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Gaffer Variety:
Incompetent Technicians 024:
By Willie Gaffer:
January 23, 2006:
I have written about technicians and the companies which employ them before. One of my tirades was about Maytag in my essay "Mythology, Myths, and Cults. I have said all I want to say about that outfit and their mythological technician. Suffice it to say, he is not a little round faced cute guy with a beagle. He is a cranky fat old man who has outlived his expertise and usefulness.
Many years ago, when I was gainfully employed, I worked as a technician myself. I know whereof I speak. I know what a good technician is like and I know a fraud when I encounter one. Even back then, in the late fifties and sixties there were always frauds to contend with. These were the guys who pretended to be a technician by knowing all of the buzz words and using them effectively to get a job. The only thing they were really good at was conning managers. Most of them might have made good salesmen.
The only company I ever noticed which had guards up against these con men was Burroughs of Detroit. That was before Burroughs fell on hard times and got absorbed by some other failing companies. I don't think they ever recovered. When I went there for employment, I was required to take two tests. The first was a written test in the personnel department. It was required before they would even interview me. None of the con men I ever encountered would have got past that test. For me, it was easy because I really was a trained technician. The second test was not quite so easy. It was a troubleshooting test by the guy I ended up working for. I had to really know electronics to get past that one.
Later I got into computer programming and I never looked back, but I did put the skills I had acquired as a technician to good use in programming. As a programmer, I worked first at Bendix Research Labs in Michigan. That was the last time I ever saw a real technician. Then I moved to Ford for several years and they had what they called technicians. I did not encounter one who I would call qualified. That was not entirely their fault.
There are several problems involved in this dearth of qualified technicians. Perhaps the largest one is the managers who put people into positions for political reasons regardless of qualifications. These managers could not tell a technician from a bootblack. This is a problem which existed all over Ford and probably still does. Another problem is the approach a company takes to the repair problem. This is a problem that General Electric featured in their alleged service. It is also the problem with Maytag. They have guys they either employ (GE) or authorize (Maytag and Hewlett Packard) to service their products.
Most of these guys are not really technicians at all. All they know how to do is switch major modules. They don't have a clue about how to test components. In fact, they don't have the tools or the training to troubleshoot at all. I believe the companies that employ or authorize them want it that way. Switching out major modules is much faster and more profitable for the companies. Why just change a $2.00 capacitor if you can switch out a $200.00 control module? It's just good business, isn't it? That is about what happened with our last fiasco with General Electric. I call it the General Electric debacle.
I will begin by offering this advice for people who encounter similar things. Don't be embarrassed when you have been screwed. Tell the whole damn world. They count on you being too embarrassed to tell that you have been had. That is why they can keep getting away with it. Do what I'm doing. Write it up and publish it on your website. About five years ago we bought a small (17 cu ft) General Electric Freezer. It failed the first year. GE repaired it under warrantee. Then it failed again this year. That gives a mean time between failure of 2&1/2 to 3 years. Not good! GE also repaired the freezer again under warrantee. It cost us no money. That should be good, right? You decide. Here is what happened.
Thursday, September 1, 2005:
We discovered our General Electric Freezer had failed and thawed.
There was water over the floor and everything in the freezer had
thawed. We had to throw it all out.
Friday, September 2, 2005:
We called GE service and a technician was scheduled to come on
September 7 in the morning.
Wednesday, September 7, 2005.
The service man arrived. He checked the freezer and discovered
he did not have the parts to service the freezer. Sure! He said
they would have to be ordered. The parts he said would be delivered
to us by Fed-Ex and he would return to install them on September
15, 2005. He assigned us the task of calling 1-800-304-6281 to
confirm when the parts arrived. Notice how GE routinely transfers
responsibility for the replacement parts to the customer.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005:
A GE person who did not give her name called and canceled the
September 15, appointment. The parts, she said, were on back order.
