Gas Safe Engineer

Its difficult .... the comments from 24/7 are they did not initiate a service request, they have no re3dords of a service request. AS I can't provide the name or any paperwork - they say its not their issue.

Me - I have gained a free service, so I have not materially lost anything - but its very strange.

"24/7 facility [to] get a problem fixed"

JEREMY LOGUE Almost every time I book a repair I am told "sorry, that's not covered'. My water cylinder sprang a leak *yesterday*, so I called Your Repair & they arranged for a plumber to visit *today*, they then called me back to say the repair wasn't covered because the leak had been caused by hardwater scale ... even though we have a softener!

Stephen Travis "

Anonymous

When did I say that ?

You're totally failing to address my point.

Which is that there are potentially thousands of such business opportunities out there, none of which need to be "scams" if only it were possible to attract sufficient customers without spending shedloads on advertising

"Why the need to advertise ? ". "Customers will be beating a path to my door !" "Once we get started all we will need from that point on, is word of mouth" etc. are common misconceptions which sink many such business.

No. Why should I ? I'm simply suggesting it as a possibility, which as I go on to explain below, wouldn't necessarily reflect on the integrity of anyone who *initially* employed such fake reviews.

I don't need any reassurance; as I never implied they were scammers in the first place. The fact that you have again wrongly inferred that I did imply that they were, despite having been assured to the contrary is quite frankly a problem you might be in need of reassurance about yourself. Although obviously I'm not qualified to judge on such matters.

So who exactly provided the name of the registrant of the domain name to nominet, and the audited accounts to Companies House if not YourRepair or their appointed agents ?

Again the "scam" word. When nobody but yourself has ever suggested that this business is a scam. Seemingly coupled with the further implication that any business being run from a spare bedroom, as I would imagine are many perfectly honest eBay businesses, is necessarily dodgy in any way.

With the further implication that any business regularly submitting audited accounts and on time, to Companies House, can't possibly be guilty of underhand practices amounting to "scams", themselves.

But we're not talking about *any* business here, are we ? We're talking about specific complaints about exclusion clauses in contracts of which customers were seemingly unaware, until it was too late. What also needs to be born in mind here, is the percentage of customers who will ever require a repair in the first place. Whereas most people who buy a TV are going to switch it on, possibly on the same day. And then send in a bad review as soon as it doesn't meet their, quite possibly unreasonable expectations. Either that or the van was late in delivering the thing.

Not never switch it on at all

So you're suggesting that reviews similar to Monica Waldock's but not hers review specifically, which you snipped I notice, which claimed that Your Repair solicit reviews 10 minutes after customers sign up

For asking for a review on a 12 month support contract that is literally

are quite possibly fake or malicious are you ? As its noticeable that Your Repair take care to answer all/most of the negative reviews, but not that particular one.

Basically it's a very smart move when you think about it. To get the business in the first place, you need to operate a smooth-running user-friendly sales operation* both in terms of the website and the telephone sales operators. Given which, once you've signed up a customer why not get them to write a glowing review of how pleasant they found the whole experience within say the next ten minutes ? This capitalising twice on that asset.

• Although what happens afterwards is quite possibly a different kettle of fish entirely.

I forgot to add it was also of course downstairs. Possibly you can have spare bedrooms in flats but I always place them upstairs at the far end; past the bathroom.

michael adams

...

You seem to be confusing the performance of one company with a more general business model.

You appear to be to suggest that for anyone aware of the GS register, there was no added value to a maintenance business of this type. I don't buy that argument, since many businesses are profitable doing things that their customers could do for themselves, in theory. The important question is does the business add enough value or convenience for the customer to be prepared to pay for the service.

and again for the avoidance of doubt I am not passing comment on the quality of service offered by this particular company. So all the cherry picked 1 star reviews are not really contributing anything.

Your phrases "get rich quick scheme" and "money for old rope" spring to mind.

Not disagreeing with you there. Many fledgling businesses vastly underestimate the cost of acquiring customers and brand recognition.

Indeed.

Judging by the name of the owner, one of the founding directors of the business. The fact that the domain name was registered a couple of years before formation of the company also suggests some forward planning.

In the case of audited accounts, their accountants. Who would be personally liable if found to be supplying incorrect information.

None of this guarantees that everything is legit and above board, but it does give increased confidence.

Perhaps you should check:

alan_m: "You then let someone into your home and later find out that the service organisation have no record of service being performed. You cannot even guess what the scam is?"

Dave P : "Given your boiler has now broken, that could be the scam."

Lastly, you used the phrase "get rich quick scheme" which I would normally take as another way of calling something a scam of some form.

I did not suggest that there was anything wrong with running a business from a spare bedroom. However others seemed to be inferring that such a business was in some respect insubstantial, or fly by night etc. I just highlighted that the published accounts for this particular example don't support that view, and that it seems implausible that its being run from a back bedroom (or at least one anyway - several perhaps, as are many companies at the moment!)

You must have good glasses to read all that between the lines.

yada yada...

na, can't be bothered... g'night

Then you're totally misunderstood my point.

Which was that there are *far more* potential customers out there, who are completely unaware of the fact that they can access the Gas Safe Register themselves, than there are those who do.

Why would anyone want, or need to chase after people who already know how to access the Gas Safe Register ? That knowledge is an asset on which you can build the business..

Similarly a large number of the reviews complained about the high charges being imposed by British Gas. That knowledge along with the charges being imposed by other big players is a useful asset when bargaining as agent - rather than as a customer - with an engineer - an agent who could potentially bring them repeat business

So ? Of course there are plenty of businesses that are profitable doing things people could do with themselves. People who are time poor simply don't have the time to faff around making sandwiches so they stop off at M$S or Subway instead.

Offering a service which uses a locally based Gas Safe registered engineer to service their boiler, rather than their being ripped off by British Gas at least in their estimation, certainly adds value and convenience for the customer. Although no penguin obviously.

And so yes, were it not for the costs of attracting sufficient customers, in being able to target the whole of the UK this would indeed be a "get rich quick" business with very low overheads which could possibly be sold for a few squillions within a year or two.

Except to confirm of course that the OP's totally unsatisfactory experience with this firm. - the original point of this thread - was hardly untypical at all as it turns out.

And they're not "cherry picked".

As I explained earlier Your Repair are already corrupting the review process by soliciting reviews within 10 minutes of people signing up. Which are simply reviews of their sales operation. And again as I pointed out, only a small proportion of customers will ever experience a fault and require to make full use of their services in the first place, And it will only be at that stage after maybe paying for years that a proportion of them will then find out that owing to small print clauses they never bothered to read, they'd never been covered at all. So much for "service". But all perfectly legal, above board and par for the course with many insurers, as it is.

Its not the picking that counts, but the rotten state of the cherries.

michael adams

...

You may have had a free service, but from what I understand you have no paperwork to confirm it. You have no Gas Service Record. If something went wrong, would your insurance company pay out without such a record?