[Ian Gourlay]

I phone Rug Doctor today for a very small trip switch for my Rug Doctor.

On a car it would cost you £1.50 to £5.00.

In total they want £36 which includes £7 carriage for somthing that requires a first class stamp to post.

Chap tried to blame parts coming from USA.

I think one of the positive things the NCCA could do which would encourage non members to join  is to declare war on rip of prices for parts.

I shall be visiting local eletical repair shop and obtain similar part at much lower price.

A very Angry

Ian

many of you will recall I have defended critisim of Rug Doctor in the past No more. It is the second time that they have charged me exhorbadant prices for repair or parts.

[woodman]

Couldn't agree more,

CFR/Amtech  wanted £16+VAT for the little disc that goes on top of the upholstery hand tool which fell off and was lost.Can't be no more than £2.

Told 'em to get stuffed and got a mate to make me one in his workshop cost 50p.

[Dynafoam]

Ian,

Sometimes the cost of a small part may be reasonable , but when you add the value of the postage stamps plus a jiffy bag you see thae rip-off.

John.

[Dennis]

Know what you mean, I went to the local distributor of one of the cleaning solution manufacturers and spent £120 on various bits and pieces and I also wanted an O ring for a leaky wand valve. Oh no we don't supply those, you can have a new Kingston valve £30 odd.  Went to B&Q on the way home, assorted O rings 98p !!
What happened to service!  

Rant over  

[jmj]

Carriage is the biggest rip off of all, if i request a part say male connector which cost £5/£6 and then they charge you £10/12 to send it for next day delivery. I would say in amtech defense, that i needed a switch for my cfr and they sent one free of charge (no p+p either).

joe

[Len Gribble]

Hi Lads

In defence of the supplier I can’t believe I’m saying this! They have to keep a wide range of parts and the probably have to pay up front for these with the manufacture and delivery, then they sit on the shelf for six months before selling one item, regarding posting yes they put there bit on wouldn’t you for your time? These small companies are not Tesco or M&S etc = volume = cheaper.

Wouldn’t a part section to this forum be helpful where to buy!
 
I’m not affiliated or own this type of business

Len

[cleanmac]

Cooling fan in a cd player £43.50 + £35.00 for fitting.

They handed me the broken part back and I noticed it is the same type as used in a PC to cool the CPU ,which are  about £5 from a computer shop.

The examples are endless.
Just  compare the prices we pay for equipment and products to what the  Americans are paying.

[Derek]

Len

you stole my thunder...  

I was going to suggest setting up a directory of 'alternative' suppliers

Derek

[nordan]

Hi Derek i think thats a good idea .Could have a section on this site of best suppliers. Regards Danny

[Len Gribble]

Derek

I may be slow in some areas never in saving money ask the wife cut her house keeping this week as cleaned last Saturday upholstery, two bed rooms, HSL plus two rugs.

I will let you know tomorrow how much that has cost me she’s going to Bluewater! Lobotomised wife who knows how to get her own way!

Len

[Derek]

Len

I am totally convinced that somewhere between birth to adolescence there is a secret school that ALL young women attend to learn how to control/manipulate us poor unsuspecting suckers/mugs.... in other words 'a male'

I once plucked up enough courage to ask a dear old lady (in her eighties) a retired headmistress who I thought might take pity on my dilemma.

I put on my most pleading voice only to receive the following reply..

"I am NOT telling you young man"!..she said

Its out there somwhere...I am even more convinced now.

Cheers
Derek

[Londoner]

To be honest most times when you need a part you need it now and price is not such an issue as how quickly you are going to get your hands on it.

The cost of being out of action is far greater than anything you might save by shopping around.

I am perpared to accept high cost if it means you get five star treatment but the key word is if

[CATMAN]

Any seals, switches, connectors, goto rscomponents, website rswww.com.  They have  everything you need.  jion and they will send you , their seven catoulogues with free nextday delivery.

[Len Gribble]

Vince has a good point downtime could cost you more in the long run, but I would think most of us have backup machine!

Although I do agree some suppliers are a bit OTT on prices and we moan, but what is the difference between us and a regular/potential customer?

Catman Thanks


Derek Bluewater front, methinks must have guilt complex or some thing as she bought me a polo shirt and then hand me all the cc receipts, what are these for I asked you know why and went into a tantrum could not find yours etc, and I had to use mine, now totally confused have a guess who pay her cc? Anyway it’s Sunday tomorrow first port of call file the van up and she tag along so I fill her car up too

Re nicking Thunder not a problem. I think this would be a good idea, also what about hiring out equipment.

I can see the Sinicism coming in this idea, but my reply it’s cheaper to hire for a one off or so than to buy and have it sitting dormant.

Len

[Ian Gourlay]

I agree that we want there and then.

Fortuantley I did have back up machines, hence not taking first price on motor or trip switch.

Because many of us our prepared to take first price or not think there is an alternitive part or supplier some manufacturers and distributors are getting away with it.

In the Rug Doctor example I had to leave a message on answer machine. No call back.

After two days phoned again. Answer phone message.
I had however complained to the person who answered the phone before being put through to parts department.