Tuesday, September 20, 2005:
One week had passed. My wife called to ask when the parts would
come. She was told by a woman who did not give her name that the
parts were still on back order. She did not know anything else
and was not particularly helpful or forthcoming.
Tuesday, September 27, 2005:
Another week had passed. My wife called customer service at 1-800-304-6281.
She was told by a woman who did not give her name the parts were
still on back order. My wife asked where the warehouse was and
the woman denied having that knowledge.
On the same day, my wife called General Electric customer relations at 1-800-386-1215. She was put on hold for 8 minutes. All that time she had to listen to rather mind numbing music. The woman who finally talked to my wife gave her name as Melissa. My wife gave her our story and was put on hold again to listen to the same stupid music. Melissa returned and told my wife the parts had been shipped by Fed- Ex on September 26, 2005 and would arrive in 5 to 7 working days. That turned out to be a false statement.
Wednesday, October 5, 2005:
No parts had arrived. My wife again called GE customer relations
and talked to a person who gave her name as Makia. (That's what
it sounded like. She did not spell it out.) She said she was unable
to bring up any information about our situation. My wife asked
to talk to a supervisor. Of course, she was put on hold. After
some time, a person who identified herself as Pam and as a supervisor
talked to my wife. She took My wife's name and phone number. She
said she would look into the situation. She promised to call back
before she left the office. I suspect the poor woman has starved
to death by now, because she has yet to call back.
Friday, October 7, 2005:
We still had no parts. My wife called 1-800-304-6281 again and
talked to Kristi. Kristi told her the parts order date was October
26, 2005, but they could come sooner or later.
Friday, October 14, 2005:
Three boxes arrived from GE via Fed-ex.
Monday, October 17:
My wife called 1-800-304-6281 and an appointment was made for
Thursday morning, October 20, 2005 for a service call.
Tuesday, October 18, 2005:
GE service called and canceled the October 20, 2005 appointment.
My wife was told there was still one package to come. At this
time, the freezer had been down for 8 weeks.
Friday, October 28, 2005:
Two more boxes of parts arrived here from GE via Fed-ex.
We now have enough parts here to build a complete Freezer except
for the box.
My wife called GE at 1-800-304-6281 and talked to Kristi who made
an appointment for Thursday morning on November 3, 2005. If they
actually come it will be ten weeks since we first called. We will
see! I have no confidence at all in these pathological liars.
Wednesday November 2, 2005:
The repairman called in the afternoon and said he had a cancellation.
He wanted to know if he could come and do the job. My wife told
him to come on over. I was out at the time. He arrived shortly
and the first thing he did was take the three largest boxes of
parts out to his truck. This was before he even looked at our
freezer, but he knew he would not need those parts. The only conclusion
I can draw is he was using our home as a supply depot for his
business.
This guy then pulled out the freezer, took one small part from a box, the first box that had arrived so long ago and replaced the old one in the freezer. Then he opened the front of the freezer and made a similar switch there. He had installed a total of two small parts. Then he plugged in the freezer. Of course it worked. He only needed those two parts and I think he knew it. He said there was no charge because the freezer was still under warrantee. So what? We had waited 10 weeks for parts to come that were not even needed. This b*****d had used our home for a parts depot and had taken us out of the harvest season. The beans, corn, raspberries, and everything else rotted in the garden. We had an empty freezer that worked. So what?
When this freezer fails in 2 or 3 years, as I am sure it will, I will do what I should have done the first time it failed. I will paint General Electric above big yellow lemons on all sides an take it to the dump where it belongs. I will eat the loss. Then I will buy a reliable product, perhaps a Gibson.
So I have a list of companies that I caption, no more business
— ever. GE is for sure on that list as is Kmart. As to doing
business, this is one to be careful with. For example, I say I
will never buy another GE product. Then I go out and buy an RCA
TV. Guess what? If I did that, I would be buying a GE product.
They own RCA and they also own Hotpoint. The same is true of Sears.
If you do business with Sears you are buying from Kmart. Watch
out!
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