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Old 3rd Oct 2013, 2:08 pm   #21
dazzlevision
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Default Re: What happened to DER?

Hello,

DER – Domestic Electric Rentals, Apex House, Twickenham Road, Feltham, Middx (in 1975). A Thorn TV rental company. DER was formed in 1939, initially with one shop (presumably renting radios at that time). After the war, DER was expanded until, by March 1968, DER had 397 branches. When Thorn bought Radio Rentals in 1968, the two businesses were merged to form Thorn Television Rentals, although the separate identities were retained into the 1980’s, when Radio Rentals became the only retail brand for their shops. Multibroadcast also entered the Thorn stable (1970’s?).

With the decline in the TV rental market, the two big companies; Granada (which had previously bought Visionhire) and Thorn (Radio Rentals/DER/Multibroadcast) merged their operations (circa 2000) and rebranded it "Box Clever". The merged company is still in business and based in the former Granada TV Rentals site at Ampthill Road, Bedofrd.

Regards,

Dazzlevision
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Old 3rd Oct 2013, 3:38 pm   #22
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Default Re: What happened to DER?

Hi
I have to hold my hand up as a service engineer for Box Clever! They got rid of their own engineers and instead contract us smaller businesses to do the jobs. Their computerised call system is pretty good, and their call centre operators who guide customers through retuning procedures are models of patience, especially dealing with the 'I pay £XXX a month - I want an engineer NOW!' type of call.
The sets are varied - I have seen 21" CRT sets and elderly widescreens alongside Philips flats with firmware issues and various Vestel clones - Sanyo mostly.
The customers, however are even more variable! Usually nice elderly people, often widows whose late husbands always rented and who would never go against his wishes. There are also some less well-off people, but that sector usually can acquire a TV for little money anyway so renting would be out of the question. Then there is the 'interesting' section - I had to go to a man this week who lives in a room with the floor completely covered in newspapers to a depth of at least six inches - I kid you not. Negotiating a route to the TV was difficult, squeezing through the door that only opened a crack (I'm not small!) and climbing over toppling papers. And the room was old-pub brown, completely nicotine and tar-stained - walls, curtains, mirrors, remote controls, the lot. I came home and had a shower...
The depot in Bedford mentioned above is indeed BC's head office - we deal with the jolly people in their Manchester office.
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Old 3rd Oct 2013, 5:43 pm   #23
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Default Re: What happened to DER?

Very interesting thread, not seen it before. I was with Multibroadcast until going solo in 1988 all part of the same group, happy days, 3K 8&9K sets along with the dreaded 4K which for some reason only us poor sods at multi had the pleasure of. Was lucky to get out at the peak of video repair time, set up as a trade repairer for the local area and did very well out of it during the 90's. Shame the trade has virtually vanished now, again I was lucky in moving back into a proper job some years back and now do pro stuff, projection system, video walls and the like. The rental days were great, 10 calls a day, no mobile phones, basically left alone to get the calls cleared and then home.
As an aside I was not aware of the Apex House building in the Kong film as mentioned earlier in this thread, but do remember seeing it in The Italian Job, it was used as the traffic control centre that they blew up in the film. Again if you look closely the DER sign on the building is visible. As I recall it was not only used as DER head office but also housed the admin section of the thorn transport fleet, was sent there once to get paperwork for insurance to allow me to take the company motor abroad.
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Old 4th Oct 2013, 7:30 pm   #24
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Default Re: What happened to DER?

What happened to DER? As others have said, it became part of the Thorn group ( MultiBroadcast , Radio Rentals et al.) Subsequently they merged with Granada TV rental to become BoxClever. But the story doesn't end there.

As the rental market shrank still further, BoxClever closed their High Street shops, but carried on doing business by phone, internet and newspaper ads. Some of the shops were taken over by another company called BrightHouse, who offered not just televisions but washing machines, furniture and other household items for sale by weekly payments. They aimed at the poor who couldn't afford a large single payment and previously may have considered renting. Yet weekly payments are a very expensive way to purchase big items; paradoxically those who can least afford it end up paying the most. Still it may be cheaper than those loan companies who advertise cash within minutes at eye-watering rates of interest (often 1700% per year!)

In another twist to the tale, when they took over the old Thorn rental shops, Brighthouse acquired the "BAIRD" trademark previously used by Thorn / Radio Rentals. You can now pop into a Brighthouse store and buy a Baird LCD TV .

What happened to the engineers? I work with quite a few of them at a place which repairs in-flight entertainment equipment (the little TV screens found in the back of aeroplane seats). From time to time I've brought in some of my vintage items into work, including a restored working Thorn 1500 television receiver. This prompted some discussion and fascinating stories from some of my colleagues....
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Old 4th Oct 2013, 8:12 pm   #25
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Default Re: What happened to DER?

