BG work

[garygas]

Advice needed from Bg workers as i've been getting mixed advice.

I've been taken on as a tech engineer. However, i keep being told to stay where i am. Being told that BG trimming back the workforce, as are E.ON.

Got a good customer/landlords base and decent regular work. Don't want to lose what i've bult up if 6 months down the line i'm shown the BG door.

Gaz

 

[Agile]

If you are percieved as being good at fixing boilers then I would be very surprised of BG got rid of you.


If you were properly organised then I dont see that you would have to lose your current workload. You might have to team up with someone else to manage it though.

TOny

 

[Paul Barker]

I am contracting for them they aren't giving me as much work as I could manage but that suits me as i fit in my regular customers' breakdowns (after work in my own van, not on my way round )

I forsee a mamouth problem though. One which I can't be sure about yet but here is my fear.

They have got themselves responsible for the most delapidated old wrecks in the area in their enthusiasm to maintain market share. The fall guy for this stupidity on their part is the contractor who as far as I can make out only ever gets one payment for the entire job until completed. Now it doesn't take much imagination to realise that said boilers are a huge loss leader for thee and me let alone bg.

The on the cards guys are better off in this respect since frequent trips to the same boiler they might get a slapped wrist but they still get their hourly rate.

You wouldn't believe the amount of stuff out there which is to anyone sensible uneconomic to repair.

now I don't yet no how to handle this long term, but for certain something must change.

1/ either they must chop these boilers from the 3 star contract
2/ they must pay their contractors per visit
3/ they will lose their contractors to a more inteligently managed competitor as reality bights in over the coming winter.

When I was service agent for manufacturers the deal was hugely better the rate of pay more than double per breakdown plus you have the benefit of 90% of parts needed on the van so first visit fix was the norm. Sadly my area is largely rural and their is insuficient of that type of work to sustain me yet what there is places demand on your time which iterupt sufficiently any other business activity. So you end up poor.

The best for a contractor who like me isn't confident running his own business is to sub to the manufacturers in a largely populated area and make it their main work, give it their full attention.

As long as you don't pick a company that designs distasters like one down the coast from me
(which BG have fitted huge amounts of, another reason to be wary of the bg deal)

 

[nickso]

1/ either they must chop these boilers from the 3 star contract
2/ they must pay their contractors per visit
3/ they will lose their contractors to a more inteligently managed competitor as reality bights in over the coming winter.

1. will never happen
2. dunno about that one
3. a possibility that the BG mangement will be too dense to realise, perhaps even years after it has happened.

 

[scatmanjohn]

i keep being told to stay where i am. Being told that BG trimming back the workforce

or maybe not

http://www.centrica.com/index.asp?pageid=39&newsid=1642

 

[Agile]

Well thats yesterdays anouncement so bang up to date!

"""Helping to tackle UK skills shortage of 20,000 domestic gas engineers"""

I dont know where they get that figure from.

Many of the people I met are rather short of work!

Tony

 

[scatmanjohn]

Well thats yesterdays anouncement so bang up to date!

"""Helping to tackle UK skills shortage of 20,000 domestic gas engineers"""

I dont know where they get that figure from.

Many of the people I met are rather short of work!

Tony

Thats because they are getting all the work.

I got a letter from them saying because i get gas + leccy off them they will fix my boiler or heating for £99

 

[nickso]

Well thats yesterdays anouncement so bang up to date!

"""Helping to tackle UK skills shortage of 20,000 domestic gas engineers"""

I dont know where they get that figure from.

Many of the people I met are rather short of work!

Tony

Thats because they are getting all the work.

I got a letter from them saying because i get gas + leccy off them they will fix my boiler or heating for £99

that £99 offer is really ****ing me off.

 

[nickso]

Furthermore, 90 per cent of apprentices are still with the company after five years.

and when they get their little enamel badge and a photcopied thank you from the MD for 5 years service they promptly bugger off.

 

[petit_pablo]

Havent been to any £99 dual fuel jobs yet. I guess most people round here are on E.on like i am.

The audit jobs that seem to be appearing are usefull for removing poor boilers/systems from 3* contract. Auditted a couple that are now on 1* service contracts as they wouldnt improve the system

 

[nickso]

Havent been to any £99 dual fuel jobs yet. I guess most people round here are on E.on like i am.

The audit jobs that seem to be appearing are usefull for removing poor boilers/systems from 3* contract. Auditted a couple that are now on 1* service contracts as they wouldnt improve the system

that audit thing is a mistake. what they should be doing is enforcing the current t+c's so that customers are not getting what they shouldn't be through having a poor boiler/system that they are unwilling to upgrade or accept responsibility for, poor water quality being the biggest issue that should be addressed.

reducing customers to a lesser contract will most likely make them leave, not induce them to upgrade.

 

[ollski]

Audit jobs have only ever been introduced as a way of increasing upgrade revenue, nothing more insightful than that.

 

[garygas]

thanks for the replies guys. Makes intersting reading.

Could any of you give me some info on work hours. How many hours per week. How often on call during the week, how often on call during the weekend. Typical weekly rota would help.

Thanks

Gaz.

 

[twgas]

40 hours/week winter - oct to march
37 hours/week summer - april to sept

rosters vary from patch to patch, max 1 sunday in six is the only agreement.

 

[garygas]

thanks for that.

any evenings / nights ?