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Projector Service Forum

 
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AnalogRocks
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Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 26690
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

TV/Projector: Sony 1252Q, AMPRO 4000G


PostLink    Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 12:06 am    Post subject: Projector Service Forum Reply with quote


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Hi Kal,

I had a thought while mindlessly driving in rush hour trafic tongiht.

I have been following the Marquee service thread in the main forum and I see the guys wanting you to make it a stickey.

Why not start a sub-forum with maininece threads that are stickey'd. One for each series of projector. Then as things come up people could read all 134 pages to find what they need. ( c'mon we've all done that over at AVS and it's time well spent. )

I for one would love to see a stickey for converting a 1252 into a 1272. ( I need to do this soon )

So we could start a 10xx Sony thread
12xx Sony thread
G70
G90
Ampro 4000 ( that would hit 1000 pages easy Wink )
etc....

What do you think?

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Curt Palme
CRT Tech



Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 24296
Location: Langley, BC

TV/Projector: All of them!


PostLink    Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 12:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's a good idea, but since I make my money servicing boards, it's sort of in the same league as me posting service manuals, it defeats the purpose of me making money. (I'm assuming you're talking about board level type repairs.)

Frankly, sales are down, way down as compared to a couple of years ago (which was expected), so repairs are what is keeping me going at this point.

I have tossed around the idea of a 'premium' membership to a 'supersecret' area where I spill all the beans on literally every failure I've seen per board, but that would mean someone paying my mortgage for the better part of a year while I put everything from my brain into a website. Not gonna happen any time soon.

If there's any general 'tech' type stuff that can help others like a step by step setup procedure, that should all go into the 'tips' section of the main site, but right now, I can't even find the time to finish the NEC XG writeup that I started months ago. I need an XGLC set up along with two pix I need to take, but do you think I can find the time?
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AnalogRocks
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Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 26690
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

TV/Projector: Sony 1252Q, AMPRO 4000G


PostLink    Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 12:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ahh yes. Point taken. I guess it would be counter productive for you.

I was thinking more of the post's like the example above. You need x and x to convert your 1252 to a 1272.

What's your take on the Marquee maintenance thread? Just curious.

As for the super secret area you could still do it as you go instead of trying to do a masive brain dump and when you think it's worth it you could announce the forum.

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Curt Palme
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TV/Projector: All of them!


PostLink    Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 12:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I haven't read the Marquee thread.. I don't have the time to read all threads, so the general discussion ones I typically stay away from. Then I open one one day, and think 'holy shite, there's some good info there'..Smile

As discussed before, the last thing I need is to get a bunch of hacked boards in for repair after the end user can't repair the board if I put lots of DIY component replacement info on the site. When I read theads like 'should I recap my working video board?' I cringe, as I know there's about a 1 in 3 chance that some board is going to end up in the dumpster..Smile
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AnalogRocks
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Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 26690
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

TV/Projector: Sony 1252Q, AMPRO 4000G


PostLink    Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 1:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Curt Palme wrote:
I haven't read the Marquee thread.. I don't have the time to read all threads, so the general discussion ones I typically stay away from. Then I open one one day, and think 'holy shite, there's some good info there'..Smile

As discussed before, the last thing I need is to get a bunch of hacked boards in for repair after the end user can't repair the board if I put lots of DIY component replacement info on the site. When I read theads like 'should I recap my working video board?' I cringe, as I know there's about a 1 in 3 chance that some board is going to end up in the dumpster..Smile


Very true, but then you get to make money fixing it. Very Happy

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Curt Palme
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PostLink    Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 2:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

No, that's the problem. If a typical board takes me say 2.5 hours to repair, including setup of a test projector, doing mods, etc, a typical 'customer tried to repair it' repair will take double that. I can't charge twice my flat rate, as no one woul pay $500 let's say to repair a 'blowed up real good' SMPS or video board. They'll look on eBay and buy an as is but working board for $50, and worry about sending that board in down the road when it fails.

