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Alex wrote:
machineman wrote:
Mark is still there……… He is after all the “local” guy, whereas the Northern manager would have to commute down the M6, and the Southern/Eastern manager would have to face the A14 and up the M6.
Assuming both were offered alternative posts of course.
Alex
Don’t forget, family as well.
Re: DSG/RepairCare Rate Cuts
DrDill wrote:but not illegal or unethical though is it. The repairers have a choice as to doing the work, i dont do this type of call for them.
Who decides who and who cant advertise on DASA, if they are members then it wouldnt be fair to stop them. We cant have it both ways, we are not a cartel and until something is put in place to police this trade nothing will change.
I think it is unethical to the extreme.
If the repairer is a member of DASA they get the call at a reduced rate!
Worse than that, the bulk of the network of Repaircare agents are not DASA agents, therefore calls are sent to non-members via the DASA website with the impression that the punter will get a DASA accredited repairer.
So from this you could be a repaircare agent, and by default a member of DASA. Turning it on its head, this is grossly unfair on the DASA members who are NOT repaircare agents as the calls will be syphoned off to whoever happens to do the Repaircare work .
If this turns out to be with DASA approval, they may well lose a lot of members. If I was a DASA member I would resign at once.
Re: DSG/RepairCare Rate Cuts
Surely Connect are beginning to lose respect and moreover other contract holders are now losing confidence. Just reading about agents jumping ship must give some service companies who use the services of Connect the jitters. Unquestionably they must now doubt the stability of the Connect repair network.
Connect agents now have to rely on those within the contract that pay a reasonable sum to “prop-up” what is part of the “package” and if they start to drift way, the poor repairers will be left with just the rubbish part of the deal.
I’m thinking Rangemaster, Brandt/De Dietrich and Caple; anything else is too small in volumes to make any impression on the account. Should these three decide to look elsewhere, that is the end. If these major companies see that their service levels will be compromised due to lack of work providers (agents) who could blame them for looking elsewhere.
Where do they go then I wonder?
N.E.S.N. who now seem to be the Messiah
I.S.D.A.L.
Service Force as seem to have a stable network.
Go individual with DASA WTA members.
Maybe even take the same route as Amica.It was said earlier this week that DSG was moving away from Connect. To be honest I would prefer to see the rest move and leave Connect and DSG in their own happy union.
Re: DSG/RepairCare Rate Cuts
kwatt wrote: Are you serious Ted? Are you sure that’s the correct rate? K.
It most certainly is!
As said several times, how dare they blame someone else regards unrealistic rates, when they broker a similar deal.
What the agents are now desperate to hear are what new quality work are Connect supposed to be seeking out?
So you see the senior members and chief negotiating officer is in the same room as many manufacturers and repairers, there is no interaction at all. How does that happen?
Perhaps these two were not aware that part of the remit is to talk to people and “sell” themselves. Should be easy really, they have already demonstrated that they can force through a stupid low rate. So if any such bodies are looking for work on the cheap, these are the boys to arrange it.
Re: DSG/RepairCare Rate Cuts
This is how it looks. Correct that, this is how it is!
Repaircare/Connect has a trouble-shooter (No I’m not naming names) His main task is to seek out new contracts, and negotiate rates etc. Bear in mind his last “success” was Crosslee at £31 per call.
I guess today has not been good for him, so I have this rhetorical question…….
Being said go-getter and feeding your diligent team of agents, where is this work going to come from?
Going further, I gather there were other manufacturers at the WTA meeting who were freely handing out their business cards, and asking several delegates pertinent questions regards skill-sets, areas etc. Why were these people talking to attendees at the meeting, surely there was someone there from Connect who could offer a package, as in “one-stop shopping” being spares, KPI’s call handling etc.
If Connect has been out there banging on doors, then why did such individual approaches happen and why were Connect out of the loop?
Amica. Seems there was a demand for a stable national network. Where did Repaircare come in this equation?
That tells me this honcho at Repaircare is superfluous to requirements, and maybe a saving could be made in that area. If he was really proactive in gaining new work, why didn’t Connect make themselves available, or even approachable on Friday?
There is no doubt they kept under the radar.
Whirl4 wrote:Cowards, too scared to speak and take the flak. Although I am sure that I saw Martin Depper.
Well, it seems that Martin Depper & Bernard Harrison was there. I’m told they were sat at the back, and more or less kept their heads down.
They differed from the rest of the work providers in as much as they didn’t mingle etc.
This is the bit I cannot get my head round. Why-O-Why didn’t these 2 make the most of what would have been a fantastic opportunity. Meaning, they should or could have requested to be added to the agenda a five minute slot. At that moment they could have tried to explain what has been going on, and even if it was spin, would have dispensed with some anxiety and fears etc. They may have even gained a degree of respect, instead they reaffirmed their stance.
They shamefully stayed out of every ones way, had a free meal and sloped off as soon as it started to get exciting.
