Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Re: Masterpart….or Amazon?
kwatt wrote:Flawed logic in part, largely I expect as you only see things from your own jaded perspective on the industry.
Martin is from the generation that actually fixed stuff, not just randomly swapped out parts till they get lucky. As much as Martin is a royal PITA at times and, he knows I often more than think it.
Its a generation we should have at least kept if not made improvements.
Where he falls down is that he expects that all that come after in the industry are likewise, that they logically diagnose and work out what the problem is before swapping said parts or making that call to a “friend” for another part to try out.
I likewise. Thanks to the largely sole source of training coming via brands own or the likes of Knowhow, Comet. Like GCSE your trained to pass rather than think.
Your world, working for retailer and/or OEM service is different. They are automatons in large part, trained in being as efficient as possible or to simply “suffice”. Neither include actually being good at what they do or, for that matter, being capable.
Never assume. Your biggest flaw on here.
I’ve worked alongside a Martin.
Thanks to a family run repair business from the 60’s. Some of my school holidays spent amongst the Hoover Keymatics and vacs, wiring new cables to irons etc etc.
The requirement that qualifications are acquired is your go-to argument and, frankly I’m sick hearing it as it’s compete and utter bullsh1t. You’ve not a scrap of evidence to make the case and I can shoot it down easily. For example, government won’t do squat as nobody will pay for it and this industry doesn’t represent enough danger to anyone to warrant it. So, the argument for qualification falls at the first hurdle.
So you place the poor logical approach and repair abilities etc not on education but purely on demands placed by Service/workload needs. The fact that a large amount of “Engineers” simply either refuse to repair products there unfamiliar with or order parts on a pure guess. Strange as HR depts in our industry are struggling to fill position with suitable staff.
I agree with you on the lack of govt backing and interest. If the industry for yrs placed little importance on Service and and it’s staff, the govt is hardly going to take notice.
The industry will in my opinion fail to get govt attention at a time when the govt has voiced concern and identified a need to increase Apprenticeship schemes to bring in change across many industries. Ours though is full of small man syndrome. See it everyday. Industry leaders probably got around the table, our guy decided not to bother.
Who does pay for it as government won’t? Logically, it then has to come from the industry and that would mean anyone that remains in it so, Gas Safe all over again with annual fees, inspections, qualifications and all the rest. Yeah, I can really see the guys all getting behind that one… NOT!
There are schemes around the world for Trades people, that include White Goods requiring all staff to have a minimum high school education to gain entry onto the qualification course for their desired industry , then all those industries have under the same a register. Nobody is employed and business allowed to operate without that qualification. It works well for many.
I can’t see Knowhow or anyone else stepping up to the plate to do so as, it’s gonna cost them and they know it. Increased salaries, extended training times etc, etc. Repeat as necessary for each OEM service.
They already run a training scheme and qualification in white goods repairing.
Maybe it needs to come from you Ken and the independent’s who are fed up of employees taking the piss. Then again monkies are cheap, it’s easier to moan than change. I’m not interested personally, l’m busy thanks to the monkies.
And this is where we find ourselves, poor staff training (if any), poor skills, low pay, low product value, extended service times, staff can’t be attracted as it isn’t an attractive or profitable industry and all the rest rolled together into one arduous cycle.
Quite how a bit of paper solves all that, I can’t fathom. Seems like a very simplistic answer, too simplistic, largely because I’d wager that it is.
It’ll never change, I’m speaking about a proven solution that will never happen on mass in the UK, for the simple fact your attitude that you demonstrate in your comments.
But all of that isn’t forcing people to self repair, the economy takes care of that and, even that has shrunk in recent years, again highlighting that, as we say affectionately in Scotland, you’re talking out your arse.
A common response l hear regularly is “the engineer didn’t seem to know what he was doing”. Add videos from people within our industry show how easy it is to repair, in the nieve hope of selling more parts. The only achievable result long term is a shift in peoples perception.
What’s happening is that people are getting shifted onto service plans or, simply replacing broken machines even a couple or few years old rather than repairing them. If you understood anything about behavioural economics you’d get why but, it’s hardly rocket science.
Crap. We sold service plans in the 80’s.
You seem to miss the fact that the UK operates differently to the rest of the world.
It’s a common British trait, we naively believe everybody is in the same boat doing the same paddling. When in fact it’s not. Some countries and l suggest you sit down for this, actually manage to fix cheap shit, on the first visit.
What you see here is traditional trade suppliers trying to survive in the new world order where chargeable repairs are diminished so, their core customer base is eroded and they have to go into the consumer space to try to survive and, even at that, some probably won’t. This is so because of the above and, again, no qualification is going to override the economics involved and therefore pointless in this respect once more.
No what we have is a country full of clients aware of the horror stories, being sold products to satisfy that fear, by the very people who have made it worse. It’s that industry not interested in change and cause.