No, the way it works right now is fine for the most part. The only other thing that's rapidly changing around here is NO MORE LOANER PARTS. Twice this week I've had to chase people around the globe to get them to return loaner parts that they absolutely positively had to have to get their sets running over Xmas, but their old parts never made it back to me. It's hard to do it when the customer expects a premium service if they bought the set from me in the first place, but I've got too many hard to find parts out there now (Marquee HVPS, etc) that I have to spend time chasing down.

There obviously will come a day when even the repairs will slow down to the point where this website will have only traffic from some of us diehards who refuse to go digital. At that point I'd have to announce at some time ahead of that point that either the site will shut down due to lack of interest, or if I have nothing to add to the technical end, that someone else takes it over. Hopefully it will be 10 years before that happens...Smile

Right now I still seem to be adding 20 or so new email addresses a week to the mailout list from eBay ads or people that stumble across this site, so business is still there.
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AnalogRocks
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Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 26690
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

TV/Projector: Sony 1252Q, AMPRO 4000G


PostLink    Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 2:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Curt Palme wrote:
No, that's the problem. If a typical board takes me say 2.5 hours to repair, including setup of a test projector, doing mods, etc, a typical 'customer tried to repair it' repair will take double that. I can't charge twice my flat rate, as no one woul pay $500 let's say to repair a 'blowed up real good' SMPS or video board. They'll look on eBay and buy an as is but working board for $50, and worry about sending that board in down the road when it fails.

No, the way it works right now is fine for the most part. The only other thing that's rapidly changing around here is NO MORE LOANER PARTS. Twice this week I've had to chase people around the globe to get them to return loaner parts that they absolutely positively had to have to get their sets running over Xmas, but their old parts never made it back to me. It's hard to do it when the customer expects a premium service if they bought the set from me in the first place, but I've got too many hard to find parts out there now (Marquee HVPS, etc) that I have to spend time chasing down.

There obviously will come a day when even the repairs will slow down to the point where this website will have only traffic from some of us diehards who refuse to go digital. At that point I'd have to announce at some time ahead of that point that either the site will shut down due to lack of interest, or if I have nothing to add to the technical end, that someone else takes it over. Hopefully it will be 10 years before that happens...Smile

Right now I still seem to be adding 20 or so new email addresses a week to the mailout list from eBay ads or people that stumble across this site, so business is still there.


Yes I hope it's a while down the road too. This would make an awesum archive.

I always enjoy going to usenet and finding my old post's from way back. Just to see what I was working on back then.

That's the nice thing about usenet. It just never seems to loose post's. I remember doing a search for Dodge + Turbo and finding a post about a lady that was about to buy a NEW 1986 Dodge Daytona. That was back in 2002 I belive I saw that.

On a side note I had a person on the weekend tell me I'm a sad person because "The world is going digital" I told her just because it's digital doesn't mean it's better. She couldn't understand how analog could be better than digital. ( insert blonde joke here Wink)

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Curt Palme
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TV/Projector: All of them!


PostLink    Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 2:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

[quote="AnalogRocks"]
Curt Palme wrote:


This would make an awesum archive.


Archive:

ar·chive /ˈɑrkaɪv/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[ahr-kahyv] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation noun, verb, -chived, -chiv·ing.

–noun 1. Usually, archives. documents or records relating to the activities, business dealings, etc., of a person, family, corporation, association, community, or nation.
2. archives, a place where public records or other historical documents are kept.
3. archive, a place where analog obsessed geeks hang out and reminisce about good old times with tubes and transistors.