Apart from Boxclever, the other significant remaining presence in the UK is Forbes - http://www.forbes-rentals.co.uk/

I know nothing about their history/background, but a friend who has a few flats he rents out requires any of the tenants (mainly students) who want domestic appliances other than those that come with the property to get them from Forbes.
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Old 4th Oct 2013, 9:52 pm   #26
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Default Re: What happened to DER?

I did not work for DER (we jokingly called Don't Ever Rent) but I did a stint at ReadyBodge aka Redifusion. I later went to Good Listening who were based in Bournemouth but never knew what happened to them or Redifusion. Lots of happy memories though and of course stories. Like the chap who complained of a slowly weakening picture. When I turned up at his house, I found the B&W set being fed with 'Rabbit Ears' aerial but this is the fun part. He had decided to be 'cool' by papering the living room with Baco-Foil, shiny side out. This is a true story - I was there!
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Old 21st Nov 2013, 9:24 pm   #27
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Default Re: What happened to DER?

I also worked for Multi-Broadcast, originally worked for Ketts, who were also bought out by Thorn and then transferred me to Multi-Broadcast, they had a big unit in Woking Surrey with several bench engineers and 6 field engineers. We used to get 10 calls a day, all rental and so many people renting you could get 3 calls in one road!
I then moved to Thorn in Egham, I forget what it was called to start with but it became Thorn Homeserve.
Being young and having a brand new car every 12 months was great, even managed to get enough petrol to pay for none myself
Did get a dressing down for handbrake parking the car in the service road during the snow right outside the managers office once!
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Old 21st Nov 2013, 9:32 pm   #28
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Default Re: What happened to DER?

Yes, I also worked there in the sixties/seventies though I thought DER was always owned by Thorn.

Remember my first, at last after a van Ford Escort estate car TYE 408F. Got a row over spraying my side/ back windows in blue so no one looked in! Dont ask why. The low compression engine was very slow. Was a senior shop steward back then in the ET&PTU. They tried to get rid of me by offering a job as shop manager did not work and stayed as a TV engineer.
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Old 21st Nov 2013, 10:18 pm   #29
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Default Re: What happened to DER?

I do remember in the late 1990s an enterprise called DER Direct started renting out really cheap 20" sets for about 5 to 6 pounds a month. Minimum rental period was eighteen months. I guess that they would have got their money back plus some profit in that period. That must have been the companies' last attempt at renting TV sets out under the DER name.

DFWB.
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Old 22nd Nov 2013, 4:20 pm   #30
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Smile Re: What happened to DER?

I worked for DER from 1974 to 1980 when the writing was on the wall then for rental. Happy times though and I learnt so much. When I started you could only work on B&W sets until you had passed the 'colour course' at which point you were provided with cases that contained panels for the 2000, 3000/3500 and 8500 series sets.

Also worked on the 4000 series sets complete with the problematic 'thick film' units that were supposed to improve reliability. The sets were ok but required lots of setting up as there seemed to be plenty of preset controls, so these were never too popular to the field guys. Also,even when set up correctly they never seemed to provide a picture with 'punch' but they did have a comprehensive ultrasonic remote

I remember when the Thorn Transport people said that we were using too much petrol so they did a test with the engineers driving and came to the conclusion we all had heavy 'right' feet, nothing to do with the 37 BHP 1100 CC engine!!

Happy days with lots of good memories.....
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Old 22nd Nov 2013, 9:17 pm   #31
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Default Re: What happened to DER?

As an ex-engineer of Granada TV Rental (worked for them for 25 years), I remember some of this thread.
Reading it all now, I'm just so glad I left (took voluntary redundancy) just before it all really imploded. The 'BoxClever' incarnation, formed from the remnants of Granada and Radio Rentals, came shortly after I left.

I lived/worked through a lot of the previous Granada acquisitions (Spectra, VisionHire and others) and was very aware of the decline in the trade. By then I was a "workshop technician" and no longer had to deal with the... err.. customers. Things were getting quite dire by then, although I know it was far worse for the remaining field engineers than it was for us in the workshop.

Oh happy days?... No, not really!

Ted.
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Old 23rd Nov 2013, 10:25 am   #32
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Default Re: What happened to DER?

I have fond memories of the same engineer visiting our house in the 1970's to fix our colour TV. It seemed to my young eyes as one continuous repair job to keep our set (a Dynatron) in working order ,the chap was quite a character, my mum commented he should have been on TV himself!

