The Niceic Group, And Todays "april Fools" Joke......

[Andy™]

i actually got a response from Elecsa! Although that was after sending a second email...

Anyway, their reply

[SIZE=10pt]Hello Andy[/SIZE]

Apologies for not responding yesterday, yes we are very interested in keeping you with us at Elecsa but unfortunately we cannot match Stroma’s fee. 

We have listed some of the reasons to stay with Elecsa, our Contractors win more work as we are a more trusted brand among householders, last year our members on average notified 32.1 part P jobs, Stroma’s members notified an average of 6.6 Part P jobs.

• We have a technical helpline that will be able to help with any of your queries
• We offer TV & Radio promotions
• Platinum promise – all the work you notify is automatically covered by a 6 year guarantee
• We offer completive rates with Elecsa Insurance
• Our business & legal advice helpline is open 24/7 for Elecsa insurance customers
• We offer a wider range of schemes
• Our website offers a lot of online guidance
• Our website makes it quick and easy to notify all of your work
• We have had the majority of contractors that have moved to Stroma come back to Elecsa as the standard of services is not the same.

We would be very happy to retain your custom and look forward to hearing from you.

Best Regards

my reply...

Thanks for the email. As for your reasons to stay, there isn’t really any. See below for my reasons why. But since you cannot match the price of a cheaper alternative, then I will be leaving you once current membership expires. For how many notifiable jobs I do, I simply cannot justify paying what you charge any longer

Andy

We have listed some of the reasons to stay with Elecsa, our Contractors win more work as we are a more trusted brand among householders, last year our members on average notified 32.1 part P jobs, Stroma’s members notified an average of 6.6 Part P jobs.

General feedback from customers is they are completely unaware of you (or any other), and generally don’t know of the existence of part p, so ‘win more work as we are a more trusted brand’ is kind of irrelevant. I cant say ive ever had any jobs purely though being registered with you

• We have a technical helpline that will be able to help with any of your queries – I have only used this once, 3-4 years ago. Im still waiting for the call back with the answer to my query. Fortunately there are other sources of ‘technical helpline’ such as talk.electricianforum.co.uk
• We offer TV & Radio promotions – Ive never seen or heard of any of these, so clearly they are not working
• Platinum promise – all the work you notify is automatically covered by a 6 year guarantee – Just another expense forced upon me, which Stroma don’t require
• We offer completive rates with Elecsa Insurance – unless this is another insurance of above, I have never heard to this
• Our business & legal advice helpline is open 24/7 for Elecsa insurance customers  - as above, I have never heard of this
• We offer a wider range of schemes – so do Stroma
• Our website offers a lot of online guidance – never looked at it. There are plenty more reliable places to get information. See first point
• Our website makes it quick and easy to notify all of your work – I would expect all scams (sorry, schemes) to be easy to notify work. Although it was easier to find addresses a while back before you changed the system
• We have had the majority of contractors that have moved to Stroma come back to Elecsa as the standard of services is not the same.  – I admit I cannot fully rule out moving back at some point, but the standard of service doesn’t really have much it needs to live upto. Simple notification of some jobs is all I need anyway.

 

[OnOff]

I spoke a while back with NAPIT ref their "Just 8" scheme. It was like drawing blood. From the conversation it seems it does (did?) still exist but isn't advertised and is meant primarily for say college lecturers who keep their hand in doing no more than 8 notifiables a year for family friends. You had to have your 2382 and 2391 (or equivalent) along with insurance etc. It was I think near £300 pa. I asked if there was like an "add on option" to pay a few quid extra if you happened to do 9 jobs in a year - there wasn't.

 

[Evans Electric]

Thanks Onoff, thats shot the NAPIT  Just 8 scheme down then .

 

[Sharpend]

So it's got me thinking if 1 man can start Stroma, then which 1 electrician will start their own scheme for the interests of the rest of the Sparks?

It clearly is a very real possibility?

Names and nominations for persons and scheme.

 

[kerching]

Kerchings

Unaffiliated

National

Testing

Scheme?

For

Any

Non

Numpty

Yusers. ....sorry about that

The

Offgrid

Scam

Sidstepping

Electricians

Reporting

Scheme

Another

Random

Scam

Experiment

No offence

 

[Blue Duck]

So it's got me thinking if 1 man can start Stroma, then which 1 electrician will start their own scheme for the interests of the rest of the Sparks?

It clearly is a very real possibility?

Names and nominations for persons and scheme.

