Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Re: Merry Christmas
An Opportunity for me to wish each and everyone of you a Merry Christmas and Prosperous New Year, I also would like to thank the folks that keep UK White Goods running especially the forum and the various moderators who’s silent work behind the scenes often goes by unnoticed.
Have a Kool Yule Folks 😀
Re: Busy? I am turning work away
I read this as any competent engineer would have a conversion rate of more than 50{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}. this was being used in the context of percentages of jobs.
No it has nothing to do with competence from that standpoint but in respect of your question kwatt then there is no excuse for a engineer not being competent but is being competent something that others would judge someone to be as opposed to someone thinking that they are competent ?
To Be or not to Be ! that is the question
🙂
Re: Busy? I am turning work away
If I was at 50{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} BER rate I wouldn’t be offering free call-outs either – but let’s face it, any competent engineer is nowhere near that rate
I dont think it has much to do with the competence of the engineer, you could be highly competent but find that customers just don’t require the repair once you have diagnosed it. Result No Money, even if two thirds of your calls result in no money changing hands thats a loss whichever way you look at it. We get calls constantly asking if we have a call out charge, what this means is that they are asking us to call to investigate there problem and want that service for nothing, we reason with this people to an extent and it soon becomes clear that there will be nothing in it for us. The result is that we do not take the call, they can carry on using their phone and time until they find someone who is prepared to go out and give them something for free.
Imagine if you rang a customer and asked them to nip down to Tesco’s and get some shopping for you. Of course they would need to use their vehicle and fuel and go at a time to suit you. When they arrive at your house with the shopping you tell them that you have had a look at the shopping and don’t want to pay for it and they can take it back. How many people would be prepared to do that ?
We have in forty years never provided a free call out and after forty years of trading we have a large customer base who book us time and time again. Like others here we are extremely busy and it may be that you have to work in this fashion due to localised issues but as others have said if your a competent service engineer providing a good service and able to repair machines with parts that on average cost £15.00 you are selling your services way to cheap.
However each to their own I wish you luck 🙂
Re: Busy? I am turning work away
We have someone in our area who offers Free Call out, Free Estimates and obviously he gets a lot of calls due to the fact that there are many folks who like the idea of something Free. Much better to have someone come to your house and work on your appliances for nothing and if its too much the customer is quids in. For instance talking to this person a few days back he was telling me how he has had 18 calls over the last two days, 9 of these were appliances that the customers decided against repairing, taking into account his time, diesel costs, insurances, etc and many of the clients he seems to attract. As for the other 9 calls that he did complete he still has overheads to deduct plus stock from them.
Now why he is making a weekly wage out of this system when you factor the costs in, then deal with Tax it makes you wonder what his real profit margin is versus costs ? Any job that is involved over about 30 mins he tells the customer its beyond repair and not worth fixing, he did not tell me this bit but as we have had customers who have paid him nothing then come to us where we have subsequently made a repair much to the customers surprise the customers then realise why we do charge for our time. I am not saying that anyone here is unprofessional who does not make a charge in the case of a BER appliance thats up to the customers to view but with fuel costs at an all time high you have to wonder at the numbers involved.
Re: yellow pages less is more
I have had so much trouble with Yell this year and its basically down to staff who are incompetent ! My opinion is that with staff such as this they are on a slippery slope in this economic climate, no business can afford to miss a trick or be incompetent us included and Yell are no exception !
Pay Peanuts and hire Monkey’s springs to mind !
Re: Cooker Repairs
Black & Decker Workmates here too ! I would be careful of making one however as you would need to be sure of both safety and loading capacities.
The last thing you would want is to have a double oven out/or in the process of removing such an appliance and find that it was suddenly pinning you to the floor ! or damage to the customers kitchen, you or them !Such an apparatus with wheels as has been suggested would need locking wheels in my opinion. An Office chair is designed for sitting in not supporting a heavy cooker and I would give that a miss but then its up to your own common sense at the end of the day. A new workmate is about £ 30.00 and we used them at Whirlpool without issue, but a decent square of hardboard underneath for certain floorings is desirable.
Re: Bad work practices still rife in trade
Martin your right on the Money with this, I have come across many service engineers who do not actually own a Megger, even worse they fail to see how (a) it could make their job easier and (b) how it would make the world a safer place for them and their customers ! (c) how it might keep them out of court facing a manslaughter charge !
The story I usually hear when I ever mention this is that ” Well I have never needed one ! been doing the job 20 years never really had a use for it !
Talk about living in a Cocoon ! what planet are these Engineers on ?
I have used a Megger ever since I was trained and its one of my most useful tools as opposed to the bloody big hammer and brute force these Cocoon Merchants prefer.
Go Figure !
Re: S’now joke
Well we have a foot of snow here and two days lossed due to it, bloody nuisance ! No Gritters or Snow Ploughs to clear the roads complete disaster
Re: Hotpoint WM63 – No Heat
Yes I have seen that a few times before, worth double checking before fitting another control unit.
Re: RUNNING A DOMESTIC APPLIANCE BUSINESS FROM HOME
Seems to me that whoever has put the spoke in for our colleague needs to get a life. Posh equates to trying to supress other peoples lifes, I bet any money you like that in the event that this nosey moo’s washing maching or dishwasher went down she would have the front to maybe ask if he could take a look at it !
Get yourself legal and then you can carry on without fear of her sticking her nose in.
Re: RUNNING A DOMESTIC APPLIANCE BUSINESS FROM HOME
Exactly ! Who would be bothered about a couple of washing machines being outside someone elses property !
Either this person is a troublemaker or vindictive maybe both, or a complete fruit cake. It’s not a case of trying to fight the local authority but finding a way to be able to operate your business from home and due to the nature of our business I can see no viable or restrictive reason other than that you did not obtain the local councils permission to do so. As I said before there are thousands of people who run all kinds of businesses from a residential address so nothing unusual in that, open a full dialogue with the people who matter at the council and see how you can work within the local laws, other than the fact that you transgressed a local law and did not get permission the council has to show valid reasons why they are discriminating against you while others are allowed to operate a home based business.
Re: Qualtex South West Closing
Yes the Kent Branch is a pleasure to deal with, never any problems and like you say the girls are great !
Re: RUNNING A DOMESTIC APPLIANCE BUSINESS FROM HOME
The Council in my area require you to notify them if you run a business from home. As has been said millions of people run a business from a residential address, hell even the Prime Minister runs a business from a residential address. I cannot see any reason why you cannot have your property stored on your land, its not as if you are running a car breakers form your property is it ?
If you were an accountant operating from home and had clients coming and going to your house would that be reason for the council to drag you off to court ?
I would prepare your case and defend it at the hearing, have the council ever advised you that you should have informed them to run any kind of business from home?
Is there a recognised procedure within your local council where anyone thinking of running a business from home needs to apply ?
Are there any other people who run any kind of business from home nearby you who you can talk to or site as running a business ?
All seems a bit heavy handed to me not to mention nosey neighbours, everyones got a skeleton hanging in their wardrobe might pay to have a look at your neighbour who stirred this all up in the first place ?
