with writing up a story for the front page I’d far rather that the matter was dealt with and a comprehensive response was given by the manufacturer and/or the retailer before doing that.
However, that does not exclude some of us from asking a few questions of the right people in the right places in an attempt to help you, but that is a considered a favour from the people we ask and we can’t make any guarantees at all that it will produce a result. Obviously though that has to be done in the background and it’s not official in any way.
We’ll see what shakes out.
K.
Andy,
Could it be customer misuse? Becasue it sure sounds it to me, teenage daughter with those damn studs in them that may be too sharp is a favourite. Or simple overloading with the wrong stuff in it forcing too much against the seal.
IME Candy door seals are pretty damned good and do not tend to tear until they are a few years old. Just a thought.
K.
Yes Alex I’d agree with the sentiments about Servevast as well, bar the constant updating of calls which is a bit of a pain IMO, but other than that I find Servevast very good to work with as well.
K.
Yes Rudi you are correct from what I know of the situation. One potential agent said “no” due to the poor money on offer and the incumbant has dropped the contract. So far as I know the area is being taken on by an existing service patner or partners.
Another one bites the dust as they say. 🙄
K.
Re: Some Good News
bonzaco wrote:Ken – I agree with most that you say, but with the exception of Graffters, we are continually putting them on stop for late payment/non payment. They only seem to pay when they have another job lined up that they need doing yesterday and then you wait months for that payment. I would agree that they are always polite but if you’re not getting paid does that help??
I’ve never had a problem TBH bonzaco, give Howard a ring and ask him politely to fix it and he will 😉
K.
Re: Samsung
Just had a nice helpful chap on the phone from Samsung asking after a spare for the customer, the conversation went along the lines of…
“Hi, I need to know when you expect parts for Mrs *****”
“Ehm, we’re not! We can’t get access to the website to access any information, either the technical one or the spares one”
So a few minutes roll by as he explains that we do have access etc. then…
“What’s the username and password if you don’t mind telling me?”
[i]”no, not at all as they’re no use anyway, user=***, pass=***”
“Oh, you’re right, error 401, forbidden. We’ll get back to you as soon as as this isn’t very good.”
Hopefully Samsung are trying to sort the problems out and I have to say that the chap I spoke to was trying his best to be as helpful as possible.
As an aside I asked if there was a CDROM availabel for all the tech info, there supposedly is and I did ask for one. Maybe we should ask D&G if they can aquire some for the agents?
K.
Re: GB DAR
Well, since the whole thing is more or less blown wide open bar the “why and how” GBDAR came about…
I have had a call to say that Del is pretty much on the money with the information he’s given. In fact someone has paperwork from Servis that shows that GB are paid the full rate for BER calls, nice money spinner eh?
On the spares front one person inside Servis has told me that the prices to GB did not rise as they did to agents and the rest of the trade for the appliances but of course there is no proof of that. However, those of us doing work for other brands that also use machines produced by Antonio Merloni will be well aware that they can buy the exact same part and part number from the same source ultimately at a considerable saving in cost. For example a standard pump from GBDAR is £24 odds plus VAT yet the exact same item from MFI is left than half that price!
That is nothing more than robbery in my book, sorry GBDAR but if you treat and view us as fools you have to expect a backlash, we’re not idiots.
As to spares orders, well I wasn’t going to say anything on it as I really didn’t want to go there, but I have an order that is outstanding with you since 27/11/2003, not one part on that order has been supplied! After that and numerous delays previous to that I was not ordering more parts only to get them in and find that the appliance had been exchanged before you supplied the spares, leaving me with a load of expensive spares that you contra off almost immediately, the last contra was actually taken before it was due and I know I wasn’t the only one that suffered that. Funnily enough that was shortly after Powerhouse went to the wall.
So, here’s the deal insofar as I am concerned, it needs sorting out and fast because if you don’t sort it you may well find yourselves a bit thin on the ground with regards to agents I think. I get phone calls on an almost daily basis from many members of the trade and any of them that do work for Servis UK/GBDAR are not happy, know that you are costing them money and are on the point of telling you to stuff it. Blunt, I know, but it’s the truth sadly.
I was hoping that this would sort itself out in time without any intervention or a lot of this being known by the trade at large but I now see it’s pretty much too late for that as the cat’s out the bag now pretty much for the large part.
So, in essence, the work you pass is unprofitable, has huge spares costs and massive admin overheads attached to it. The question is what are you going to do to resolve that?
K.
