Posted by John Gallagher on January 9, 2012, 3:46 pm, in reply to "Re: 1Link" John Gallagher
Waste of time and more importantly money in my opinion. I will go into more detail later with Peter's permission as I don't want to get anyone into trouble.
Cheers,
John.
Re: 1Link
Posted by Andy Mason on January 10, 2012, 8:28 am, in reply to "Re: 1Link" Andy Mason
As prevously posted, we are on 1link and are more than happy with the work given to us, averaging 2-3 jobs per day. This could be due to our geographic position or the fact we are well established with them. (approx 6 years) Dont always agree with the pricing, but got to take the rough with the smooth. We are one of the only independants in our area on 1Link, whether that helps, I dont know. I would'nt have subscribed if most other garages in our area were on it. Andy
Re: 1Link
Posted by kelly clarke on January 10, 2012, 7:29 pm, in reply to "Re: 1Link" Kelly Clarke
complete rip off company i did manage to get out without giving 12 months notice as i told them they mis-sold me their product, to which they agreed.
Kelly
Re: 1Link
Posted by Keith Simpson on January 11, 2012, 7:54 am, in reply to "Re: 1Link"
Been there, done that, Never Again.
Keith
Re: 1Link
Posted by Andy Mason on January 11, 2012, 9:07 am, in reply to "Re: 1Link" Andy Mason
Perhaps thats why it works so well for us, if everybody else wont touch it. We got into it after being approached by one of the major leasing companies after they took over a fleet that we already looked after. From there we have picked up other work from lease companies who prefer to use independants than dealers. Hope this helps, I am sure it wont work for everybody, but it does for us. Andy
Re: 1Link #
Posted by John Gallagher on January 12, 2012, 8:31 pm, in reply to "1Link #"
We signed up for the 1link platform about 18 months ago. We contacted them for a bit more information on how the service works and what we could expect in return.
We were assured that there were no other independant garages in our area using the platform and we would be inundated with work once registered.
We obviously took that last statement with a huge pinch of salt but nevertheless decided that with only a few jobs we might recoup some if not all of our initial costs (approx £300.00 if I remember correctly).
We were told we would need to introduce ourselves to a long list of leasing companys which we duly did both via email and phone calls, I can't remember exactly how many as one of my colleagues handled it but I'm sure there were hundreds of them.
We then waited for the flood gates to open but they never did, after about 18 months now we have not had a single job!
No wait I tell a lie, after about 8 months we did get one job but the customer was already one of our regulars who lived around the corner from the garage, he had broken down somewhere and phoned either the AA or the RAC who 1link have ties with and then delivered the car to us, talk about rubbing the salt in!
We seen the writing on the wall after about 13-14 months and decided to cancel it, as some of you will know you have to give them 12 months notice to cancel, admittedly we didn't read the small print properly so it was a shock at first but hey that's our fault.
The first letter of cancelation we sent got "lost in the post", so we sent another which they recieved and acknowledged.
Then we were staggered to get a phone call from one of their "consultants", he asked how things were going with the platform and would we be interested in upgrading to their premier service package!
I told him that we had sent a letter of cancelation only a few weeks earlier, I also told him how much work we had recieved which was a big fat zero, well he listened to me for a minute or two then promptly carried on with his sales patter, assuring me that there was "loads of customers looking for a garage in our area", it was unbelievable!
Soon after we started recieving demands for the next years subscription, as usual it starts of reasonably pleasant but quickly gets threatening. We sent another letter telling them of out dissapointment with their service/platform and to be honest we were trying to avoid paying the next years subscription as we had not received anything in return.
Unlike Kelly we could not get out of paying, the boss even said he would sign up and pay the extra for the premier package if they would guarantee to give us some work, no such guarantee was forthcoming so we bit the bullet and paid.
In my opinion they are a bunch of crooks, promise you the world and give you stuff all in return.
The big differance with you Andy is you had the customer first, in hindsight this is probably the only way it could work. If anyone else is considering it I think you would need to tender for and get the contract for the repair/servicing work from the leasing company first then sign up to whatever platform that they use (1link, god forbid).
My big tip at the end of all this is if you do decide to go down this road please cancel your subscription an hour or two after you have signed up. That way if it isn't working it's job done, if it is just sign up again and away you go!
Cheers, John.
Re: 1Link #
Posted by Andy Mason on January 13, 2012, 9:13 am, in reply to "Re: 1Link #" Andy Mason
You could very well be right John, thinking back, we were doing work for 2or3 lease companies who then joined 1Link. But I cant knock it from our point, it has worked very well for us and we have picked up more companies by being on there, I am sure its not a solution to filling an empty workshop, but it may give you a little less room. one way to attract custom is to talk to the drivers and there companies and ask them to recommend you as there repairer, then the lease company will hopefully approach you. Andy