Regards agents dropping out and the DSG work about to move, I’m not party to such information, YET!
Re: DSG/RepairCare Rate Cuts
Whirl4 wrote:
Richard Lawson from what I have been told married into the job and by all accounts has now been moved out of it as well.More like “Married To The Mob”.
Re: DSG/RepairCare Rate Cuts
Whirl4 wrote:
kwatt wrote:
Are we all really that stupid? Would we help orchestrate our own demise?Apparently yes we are that stupid.
You are correct in what you say up to a point. With repaircare what was a decent contract has now turned into a nightmare that you cannot make money on.I really wonder at times if Connect see it that way, and do they understand there are a lot of unhappy bunnies out there that cannot sustain the losses.
Whirl4 wrote: Now we have the crosslee work which is the same we cannot make money on it.
Story in itself. How can they blame DSG for this affair, then drop such a stupid rate such as they have? They ought to be going back to Crosslee, and tell them they got it wrong, and reject the contract. If Connect didn’t arrange a get-out clause, then they are very naive indeed.
Whirl4 wrote: But as you say many of us are locked in or feel that way and some of us have told them to shove it.
Locked in by becoming an employment agency, and having such staff levels that means the proprietor of the business is faced with making people redundant thanks to things out of their control.
Personally I think that Connect have lost all their credibility, integrity and moreover respect.
Does anyone know what happened to David Parker? Are they frightened that being the man he is, that he would not give out the spin being demanded by his bosses. And who is this Richard Lawson, he seems to be a hatchet-man?
Re: Repaircare Agents… Beware of ‘Compensation’ debits.
Whirl4 wrote:This is just disgusting…………
It is outrageous and if we get one of these debit notes we will resign with immediate effect and cease all calls.
Ditto, and I shall close down every job on the system as well as my purchase account, which is a lot of money every month.
Bad enough getting debit notes when one of their customers slopes off out for the day, and we charge Repaircare for the wasted visit THEY booked. Every time we get a debit note we threaten to raise a C.C.J. against the customer. If they can treat us in such an underhand manner, then so can we with their customers.
Re: DSG/RepairCare Rate Cuts
DrDill wrote:i too am done with this topic, its for sure what needs to be done.
No don’t stop now! This is what they want! Dissention in the ranks and people to get fed up accept the situation and kow-tow to them.
If this is costing your company and is not workable, then the point must be reinforced.
This leads us nicely onto the other point.
bazza500 wrote: We can talk about the appalling conduct of Repaircare until the cows come home, but if people keep saying they are treating us like s**te but I am still working for them then it matters not a jot.
The only way to hurt RC and show them they cannot run their business without the engineers is to stop doing the calls……. simples!
Oh I wish it was that simple? Take a relatively large repair operation, one who has all the skill sets, and an infrastructure that supports their own business, being those that have a pool of engineers and support staff. If this work is a sizeable chunk of what the repair company does on a week by week basis, then it is redundancy time.
Start getting rid of engineers and you will need to reduce the support staff as well because things become out of balance. Engineers don’t grow on trees, they were part of the fabric of your business and should you be able to replace the Repaircare calls in the future because shall we say they (R/Care) pull out of the repair side, than you have not only compromised your business but lost the opportunity to service the new contract due to staff shortages.
Start reducing staff, and then the morale slips away and it is a slippery slope into the abyss. All because some other company that makes millions have decided to put your backs against the wall.
Now there is something fundamental here. It is plain that future work from the DSG contract is going elsewhere, and there are some among us who are complaining that Repaircare have missed out. Just as well, because had this gone to Repaircare, then the balance would have been even further in their favour, as the new contracts they are taking on would have been worthless; as is the current one.
Think about it guys what is there on the Repaircare contract that is worth the hassle and aggro that comes with the deal. What is there that pays the money, is good to work on, easy parts identification, and nice customers as well? Answer is Rangemaster. Once that goes and it may well, we will be having the decision made for us when it comes to evaluating the value of our friends at Repaircare.
I really feel it is only a matter of time now.
Re: Repaircare Agents… Beware of ‘Compensation’ debits.
What the hell do they at Repaircare think they will achieve by all that?
This is sharp practice to the extreme!!
If they keep up that practice, then surely hacked off repairers will book out a motor or something to mitigate the loss.
I would suspect what they are doing is possibly questionable legally, and for sure morally. How dare they treat their agents in such a manner? If I was subjected to similar I would un-book every call that related to this contract telling the customers why, and refer them to the very people their contract was with.
There is a high degree of bad press regards the Repaircare contract, and reading between the lines lack of support from head office to the repair agents is the primary cause. There are cases of being let down by the system and not necessarily by the engineers.
Here is one http://www.whitegoodshelp.co.uk/wordpress/repaircare/
Here is another, in 2 pages.
http://old.fscked.co.uk/index.php/2009/ … nt-page-1/
This adds to the credence that this is part of the business that doesn’t give a toss about the customers, let alone the poor old engineer on the front line that makes very little out of it.