(as always personal opinion and comment)
😳 I think I may have upset Whirlpool again! 😈
TBH I don’t give a flying fuck anymore, they had all better just start to get real IMO.
K.
First of all thanks for the responce and comments, it is nice to know that we can all talk openly.
My comments below as appropriate.
spinner wrote:“Pay crap money”
Like all WP’s we pay what we can afford, but as recently demonstrated when additional monies are available GBD will pass on a fair portion to our agents.
Sadly this is a reflection on the entire industry, not just on GBDAR and no-one said that GBDAR were not paying what they could pay repairers but that the sums on offer were poor. I’m sorry but £31 a call just doesn’t cut it these days to deliver in-home service and manufacturers and insurance companies are just going to have to realise that.
That said, we all know that Servis invoice many insurance repairs at ~£50 labour yet pay us, well now, £31 for that. How can any organisation justify a 48{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} administration fee on a service call? I suspect that may be down to Servis in the end, but let’s just say that we are all well aware of the situation and there’s many of us that are not happy with it.
spinner wrote:The contra system now employed by GBD protects us against agents who have administration difficulties and may not keep their parts inventory up to date.
Yes and I would agree with a contra system as a general rule as it operates to everyone’s advantage if done correctly. As to parts inventory see the comments below.
spinner wrote:With genuine queries GBD will work with anyone to reach a fair conclusion. Currently we have no outstanding parts issues with agents.
Fair enough and I appluad anyone that will work with agents to improve things.
spinner wrote:“Many jobs will not be first time fix”
True.
This however this could be improved if more agents carried a meaningful level of van stock.Agents would be inticed into carrying more spares if they were sensibly priced, which for Servis UK product they are most certainly not! The price increase on spare in (IIRC) 2001 wasn’t just ludicrous it was tantamount to theft, how on earth can Servis justify (in some cases such as door handle kits) a rise in cost to agents of over 400{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} in one fell swoop? This is why we won’t stock spares, it’s just too expensive and, given the rates on offer, even more uneconomical to attempt to do so.
How would Servis take it if we all stuck up out prices by 3 or 400{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} overnight with no warning, then continued to increase them in line with inflation whilst not increasing the monies paid to them in line with inflation? No, they wouldn’t like it would they. That’s the way it’s viewed whether the views are liked or acknowledged or not.
The spares pricing for Servis is ludicrous and even the insurers will tell you that and it is viewed by many agents as nothing more than a scam to put money into Servis’s coffers.
spinner wrote:“You have to do a lot of paperwork, reports for insurance companies etc.”
True – but this an industry standard, an further, any queries generated by poor information from agents has to be resolved by GBD – again an industry standard.
True but this is an issue that has become more and more topical over the past few years as the administration costs have risen exponentially for both yourselves and agents with no reciprocation on offer to compensate for the extra work involved. Do the companies demanding these things think that we would all just sit back and soak up more costs year on year and not complain? Wholly unreasonable to expect us to do so as everyone reaches a point where the situation becomes untenable.
An other example of where the industry has to change its attitude to be frank.
spinner wrote:“They give appointments to customers, regardless of whether you can fit these jobs in.”
You’ll never win with pre-booking calls and, since WP’s/manufacturers/insurers all want to log calls through a central call handling system the customer recieves a poorer service in comparison to those where the customer deals directly with the service agent as we are far more flexible in the way we book calls and have a knowledge of the land. All I need do is point out the old “two inches on the map is a long way” phrase and almost every agent here will fall about laughing as call centres have, as a general rule, not a clue about the local areas around the country or what’s involved in getting from A to B in time or distance.
Simply put pre-booking calls will never work without an explicit knowledge of runs, areas, work and live information from the engineer’s diary.
spinner wrote:“The product you are working on is crap”
That of cause is your opinion, of which you are entitled, but remember a repair is a repair, and if the failure rate was lower so, would be the number of repairs available to us both.
Which is just fine if you do not expect us to warranty the entire appliance for 28 days after a repair and not just the work carried out, which Servis do and it is not uncommon for us to be accepting the cost of a supposed “recall” which is nothing at all to do with any work previously carried out. I have said many times before, repairers are not insurers if Servis require indemnified against repeat faults they should either build a better product or insure themselves against that loss.
spinner wrote:“Sorry for £30 a call they’re not on, pay me a decent rate and I’ll consider it I might even care about the work.”
OK – The rate for Service repairs has increased by £1, agreed it is not a kings ransom but it was given in good faith, we could have kept this increase to ourselves particularly since it was generated by cost savings at GBD.