The final straw came when the TV caught fire, luckily,my dad put out the flames but we had a new Sony to replace it and it never broke down; something of a novelty for us all back then!
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Old 23rd Nov 2013, 7:11 pm   #33
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Default Re: What happened to DER?

Our small family business Bristol Wireless was bought out by Radio Rentals in 1979. They planned to use Bristol Wireless with its shops as a step to going into the retail business. But on the night of the takeover all the shops were re fitted with the new RR signage above each shop. Looking back it was a strange affair with the shops either closing or becoming fully fledged RR shops in just a few months. The Bristol Wireless workshops were quickly closed and we all joined the local RR engineering groups. We did ok out of this deal with better wages conditions and time off etc but I still wonder what all this was about. I suspect there was a lot of internal political intrigue within the RR and the larger Thorn group, almost as if the idea was killed at birth.
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Old 26th Nov 2013, 11:06 am   #34
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Default Re: What happened to DER?

My thanks to all who have contributed to this unashamedly nostalgic thread. It does, for me at least, leave open the question of the fate of the many service technicians who once worked for what was, when taken as an industry, a major employer; the rental trade, as was. What, for example, happened to those who could not or would not adapt to the service of in-flight entertainment, etc? How many had to find alternative non-TV servicing work? Probably many hundreds or perhaps thousands, who knows now.

It is enjoyable to look back from a safe, rosy distance but I for one would not want the old days back.
Tony
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Old 26th Nov 2013, 12:47 pm   #35
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Default Re: What happened to DER?

Quote:
Originally Posted by crusher19860138 View Post
I have fond memories of the same engineer visiting our house in the 1970's to fix our colour TV. It seemed to my young eyes as one continuous repair job to keep our set (a Dynatron) in working order ,the chap was quite a character, my mum commented he should have been on TV himself!
I've heard it said that the prime requirement of the rental companies when specifying a [British-made] TV was that it should be designed so it was easy to repair; the Japanese on the other hand designed their receivers not to need repairing.

The rest, as they say, is history.
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Old 26th Nov 2013, 6:02 pm   #36
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Default Re: What happened to DER?

Hi Tony
In your posting #6 you talk of Radio Rentals and Robinson Rentals. Always totally separate, in fact I was working for Granada Rentals as District Manager in, I think, 1967/8 at the Kingston-on-Thames branch when we were told that Granada and Robinson were merging. We all feared for our jobs, as Granada were a northern company and Robinson southern. Rumour had it that Robinson were going to dispose of Granada staff and install the Robinson employees. The merger went through, but by that time I had returned to industrial electronics
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Old 26th Nov 2013, 6:28 pm   #37
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Default Re: What happened to DER?

Tony wrote
"What, for example, happened to those who could not or would not adapt to the service of in-flight entertainment, etc? How many had to find alternative non-TV servicing work?"
I worked for an independent radio and TV company in Acton, W London as service/field service/manager from '58-68 but couldn't get a salary increase so went self employed for the next 31/2 years until 72 when I could see that all I/we were becoming was board changers.
So I joined Rediffusion Industrial services at Hanworth just down the road from Apex House. They then moved to Tolworth, south of Kingston so I opted out and joined a broadcast TV manufacturing company in '73 in Twickenham. Stayed in broadcast for the next 30 odd years doing all sorts of things, manufacturing, chief of test, sales, project engineering, customer support etc. travelled the world, retired and started my own Hi Fi repair business which is still going strong! So far it has been a good life!

John
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Old 26th Nov 2013, 6:39 pm   #38
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Default Re: What happened to DER?

May I ask what broadcast TV company that was John, although if you'd rather not say I understand.
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Old 26th Nov 2013, 8:37 pm   #39
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Default Re: What happened to DER?

On the subject of an earlier post regarding Rediffusion and Good listening. I worked for Rediffusion. They absorbed Good listening around 1978 and were themselves taken over by Granada some time around 1984.
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Old 26th Nov 2013, 10:39 pm   #40
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Default Re: What happened to DER?

Quote:
Originally Posted by tellyman View Post
On the subject of an earlier post regarding Rediffusion and Good listening.
Not many remember Good Listening and I have difficulty remembering it now. In size it was nothing like DER or RR but had 250 branches across the UK. Originally formed c.1944/1946 renting radio sets and later TV, it was acquired by Rediffusion in around 1978 and there were plans to keep Central Works in Wallisdown Bournemouth going refurbishing rental sets etc.

The unions and other difficulties meant that suddenly everyone was told it would close and all capital equipment and stock was shipped up to their site in Bishop Auckland. Everyone was to be made redundant but some managed to find similar jobs within Rediffusion, as I was indentured they offered me a junior design engineer position at their R&D headquarters at Chessington. The Bournemouth site closed finally in September 1979.

Cheers
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