the good the bad and the ugly!

[Gasguru]

Well that explains a lot

And that to me appears to be very incompetent management. Boiler repairs (and repairs to just about anything) are all down to experience.

With such a vast array of manufacturers/models surely engineers should be specialising in just a few makes? This certainly explains the hopeless service around here. Customers frequently tell me the engineers never have the parts and spend a lot of time just looking or playing with the lap top.

I certainly can't be efficient trying to cover every eventuality so have knocked some makes on the head eg Ideal from the Response onwards - just don't see enough to gain the knowledge.

 

[oakland99]

bg engineers do not specialise on one make, they work on every make ever made and some makes local engineers wont work on, unfortunately they cant decide not to work on a particular boiler, this makes carrying a lot of spare parts for every boiler impossible.

 

[ScottishGasMan]

Yea, as above.

You get your 8 jobs or so a day, have to work on whatever boiler your told to and thats that. if youve never seen it before or arnt to sure what your doing, the chances of getting someone else to help is next to none, which is why quite often "less good" lol engeneers pretend to sort it and run away where good engeneers will take their time and learn it on site so they then know that partiicular boiler

However the good engeneers that do that are then penalised for not doing as many jobs and given hassle for performance.

And van stock is limited as theres potentialy thousands of boilers/systems that we could visit. usualy keep some sensors etc, ranco thermostats, seals themocouples and a few pcbs. but how many parts can you fit in a CDV.

Reason we dont specialise in certain boilers (which ive thought about before) is that many areas have very different ranges, ie my area is full of concordes and old responses so no use having a vokera or worster guy here, plus at weekends and night call outs you need to work on any blr you get, cant keep one on for each make of blr every night.

 

[ollski]

I've asked this before but no one wants to answer the question. Do individual engineers work on particular makes of boiler? To me this would be good business sense (more so nowdays). If so surely they must carry the most common spares on their vehicle.

The reason I ask is everytime customers call them out they never seem to have the parts. Always requires a couple of visits and invariably they discover another part is required (perhaps through mis-diagnosis) and so the cycle continues.

I can't see how any revenue is made on the repairs, hence the exorbitant installation side of the buisiness. ie they sign up customers making little money through repairs but knowing one day there's a good chance of screwing them on the new boiler job.

Can't see how that would work, guys would be driving all over the shop to get to a specific boiler and I think the guy who drew saunier duvals and elm leblancs would be a bit fed up with the guy on profiles and suprimas when their performance was compared. It happens to an extent in that not everyone has lpg, laundry, unvented etc.
This is the difference to between bg and independant and manufacturers as in you can pick and choose as you say, so only stock parts you expect to use. The bg guy has to cover every make and model of boiler and system over the last 40 years and as far as I can see is essential to develop a quality knowledgable engineer comfortable with everything rather than just everything he fancies.
There is a standard vanstock which is national but is topped up by a locally decided vanstock which id decided by local managers based on commonly used parts on a patch.
I know in my area installations are amongst the highest prices but rarely top of the pile any more and many customers decide the backup and big name peace of mind worth the price. I imagine bg are extremely keen to keep customers cradle to grave....how can any decent business think any other way?. I may be wrong but I believe the homecare side of the business is vastly more profitable than installations.

 

[gas_man_gaz]

its a good point gasguru but wouldnt be practical for such a big company covering just about every type of make and model of appliance with a 24hr call out.. but i cant see a private engineer (unless he specialises in a couple of specific makes) carryin more van stock than me!

 

[gas_man_gaz]

ScottishGasMan ive found the best way is to fiddle ya times

 

[namsag]

Gasguru in theory what you say would make a lot of sense but then it is down to manpower, shift patterns and just the sheer amount of different makes and models.... Could you imagine the customers (paying £200 a year) reaction when told sorry our worcester man is not in for 3 days can you wait till then...

Also providing jobs are properly diagnosed the parts will be with the engineer the next day providing it is ordered by about 6pm at latest...There is a limit to amount of stock a van can carry...When i worked there We used to carry £5000 worth of parts but i know this has been down sized. Due to cost etc 7000 engineers times 5k of parts is £35million. Even for a company of BG size its too much dead money

 

[gas_man_gaz]

i carry more than £5000 of van stock!

 

[namsag]

Dropped it to about 3k in my area some guys even less.....Was allowed to keep mine when i left , but threw over 2k worth in the bin the other month stuff i would never use and just gathering dust.

 

[Gasguru]

Yes but 95% of repairs will be to perhaps a dozen different manufacturers. Surely each engineer could specialise in 2 or 3 makes and then carry substantial stock. Wouldn't bother me working on SD's, if you have all the parts its no more difficult than other makes.

From my experience, particular manufacturers products are more popular in some areas (due to the local merchant's preferance on stocking) so knowledge would be tailoured to suit.

It must be more efficient having an engineer spend a little extra time driving to his next job and having the confidence of knowing the boiler inside out, carrying all the parts and giving a likely first fix repair. Much better for the customer.

With the frequency of new models released onto the market these days its just unrealistic to give a quality service to all boilers; you can't build up the experience since you may rarely see a particlar model.

As for performance targets, if a business requires targets it doesn't say much for the workforce, how about just doing an honest days work. Never had targets in any previous job I've had. Just leads to unethical working practice.

It all comes down to profit, profit, profit, the current setup stinks. Customers are given a vision from the brochures and advertising of a service that just doesn't exist. It could easily be improved. I suspect however that management won't rock the boat and change the system - it suits them to have the setup as it is, no point in risking their own bonus/incentive scheme is there.

 

[John M]

threw over 2k worth in the bin the other month

Don't you have a Shed ?

 

[corgiman]

threw over 2k worth in the bin the other month

Don't you have a Shed ?

I will be your bin namsag

 

[ollski]

It couldn't work for bg guru with labour temporarily moving patches, engineers with a lifetime of experience under their belts etc. Plus the interest of the job is to come across new things and continuous learning, would be a boring job otherwise. My first time fix was always around 70% so there really isn't much to gain and if things are desperate the engineer can always obtain the part locally same day.

The system changes constantly and just has evolved again, but yes, it is a business with shareholders (many engineers) and is driven by profit and it certainly isn't alone in expecting performance from staff.

 

[ollski]

threw over 2k worth in the bin the other month stuff i would never use and just gathering dust.

Is that the new slang term for ebay?

 

[Gasguru]

.....engineers with a lifetime of experience under their belts etc. Plus the interest of the job is to come across new things and continuous learning

But when I've met BG engineers at the customers house they just don't have sufficient knowledge to work on the boiler and the evidence I see and hear about around here proves that.

Perhaps there's just a very high turnover in London and they're off before the experience is gained.