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No, not seen or heard about it but i take it that it’ll be the normal “thou shalt not work for another network” crap that usually gets banded about everytime NESN percieve a threat?
K.
Matt,
When you say they die what, specifically, do you mean by that? Is it that the power disappears or is that the machines just stop dead with the power lights still on?
There could be several explanations depending on the circumstances but I think you’re absolutely right, it’s too much of a coincidence and there has to be a comon problem. But Ted is correct and that’s the first thing I’d check too.
K.
Re: Jo Loaches E-Mail
Flipper wrote: Ken I take it your still on the E-mail list even though you’ve been kicked off. This just shows how organised they are regarding communication. The latest bunch of e-mails are only being sent out because they feel threatened.
Yes, I think deliberately I’m still getting the mail as it depends what subject they’re on whether I get them or not, I’d lay odds that it is only when it benefits NESN that I get a copy of the mail. Not that I care particularly as I don’t really take much heed of what they put out as it’s generally a load of bullshit propoganda anyway to try to make themselves look wonderfull, which they’re not.
Yes, I think you’re right I do beleive that they do indeed feel threatened and probably rightly so as I don’t know how much longer that the likes of NESN will survive in the industry. The site and the list hasn’t destroyed them, only hastened the possible demise of them if they do not address their problems. Interestingly, they are their own worst enemy as far as I can see, especailly in the case of NESN, but then there’s no telling some people. 😉
Flipper wrote:NESN’s managed princples of ‘divide and rule’ and ‘mushroom syndrome’ are no longer working due to this web site and the e-mail list, all thanks to you Ken. Keep up the good work.
They will now have to start talking to us properly and treating us with the respect we deserve.Oh how right you are on the “divide and conquer” front and they *ALL* play this game as a general rule, I just didn’t like the rules of the game and decided to change them a little bit. 🙂
It’s unfair to credit me with all this, I just put the pieces in place and into play, the trade now has to get up off it’s arse and use the damned things! I’ve given them the tools to make a difference and pointed them as much as I can in the direction of DASA as well as trying to let them be more vocal about the issues, they have to do their bit now. I’ll keep it going and I’ll keep on posting the contentious stuff where I can because, quite frankly, I don’t give a shit who I upset with my ideas but I do note that there isn’t many people, including WPs, manufacturers etc., that disagree with most of what I or anyone else with access here has to say about the trade. Quite simply, it has to change.
K.
Dave_Conway wrote:JT aka John Thomas or to his friends “the prick” probably wrote and filtered it through Jo anyway, who incidently asked me yesterday if i knew anyone in Scotland who may be able to help with coverage. After rushing home to change my soaked underwear, I declined to answer 😉
LMFAO! I knew they had problems up here in the central belt a few weeks ago when they asked me to cover an outlying call in Walter’s area, which I didn’t do. It was an MFI call and, ordinarily, I would have done it but they were starting to get shirty with me and a week later they terminated me so I thought, sod that it’s their problem not mine.
I know they’ve been talking to Mike Webb in Ayr, but he does mostly chargeable work and I doubt he’d be interested in the work at the rates, particularly since he called me and asked me what the score was. I didn’t lie to the man but I did tell him the truth as far as I knew it and said it was his choice as it’s his business not mine therefore his decision to make on wherher it was worth it or not. He didn’t sound too keen though I have to say.
The laugh of it is that there are a *LOT* of other areas that they have coverage problems in right now as well, this I am aware of and they’ve had pay extra (in some cases a lot more) over the going rate they offered for Coverplan work to get it done in some cases.
And no, that email came from JT filtered through Jo for sure as there’s no way a mail like that would go out to the entire network without being vetted first.
K.
ted wrote:It came from her computor …..with no cc’s on it ?
I wonder who put it out…..
regards kevin…………I don’t think an email like that was released without passing through the Propoganda Department. 😉
K.
Well on thinking about the email from Jo Loach last night my only thought it this:
If that’s not an admission of coverage problems, what is?
K.
Yeah I saw the post okay as well, odd thing it is this timeout malarky.
Anyway, you’ll have to excuse me as I’ve not had a lot of sleep in the past 24 hours since my other half decided that she was having a baby last night so I’m not quite with it today.
What I’ve found out now after some heavy reading & searching is that the error is cured with the patch I used totally but I or maybe Dave as well, have to manually set the privilege in the user database to ignore a session timeout. I do apologise, but as I said I’m not totally with it today.
