Oh man Maverick.
Five years warranty on Whirlpool. Nice, but I don't need it. The device is and remains junk. Unfortunately, that's how it is with Ikea. Otherwise, I love Ikea, although I also know people who prefer to buy furniture worth tens of thousands of euros from expensive brands in furniture stores. So I’m not allowed to bring Ikea furniture to them.
Of course... You already knew before the customer called what the problem was and were almost there. Especially with a flat rate of €35, whether 1 or 2 technicians were there at 10 pm. The company is bankrupt, right???
You are quite cheeky. The company I last mentioned still exists and is doing great! I just don’t work there anymore for personal and health reasons.
The other was our family business. A working life (and human life itself) eventually ends.
An hourly wage of 50 euros net and a fair quarter-hour billing is "normal." Some want even more or calculate half hours or full hours.
The aforementioned €30–40 offer (depending on travel) applies to first visits. Afterwards, there is usually a repair, resulting in additional hourly charges (but no second travel fee). And the spare part with a small profit margin.
And yes, many defects can already be "clarified" over the phone, but of course not always. And you don’t tell the customer on the phone right away what’s defective, because they might hang up and try it themselves, since many things are actually easy to repair (motor carbon brushes, pump replacement, etc.). Many just come by for spare parts. These are sold to them without complaint. Ultimately, we sell a part, and if the customer can’t manage, he might come back as a client.
When you talk on a 0180 hotline from some company (e.g., customer service for Ikea home appliances), you cannot expect anyone knowledgeable to be on the phone, but call center ladies who at best can look up manuals/error codes in the system, but have no own experience, because that’s what the technicians do.
But if you have the master technician yourself on the phone, who has been doing this for decades, it looks very different.
If someone calls or writes to me about PC stuff, I also know what it could be, although with
home appliances it’s MUCH EASIER, since PCs are much more complex. Of course, there are also stupid errors that sometimes have to be checked by picking up the device and inspecting it over hours in the workshop. But that is rather rare.
So if a device doesn’t pump out water, you take a pump with you just in case, but first check on site whether there isn’t a blockage, just as a simple example of what you can already tell over the phone. Although that is really just a SIMPLE example. Even complex errors can be "anticipated" with decades of experience. But that is very individual, depends on the symptoms and how well the customer describes them, etc.
That is the daily workflow: customer calls, says what’s wrong, we assess how urgent it is, and at the latest the next day or the day after, we show up at the customer’s door.
By the way, 8–10 jobs per day just from municipal services alone make it worthwhile to offer private customers decent first-visit prices like the mentioned €30–40. Depending on how many staff are employed, you can multiply that per employee, although it gets very stressful. The example with 10 pm was such a 12-customer day, alone or with two people. We promised that to him and then something like this happens. Otherwise, the company closes at 5 or 6 pm.
There is no €5 rip-off behind this. It’s called customer retention and unfortunately also competition. A first visit cannot really be cheaper than that. Otherwise, it would be predictable fraud.
I don’t know what kind of cheap devices you buy, but our dishwasher costs a little more than €180. Our device is now a few years old and still costs more than €180 used. Furthermore, you should first read Ikea’s warranties and not just complain.
- First trip €35 GROSS
- Electronics eg. €150 NET
- Shipping eg. €6 GROSS
- Labor hour (approx. 1h) €50 NET
= €279 GROSS
The residual value of a 5-year-old Bosch dishwasher originally, for example, €599, should at most (if anything) be limited to this value. (Usually much less!)
And! The device has other wear parts that might soon also go kaput. You have to factor all that in. Labor hours come on top each time.
And only if it “only” takes one hour, because dishwashers are sometimes very badly installed. It starts with tiles that were laid in front of the kitchen afterwards, so the kitchen stands lower on the screed. Or the kitchen builder placed the device with Aquastop (fat box on the supply hose) and then built the kitchen around it. Ergo: partly dismantle kitchen in tight areas, saw, and so on.
And that’s for a repair of, say, a 5-year-old dishwasher.
If it’s "just" the water box or an AquaStop (which is expensive), that’s still manageable, but at some point, such an old relic is simply written off, and offering it for repair to a customer borders on rip-off. Dishwashers always require more labor time. Freestanding washing machines can be done quickly.
Regarding your remark about cheap devices: I’m talking about Miele, BSH (Bosch/Siemens/Constructa etc.) and that as an authorized company with ongoing training from Miele itself.
