How do companies like this stay in business?

[Diddums]

Boiler packed up on Saturday. No hot water or heating. Rang landlord, earliest someone can come is 8am Sunday. Fair enough, one night we can wait. 8am the guy turns up, presses the reset button a few times, says he'll have to come back today. We give him keys and this morning I get a call at 11am, "can't fix it, Vaillant need to come out".

I ring landlord, she says she'll phone them, few minutes later I get a text saying they'll call me. Got no signal at work so I ring them myself. Use their service line, carry on working whilst on hold. 37 mins later I hang up. Try their sales line and wouldn't you know it, answered within seconds. Asked her to put me through to service, all she does is put me back in the queue again.

On hold again now.

At least I know which company I will never touch with a barge pole, ever

 

[Scam]

Because probably 99% of their customers are landlords who don't give a flying hoot?

 

[VincentHanna]

Pretty much, Landlords have to have cover

They don't have to have good cover.

 

[Sliver]

Hanging up after 37 minutes on hold is a bit daft. You need to speak to them so stay on the line no matter how frustrating.

I'm lucky as the 2 issues I've had with my boiler were both rectified within 24 hours. I have a good landlord. Guess you're unlucky it happened on a weekend.

 

[jsmoke]

Maybe they survive from the revenue share of the premium calls?

 

[Adam]

Don't forget it's winter, freezing cold and probably their busiest time of the year.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

Don't forget it's winter, freezing cold and probably their busiest time of the year.

This.

Its not like a company could anticipate cold weather in winter leading to more breakdowns and thus more calls requiring more resources in the customer contact centres.

It'd be like royal mail employing thousands of temps just to deal with Christmas post.

 

[.Lethal]

Maybe they survive from the revenue share of the premium calls?

A global company that makes a profit in the billions per year? Nah, just a case of maximising revenue at the expense of the customer.

 

[The_Abyss]

This.

Its not like a company could anticipate cold weather in winter leading to more breakdowns and thus more calls requiring more resources in the customer contact centres.

It'd be like royal mail employing thousands of temps just to deal with Christmas post.

They probably don't hire more people in contact centres as they don't have any more engineers to fulfil the extra demand.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

They probably don't hire more people in contact centres as they don't have any more engineers to fulfil the extra demand.

This.

Its not like a company could anticipate cold weather in winter leading to more breakdowns and thus more calls requiring more resources in the engineer dept.

It'd be like royal mail employing thousands of temps just to deal with Christmas post.

 

[Kenai]

This.

Its not like a company could anticipate cold weather in winter leading to more breakdowns and thus more calls requiring more resources in the engineer dept.

It'd be like royal mail employing thousands of temps just to deal with Christmas post.

Temping gas certified engineers for 3 months a year, brilliant idea, I wonder why they haven't thought of that before.

 

[ThriceNightly]

should have gone worcester bosch

 

[Caged]

It does sound like you've figured out how they stay in business.

They're a brand that developers love to throw in and none of them need to deal with the fallout from doing so.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

Temping gas certified engineers for 3 months a year, brilliant idea, I wonder why they haven't thought of that before.

BG take on 1000 temp gas fitters every winter, so it's possible. The guy that fitted our boiler does it every winter.

 

[Caged]

I have no idea about this industry but is it feasible to be skilled at gas fitting and air conditioning so you can have decent work all year round?

 

[Monkeynut]

Could be worse, you could own a Glow Worm.

 

[Caged]

If we're playing terrible boiler Top Trumps then I once had to live with a Potterton Suprima

 

[Deleted member 66701]

Could be worse, you could own a Glow Worm.

Valiant / Glow Worm are the same company

 

[mattyg]

Valiant / Glow Worm are the same company

No they're not

They may be owned by the same parent company like BMW and Rolls Royce. vaillant are very good boilers Glow worms are BMW 116d's

 

[LeeUK]

A good time served experienced gas engineer or however you want to describe them should be able to fix any boiler themselves. Anyone who turns around and says that you need the boiler manufacturer to fix it shouldn't really be in the job. Warranty and free manufacturer repairs aside.