FireNet Community
FIRE SERVICE AND GENERAL FIRE SAFETY TOPICS => General Interest => Topic started by: Psuedonym on January 30, 2008, 10:08:02 PM
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Surely this is a record?
http://reviews.ebay.co.uk/Nu-Swift-Int-Fire-Extinguishers-RIPPED-ME-OFF_W0QQugidZ10000000004220671
Has anybody got anything to beat this?? :0
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We used to love it when the Nu - Swift rep was about, he frightened so many people into buying our extinguishers!
Haven't seen them for years now tho.
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This is typical Nu Swift, even in the early 90's an engineer could easily pull £40K a year at it. They have been like this for decades (& have been in court & lost over it several time during those decades).
One place I worked for had been NU Swift since the 50's (when they made quality kit & were dear but by no means as bad as now) & a couple of years before I came there had several extinguishers condemned - the office manager didn't order the new kit at the time due to the price & duly signed the sheet for the service visit (a self carbonating duplicate form). The top copy had a left column for the service details, a right one hatched out.
A few days later several new Nu Swift extinguishers arrived with a hefty bill. The OM challenged this, but NS said he'd ordered them an provided their sheet from the carbonated service form - yet on this the right column wasn't hatched, but was a box for 'new equipment ordered' which the engineer had duly filled in -the OM had by deception signed a purchase order!
I have great fun on inspections loosing NS work & peeling their little yellow 'corrective action required' labels off that they stick on anything thats not NS or more than a couple of years old.
I can't see them lasting much longer as their market share is very small now, but don't forget they also exist as ASCO, Hoyles, GFA, MK, etc etc (al owned by the same parent)
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LMAO :D i do feel sorry for this guy though;
what needs to be remembered is the superb training that nu-swift gives all of its staff. the engineers are fully trained salesmen as well as engineers, even the telesales and office staff and receptionist have all taken and passed there written feta examination in order to work for the company.
no one in the industry will argue over the quality of the fire appliances and it is very much the 'Rolls Royce' of the extinguisher business... and as such they charge for it, after all you wouldnt go to buy a rolls and expect to pay the same price as a fiat panda!!!
i too love it when they are around but they have No active salesmen any longer, and all of the sales are reliant from the engineers, at one time they had 15000 customers and now it is alledged that is only 1500...
as to the chaps comment on the link though, if he was to buy on ebay, would it comply to BS, would it come with all of the horns or hoses attached, etc etc .
LW safety should be added to the above list...
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And today's lesson is: If you think something is too expensive, get a price from someone else.
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Nu-swift aside I just love the fact that this guy has decided to name and shame a company on ebay
What a bloomin good idea I say!
Absolutely fair play, Id like to shake his hand and buy him a pint
Truly priceless....
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At one time NuSwift kit had the advantage of lasting forever - in our museum I have several E1300/1301 strike knob 'Royal Navy' water's, early Powders and a full set of the various vaporising liquid extinguishers from the 20's to 1989 that are all still serviceable, safe and working and if it weren't for the banning of VL's and the obsolescence of total discharge could still be in service.
The rot set in in the 80's when the traditional range was supplemented with Sicli extinguishers after one of various takeovers - these rotted quickly, had operating methods unfamiliar to the UK market and those annoying continental thread cartridges.
I've even seen some recent Nu Swift stuff that is so obviously Chinese/Eastern.
Trivia - Nu Swift have always been in Elland, Yorkshire, starting life as J.Blakeborough & Sons between 1910/20, Nu Swift being a brand before it became the actual company name- original extinguishers had a Cobra on the label. They pioneered in the UK a lot of good advances in technology both in methods of operation, colour codes & media, beating Chubb's Hydrospray by several decades with 'wet water' charges. In their heyday thir client list was massive, and their biggest claim to fame was their installation of their Universal Water extinguishers during WW2 on every Royal Navy ship, the royal yatch Britannia was also so equipped.
Nu Swift is the only surviving brand in the UK from the early days of hand extinguishers after UTC dropped the Pyrene brand in the late 90's in favour of the Thomas Glover brand.
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Nu Swift is the only surviving brand in the UK from the early days of hand extinguishers after UTC dropped the Pyrene brand in the late 90's in favour of the Thomas Glover brand. !!!!!!!!
Utc purchased the TG and Pyrene in 2003 are you telling us the sold the company then bought it back ?
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Sorry for UTC, read Williams - I do get these conglomerates mixed up from time to time!
The point still stands that after Williams acquired TG, it phased out it's existing trade division Pyrene in favour of the TG brand, permanently removing the brand from the UK's fire history after over 80-odd years (it nearly vanished after the original Chubb merger as Rampart Engineering were retained as the trade presence in the Group through the 70's and a lot of the 80's until Pyrene was revived as a brand around 1989/90)
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Stuart (whos post I have just deleted from above).
While your post is "on topic" it is just too much of an advert for your own company. Feel free to post again, taking note that we do not permit adverts, if everyone used this as an opportunity to promote their company the value of FireNet would be lost.
Cheers,
Chris.