[Madmac]

Re: Will you please leave me alone!!!!!!!!!!

Yep, we’ve all had ’em, the worst ones without question IMO are older retired blokes. I had one recently who actually pullled up a chair to view the bearing change on his WMA.

2 hours of inane comments later, he was still there. only because his daughter is a long standing valued customer did i manage to get through it.
I always find it difficult though, being rude to people in their own home, but some simply CANT take a hint. The way i usually play it is by going selectively deef, giving one word answers, & generally ignoring their presence. Works for many, but for some the penny never drops.

[Madmac]

Re: Rising fuel costs

Regarding tuning boxes for Diesels, ive fitted these to my last 3 cars. None of them made any difference to economy, so dont waste your money if thats what youre after.

They all improved torque from around 1800rpm upwards & made the engine keener to rev, but if you use the increased performance regularly the MPG would fall slightly, but only by a couple of {e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}.

With modern common rail injection, the way a lot of these boxes work is by ‘fooling’ the cars ECU into upping the fuel pressure in the fuel rail so more fuel is injected even though the injector doesnt remain open any longer. This then shows up as a slight MPG improvement on your trip computer, cos its working on injector opening time, which remains the same, hence the many excited testimonials you read about better performance AND economy. Bollox. :rolls:

[Madmac]

Re: Currys Staff Cull

This thread is going a wee bit off topic but regarding house prices, i am always totally amazed to hear people go on a downer when property prices pause for breath or fall a bit.

Unless you have a second house as an investment what the hell difference does it make?? Every other house is rising as well & unless youre planning to live in a tent, how will you ever make money on a rising market.

All it does is make it impossible for our kids to get a foot on the ladder & shift wealth to existing home owners, i personally hope the market falls 50{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}, i would gladly see my own house worth less on paper if it means the bloody sprogs will leave home before theyre 30!! :rolls:

[Madmac]

Re: Thorny Issue No2

I would agree Phidom, the comments i get from customers tend to be that they wish they could buy a washing machine etc with fewer buttons & lights .. bit like the lovely Indesit Moon.. 😯

Wouldnt recommend that bag of bolts obviously but market research must have convinced Merloni there was a demand for it.
The simple facia probably gives the impression its gonna be reliable.. IRONY!! :rotfl:

[Madmac]

Re: Currys Staff Cull

Hmmm, the Comet secret police must have silenced him.. 9mm Glock to the left temple, like the last guy. Tragic :sadder:

[Madmac]

Re: Silliest Mistake?

eastlmark wrote:I have done worse on a Hotpoint top loader…replaced power unit, all done cabinet back on, tested all ok, sounded a bit quiet but what the heck…wrote out bill, went to find customer to pay and tripped over the inner drum still sitting on the the floor where I left it.

Nice one I seriously thought it was just me who did such things! I think what we all do when doing a job we’ve done a hundred times before, is go into “brain standby mode” my latest shocker was trying to fit a door seal while thinking about whats for dinner or the futility of our existence or whatever & a fair few minutes later noticed i was trying to fit it inside out! 😳

[Madmac]

Re: Currys Staff Cull

Out of interest cometbez, what are you finding appliance sales are doing with regards to the price points people are buying at, has the economic malaise shifted punters towards the first couple of pages of the website & no further, or is the mid range/ high range still selling?.. just curious.. 😉

[Madmac]

Re: will i wont i???

I’vebeen self employed for around 20 yrs, & i must admit i would find it seriously difficult to work for someone else now. The freedom to plan my own life is the biggest attraction, no question.

Sure, if you let people contact you 24hrs a day you WILL quickly go insane, if i’ve had a heavy day i think nothing of switching the phone off at 6pm, if i miss a few calls i’ll know nothing about it so who cares..

I think the one thing you never get used to is not knowing what youre gonna earn from one week to the other, a really quiet week does still get me down & anxious, though it always picks up again…..so far.. 😯

Basically Kevin, if you like a steady wage & have serious commitments then a fledgling appliance repair business may not be for you in the current economic climate, but if you can survive on a patchy income for a while & like a personal challenge….. go for it. :eeek: 😆

[Madmac]

Re: Hoover dishwasher totally dead

No Hoover/Candy dudes came across this prob??????? Dont like ordering pcb’s willy nilly…. 😯

[Madmac]

Re: What Is Actually Fair?

P.s, regarding kens start to this thread, this is one of the reasons i’m hanging on trying to remain a totally independent engineer generating my own work. Perhaps i’m wrong, but being piggy in the middle between a WP & customer sounds like hard work 😯

I would imagine a customer who has paid for a service up front is more likely to be demanding & generally more liable io take the pi$$, just my theory though.

Having said that, i guess if indy work dried up, & lord knows its been patchy this year, it would be something i’d consider i suppose, but if the regular amusing offers i get from GB DAR are typical in the industry, it would be time for a career change, no question :rolls: 🙂

[Madmac]

Re: What Is Actually Fair?

hotpnt wrote:the problem also arising from cheap machines is people also think we will be cheaper too!,

Exactly :tup: What drives me nuts about seeing a Servis in B&Q for £150, or a Zanussi in Tesco to “take home today” for £220 or whatever is people use this as ammunition against you to try to drive down a repair quote.

I do so few bearing jobs now i have removed all the gear & spares used for them from my van & dumped them in my garage. People simply wont pay for a proper job with new spider etc.

Its just so frustrating when everything is rocketing in price that we white goods monkeys are expected to live on static earnings, its no wonder the trade is dying 🙁

[Madmac]

Re: What Is Actually Fair?

I guess your vet’s taking advantage of our emotional bond with our animals squadman, not many people feel the same about their Beko or whatever !

And that, in a nutshell is what we’re all up against in this game, i just hope inflation feeds its way into white goods prices sometime soon so i can put my bloody rates up for the first time in 5 years!! :rolls:

[Madmac]

Re: Candy AT130

Reminds me of an old geezer that i used to go to for many years who proudly told me how he doused the timer on his old 800 Electron ‘at least twice a year’ with WD 😯 Hav’nt heard from him in a long time.. 😥

[Madmac]

Re: Candy AT130

Using a solvent switch cleaner on a timer is only a good idea i have found Jim, if one leaves a reasonable time for the product to evaporate before testing.. 😯 😯 😆

[Madmac]

Re: Candy AT130

We’ll all wait for the huge bang ! 😉

[Author]

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