Deke for primeminister

Its not that hard to start a scam, you just have comply with certain regs iso9001 being one I forget the others? :C

As for the name?...  CIECIN (NICEIC backwards - sue me I dont have any money)! :lol:

 

[Evans Electric]

Deke for primeminister

Its not that hard to start a scam, you just have comply with certain regs iso9001 being one I forget the others? :C

As for the name?...  CIECIN (NICEIC backwards - sue me I dont have any money)! :lol:

I'm not sure duck.....I'm already FSOTY .....do I need to take the demotion down to ordinary mortals   ?  

 

[ProDave]

I'm not sure duck.....I'm already FSOTY .....do I need to take the demotion down to ordinary mortals   ?  

Isn't it about time there was another nomination? It is after all Forum Sparky of the Year Surely your year is up?

 

[Andy™]

Tomorrows newspaper headlines: Prodave mysteriously dissappears

 

[Andy™]

good point. and since were on about missing people, where is MrsSweden, she seems to have gone quiet. or have i just missed everything

 

[Andy™]

well he has recently extended his property / patio?

 

[kerching]

And he was asking about secret unused unknown pieces of land!

 

[Blue Duck]

well he has recently extended his property / patio?

has he run out of room in the chest freezers?

 

[Andy™]

yes, but he did ask where to buy some sodium hydroxide the other day to clean the freezer. not sure why he needed a pallet of it though

 

[OnOff]

Deke for primeminister

Its not that hard to start a scam, you just have comply with certain regs iso9001 being one I forget the others? :C

As for the name?...  CIECIN (NICEIC backwards - sue me I dont have any money)! :lol:

Years back a company I was with achieved ISO 9001. The bosses were well chuffed. I pointed out that one of our complicated catalogue "systems" was so flawed it was ridiculous and time consuming. I was told that it wasn't a case of whether the system actually worked but that we had an actual system in place!

yes, but he did ask where to buy some sodium hydroxide the other day to clean the freezer. not sure why he needed a pallet of it though

Can you hear the black helicopters yet?  :lol:

 

[ProDave]

Years back a company I was with achieved ISO 9001. The bosses were well chuffed. I pointed out that one of our complicated catalogue "systems" was so flawed it was ridiculous and time consuming. I was told that it wasn't a case of whether the system actually worked but that we had an actual system in place!

   :lol:

Very early on in my employment I had a big let down when I discovered that the "quality control" procedures put in place had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with improving the quality of what we were doing or making, and was all about just documenting everything to comply with some stupid requirement.

 

[Evans Electric]

I found exactly the same thing Dave .  In our previous incarnation over 20 years ago now , we were informed by a neigbouring local authority who shall remain namless  ( Ok  Solihull)  that as of some date or other they would only use contractors with ISO 9001   .

Some bloke turned up to quote for re-organising our office system  ( Nothing to do with the electrical work whatsoever )   Our office back then consisted of  the boss , me & the typist and they wanted £9000 .00  to set us up  .    

Looking at our other clients , Police , Local university ,  local  Hospitals  , Barclays , B,ham City Council  etc  ...none of whom were interested in ISO 9001 we declined the quote and lost the neighouring authority .   

 

[Evans Electric]

Isn't it about time there was another nomination? It is after all Forum Sparky of the Year Surely your year is up?

A Forum year seems to be 24 months  Dave .   I have pointed this out myself a couple of times  ...... it can get hard working everyday in the 4&half pound golden mayorial type chains , the tricorn hat , knee breeches & the buckle shoes ...........&  the celebrity status can be wearysome ..."Hey is that David Beckham or the FSOTY "?   

Why only the other day as I doffed my tricorn hat and swirled my cape in the High Street , a passing lorry driver obviously recognised me & shouted something ....... unfortunatly I didn't quite catch what it was .  :innocent

 

[binky]

as a former Quality Engineer I'll explain a few points:-

prior to ISO 9001 / 2000 Qe systems where there to control and no more. You set up procedures and document that they are followed in the vain hope that everyone knows what they are doing and the product is made / provided correctly. Now this was recognised as time consuming and not adding value to the business.

In 2000 it was decided to change the above to reduce emphasis on control and include 'feedback loops' If run correctly this sets a standardised process for continuous improvement of the business (ie learning by your mistakes and actioning improvements, as well as taking improvment ideas from staff members). The idea being that the paperwork shuffling results in adding real value to the business. Now for medium to large companies this is probably good stuff. For MCS I'm suppossed to run this sort of system, but it reality I have a staff of 6, I don't need formalised procedures to improve my business, so its more annoyance to me than use. However I am starting to find that regular feedback meetings do actually help even with a staff of just 6 employees.