[AMA] I Am a State Technical Services Representative for a Leading European Whitegoods Manufacture

Capo93 on 11/01/2019 - 14:11
Last edited 11/01/2019 - 14:43

Afternoon everyone,

A little back ground, I started in the white goods industry in January 2011 when I was 18 in a traineeship in spare parts, mainly for Electrolux spare parts.

Late 2012 I changed employers and started a Cert III in Appliance Servicing apprenticeship. Completed three years of Tafe in September 2015 and was signed off and qualified in February 2016. Remained at that local repair company until May 2018 where I then became a State Technical Services Representative for a Leading European Whitegoods Manufacture over seeing NSW & ACT for all technical inquires from our Authorised Service Agents and other day to day operations.

When I was on the tools I would repair any brand off machine, the local company I worked at were warranty agents for almost every manufacture, also did a lot of caravan parks(coin operated machines), laundromats, nursing homes and even some medical equipment.

Ask away!

Introduce Yourself

closed Comments

  • [Deactivated] on 11/01/2019 - 14:20
    +3

    Are machines designed to fail? A weak cheap plastic part in just the right place, for example.

    • Capo93 on 11/01/2019 - 14:34
      +1

      As far as i know, no. Its called Product Obsolescence. It comes down to the cost of manufacturing. If they manufacture something out of steel it is going to cost more then plastic. If they do make it out of steel then the cost of the product has to go up, and then the average consumer with an average income won’t pay for it cause there is a cheaper alternate out there. Unforntaltly products coming out of China don’t help the market.

      • Diji1 on 11/01/2019 - 14:45
        +3

        It's called Planned Obsolescence.

        It's widespread.

        The sane, consumer friendly thing to do would be to have the manufacturer state the expected lifetime. Some jurisdictions such as France may force this to happen via legislation however Australia is obviously controlled by industry so it's very unlikely to happen here.

        • HighAndDry on 11/01/2019 - 16:22

          The sane, consumer friendly thing to do would be to have the manufacturer state the expected lifetime.

          They'll just give the expected lifetime as their current warranty period, because for all practical intents and purposes those are the same thing.

  • Savas on 11/01/2019 - 14:27
    +2

    disgusting that they shut down all the factories in Australia. we now have to import crappy plastically fridges that break after a few years.

    • Capo93 on 11/01/2019 - 14:39
      +2

      Yes mainly the Electrolux refrigeration plant in Orange. I believe they are still making ovens in Australia in WA.

      Whilst it is sad to see it go, it’s only assembled in Australia, all the components are still coming from China.

      It’s like a Miele, they are German and a lot of there products come out of Germany but now some of there dishwasher for example come out of Czech Republic.

      • Diji1 on 11/01/2019 - 14:51
        +2

        Germany has legislation that forces every business with over 50 million Euros revenue to have 50% board representation for workers. So workers rights are protected.

        Unlike here where even Unions have been more or less outlawed and free trade agreements have had their intended effect of moving Labour to third world countries while corporate profits rise to record levels while most of the country goes backwards now that there's fewer well paid jobs.

    • HighAndDry on 11/01/2019 - 16:24
      +1

      Eh. We had cars assembled in Australia that weren't exactly better than stuff assembled in Korea or Japan. You can still import whitegoods made in Germany or Japan or Korea if you really want to.

  • TheMindsetTraveller on 11/01/2019 - 15:56

    Looking to replace my conduction cooktop asap, what are some brands that are generally quite good?

    • Capo93 on 11/01/2019 - 16:03
      +1

      Induction cooktops are a hard one. Whilst the technology is good in them, they are sensitive to power fluctuation and solar power. All brands are expensive to repair out of warranty. I would say stick to something that has a decent warranty period, some brands offer extended warranty(extended warranty with the manufacture not a third party) or some manufactures even offer 5 years warranty now. Jump online and just have a scroll through Bing Lee or Appliances Online. I like to avoid Jerry.

  • BuyoTheCat on 11/01/2019 - 16:07

    what is your favorite brand to repair?

    • Capo93 on 11/01/2019 - 16:11

      I found Smeg easy to repair.
      Miele was good to repair as they have a lot of diagnostic tools in the software that customers don’t see or know about, however Miele units are over engineered in my opinion. I look at a Miele and say that is why the Germans lost the war, they cram a lot of components into a small space.

  • Gotchas on 11/01/2019 - 20:57

    Which company would you say is the most helpful in looking after their customer outside their minimum warranty. I hate it when companies play hardball trying to avoid their legal obligation in relation to consumer guarantees

    • Capo93 on 11/01/2019 - 21:08

      Smeg were the best, they would fully cover a lot of things.
      Miele in second although Miele did it on a case by case basis and they offered a percentage back on the repair cost rather then cover the whole repair like Smeg.
      I’m pretty giving in my role, I tend to offer spare parts only goodwill a lot and to be honest 95% of customers are happy with parts only.

      LG and Samsung would be the worse for getting things covered outside of warranty.

      I wouldn’t say we avoid our legal obligation at all, nothing lasts a life time, it’s hard from our end of line to determine if it’s customer misuse, are they over loading it, vermin damage, not cleaning filters etc

      The biggest problem is that the ACL is open to interpretation and everyone’s opinion is different on how to interpret it.

  • Meho2026 on 11/01/2019 - 23:04

    What brand would you buy today if you needed:
    1. Fridge
    2. Washing Machine

    • Capo93 on 12/01/2019 - 14:46

      1. Honestly fridges are hard, nothing stands out in the fridge market at the moment. Beko have a blue light that keeps veggies fresh for longer, Beko have 5 years warranty also, other then that probably a LG.

      2. If money is not a issue, Miele. Just bear in mind just because it’s a Miele and you pay top dollar doesn’t mean your never going to have problems with it. If you’re on a budget LG again or Beko, Beko having a 5 year warranty is hard to look past.

  • pasey25 on 12/01/2019 - 21:01

    I just bought beko dishwashers for some investment properties because of the 5 yr warranty. They get installed next week. Fingers crossed

    • Capo93 on 12/01/2019 - 21:30

      Fingers crossed. Any problems with Beko, I’m your man.

  • dcep on 21/01/2019 - 15:27

    Does technician carries screw with them ?

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/433396

    • Capo93 on 21/01/2019 - 16:17

      I carry screws but not genuine screws from the manufacture, just second hand screws from old jobs that I have in the top of my tool box that I use when I found stripped or missing screws in a unit. Whilst it's easy to say how doesn't the technician have a screw, we don't know what type of screw it is? Is it a plastic screw, metal screw, stainless screw etc?? What the call taker should have done was take the details of the unit, asked where the screw was, gotten a photo from the customer and either sent the screw to the customer(If F&P do that) or sent the screw to the technician to fix on first visit.

      Technicians can't carry every spare part in their small van, each manufacture has thousands of spare parts. Could you imagine how uneconomical it would be to have 14 semi trailers following around each service van with every part.

      To give you an idea, our warehouse in QLD currently has 4176 parts numbers in stock. Now there might be 2 of each item, 10 of another? However as of this morning, we currently have 66898 parts in stock in our warehouse, try fit them into a service vehicle.

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