Whirlpool Shuns Its Service Partners – Part 2

Further to an article published on UK Whitegoods on December the 22nd 2003 (available here)which raised questions and issues with Whirlpool Service it appears that little has changed to benefit the Whirlpool Service Partners within the UK. In fact, two of them appear to have “walked away” from the contract and another is under new management after supposedly going bust and we’re not even through the first quarter of this year!

Of course as expected there has been no official comment from Whirlpool UK on this or any other matter discussed in this or the previous article and it is all based on the information to hand and any comment is a personal opinion.

Agents Not Happy

Some of the stories filtering back to us are pretty damaging with PKI of Rotherham giving up the Whirlpool contract due to reasons that are financial as well as a lack of support for their position within the Whirlpool network. We did ask PKI for an official statement on the matter but they declined for the time being.

DAS (Domestic Appliance Services Ltd), to the North of Birmingham has also dropped out with the area being taken up by Wednesfield Appliances Repairs in Wolverhampton. Although unconfirmed, the owner of DAS has given it up with the explanation that we have of that he can make more money from selling ink cartridges than working for Whirlpool, although this has not been confirmed officially.

Meanwhile HAS in the South of the country goes bust but is immediately taken over we’re told, allegedly with a sizeable rate increase which says to me that the rates were previously not right and the business therefore unprofitable, in my experience not making enough is often why businesses go bust.

I have had feedback from some partners telling me that if they could get out of the Whirlpool contract that they would leave the network in a heartbeat, but many seem bogged down with debts, debts to Whirlpool as well as TUPE arrangements with engineers which would force them into liquidation were they to downsize. It is a bleak picture indeed that has been painted by some partners. None of the partners wish to be named due to fears of retribution from Whirlpool.

This from a company that advertises on its website that its social commitment is; “Whirlpool Corporation seeks to work within the communities where it is based as a neighbor actively involved in initiatives that help build a fair and cohesive community environment, founded upon trust and respect.”

There was also a meeting held in Croydon with a select few partners last month where no agenda was given, the partners had to attend at their own expense (no option was given) and it was basically the “poor performers” that were singled out for a “talking to”. No more information than that apparently the EU Director of service was present.

Rates

The rates paid to all the Service Partners has been released into the public domain via an anonymous email recently sent to many Service Partners who are reportedly not happy at having their rates published. Whirlpool have been trying to defend the vast differences in the rates citing performance and area differences for the variations. However, having seen the list, I personally find it hard to understand how a difference in the rates with some being paid 150% of what the lowest rates appear to be. The argument put up that they are performance based doesn’t hold any water as some of the best performing partners with the higher job volumes are languishing in the lower regions of the rate charts. Or is this a case of, getting away with what they can or keeping the costs as low as possible? Areas also do not account for many of the differences with agents in and around London being paid less than those out with the areas traditionally expected to be weighted due to higher living costs.

It has also been said that the email is not accurate, but if it’s not accurate then why are the partners distressed at the mail, why is Whirlpool even bothered if it’s not correct and why have so many confirmed the rates?

More Problems

There has also been heavy criticism levelled at Whirlpool by many partners after this debacle and it has opened up other problems as well, not least the criticism of “Trade Spares” in Croydon as well as criticism of the customer services department there, who seem to be treating their own service agents with much hostility from what we hear here.

Many instances where the partners have to pay for damaged spares, US style fridge doors at over £200 a pop seem a favourite for this, and yet cannot claim them back as they can’t seem to get them undamaged, yet they pay for them in thirty days (replacements have been known to take many weeks or months to arrive) damaged or not thereby effectively lending Whirlpool their money as it’s simply contra paid off their account. This on top of missing orders etc. and Trade Spares in Croydon seem not to want to know about it.

These appear to be huge stumbling blocks in the current operation that are causes of a great many problems for the partners, no wonder as the cost of one fridge door could wipe out the profit on 100 warranty service calls in the case of some partners!

Profit & Loss!

It has also come to light that Whirlpool has been running very invasive profit and loss analysis on its network members, with very private information being requested including salary levels of the business principals. Some partners feel that is tantamount to an invasion of their privacy and deeply resent this action by Whirlpool. One network partner actually alluded that this information would be used to pay those that earn more profit to be paid less and those that earned lower profits to be paid more per call, it was my impression that this has been told to them by someone within Whirlpool. So you have to ask, is it Whirlpool’s intent to cap its partner’s earnings and if this is the case would it not be better to just employ people to do the job in the first place? Also what is the point of running a business if there is a capped earning potential?

So here’s the way I see it from the outside, you set up your own business, work all the hours you can and solely to provide the manufacturer and their customer’s with a good service and earn a decent living only to be told that you’re making too much profit and that your rate will be cut! Great prospect for a service agency that is, apparently service agents are not allowed to make a reasonable living for themselves. But again I go back to, if any manufacturer or whatever organisation wishes to take that line then they would be as well just to employ staff and cap wages rather than do it by nefarious means such as these and give only the illusion that these businesses control their own destinies whilst actually running them, or attempting to.

It strikes me that if I were to apply this same reasoning to employees I would have access to their personal bank accounts, which I’m sure that the Data Protection people may well have something to say about! That aside, it is my opinion that this is not just invasive on people’s personal business but also downright immoral to ask for, let alone to use such information in such a manner if you are not a shareholder in the business.

Or is it just a case of a partner or two being able to afford a better car than some people in Whirlpool? Who knows?

Damning!

But I think it was summed up by an old Whirlpool hand in the industry that said something along the lines of, “Yeah they’d rather pay someone else £5 or so more than they are paying Kevin (Kevin Heath, PKI Ltd) than pay him an extra quid or two a job and just get it done, just so they can say he didn’t get it and they’ll now regard him as a trouble maker. That’s just Whirlpool Europe for you, they’ve been that way since it was Philips and until they have a clearout it will always be that way.” For obvious reasons that person wishes to remain anonymous to protect their current position within the organisation but did go on to say that Whirlpool would probably end up paying more for an inferior service.

It also occurred to me that such an action, to pay another agent a higher fee to carry out the same work in the same area, was discriminatory to an extent as you are then saying that one is better and of more value than another whilst not giving the original agent a chance to prove his case at a higher rate. Or is it simply a case of “it’s my ball and I’m not playing” churlish and childish behaviour? Is there recourse in law for such an act as it is tantamount to constructive dismissal?

Personally it struck me that allowing your better performing network partners to walk away and not even make an effort to resolve the issues is just plain crazy, but maybe Whirlpool have some other plans in place, we’ll have to wait and see how the story unfolds but regardless of how you look at it, some of the stuff reputedly going on is just ludicrous in my opinion, much of which we can’t print.

As usual there has been no official comment from Whirlpool, they have never contacted UKW nor posted in the forums so no-one has any idea what they’re up to, including their own network it seems! But generally the old saying holds true, there’s no smoke without fire.

But the killer from Whirlpool’s own website is that it advertises the company values as; Everything we do in Whirlpool is based on four enduring values: Respect, Integrity, Diversity and Teamwork. Trusting each other, acting honorably, recognizing and learning from diversity and gaining strength and inspiration from working together are the foundation of personal fulfillment and business success. Given the content of this article I’ll leave it to the readers to decide if that commitment is being met!

We’ll keep you posted.