I did get a call back within an hour with the high prices.

Perhaps if it was Rolls Royce Service I would have paid.

My wife thinks I should have paid anyway, to avoid hazzle of finding part elsewhere.

Regards

Ian

[Dynafoam]

Ian,

You were totally right - while customers accept sub-standard service at high prices nothing is going to change.

My regular suppliers are not always the lowest priced, but always the ones that give value for money service.

John.

[Ian Gourlay]

I found Rug Doctor Part I needed in Woodbrige Commercial Cat. for £7.50

Motor was delivered by Woodbridge within 12 hours of ordering it.

Although Ken said get Genuine Amtec you can get a 5.5 3 stage vac for about £53 from Woodbridge.

I got Amtec

Regards

Ian

Ps do 7.5 vacs pull more water than 5.5

[Dynafoam]

Ian,

The only difference between the two that I have noticed is that the smaller, high-speed unit has much less turning resistance.

Consequently, if you have the most common set-up of two motors in series, if one motor fails, you suffer noticably less power loss with the smaller unit than with the larger.

John.

[woodman]

I agree

a list of alternative suppliers would be useful in situations were your normal supplier can not deliver when you need it or are blatently over charging, it would be nice to say , right sod off I'll try so and so

John,Derek etc

I notice you are also on the cleaning pros board, I have tried to register but I was classed either un-desirable    or having joined and logged on twice it dropped me off  almost immediately asking me to apply again.     (any one else had the same problem).

Your not all masons are you

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Woodman,

I am a mason but there are no funny hand shakes on another forum.

On a more serious note my Lodge is a city of London Lodge set up and mainly populated by people in the cleaning industry.

Cheers,

Doug

[Bryan H]

Woodman,

I have just today discovered the same problem with 'Cleaning Pros'.  I have logged on many times & posted on the odd occasion, but it now says I don't exist.  Very odd !  Have I upset someone ?

Guess I will have to re-register.

Bryan

[Dynafoam]

Brian & Trevor,

I am sorry you are experiencing difficulties - I can assure you that you are most welcome.

Possibly the problem is related to identity.

An attempted registration using a nick-name will fail. We have probably all seen assorted mischief caused on forums by people who register under a fauses name, or people who are known only by nick-name, who pretend to be who they are not.

Recently several members have expressed a desire to see more information displayed on the member profile (eg full location, membership of trade organisations etc.) and the forum admin are responding to the wishes of the membership.

Brian, if your registration slipped through as Bian_H, then uou should have received a PM from Tim asking that you enter your correct name. in the absence of a reply, the registration may have been cancelled. If this sounds a trifle draconian, let me just say that in at least one instance, a former member was found to have deliberately faulsifed his identity.

John.

[Derek]

Hi

I can gain access to the sites BUT I do have to 'rejoin' (log in) almost every week..  

I posted about this some weeks ago and was told in increase the number of days ...doesn't work for me.

This re-logging in seems to be coming around even quicker...darned annoying too  

Cheers
Derek

[tony harrison]

I am curious just how many Freemasons are there in the cleaning business.there are at least two.

I am on the level and my Lodge is in Darlington County Durham.

Regards Tony Harrison.

[Len Gribble]

Hi Lads

Are you doing a cleaning up of you system? That will make you logging again as you have deleted the relevant data in your files.

Len

[Dave Parry]

I'm a freemason, a member of a Birkenhead lodge and a member of Bracknell lodge.

[Dynafoam]

Derek,

In order to recognise you, a web site needs to put a small text file on your computer, known as a "cookie"

When you visit a forum, the software looks on your hard disk for it's own cookie, and if found will log you in.

Not all cookies are harmless, so various pieces of software have been written (eg. Norton) which delete these files at set intervals. It can also be done manually or the opperating system can be set to clear them each time shut down.

Since you can go days without having to log on, the latter is not the case and you would know if you were deleting cookies (perhaps with windows 'clean-up' applet) so I suspect the culpret is  one of the Norton, mcAfee or similar programmes. These usually have setting to control this behaviour under an "Options" tag.

Hope this is of help, and written in a language comprehended in "your own little world"  

John.

[Dynafoam]

Derek,

I forgot to mention that if you are unable to identify the programme causing the problem, there is a work-around that will give you a warning when the cookie is about to be deleted.

Open Windows explorer and go to C:\window\cookies (substitute the drive letter where windows is located if not on C: )

The cookie for another forum will be called something like "derek bolton@www.another forum.co(2).text

(You may have more than one,  the number in brackets being different. to keep things simple, we'll protect them all.)

Right-click on the file(s) and from the pop-up menu that appears, left-click on "Properties"

At the bottom of the next window that appears, you will see attributes - put a tick in "read only" - do this for all the files that bear this name.

The files are not protected from deletion, but if the deleting programme is well written, whenever an attempt to delete is made a window should appear saying that an attempt is being made to delete a rea-only file "XXYZ" and you simply answer NO.

John.

[Derek]

John

That's obviously it!

I did have a clean up at the weekend and yes I do, as a matter, of course delete cookies etc.

I will take your advice on board

Thanks

Back to my own little world now  

Derek