All that however, doesn’t fit your tired and ill informed simplistic argument in regard to qualifications, does it?
Actually it does. As it’s kinda unique to the UK.
I’ve told you before and, I’ll do so again, someone who is too scared to even tell others their name yet snipe from the sidelines this way has zero respect. If you had any mettle about you you’d get up and stand up for what you bitch about, you don’t apparently. So I ask again, kindly, to chuck it with inserting your assertions on qualification at every opportunity in threads such as this that have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with that topic. Saying the same sh1T over and over will not make it true nor make it happen.
K.
I have a business, family and bills. I’m hardly going to bite the hand that feeds me well.
If that makes me scared, so be it I’m a pussy.
Also one very clever person once said, it may have been Einstein, you cannot teach stupid.
Why would anybody want to try to change, when the very people purporting to support the industry does actually, nothing.
Re: Masterpart….or Amazon?
Honestly, can you seriously say white goods repairing is difficult Martin.
I’m placing you in the category of someone who has a brain capable of fault finding, logical and average commonsense.
Fitting a part such as a grill element on a cooker, is what 15 screws and a few cables pulled off and placed back. How many here fit a part to a product they have never seen before and really had any difficulty. The hardest bit is sourcing tech info regarding fault codes, but even that many DIYers have little difficulties in sourcing if their determined enough.
Trouble with our industry, because it’s so easy, very little educational qualifications are needed. Couple of weeks on an in house course will do. Not even that, some employ people to install products with no electrical knowledge or experience and a day course. One guy l came across did 6 months at Hotpoint 20 yrs ago, became a bus driver, then worked as a cashier in a petrol station and after a week induction was let loose. I’m sure Mrs Bucket would have issue having been sold on a products reliability, but should that product fail a fully trained “Engineer” would be out in a flash to resolve any failure. It makes knowing the opposite is a real possibility very difficult to sell. They also said genuine new parts would be fitted and not sourced from the scrap.
I wouldn’t bother if l was the client nowadays, I’d watch a YouTube video, buy the part from Amazon, eBay whoever and do it myself. At least the client nows what there getting.
In my world all good.
Re: Fixed labour fee ,fitting parts supplied by customer ?
Let’s hope those odds account for the quality of the part from eBay and the overly biased assumption of 95{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}.
The fact we are debating this on here would better place you in my team. That small percentage of winners.
Re: Masterpart….or Amazon?
There is no incentive for customers to use repairers anymore. Add the fact that most “Engineers” these days rarely use skills anymore. What we do daily hasn’t been beyond the capabilities of most for a while.
Re: Fixed labour fee ,fitting parts supplied by customer ?
I’d walk away. No charge will compensate the shit storm coming if either that part is faulty or causes damage etc etc.
It’s tempting, but so is betting on black with all your winnings on that lucky night that appears to be your night.
The one common denominator in this industry is we are always seen as the professionals by clients, until something goes wrong, then we are the idiots, the cause. That unique shift in logic.
Re: Hotpoint / Indesit Service Centre
It’ll change when they kick out the computers,corporate greed, Sasha and Jordan and replace it with an educated person in an office of other well paid and educated people all pulling together.
Until then like the rest of the 1st world economies, we have to put up with this shit.
Re: Is it just me or is anyone else quiet?
I’m not out of the industry though, I’m still in the UK and im still in white goods, it’s my income source that’s changed and it’s not reliant on Mrs B and her broken Beko or loads of Mr Appliance Doctor’s doing free estimates or undercutting my charges.
I’ve evolved.
Re: Is it just me or is anyone else quiet?
I got out of doing the traditional domestic appliance repairs you guys do several yrs ago, I’m not busy, I’m not dead just ticking along nicely. Stranger still my Spanish interest is very busy and has been since the crisis started.
Re: Washers On TV
The only difference between split and sealed is the manufacturer makes more than the peeps charging to do the repair. The clients paid either way. Since repairers have been slagging off manufacturers for yrs and since neither owe the other their hardly gonna tip the profit in favour of the other.
Re: Who makes this fridge?
From the LG badge, I’d guess LG. Who stuck the silly looking image on it, no idea, proof though that turds cannot be polished.
Re: not a lot to show for 36 years
As one who has experienced being shafted, had a high Court sheriff appear and a business closed you have my sympathy. There is always another option and actually I’m better off, sometimes it’s the push that was need, it for me was easier to slog on than walk away, that push ultimately should have been my choice.
All the best.
Re: Currys cleaning your fridge?
It’s a tax issue, some loop hole in the law between care plans and extended warranties, been in place for yrs, let’s say it has financial benefits to DSG.
Re: Fridge in rented accomodation acting up
It’s perfectly normal. The one and only indicator you need to be lookin for is not cooling.That’s it.