I have reset the ones that I know have experienced a problem including yours John, Flipper’s, my own, Dave’s and a few others that I think had the issue. Apparently it’s mostly the ISP that causes the problem by changing the DNS addresses while your online, with AOL being the worst offender but there are others that do likewise. It’s a security thing to stop your forum ID being stolen although, TBH, it would have to be one very determined hacker to do it!
So, if you get this error, even once, please let me know and I can sort it in literally two minutes now or so I’m told, with this patch but so far it appears to be working.
K.
Okay that should be it cured I hope for good!
I found a fix and applied it this afternoon for the error so if anyone was having problems could you even try a “Test” post to make sure it’s all okay now.
Turns out that there was indeed a timout or DNS error.
K.
I know what you’re saying about training here and I realise that it is an important thing to have. I also realise that, personally, I’d rather have it than not, but (there’s the “but”) the issue I have with it is quite simple: cost!
Let’s take CORGI as an example:
We have 5 days training to do CCN1, then a further 2-3 for CKR1, this gives you basic gas safety (which is too in depth for our needs, but we’ll skip that for now) and the cookers module.
So far I’ve lost 7-8 working days per engineer PLUS I have to pay them wages while they are not earning or taking a holiday and I have over a week’s worth of work not done. Total loss to the business is in the order of about £3K per engineer and then on top of that you have the CORGI fees etc.
Now, this is not so much of a problem if you are a plumber charging £65 callout and then a half-hourly labour rate, it is however a problem to the likes of ourselves on fixed price contracts, most of which pay less than £40 a call irrespective of the appliance!
Let’s put this is perspective on average an engineer, fully loaded, will do 2400 calls a year of which about 8{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}, in my experience, is gas work which means 960 gas calls in the 5 year registration period, tops. So some quick math with the registration fee thrown in and this comes out to £4.16 per gas call. Fine, then add on the extra time for gas work so you basically double that figure at least, then add a 25{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} mark up and you arrive at a premium on *every* gas call of £11.09. Do we get £11.09 extra for every gas call, no! So who pays for the training, registration and all the other costs, we do.
Oh and by the way, our results are skewed by installation work, in reality the normal amount of gas work on a manufacturers range is purported to be 5{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} or less (I didn’t work it out and with some exceptions like Stoves). Using that as a basis for figures it comes out to £17.76 extra a call to save anyone working it out but it’s probably still higher, this is why many “nationals” shy away from touching gas as it’s quite simply too expensive.
What I did work out just recently was the cost of LPG repairs. Based on the number we do per anum I’d have to be charging more than £100 a service call on an LPG appliance to recoup the costs of the training and other costs for it! So now we do not do LPG calls, if there is a need for it at some point I will train one engineer only and this could cause delays in getting service, but I can see no other viable alternative.
So it’s not that I don’t want training, it’s not that I don’t (most likely) need training it’s just simple economics and no-one wants to pay for it.
K.
Re: Being pissed off
ted wrote:I hope this site is as secure as you say otherwise I might have to throw Andy Craw & his sidekick out of my office a second time.
Viva the revolution!
Yes, this forum can only be seen by site admin, myself and Dave Conway as well as those that have specific access granted. Other than that no-one can even see it exists let alon access it as it is totally hidden from view from anyone else.
K.
Yes, exactly the reason that Connect got involved and Wash Vac were also looking at a similar deal with D&G AFAIK.
The spares trade is dying as the machines are too cheap, sales of in particular, high value items are dropping rapidly, so they have to prop up their businesses somehow, I just want to be sure it’s not done at my expense or any other agents either!
And you won’t increase margins from increased volumes, only increase your headaches and your overdraught. 😉
K.
Indeed, these buggers are all starting to really piss me off the more I look at it. Basically, the way I see it, they’re taking the piss out us and taking *OUR* money straight off us before we even see it.
Added to which they expect us to finance their operations by buying stupidly over-priced spares and in turn, financing their own operations.
IMHO, virtually none of them would survive if they had to totally self-finance their own operations. For example Candy loses about £250K a month from service, until they add spares sales to it and then it either breaks even or shows a small profit. Yet they expect us, via JTM or direct to do calls for almost nothing, hence I told them to stuff it.
K.
Yes and a lot of the cabinets are made by the same people: Maytag, from the USA.
Whirlpool, LG and I think Samsung also make their own but most others you’ll see in the UK are generally the Matag cabinets re-branded and re-clad. Amana is also owned by Maytag, so they’re all just Maytags as well.
HTH
K.
