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Re: Whats the most annoying thing customers do?
Cras wrote:this topic has been brilliant for my health for years i used to worry about problem customers ,how i could do things better next time
Yep, i remember being SO stressed in my early days i seriously wondered if i was really cut out for self employment.
18 years on & i really dont let them bother me to any great extent.. seen it all & heard it all before. 😉Re: Genuine parts
waters wrote:Time for me to stop buying cheap pattern parts.Just on the last order i have had 2 faulty Hotpoint wma interlocks,faulty drier stats and loads of faulty cheap vt9 stats in the past.
If its the Qualtex ones i’m not suprised.. picked up one from my interlock box this week which was manufactured just a couple of months ago & the bloody screw holes were bigger than the holes in the machines front panel! The screws just fell out :rolls:
Re: Whats the most annoying thing customers do?
rolf wrote:
Yep i’ll give you a lifetimes guarantee ,that sock will not block your washing machine again.😆 Nice one, never ceases to amaze me how some people think they practically own your soul ‘cos they’ve given you 40 quid or whatever :rolls:
Re: Cancellation of Contracts Made in a Consumer’s Home
Well well.. It would seem Martins source may have been correct.. had a couple of e mails from TS today. It would seem they’re sending out this right to cancel reminder bollox in order to cover their own backs.
I asked about our game specifically & what the score would be regarding agreeing a price prior to attending a call, she seemed to think that would indeed be exempt as a verbal contract would have been formed in the phone conversation, so providing it isnt changed, thats that. 🙂
She suggested i keep a few right to cancel forms in the van ‘just in case’ :rolls:
Well, i may well do that but i basically intend forgetting about this utter nonsense, the only way i can see it ever being an issue is if we ever got reported to TS & were found not to have followed this procedure having agreed a price in a customers home (heaven forbid :rolls: )Never having dealt with TS in the 18 years ive been in business im not going to let it keep me awake. no siree 😉
Re: Cancellation of Contracts Made in a Consumer’s Home
Martin wrote:I’ve just had a phone call from ‘an associate of mine’ that works in local government. ….aaaaaaTiShooo!!! (pardon my sneeze – must be a touch of hay fever perhaps?:wink:
Apparently a little more clarification has come to light pertaining specifically to our trade and work in consumers homes. Now, lets see if I can put this across to you guys correctly from what I’ve been told……
If you are called to fix a washing machine and quote your customer whilst in her home then the regulations apply. You must then go through the procedure of “Rights to Cancel…..etc, etc”
If however you quote the total cost of the repair over the phone to the customer and she agrees then the regulations do not apply. The all important difference being that the contract was not made in the consumers home.
The rules apply to “doorstep selling” and if you don’t cross that threshold to establish a set price for the work then the rules don’t apply.
I suppose taking that to an extreme, if you can’t establish the total cost of the repair without crossing their threshold. Walk out of the house, and across the street then shout the price back to your customer to see if she’s up for it?…….(only joking with the last paragraph by the way) 😈
I just wonder if that then qualifies as ‘Distance selling’ Martin… opening another can of worms :rolls:
Speed reading the OFT’s web sites ‘Guide for businesses on
distance selling’, it would seem that a 7 day cooling off period applies to ‘Solicited & unsolicited phone calls’ It goes on to say, ‘If you do not provide required durable information at all (i assume ‘durable’ means on paper?) your consumers right to cancel ends after three months and seven working days’I dunno, why the hell cant they leave us alone, in 18 years trading i’ve never once been reported to TS, annoying to think our taxes pay for people to dream this crap up :rolls:
Re: Cancellation of Contracts Made in a Consumer’s Home
Anyone else get a form sent from TS on this? Got one today to return showing evidence i’ve been complying with this total bollox.. like everyone else i hav’nt of course 😯
Trouble is they’re wanting to see the paperwork thats been used to inform customers of the 7 day right to cancel.. err.. dont have any 😕So what to do.. ignore it? call them to establish if it REALLY applies to our game? then if they insist it does, i’ll have to admit i’ve been trading ‘illegally’ since it came into force in Oct 08. :rolls:
If the agreeing price with cust prior to visit is a genuine get out then i think we may be ok, most people DO want a quote over the phone.. mind you, long term customers often dont ask & just trust you to be fair.Advice anyone please??? 😕
Eddie.
Re: Whats the most annoying thing customers do?
Ask you to order a part, get you to drive a 60 mile round trip, then threaten you with “further action” if i insisted on getting paid the agreed amount because i didnt cure the fault 😯
Dont think i’ve had a MAJOR fall out with a customer in many a year.. this one would make a saint consider murder though.Integrated washer, Merloni type with s/s drum, shes utterly convinced the ‘leak’ is down to the hole shes spotted in the door seal.. not unreasonable one would think, so order it i did & duly turned up a couple of days later.
Fitted seal,have cuppa coffee waiting for debor on drain spout to set before testing.. lovely. NOT!
Water starts pouring from it like that famous north American waterfall & she instantly turns into a bloody she devil. “what have you done, its worse than ever” blah blah :rolls:To cut a long & frankly boring story short, further investigation revealed a tear in the backplate where the heater enters caused by a broken spider.(she never once mentioned it was noisy!) I advised her to scrap this 7 yr old machine, a reasonable bit of advice i thought.
She, however, thought i should have been able to diagnose the prob over the phone & save her the call out charge (which was apparently ridiculous according to her (45 squid :rolls: ) i even offered to take the seal off & keep it for stock, but the silly bitch was in such a rage she didnt even hear me saying it.
Hubby eventually ushered her into the living room, agreed it really WASNT my fault & paid up in full.
Decent bloke.. deserves a bloody medal living with that. 😥Re: Whoaaaa. Puts things in perspective.
I would certainly have told him to stick it Steve, surely any decent person would have understood your very serious worry, wished you & your family all the best & left you alone! Anyone so selfish does’nt deserve your attention IMO.
It is the one thing i do find incredibly annoying about being a sole trader, fine when things are bumping along nicely, but inevitably, life bites you hard on yer bum now & then when a family member becomes ill & the very LAST thing i need is then having to ring round tons of people telling the same distressing story over & over as has happened 2 or 3 times over the years 🙁Not sure what the answer is though 😕
Re: Hotpoint WD440 wont start.
Cheers Phidom, yeah the tiny surface mount switches can fall off with over enthusiastic prodding, happens on LGs too i’ve found. Will prob return with a facia panel, job is in back of beyond of course :rolls:
Re: customer wants money back!!!
Its still wrong & unprofessional to to expect a customer to pay for any part which hasnt cured the problem.. we’re supposed to know what we’re doing, thats why we’re called in the first place.
I know its a tough gig these days, so many appliances, so many weird faults, but thats how it is, we’ve just gotta deal with it.. 🙁Re: customer wants money back!!!
Yeah, caught that prog last night, AT LAST a redress of the usual ‘all trades are the spawn of the devil’ progs :rolls:
Kinda made me glad i’m in the appliance game in a way, at least the occasional try on from a customer is never gonna finish us in the way it could in the building game.
I personally know a painter & decorator who is owed 22k from a number of customers.. he’s not confident of making it to christmas.. decent, hard working bloke too.. not really fair is it. 🙁
