"Andy Hall" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 07 Feb 2006 12:37:50 GMT, Tony Bryer
wrote:

On 6 Feb 2006 15:09:26 -0800 Thorn wrote :
If I am honest, the boilers are really good (and I don't get paid to
say that!) - There are certain models that play up more than others,
but we do test *every* boiler that goes out. I've seen it done.

When I was at the last Interbuild there was a film running on the W-B
stand showing this. The guy who was talking to us told us about when he
was talking some installers on a factory tour. They got to the test rig
and when the boiler was filled water came spraying out from somewhere.
He said that he wished the floor would open up, but instead one of the
group said "better here than when I've got it hung - I'll definitely be
buying these in future".

Pretty much a true with any product/service scenario. Ironically,
it's better to have a problem and show the customer your avbility to
fix it than never to have had a problem and to bull**** that you never
do.

I was in charge of a large computerised test facility. I had programs
written to simulate realistic use, but times 10, and run these overnight to
ensure the product did as it was supposed to do when delivered.

Each morning we would come in and look at the banks of monitors to see which
were still running and asess why those aspect still not running dropped out.

One morning we went in and a bunch of fellas were in there. We didn't know
who the hell they were. But we noticed thing were not right on the test and
we started to shout at each other across the lab all the log details and
what was stilling running and why some had dropped out, while drinking
coffee at the same time in plastic cups and throwing the empty cups in bins
and missing. Half of the fellas were more interested in us and what we were
doing than the company man speaking to them. The bunch of fellas left. We
found out they were a group from a big govmt dept who the company were
highly competitively tendering, and they were being shown around, and how
one large project worked. We thought they were an internal group being
shown around, so didn't give a hoot.

We found out later that we got the contract and what swayed them, and they
put this on paper, was the professionalism of the testing unit.