What do you think of my welder repair website?

[PTvor]

I also found that the warranty is just on the fix (and associated work) & not the complete machine. That must be what your consumer rights are any way.

Which somewhat erodes the point of getting it fixed and having a year's general warranty, which I believe was implied earlier. There's probably some leeway and it depends on what percentage of machines come back under warranty claims.

I still maintain that if you can buy a new machine with a two year collect and return warranty for a couple of ton, it places a definite limit on what it's sensible to pay to get a similar machine repaired. £50 all told I'd say, but that's just me.

 

[MattF]

I disagree, if you look at pretty much any professional service website you will see client lists and testimonials. A few that spring to mind are Experian Marketing Services, Teradata and Sitecore.

Those examples are supposed to dispel my philosophy?

 

[gavuk]

I'm sure TIG Paul had some repair work done recently ,his testimonial should carry some weight on a forum like this ,and there are other members here who I wouldn't question ,maybe I'm a trusting soul.....

 

[Paul.]

I'm sure TIG Paul had some repair work done recently

Certainly did, and very pleased I am too, a welder that I thought was beyond repair is now back in service for less than a fifth of the cost of a new one of similar quality.

 

[RonA]

Personally I think (sadly) you'll fall into the same scenario as TV repair nobody bothers anymore because technician costs in the Uk are so high everybody bins the TV & buys new

 

[PTvor]

I'm sure TIG Paul had some repair work done recently ,his testimonial should carry some weight on a forum like this ,and there are other members here who I wouldn't question ,maybe I'm a trusting soul.....

Go out of their way to do a good job for a moderator and respected contributor to a forum from which they expect to get business.

Aren't there some jobs you'd pay to get and make damned sure were done properly?

You're not a trusting soul, I'm notoriously cynical.

From what I can see they are a perfectly reasonable set of people selling their skills and offering the best service they can. In the right circumstances, I wouldn't have any hesitation in using them.

No doubt they will provide a useful service, or at least an option worth investigating, for a lot of forum members.

It's hard to make a living from repair in a throw away age. I hope they succeed.

I'm not sure about the econonics of fixing sub £200 welders though, as a prospect for the customer or as a livelihood.

 

[tlovatt]

My Feedback

1. As others have said, the phone number is too small, if you can not increase the font can you put the company address, email and phone number so it runs across the top of each page, this would probably look better than just the phone number looking lonely!

2. You email address should be on each page as well

3. As you have a proper workshop you should put a picture of it up on the website to show people you are not doing this out of the back of your shed

4. I would change the pricing details to be, we will give you an estimate, once we have the machine we will confirm the price before we start work

5. I would remove the 50% premium for the 48 hr service - mention there is a premium but do not tell people how much, then depending upon how busy you are, you can vary the premium as needed.

6. I would look for a better electronics picture such as some TO220 packages on a heat sink - it seems more appropriate for welder type electronics

7. Offer a discount for forum members!

 

[Tiggy_dorset]

7. Offer a discount for forum members!

I have a plasma that needs repairing

 

[Shedendman]

I have a plasma that needs repairing

Me to,do us forum members contact you through here or via your website?

 

[Welderfix UK]

Phew, was away travelling yesterday so just back at the office today.

OK, few points to clarify.


RE the 12 month warranty. The issue of whether it's the repair that is warrantied or the operation of the unit as a whole is one that we have given a lot of thought to over the years. You can imagine the scenario where you make a perfectly sound repair and then the unit fails again for another reason - all the customer knows is that it's not working again and would probably be quite skeptical of any argument you made trying to convince them it has nothing to do with the original repair.

We tend to err on the side of good customer relations and do the repair under warranty, even if it is not directly related to the previous fault as long as there is no evidence of customer abuse. To be honest, out of the 10,000 power supplies we have repaired this problem is such a tiny fraction that it's not really a major concern.

We put the legal proviso in the T&C's to protect ourselves from the isolated cases where for example somebody repeatedly plugs a 110Vac unit into 230Vac / throws it off a cliff / dumps it in a river etc.

To all intents and purposes you can expect the unit to last at least 12 months post repair, and we support that 99% of the time.

You must have to play the stats in the interest of offering a fixed price and take the rough with the smooth, and hope from your calculations there isn't that much rough.

As PTVor mentions - fixed price repairs are certainly a game of swings and roundabouts. You do get some units that are very unusual or obscure in terms of the failure and they can literally take days to fix, others perhaps 1-2 hours. You set your pricing so that on average you make a bit of margin. We've have been in business almost 12 years so are not new to it, but you certainly do need to approach it with a good amount of data.

I just looked at the parent site & it seems that the "fixed price repair" is not actually a "fixed" price at all. Its fixed for most faults but if they find costly parts that need changing then its extra.

