Pc Callout Ltd ???

patman99

LoneRyderSon, I have the forms to fill in to work for PC Call-out.
If I get the job, I was planning to bill them through a Ltd company and then pay myself as PAYE with £5 a day for food & 45p a mile in expenses (common trick used to lower Tax/NI liabilities).

steve9872

LoneRydersSon wrote: »

Hi, noob here.

Basically, I just applied to work for these guys and have had the "interview" if you can call it that, and the t&c`s. Just at the stage where I fill out a few forms and send them off. I've read through all the posts as well.

I could go on for ever and dissect everything, but ill pick on a few things to start off which I don`t think can be disputed. The mileage payment they offer is 15p per mile. Now, you don`t get a company vehicle, so you use your own vehicle. HMRC states that...(I also get this rate from another employer currently as well).

"Employee vehicles: mileage payments for business travel ; CAR = For tax purposes: 45p for the first 10,000 business miles in a tax year, then 25p for each subsequent mile"


..unless Pc Callout`s offer of 15p is a contribution of sorts, towards the 45p?, thus leaving you to claim the other 30p through the HMRC?

OH, the other thing with the "No-Fix, No fee" is if you cant fix the problem...you get payed a flat £5 pounds with NO mileage allowance. !!!!!!?

OH, the other thing, car insurance, no mention of it in the welcome pack, SO...we have to assume that legally speaking, we have to up the car insurance from "Social, domestic, and pleasure" too a business type insurance?, at some point we could be carrying new spare parts, some tools etc. Very expensive insurance, would the 15p cover that?, running costs, fuel? I think no.

Insurance.
My experience of insurance is they don't charge you anything extra for business use. Just go to a comparison site and change that one option and see for yourself. It surprised me when I looked at it a few years ago.
Its a good idea to make sure you're covered for business use because you're effectively uninsured otherwise.

HMRC
There's a big difference between what an employer compensates you for mileage and what HMRC allows you to claim against tax liability. I just let my accountant do the sums.

TechGuyuk

Hi guys, interesting thread, I'm an IT guy and wondering if anyone know of any other UK alternatives to this company ? I.E some one who can offer IT work to IT guys on a per job basis ?

aps

Worked for PC Callout, i was encouraged to rip off elderly customers...this company should be stopped, please do not use this company, it is a scam an d should not be trusted.

mrpointy

I offer computer support anyway and have recently moved to a new area. Thought this would be an ideal way of getting some work as I have no customers where I am now, but after reading this I don't think I'll work for them.

One of the things I pride myself on is not over-charging, not taking longer than necessary and especially not trying to sell people stuff they don't need.

It's a shame because this sort of behaviour portrays the whole industry in a bad light.......

I'd only just completed the application and now seen this thread Might give it a go for a couple of weeks and if I have any instructions to drag jobs out and/or sell unnecessary kit (especially to the elderly), I'll be reporting them to Trading Standards!

Scott_T

As we all know at least !!!!!! Turpin had the courtesy to wear a mask :-)

aps

Stay away from PC Callout. They are not even based in this country and treat their staff and customers very badly.

jbond

I know this is a bit of an old thread, recently commented on however, but you might be interested to read this (I don't know if it's been posted before now?):

http:// pccallout.150m dot com/ index1.htm

Had to post this way because can't post link normally.

bod1467

http://pccallout.150m.com/index1.html

47802

So having worked for these people for a short period I would say the following.

Firstly any engineer that has a few no fee no fixes or doesn't bring enough money in for them gets the boot very quickly that's puts a lot of pressure on the engineer to diagnose the fault and I suspect some engineers will take a guess if they cannot isolate the fault just to avoid a no fix. Which kind of gives a clue that they are probably more interested in what they can get out of the customer rather than good customer service.

Some people don't understand the no fix no fee idea, it means that if something can be fixed but the customer opts for a replacement as being more economic you still have to pay the diagnostic fee, that's not unreasonable in my view but this company really doesn't like an engineer reporting a no fix no fee.

They say they are a same day repairer yet their engineers are not required or encouraged to carry even basic common parts so any hardware replacement will require another visit

Hardware charges are expensive, overall I would avoid either working for them or being a customer.