Yup, I think that's about got us nailed. Thumbs Up
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Joust




Joined: 05 May 2006
Posts: 2431
Location: Almonte, Ontario, Canada

TV/Projector: Marquee 8501LC


PostLink    Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 2:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hey AR......SHHHHHHHHHH
don't tell the "help" Wink
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kal
Forum Administrator



Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 17850
Location: Ottawa, Canada

TV/Projector: JVC DLA-NZ7


PostLink    Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 2:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Curt Palme wrote:
There obviously will come a day when even the repairs will slow down to the point where this website will have only traffic from some of us diehards who refuse to go digital. At that point I'd have to announce at some time ahead of that point that either the site will shut down due to lack of interest, or if I have nothing to add to the technical end, that someone else takes it over. Hopefully it will be 10 years before that happens...Smile

I see the site eventually (very far in the future) becoming just a reference site. It'll transform over the years enough to ensure that there's definitely enough interest to keep it alive for 10+ years to come. CRT may only be one of the many things that keep it alive, but keeping it alive is something I definitely see happening for many many years to come, including this forum. No need to worry yet Curt. Smile

Kal

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AnalogRocks
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Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 26690
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

TV/Projector: Sony 1252Q, AMPRO 4000G


PostLink    Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 3:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Joust wrote:
Hey AR......SHHHHHHHHHH
don't tell the "help" Wink


Ohhhhhh damn! LOL Now who's the Troll. Twisted Evil

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Joust




Joined: 05 May 2006
Posts: 2431
Location: Almonte, Ontario, Canada

TV/Projector: Marquee 8501LC


PostLink    Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 3:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

you are...
definition from wikipedia.
An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who posts controversial messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, with the intention of baiting other users into an emotional response.

well...I guess that makes me a troll now too Twisted Evil
lets start a club Thumbs Up
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AnalogRocks
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Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 26690
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

TV/Projector: Sony 1252Q, AMPRO 4000G


PostLink    Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 5:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I don't bait people. I'm just a posting fool.
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jask




Joined: 17 Mar 2006
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Location: kamloops BC


PostLink    Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 3:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Curt Palme wrote:
NO MORE LOANER PARTS. Twice this week I've had to chase people around the globe to get them to return loaner parts that they absolutely positively had to have to get their sets running over Xmas, but their old parts never made it back to me. It's hard to do it when the customer expects a premium service if they bought the set from me in the first place, but I've got too many hard to find parts out there now (Marquee HVPS, etc) that I have to spend time chasing down.


That sucks but..this kind of service is what differentiates you from all of "them", another option might be to continue to ship loaner boards at 150% of the retail price, if they return it within 1 week of receiving the repaired board back then you cancel a credit card pre-authorization for that amount.... and add a small service fee to the repair charge to cover the CC charges.
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rod




Joined: 18 Mar 2006
Posts: 418
Location: Northern Ontario, Canada


PostLink    Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 4:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I don't forsee me going digital for a bit and I barely have time to play on the thing. I just have not seen a good digital yet even though they are getting better. They still have that K-car look and feel. For 3-4K you can get a really nice (and big) CRT image.

And AR, you troll, I'd give your friend YOUR digital - but then again that would likely send her back to analog for sure - ouch!

On a more serious note I wouldn't mind having a thread/sub forum dedicated to a model specific machine. I often search the forums for 1208 and it yields good results but a common forum or thread might make it easier to find things pertaining to your specific machine. If it was a general subject then keep it in the root CRT forum. I wouldn't expect Curt to dump his technical knowledge for free. It's worth money. However it is done, I've reaped more knowledge and entertainment value than what I've paid for. Good value IMO.

Loaners should have to put a down payment on parts borrowed. They get the credit when the core is returned - like all other business operate. It's too bad that people abuse a good thing. Makes it miserable for all of us.

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Joust




Joined: 05 May 2006
Posts: 2431
Location: Almonte, Ontario, Canada

TV/Projector: Marquee 8501LC


PostLink    Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 4:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Use a pre-authorized Visa.
I had to do that at a beer place to get a loaner Keg when the one I brought sprung a leak. They filled it out for an inflated price. They will damn sure be getting this keg back because they will charge me 3 times its new value if I don't return it.
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ecrabb
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TV/Projector: JVC RS40, Epson 5010


PostLink    Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 4:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Curt, I'm surprised you do loaners at all. Why don't you charge immediately for any parts you send out and just take the non-working board back in exchange (less your fees)?

I'd be happy to pay, say $300 to have you send out a board immediately, then be able to send you my bad board back to receive a credit of $100 (or whatever) for my bad board. I get 30 days to do so or my credit is at your discretion.