I question however the comment “I might even care about the work” are you saying (kwatt) that you accept work but have no consideration for the customer, the product or yourself?? I do not believe it.TBH I was livid when I wrote that and it was an “off the cuff” remark owing to four calls in one day with mobile numbers to contact. From this point onwards I am billing these phone calls back to the WP or whoever if the rate is under £40 a call, end of story. If it is unpaid or rejected I will simply cease to work for that company.
I carried out an exercise last year taking off mobile calls from the phone bill and the phone bill dropped by over 40{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}! In an industry where the gross margin is normally around 3-7{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} a 40{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} increase in one cost is totally unacceptable without some form of reciprocation. If you or your client wish us to provide these little “extras” then I’m afraid you’ll have to pay for them just as we have to, we do not get extra services for free either why should you expect to?
As for the £1 a call rise I do realise that that was done on behalf of GBDAR but, let’s face it, that’s only really keeping up with inflation not paying for any added services as above or the vast increase in the cost of stockholding for Servis is it?
spinner wrote:“Background over, kicker coming”
NO Access Visits.
GB Dar do not get paid for “no access” calls, therefore we can not pass anything on to agents.Serious bone of contention that I get at least one call a week about in respect of GBDAR work.
You book the call, you accept the cost of that time slot for the engineer seems to be the sentiment. We book the call then we take the risk.
This harks back the the comments above about pre-booking, it just doesn’t work and, if you expect us to recieve calls and then call customers to book calls etc. then you have to account for that administrative cost as well.
This is an issue that you have with your client and it’s, frankly, not our problem, our problem is that we are wasting time calling to people that are not there and, ergo, wasting money that we cannot afford to waste.
The other little thing that you forgot to mention, but I will since it is another thing I hear about on a weekly, if not daily, basis is reduced BER fees. This is an utter nonsense, especially in respect of GBDAR/Servis UK. A half fee doesn’t even cover the cost of getting to the door let alone the phone calls, faxes, time chasing the insurers and all the rest that goes with a BER call and to be quite honest I, personally, have just about had my fill of it. Every single appliance that is written off is a total and utter loss to us, totally unfairly, as since it is a poor appliance with extremely high spares pricing being written off for anything even remotely major is highly likely.
Quite honestly, with the warranty repairs dropping in volume as they are now and the increase in write-offs now this work is rapidly becoming a burden that costs us money instead of the other way around.
spinner wrote:We have thought long and hard about making this response, would it be better to ignore the unqualified comments and let them continue or should we respond to the criticism and put our comments to you. We chose the latter. And now that done – what of the future??
I’m glad you did and also very pleased to offer feedback as I’m sure others will be as well.
As to the future, well many of the issues above need to be adressed or, like others you will struggle to find any agents that wish to work for you as no-one will work at a loss, or they won’t for long. 😉
spinner wrote:GB Dar is aware that it is not ideal to have too many eggs in one basket, therefore we are, as some of you know seeking to expand our customer base, and where possible improve the rate we pay, but we have to earn it to spend it. Comments made by members, on other sites in “Forums” have not been conducive to this aim.
Well, I think I’ve made it clear that I am not having a go at GBDAR persay but at the contracts that GBDAR (and others) hold, they are unrealistic in today’s market in terms of pricing and, often, conditions.
Maybe if some WP’s stop trying to cut each other up on price things will change and try to offer a service, albeit at a price and that price will ave to be borne by the manufacturers. Just look at the Samsung and LG threads, how many of us will wish to see that work given the hassles involved? Look at the NESN thread where many of us were backed into a corner over service levels, pricing and contracts.
spinner wrote:It is true that GB Dar has made mistakes in the past, but it is our intention to continue to improve as we have. For example labour rate has improved and yes we do pay on time. Parts delays have shortened and will improve further. We are commissioning a new computer system which may not generate any further cost savings but will simplify communications with agent which should result in a faster response to your queries.
All great stuff, but many of the core issues remain that need addressed but from my own point of view it’s great to see that GBDAR are trying to work with their network and the trade to improve things.
K.
LOL Rudi, you’re a baaaddd man! 😆
TBH though LG must be running out of options now as I think they’ve been round the houses as it were and their reputation now procceeds them shall we say, as seems to be the case with Samsung as well. The problem either will have now is that regardless of where they go we all know what the score is and will be carefully watching, if any of us even agree to take it on.
K.