Please don’t insult anyone here...
I did not insult, only wrote that certain customers like to go to the aforementioned "I’m not stupid" store (that’s what it’s called in advertising) and then like to compare apples with oranges or buy washing machines there for €179...
The above user complained about a one-week waiting time for an overburdened customer service that travels far, instead of just asking a local specialist what a check costs.
Warranty must be done via the authorized customer service; that must be clear to every customer. Anyone who does not want to use it is their own fault.
If it had been a fridge or freezer, but it was about a dishwasher! There’s nothing more unimportant in a private household; at least you can bridge a failure. (No matter how big the family is)
I didn’t know you have washing powder in your kitchen?! The washing powder is in my basement, by the washing machine.
Yeah right. You know exactly what I meant. Oh, and I don’t have a dishwasher, no space. But the detergent is next to the washing machine in the kitchen. So your nitpicking is lame.
And in my office, there is also no washing machine with salt or a dishwasher with powder.
I have been in hundreds of offices where dishwashers stand, which break down particularly often because nobody really feels responsible (“it’s not mine…”).
And customers have also reported cardboard packaging of a cleaner and a salt from the same manufacturer, almost identical packaging. The ion exchanger then broke! So things like this happen, even quite often.
(Cleaning ladies without German skills at night in otherwise empty tea kitchens often quickly ruin an expensive dishwasher just because they can’t read the packaging or instructions or don’t close the salt compartment properly)
It’s about detergent (again now, I mean cleaning agents), which ruins the ion exchanger if it gets there because salt and cleaning agent have been confused or the salt compartment wasn’t properly closed or because no salt is ever refilled, since the 1000-in-1 tabs supposedly do everything fully automatically...
And €180 is simply a tough pill.
Maverick, if you think you want to spend that much or more on a repair, then go ahead. If it’s a Miele that is 2.4 years old and cost 1000 or more, it’s certainly worth it.
However, it only pays off for certain classes of devices and individual situations.
So wear,
technical age to put it that way. Privately (family business), we once had a customer who washed THREE TIMES A DAY with a €450 BSH device (Bosch), and we replaced motor carbon brushes twice a year. We didn’t care, but the customer thought we sold or installed junk. And that reflects badly on us because she tells the neighbors! THREE TIMES A DAY! (365x3 = OVER A THOUSAND TIMES A YEAR)
Whoever needs a commercial device should also buy one, preferably a Hobart... (Refers to the shock customers get when they see the price)
Yes, the price is justified and cheaper than a new dishwasher. Or do you have no idea about brand devices? Then just look at the prices of reasonable brand appliances. And I don’t mean Hanseatic or similar.
Sure, an authorized Miele customer service sells Hanseatic, AMICA, or something?
These stores (even larger ones) here with us were even warned by Miele and had all the goods taken back from the warehouse and the business relationships ended because they advertised with Miele devices (pictures!) but sold Amica. Accordingly, many asterisks were added in the advertising texts.
Spare parts can of course be ordered and installed for every device (by professional service technicians), but new devices from cheap manufacturers are absolutely taboo in a real specialist service company.
You wouldn’t believe how many customers have some cheap junk at home.
It’s not worth repairing the electronics.
But let’s leave it at that, we’re just going in circles anyway.
PS:
There was a 12-month warranty on every repair as well. Even if after the first visit (not uncommon), the damage could be fixed with only the travel flat rate. So if it was just a quick fix or something (kinked hose, etc.). (But if it is e.g., the motor carbon brushes of a washing machine, you always have them with you, so you can repair it immediately. (But the hourly wage applies then, since the €30–40 are for travel and cost estimate,
the actual time-consuming skilled repair is normally charged)
Proper invoice and 12 months warranty. If the defect occurs again, it will be repaired free of charge.
None of the €5 flyer guys do that,
if they’re even capable of anything, except cheating. Just “we repair everything” or “only €5 travel fee in all of NRW.” Yeah, right...
And if someone wants €80–100 just for a cost estimate on the first visit, sorry, that’s not acceptable either.
There is a healthy middle ground in this business for repair costs that still pass muster. It depends on 1. the customer, 2. the device, and 3. the technical age of the device. If the customer has a lot of money and the device is still top-quality and expensive, then you sometimes do repairs for €230 at the customer’s request.
But that is the absolute exception!