What a shower of shytehawks this lot are? They even bite the hand that feeds them.
Re: DSG/RepairCare Rate Cuts
May as well add Frigidaire Coverplan to the list. Small quantity I know, but demonstrates even further that the repair network are being taken for a ride by Connect. The Rangemaster thing will hurt, and moreover will affect the repair network as that will be another quality part of the business slipping out of their hands.
The whole contract range for Connect is becoming undermined. They keep promising there will be more quality work to off-set any potential loss on the DSG contract. Question has to be asked, What Work? Where is it Coming from? The last “New” contract we saw was the Crosslee and at a stupid sum of £31 per call, and of course negotiated by Connect, nothing to do with DSG who Connect seem to be painting as the bad boys. I gather most of the Service Force network on the books of Connect told them to stuff it.
There may be concern re the volumes that will be going through the NESN operation, and whether they have the strength in repair numbers to cope. I think they will, as all NESN have to do is to wave some sensible money under peoples noses, be transparent with how they run their business and treat the agents with respect, and it will work. Connect fail to meet any of that now, and it is only a matter of time before they lose the network that David Parker took over 7 years to build up.
It is probably just as well he is no longer the officer of Connect who went round courting us all, and getting agents to sign up with all the promises. He is too kind hearted to be in place when the rug is being pulled away, and seems to have been put out to grass.
I really wonder if something untoward has taken place, and DSG are pulling out of using Connect, and claiming back something in the way of reparations first.
Re: DSG/RepairCare Rate Cuts
Since noon today (Friday 13th of all days) I read of 5 agents who have told Connect where they stand, or rather where they intend to go on it all. I must presume however those as above probably didn’t all finish today, but have decided to make it known publicly today.
These are the ones that have stood up and made it clear this is not suitable for their businesses. What we are not aware of officially though is that there are those in the background who are the plodders, and the ones who silently are voting with their feet. Possibly in greater numbers than we could imagine, and certainly more than those at Connect would care to admit to.
It may be that some of them are small players in the game, but they are agents nevertheless and are important members of the whole infrastructure.
Jonah wrote:
The pressure on you guys who employ multiple engineers must be immense, to make people redundant or do the work at a loss, hard choice as getting good engineers is not easy so if you let them go and if you manage to get work from another source later you won’t get those engineers back so easy, peoples homes, livelihoods and businesses are on the line here so some truth from the parties involved should be forthcoming as a matter of urgency but I won’t hold my breath.
:rolls:Following the point above as made by Jonah.
The larger centres are the ones that provide all the skill sets and have the office, I.T. and accountancy procedures that can support and assist an easy operation regards the account, and make it look seamless with the least possible resistance to the customer. These centres being the ones that have a good team in support of the operation to hand, yet they have to deal with the accounting procedure when it comes to the bottom line.
The upshot of that is the directors of the repair networks are forced to make decisions that will affect the well-being of their own staff and families. This is where it hurts because Connect pride themselves on being a family business, but in reality it is the families of us the real family businesses that will be paying the price to allow for the purchase of German sports cars and properties in the channel islands.
We are the troops or cannon fodder and are the ones that are left to pay out on redundancy packages etc. We are also the ones with a conscience and are reluctant to carry out swingeing staff cuts. I am talking about the workforce we employ that has helped to build up our businesses and also their business.
There has been a lot of traffic in the last week, and it will keep on coming I suspect
Re: DSG/RepairCare Rate Cuts
DrDill wrote:
I still cant accept that a company as big as repaircare have blatently lied to us, this company remember was once a family company, it has no family values now, how sadDon Vito Corleone headed up a family as well.
DrDill wrote:and the people who have worked there, david parker etc, how sad to see that these once respected people have to be party to this whether they want to or not.
I normally don’t mention names, but as one is quoted on here why not; it has been noticed that David has been sidelined. He was the guy who trudged the country, made friends as in his nature and was the respectable face of the company he represented. After 7 years of building this up, he is no longer the interface now the sh*t had started to hit the fan. Probably because he has scruples along with integrity and that doesn’t fit with the business model.
DrDill wrote:Of course if they truely have been screwed over by DSGi then why wont they post here and clear it up, i think we all know the answer to this!
Word is DSG were screwed and it is pay-back time.
DrDill wrote:As a foot note, i dont know who you are Lee8 but i think you should stay off some of the topics as you really dont have any thing constructive to say, you just ruin the topic.
Well said!
Re: Electrue/NESN
I could have come in here then copied and pasted some of this. Nobody would have known the difference, and we are going back years.
NESN Must be wetting themselves over this. I wonder if Rudolph still has an issue with them, or has he now changed sides?
I suppose despite the new events being a continuation, we ought to keep the traffic in the current thread, but there is no harm done in popping in here for a history lesson.
