CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[digitalayon]

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I have now had two EPSON PJ's come to me from customers that had bought PJ's on EBAY with vertical teal lines. In each case, the seller goes to the AVS SH*T show, takes that wording of "easy fix" with reseating the ribbon cables and you are good to go. The issue then being the buyer goes and reads the crap from AVS and he is sold on the same thinking. The first one came in back in February and this last one was Monday of this week. Both are not simple fixes as the issue is the cable located on the optical block side themselves. This last one tells me I am an incompetent tech and wants to know why I cannot repair the optical block without replacing the part. He is angry that I charged him 50 bucks just top open it up to test. I went looking for a unit to get parts from on fleabay and found a few but one caught my eye. Another one with the same issue and the seller says "I read online there is a fix to reseat the ribbon cables." This will be someone else's problem. I will no longer do these because the seller swindles and the buyer believes. This last one the guy paid 450 bucks for the broken 6030ub. WHO DOES THAT?!?!?!?

[Curt Palme]

Oh, I get the same thing with reel to reel tape decks. I refuse to work on certain models as a result, and tell the client that up front.

Best ad I read on the local CL was 'deck runs fine, I have no tape to test it'. Not sure if it ever sold, but it's the equivalent of 'this car runs fine, but I have no gas for it'.

Caveat Emptor is on the buyer for anything he reads and buys online. Even in the tech Facebook groups, there's so much BS out there.. 'RECAP' is always my favorite... Damn right I'm charging to look at something.. unless I write it off, and you leave it with me. Then it's a parts donor.

[Curt Palme]

Oh, I get the same thing with reel to reel tape decks. I refuse to work on certain models as a result, and tell the client that up front.

Best ad I read on the local CL was 'deck runs fine, I have no tape to test it'. Not sure if it ever sold, but it's the equivalent of 'this car runs fine, but I have no gas for it'.

Caveat Emptor is on the buyer for anything he reads and buys online. Even in the tech Facebook groups, there's so much BS out there.. 'RECAP' is always my favorite... Damn right I'm charging to look at something.. unless I write it off, and you leave it with me. Then it's a parts donor.

[kal]

[kal]

[Curt Palme]

Ha, about 45 years worth!

If you take the time to explain to the customer, then I'd say 90% of them understand. The 10% that get outraged that you charge for your time are clients you don't want anyway. I even had that with CRT projectors at least once a month towards the end of me doing it full time. I was offering to give PC boards away rather than throwing them out, and people expected me to cover the shipping. Seriously?

With the RTR thing, my repair pricing is going up steadily as I see more age related issues. With something like a Revox A77 that is 50+ years old (and a superb deck when it works correctly!), I tell people not to bring it in unless they are willing to spend $600 CDN + on it. Things like VU meters are failing due to bad glue bonds due to age. 5 years ago a good used VU meter was about $10 on eBay. NOw due to supply and demand, they are $80.

I won't do a 'oh, it works fine, just fix the dead left channel' type of repair any more. I thought Tinman was brutal when he told me that a few years ago when I visited him, now I see his point. Fix it properly, and don't see the client for 5+ years, or do a patch job, and the deck will fail with something else 3 months down the road, and then the client expects it to be under warranty.

Still, I love what I do, and almost all customers are great. Of course, those good ones aren't memorable, it's the ones that complain that are remembered.

[Curt Palme]

Ha, about 45 years worth!

If you take the time to explain to the customer, then I'd say 90% of them understand. The 10% that get outraged that you charge for your time are clients you don't want anyway. I even had that with CRT projectors at least once a month towards the end of me doing it full time. I was offering to give PC boards away rather than throwing them out, and people expected me to cover the shipping. Seriously?

With the RTR thing, my repair pricing is going up steadily as I see more age related issues. With something like a Revox A77 that is 50+ years old (and a superb deck when it works correctly!), I tell people not to bring it in unless they are willing to spend $600 CDN + on it. Things like VU meters are failing due to bad glue bonds due to age. 5 years ago a good used VU meter was about $10 on eBay. NOw due to supply and demand, they are $80.

I won't do a 'oh, it works fine, just fix the dead left channel' type of repair any more. I thought Tinman was brutal when he told me that a few years ago when I visited him, now I see his point. Fix it properly, and don't see the client for 5+ years, or do a patch job, and the deck will fail with something else 3 months down the road, and then the client expects it to be under warranty.

Still, I love what I do, and almost all customers are great. Of course, those good ones aren't memorable, it's the ones that complain that are remembered.