There is always going to be the rare occasion where for example the unit has been on fire and the whole thing is toasted. Obviously this can never be done on a fixed price repair. In that situation we would report our findings and ask the customer how they would like to proceed. Perhaps it is a piece of kit they must have working again in which case the solution maybe to replace whole assemblies and obviously there is a high part cost to this which we would have to charge a premium for.

I think the key thing is that if they do not want to proceed then they can have the welder returned free of any labour charges. What have they got to lose? You should also not assume that we are applying the same conditions for welders as we are for industrial smps on the parent site. You see different failure modes for industrial smps.

Hi fella just a query, you state on the website

Should you not wish to proceed with the repair, we simply return your welder

So you are paying the postage to return it to the customer BUT you have not failed to fix it so the no fix no fee thing should not apply to this bit above. The customer decided they did not want to proceeed you didnt fail to complete your side of the bargain.

I think you should add that the return postage (if you decided not to have it fixed) is payable by the customer

Thanks for pointing this out. Yes I will make this clearer - if the customer decides not to proceed with the repair we do charge them the return carriage.

I still maintain that if you can buy a new machine with a two year collect and return warranty for a couple of ton, it places a definite limit on what it's sensible to pay to get a similar machine repaired. £50 all told I'd say, but that's just me.

You are probably not too far away with that. Our bottom end repair price is £75 for the cheap stuff but that still represents about a £100 saving on new.

Personally I think (sadly) you'll fall into the same scenario as TV repair nobody bothers anymore because technician costs in the Uk are so high everybody bins the TV & buys new

That is certainly true for high tech consumer electronics where the replacement is undoubtedly better / smaller / more sexy, but industrial products tend to be 'designed in' to systems and then obsolescence of the original part means repair is often a good option. Big companies spend a lot of money approving particular products for applications and you can't just buy something off the shelf to replace it without major qualification hassles.

Welders are somewhere in the middle. There are some really good quality older welders around that people know and love and maybe they don't care to much about the smaller / sexier thing - which of course may not guarantee you a better weld at the end of the day.

My Feedback

1. As others have said, the phone number is too small, if you can not increase the font can you put the company address, email and phone number so it runs across the top of each page, this would probably look better than just the phone number looking lonely!

2. You email address should be on each page as well

Isn't that what the 'Contact Us' page is for though? It's only one mouse click away after all.

3. As you have a proper workshop you should put a picture of it up on the website to show people you are not doing this out of the back of your shed

Agreed! Will do.


4. I would change the pricing details to be, we will give you an estimate, once we have the machine we will confirm the price before we start work

Ok, thanks have revised this wording slightly. It's quite rare for them not to be done at fixed repair charge though.


5. I would remove the 50% premium for the 48 hr service - mention there is a premium but do not tell people how much, then depending upon how busy you are, you can vary the premium as needed.

Again, I think people prefer certainties. For express repairs we normally put a night shift on so it's a fixed increase in overhead.


6. I would look for a better electronics picture such as some TO220 packages on a heat sink - it seems more appropriate for welder type electronics.

Good point - OK, will see if there is something a little better.


7. Offer a discount for forum members!

LOL - OK, you guys have all been so helpful on here. I will offer a 20% discount to all forum members in Jun/July quoting MW2013 on the promotional code box on the www.welderfix.co.uk website.

Me to,do us forum members contact you through here or via your website?

Yes, please do go through the website as that logs the enquiry properly into our system. You can also input your promotional code for the 20% discount

 

[PTvor]

I just looked at the parent site & it seems that the "fixed price repair" is not actually a "fixed" price at all. Its fixed for most faults but if they find costly parts that need changing then its extra.

I also found that the warranty is just on the fix (and associated work) & not the complete machine. That must be what your consumer rights are any way.

There have got to be fundamental assumptions of honesty and reasonableness, on the part of the repairer and the customer, which you can't exactly spell out, or it would be a very long-winded explanation.

It's not reasonable to expect a fixed price, or any sort of repair, of a welder which has been run over by a lorry. Therefore you can't give an absolute binding commitment to fixed price, or you'll have people taking the p**s.

Some people may think it's perfectly reasonable to leave an inverter welder out in the rain for six months and be surprised when it doesn't work. It isn't.

They could refer to the stats in the small print, "90% of enquiries covered by fixed price", "Nearly all repairs done at fixed priced". They might do already.

 

[Welderfix UK]

Yep, all very sensible.

 

[the snooper]

if the phone number is too small and the font cant be changed then why not put the phone number into a simple program like paint save it as jpeg and upload it as a picture, problem solved

 

[Welderfix UK]

....or just click the 'contact us' button!

 

[the snooper]

....or just click the 'contact us' button!

yeah there is that, ive only just this minute looked at the site, I find the phone number ok to be honest its not something that needs to be big because you only get a brief glimpse, anyone needing your services will read the pages thoroughly anyway and wont miss it