Anyway, when you receive my suspect board back, you inspect/test/repair and decide what my credit is. I'd get $150 back for the typical failure that you already know how to repair, $250 for a board that you find didn't really have a problem... or squat if the board I sent you was all hacked up from a guy trying to repair it with a MIG welder, vice-grips, and a framing hammer. It's all spelled out in your board repair/exchange policy.

My numbers could be off, but you get the point. Customer pays full price for working board from you. Customer sends back non-working board, you credit appropriate amount depending on condition.

SC
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Curt Palme
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PostLink    Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 5:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

There is a difference between me and them. I know what I'm doing. They....

(OK, I'm kidding)

Nah, I'm far from perfect as some of you well know.

Two big problems with loaner boards if I were to surcharge:

1) I can't take Visa directly. Last time I checked, the banks wanted something like a $50K cash deposit in order for me to take Visa via the internet. That might have changed now, but Visa screwed me royally over about 5 years ago when they set me up for 6 months. That was back when I was getting $5K+ for Marquee 8500s, and I couldn't keep them in stock. I ran $25K of Visa through in about a 3 week period, from the UK to Tx to Ca. and Visa figured out that these people weren't coming to my shop. So they seized the $25K and told me they were putting a 6 week hold on the funds... without interest 'as per their agreement'.

I flipped out bigtime. Long story short, I got the $25K back in about 3 weeks, but that's when they told me that due to the volume I was doing, they needed a $50K cash deposit to cover potential internet fraud. Forget it.

2) The biggest thing really is lack of time to process credits, do Paypal refunds, keep track of all of the stuff I send out. Right now I simply keep a list of what I send out weekly, in a Word document, with notes beside each thing I send out: 'warranty repair', 'owes $200' (if funds are in transit as I'm packing the stuff up), 'owes old board back' etc.

My prices are already higher that anyone other than say VDC that will only sell new parts. Everyone but a select few already figures out that the surcharge covers this site, tech support, a warranty, a re-repair if I get a bad part that fails within a short period of time, blah blah. There's only a tiny percentage of emailers that piss me off, asking for free tech support, then email me back saying they got a part cheaper off eBay. One guy had the balls to tell me he got a part elsewhere, that it didn't work, so could I assist again in further troubleshooting.. He got a one word reply: NO. Very Happy

Frankly, I've always compared getting loaner parts back to something like returning video tapes to the rental store (OK, dating myself with the 'tapes' word). It's all good when someone wants to watch a movie now, now, NOW, it's a lot harder taking the damn movie back before the end of the weekend so you don't get late charges.

There's really no a-hole customers that INTEND to screw me over by not sending parts back, it's forgetting about it that's 90% of the issue. I had one guy throw out a vertical board, back when Marquee parts simply were impossible to find, I gave him massive crap, and it really did seem like he didn't know I wanted it back. If I went back through all of the parts I've sent out on credit, I'll bet there's 100 boards I'm owed. I simply don't have time to sit there and find emails from people from 2006 and before asking for parts back Luckily most of the parts I loan out I have mass duplicates of, but losing an HVPS on Jan 3 that UPS left on a doorstep, customer says he never got it, customer got impatient with customs delays over the holidays (sent the part out via courier on Dec 24, it arrived in Seattle on Jan 3) so he drove the set up (it was more or less under warranty, so I replaced the HVPS for free, but then lost the one I'd sent him), so I'm out a potential $350.

Anyways, of course it's just the parts that I have few of that are hard to find (like the HVPS of a MArquee) that has me really tightening the reins of loaner parts. I've got many loyal customers here and a bunch more that aren't on the forum that I trust no problem, but heck, even I forget to send out stuff simply due to volume. With prices and demand dropping, I need to make this operation as efficient as I can, and heck, let's face it, it's not like a CRT projector is as vital to keep running as is say a pacemaker...Wink

Then again, Pats fans are a rabid bunch...Wink
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