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Re: Cowboys still riding the range
“Also, not for me to say but £38 for any brush change is selling yourself short, after you have deducted your overheads (about 50{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} usually) and cost of parts you are probably making £10 if your lucky. £38 plus parts at retail value is more realistic. Just my opinion.”
well id not agree with you a few months ago, but im sorry to say ill have to now, i had a good workload on everyday and had a good customer base, prided myself on good value for money and a job well done and could offer competative rates like these, and now god knows whats happening theres certainly something in the air my work load is variable and unstable and how many customers this week have tried to fix there own machine is beyond belief are they that skint! the other day spend 20 mins driving to a job to be greeted with a jolly face that he’d managed to fix it him self looking all happy and proud of himself, so i told him hes getting charged callout that wiped the smile of hisface as i advertise free callout and estimates only for a job that exsists.
yes selling myself short is how im beginning to feel, the wife the other day pointed out that machine in argos at just over 150 quid, they will soon be free on the back of a cornflakes packet.
Re: Electric shower repair…. Am I breaking the law?
Im glad someone brought up the legal side of home electrical repairs im aware of the law that states any person who carry’s out electical work bust be competant to do so, now i know as far as also after every job done earth loop and insulation must be done, whilst working for british gas we were told to fill in a minor works certificate after every job.
can anyone clairfy the do’s and donts with home electrical work not pat testing.especially with the current climate its all to tempting to take up any offers of other work.
Re: British Gas Engineers
Iv worked for Merloni and British Gas, the difference is multibranded work so your not to be considered an absolute expert on everything, in fact to tell you the truth your not even considered and expert, in fact to tell you the truth as long as you can wire a plug up youll get on just fine at the gas board 😆 ber everything or pass it on then go for dinner, do the odd hotpoint carbons here and there and race road like a nutter in the blue van, and at 2 go home, occasional all night cover for home electrical and if your unluckly enough to get called out in the night telephone the customer and tell them to switch it all off til morning and go back to bed.
I never changed a drum once whilst working for the Gas board, i once changed a set of hotpoint wm bearings and thats only because i only had 2 jobs to last me all day.
Re: Teaching your Grandmother
Blimey! 😯
Hello Steve that must have been really a horrible experience, septicemia? thats a serious full body infection isent it? i had a chronic groin infection (unrelated to work) thats not too bad now but at first the pain was awful, i cant begin to think what it would have been like if it would have spread, you poor sod, this job can be dangerous only last month i set myself on fire with a can of dust-it spray i was under a washer at the time, it was unplugged i sprayed loads of the stuff onto a motor and it went up in flames with static i went running into the guarden onfire! it took quiet a bit of morphine to knock out the pain from the burns, 🙁Re: Cowboys still riding the range
Yes it is frustrating, ill tell you what gets right up my nose if the motor only needs brushes, in some cases im not rewarded for my honesty here, im told that £38 to £48 all in for changing brushes is over priced and goodbye, or even better thanks for coming ill get od job down the road to change them instead, or thanks for the quote ill get back to you on that one, next they phone every man and his dog for the best price for changing brushes, i get them on the phone “how much does it cost for brushes changed on a ….hotpoint etc” so i reply how do you know its the brushes? then then they say well i had an engineer out and hes quoted a lot for just brushes” when you ask how much its normally a reasonable price for the job.
I got sick of this and now quote the customer for a “motor service”, brush change(gen carbs), comm stick and clean up of old carbon dust and insulation test. still charge the same.I hate being dishonest in anyway its just plain bad for business, but sick of dishonest customers.I think yes there out there rough traders i want to see a new tv program called rough customers as there just as bad.
Re: Free Training from Proctor & Gamble
and knowing what detergent to use and where to stick it has got to help I guess
Ok marting i see your point but lets keep this forum clean :rotfl:
Re: Free Training from Proctor & Gamble
Yes i was lucky enough to get this training in the Hotpoint Traning Centre in Wales a few years back now, i got sent there from Merloni at the time and yes as Lawrence says independents dont have this opportunity for training that Manufacturers engineers have, withing this field of work there so much to learn with different products always coming on the market i dont ever think this job is going be either you know it or you dont know what your doing, its the sort of perspective that a customer has you either can do the job or you cannot? the skill an engineer has is his ability to learn and use and apply logic iv seen ex forces engineers pick this job up quiet fast as their ability and experience in problem solving and good foundations in electrical and Mechanical enginnering serve them well, your always going to meet new problems every week its how you go about them i think makes the difference here.
Re: Shower Doctor Website
Oh a sad ending 🙁 its a shame really theres got to be money in showers i too am always getting asked to repair them, 10 out of 10 for sticking your neck out and trying,sometimes youv just got to have a go.
Hey would it be fair to advice customer that its uneconomical in most cases as the parts are diffucult and expensive to obtain and maybe source a good shower thats easy to fit and at a good trade price, i fitted my own with no problems, im assuming the regs are still the same as its a fixed appliance, without much thought an rcd tester would probably be advisable and testing for fault current path between phase to earth.
LETS GANG UP AND GO GET THE SHOWER DOCTOR 😈
Re: twin tubs are back !!
Dont qualtex sell them? im sure it was there i saw one on display in the trade shop?
Re: Exchanging
on the subject but a bit off topic ISE Range of washers apart from last few months i was off the forum for well over a year maybe 2, iv read little bits whats the background im in the dark on these are they more serviceable as it seems to point to this with what i have read.
The reason i ask about servicability is that im starting to venture out into rentals and have been knocking out older hotpoint wm’s iv only just started and only got a handful outthere but im confident i can repair cheaply each time, ie brushes interlock, bearings or spider etc.There not the most reliable machines i know just more straight forward.
anyone know how realiable they are first hand? and were can i get info on price and delivery?
Re: Outrageous parts prices!
yes i know were your coming from here iv had few customers gone beserk when its time for the price,
maybe we should all propose to bosch to begin to stock a comfortable standard issue chair at a reasonable price of course, for sitting the customers down first before giving them the quote
i bet Alf Garnett would have a thing or too to say about this! 😆
Re: Time for a rethink.
Hey Im not doing so well either, althought this weeks picking up i worked the full day today, but last 2 months its like someone pulled the plug on my phone 😯 before that id switch my mobile on at about 8:30 and it wasent long before it started to ring away, are people fixing the machines themselves? i dont have a morgage thank god and iv not bothered with phone books for 2 years now as i took 1 year out through illness, but was looking at a nice new car the other week ready to sign on the dotted line, i think ill hang fire for a while.
Re: How to beat the recession
Just of a matter of interest i know a local business that charges call out charges to dishwashers and refrigeration but how can i put it, their skill level and technical knowledge is rather lacking? basically they turn up and mostly ber the machine for the collection of callout charge?
Whats the fair and honest way of dealing with the situation of turning up to a later machine that you start to scratch your head at whilst looking at 😕 do you charge callout charge or labour fee? from time to time iv had problems even when iv not charged a sausage from customers when i cannot repair the machine because of lack of techincal info. as a matter of interest does anyone know the best way to deal with this problem without loosing reputation
