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Re: Lee’s New Thread
I am afraid that having followed this thread and taking all sides into account that I have to agree with Gazman & Jackal. I ma not going to offer any insight into how I perceive this matter as its all be said so very well.
I think the thread should be locked as many must be bored with it !
Re: September 2013 Engineers meeting
Jackal wrote:Do I need a qualification or certificate to attend?
J
Surgical Wit ! 😀 😀 😀
Re: City & Guilds 2359.
Martin wrote:
Squadman wrote:
After a year we were sent out with experienced field engineers to work with them for weeks at a time. Eventually we were given our wings and sent out with just a few calls to see how we got on. The training was completed in modules with certificates given showing pass marks.My training was work based in workshop fixing appliances to a point of total familiarity before going out on the road for a week or two with a senior engineer. All the while the company made money out of my labours. I’ve never heard of a whole years training with “modules” and “certificates” …..wow!
I think what this shows Martin is that there have been and will be a variety of methods which a company large or small will use to train engineers obviously dependent on how much a company allows for training and how they want it performed. The way we were trained is long gone and I do not know of any companies who will take new comers with no experience and provide training them from scratch.
I’ve never heard of a whole years training with “modules” and “certificates” …..wow!
You have now 🙂
Re: City & Guilds 2359.
Qualifications are all well but as we all know this job is about lateral thinking, investigation, memory retention, Psychology, being organised, having the necessary skills to deal with customers, listening, technical information and buckets load of common sense ! When I was trained we had a 1 year course classroom and workshop based, small groups of engineers, some experienced from other manufacturers service operations, people who had never repaired domestic appliances which added up to a interesting cross-section of people. The training was extremely good presented by two experienced trainers, class room work was also followed with practical application. After a year we were sent out with experienced field engineers to work with them for weeks at a time. Eventually we were given our wings and sent out with just a few calls to see how we got on. The training was completed in modules with certificates given showing pass marks. I will say this, no amount of training can prepare you for the real world, sure from a theory aspect you are prepared but then lets throw all the variables in !
As a comparison I once knew a guy who was a Pianist ( huh ? ) he had brilliant passes at all his exams and Bs Hons, and letters after his name. One would conclude that he must have been a brilliant player. Wrong, he knew all the theory inside out a true academic, its just that he was’nt that good when it came to actually playing, how could that be !
Passing exams do not Guarantee anything, this is a interesting subject but I certainly would not be stupid enough to write the skill base off here on UK Whitegoods. I am all for upping my game whenever and however I can and if that were to mean sitting a course and exam and that it would actually make me a better engineer and allow me to earn more money I would go down that route.
My thoughts on this subject is that as a trade we need to be concentrating on getting manufacturers to let information flow to us as to if this will ever happen well thats anyones guess. There will always be good dentists and bad dentists the same being true of service engineers,I cant see a piece of expensive paper changing that !
Re: Next Up On TV
The main omission from the program was that Graham Dixon forgot to mention that a significant number of Independents DO have access to Fault codes and Diagnostic routines and can deal with such issues just as well as the manufacturers service with the exception of maybe one manufacturer.
I would’nt worry too much about little ole ladies being ripped off as in any trade this can occur, the fact that it highlighted many practices on the part of some cannot help but be good news for us !
Re: Next Up On TV
Personally I thought that the program was positive for us, which makes a change !
From the punters point of view they were made aware that as independents we are charging reasonable labour rates compared with manufacturers service, they should have said that as independents we have a pretty good chance of repairing their appliances. Work should now be planned to get manufacturers to operate like vehicle manufacturers whereby they have to make available all tech info.Re: Tonight on ITV
iadom wrote:Bloody annoying when they suggested a scheme to involve electricians, plumbers, ‘odd job men’ but no mention of domestic appliance engineers. 🙁
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HDClueless is the word here ! We have a nation of skilled Independent Appliance Engineers and lets face it Odd Job Men, Plumbers and most sparky’s would not have a clue whats what !
The content of the program was nothing any of us did’nt know as we see it on a almost daily basis, the manufacturers driven by the controlling sheds have been busy for evermore making cheap appliances with cheap components that barely are up to the job, Bit 100 boards, bad electrical connections , poorly designed appliances, its a minefield for the knowledgable let alone a contingent of workers as mentioned !
Re: Servicenet
Got a call from them today asking about Samsung Fridge Freezer repairs reckoned they had a urgent call 48 miles away from my base and did I want it !
He He !!!
Re: Hotpoint BWD129 Overheat Problem
This is true, but also we need to be aware of this type of problem.
Re: Hotpoint BWD129 Overheat Problem
Yes this appears to be the case here and one that gives rise to concern, the capacity for a fire to occur with this setup is very real and you have to wonder at the R&D stage how the manufacturer either missed or allowed it. This particular client was indeed lucky and I will be on the lookout for this in future.
The upside is now that I have managed to sell them a New LG Washer, Tumble Dryer and Freezer so rather than walk away I have managed to turn a negative into a positive having gained a new customer.
Re: Hotpoint BWD129 Overheat Problem
The answer to this is No ! begging the question how can he built in thermal fuse not open and prevent this overheat situation ?
Re: Hotpoint BWD129 Overheat Problem
Well this was what I was thinking but in order to make any kind of report the report must contain facts and I can only make comment on what I can observe
Re: Hotpoint BWD129 Overheat Problem
The connections are on the rear, connect part no 5045175314816, there is no one shot red spot cut out on this or the other type of cut out where the thermal fuse in in series with the dryer feed, If the over heat stat is intergrated into the element as you suggest then it must have failed to operate as any cut out stat should have operated long before this damage occurred. I personally have not see or fitted the type of element fitted to this machine but now you say the TOC is wound into the element how can a dryer element get this hot, melt the lifters into a mass welded to the inner drum and the TOC not operate ?
Re: hmrc buisness records check
HMRC announced some time last year that they were setting such teams up to investigate booking keeping records of Small Businesses and self employed people. There are fines where books are not kept in accordance with the guidelines laid down by HMRC. They will look at how you keep and maintain your accounts and hopefully you do not have carrier bags full of receipts and invoices as they do not like that !
Its relatively easy to keep a set of books that will be acceptable and although we are engineers and not accountants or bookeeper’s having a simple double entry accounts ledger and receipt system should be a minium to avoid such hassle or accepted accounts software.
