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Re: Threatening and abusive customer over small thing
Martin wrote:Oh come on! How much extra would it cost to clean the vac anyway?
Not a lot and normally I would do it but I draw a line on cleaning out this particular vac, it was sodden throughout, the motor filter and tank filter give a lot to be desired and it looks like it either it was used to vac the wet kitchen floor or wet carpet. Mind you it was left out in the rain, he brought it over to me and I had to tip the standing water out before loading on to my van. It was utter filthy, it wasn’t clear that the insides were disgusting until I took it apart. The motor itself is fine just the tank that was cruddy.
The owner is a self employed carpet cleaner, he goes to people houses to steam clean their carpets which I think he mis-used his Henry hence I drew the line. If he used his initiative, he could have steam cleaned the tank out.
Re: Virgin Broadband
https://my.btwifi.com/selfcare/purchase … roduct.htm
Has anyone tried this? I frequently visited properties with poor mobile signal and unable to use the iPad to order parts, looks like an ideal solution to get onto the hotspot at people’s houses who have BT wifi.
I am not sure if £6 a month is a good value?
Re: Legal advice needed… Speed restriction on transit van
Lawrence wrote:
kwatt wrote:
Legally you’re not permitted to drive any faster other than on the motorway anyway and the cops have been coming down well hard on vans going too fast in recent times.Just ask Lawrence. 😆
K.
why do you think i’m in a car now 😀
Sorry Matt but it isn’t a car derived vehicle therefore you cannot do over 60 on an A road.True but I live close to the motorways use them whenever I can and the speed limit for my van is 70 so why should I put up with 55mph?
Re: Legal advice needed… Speed restriction on transit van
Basically one specialist says that disabling the speed limiter that is already in use would cause further damage to the injectors since they have to re calibrate it and clear out the memory bank of the ECU to take on the new instructions which is disabling the speed limiter. He says it is not a case of selecting the options like a washing machine program.
The injectors were calibrated to work with the speed limiter therefore disabling could land the owner a repair bill of £300 per injector bill due to the age and mileage of the van. This was the independent advice and advised strongly against it as this was the way Ford set it up. The only way people can get away with it that the van has to be fresh from the factory with few miles on the clock.
Tampering the speed limiter might invalidate the warranty of the van. I guess I will have to put up with it.
Re: Legal advice needed… Speed restriction on transit van
kwatt wrote:
Google will also be able to tell you how to get it off however, the general consensus is, why would you? Legally you’re not permitted to drive any faster other than on the motorway anyway and the cops have been coming down well hard on vans going too fast in recent times.The van is restricted to 55mph, I am not looking to ramp it up to 100mph just that I can drive legally and safely on the motorway at 70.
I did some phoning around, Ford Dealer charges £90 plus VAT. I think I have found one who seems to specialise it and in theory I can pop by and he will plug it in to disable it.
Whats the most annoying thing customers do?
A posh Customer says “I have a Siemens washing machine. Would you like me to spell it out for you?” *seriously, that what she said yesterday on the phone*
I think I can spell it and knows the difference between male’s emission and washing machine. But hey it’s white which could cause confusion!
Re: Contract Van hire – any thoughts?
I ended up getting a loan from my bank which works out a lot cheaper and used the money to buy a six years old ex contract hire transit van with fsh and low mileage.
The reason for this was the mileage and do not want to get stung for going over or paying too much for too little.
Time will tell if it is worthwhile investment. Thanks for your thoughts, advices and sharing experiences.
Who knows in four years time, I might get onto Contract Hire but then again may get a loan.
Re: How do you value a van?
Turns out to be very difficult to get one, there is one in Coventry previously owned by EON but decided not to go for it as it would have been abused by their heavy handed drivers.
I managed to negotiate a deal with the garage and secured the van.
Re: How do you value a van?
Thanks Martin,
The mileage is too high and it is the wrong spec. I wanted a medium roof to save on my back when shuffling washing machine in the back.
Re: Contract Van hire – any thoughts?
It was good to hear from others on their experiences on contract van hire. I did some working out on the maths, it turns out that it would have costed me £5k in the first year. Deposit, admin fee, insurance and monthly fees. The second year would be cheaper. It was a choice between pay cut or shiny new van.
The VAT seems to catch me out as I am not VAT registered. Sadly I only have 3 years no claim bonus on the insurance therefore insuring a brand new van will push my premiums double on what I am currently paying. At the moment I am paying £600 a year on a 14 years old van. To insure a Renualt Trafic is eye watering £1400 with £500 excess.
I just had my brakes cleaned out on my 14 years old Fiat Scudo as it was making scraping noise even though it was fitted with new pads and disc three months ago as part of her service, on the invoice there was an advisory notice saying the rear shocks are leaking. Now I am having to book the sodding van into the garage again for next Saturday to minimise the disruption.
I am currently spending on average £150 a month on repairs. I am now looking at plan B or C. Plan B hire purchase a used van that comes with full service history possibly a six years old model, or plan C buy a 10 years old van with my savings which is a few thousands and start all over with the repair costs which still works out cheaper than plan A and B!
Do I want to risk upsetting my customers or miss out the chance of having repeat custom whilst my van in the garage for repairs? Tough choice, ideally no I do not want to risk it but I can’t afford it either way! I assumed that Contract Hire would be cheap option which it is true if you have large amount of cash to start off with and can afford the high insurance with 3 years no claims and huge excess.
Catch 22!
Re: Contract Van hire – any thoughts?
I will ask the lease company and get back to you. I presume that there would be an extra charge to have it fitted.
Re: Contract Van hire – any thoughts?
http://www.mwvc.co.uk/vauxhall-vivaro-2 … -9019.html
This is what I found, it seems that milage is not an issue by the looks of it. I don’t do a great deal of milage as I tend to do around 10k a year.
I think this van will serves me well. I might go for the next one up with little more power and with air con. Just having a look at the moment.
Re: Contract Van hire – any thoughts?
stratfordgirl wrote:If you buy outright, the entire cost of plant & machinery (including vans, but not cars) is eligible for tax relief in the year purchased (assuming your total capital purchases are less than the current Annual Investment Allowance (AIA) of £500,000. After December 2015, the AIA returns to £25,000.
Thanks, if i have a spare £22,000 to buy a van outright then yes but there’s the depreciation issues to deal with as you can lose a lot of money quickly. It would be difficult to get that back.
This was why I was leaning toward contract hire to get better control of costs and leaves me more capital to invest on something else. I think it is better than getting a loan to purchase a van as there’s the interest to pay and you don’t have much control over the rates as it can either go up or down (usually up). The repayment of the loan tends to be higher than the monthly payment of the contract hire.
The maximum length of business loan you can get is 6 years, therefore it would be £444 to repay monthly against £270 a month for contract hire inc maintenance (Vivaro) with £811 deposit.
I am looking for safer option, such as if I get into financial difficulty in 3 years time, I can negotiate the terms or even return the van back to the garage.
Re: Contract Van hire – any thoughts?
Andy jones wrote:Not on the one I do, but there is one that includes servicing but not sure on the price. I’ve got a mate that does the servicing at trade price at a different dealer
I found a website that offers servicing as part of the package but it adds £20 a month. I can’t say if it is good value.
The one I have narrowed it down to either Vauxhall Vivaro or Citroen Dispatch. The Dispatch got rather small engine and does it have enough grunt to pull me and two washing machines plus few spares and a heavy tool box?
