12volt powered speaker repair

[Tann-44]

This 12 volt powered speaker came in 2weeks ago with this fault...

1,powers up ok
2, it's unable to amplify any audio signal pass level 2 on the master control!
3, it as it's main battery charger missing? so it still has some life in there!

so on with the inspection... we say to the customer..it needs a replacement power amp ic, new 12v battery plus more checks... The next day he calls in, 'my friend, will do the repair for me and he's a electronics student and know's about this stuff, plus he ask's can you your tech guy tell me what it need's so i can pass the information on to my student to sort out!!

I was called up to speak with the customer regarding this item.. hello there he say's, yes you must be the service tech..(well the head magnifier and the circuit board in my hand must of gave it away...)
yes how can I help you? he then tell's me that he could get it done cheaper via he's student plus could I give advice on part's plus how to solve the fault..
my reply to this was 1, we don't give advice to customers or students on repairs as it's very dangerous for wondering hands in electronic equipment plus I opened the door and pointed him out!

1 week later he returns with said unit, saying he's student could not solve the fault plus it was best to leave it to the repair shop to correct it... wise move there...

I've spent time with this unit and found not only did it not power up this time round but there'd been tracks plus more component damage.... oh the bill has just gone up, last laugh for us!

 

[debe]

Be very carefull he doesnt acuse you of the extra damage, then threaten legal action. Been there with a customer some years ago with a VCR.

 

[JimB]

Doing the job - £10

Parts for the job - £20

Knowing HOW to do the job - PRICELESS!

JimB

 

[Tann-44]

@Debe, agree with you there as customers will try this sort of thing to get out of paying the bill.... this powered unit it not a low end market one, uk price is about £350 so he's learnt a lesson here not to give to inexperienced student who's made a ball's up of it...

We had a Bose's and Wilkins sound dock station with broken iphone connection plus damaged aux connection to the front panel, plus the cloth covering was ripped in place's and the the chrome finish had plenty of scratch marks.. he only wanted the aux in put repaired and on collection he moaned raised voice to the counter staff saying the plastic cover was not flush tight as before! It was brought back to the work room and re-tighten it and I handed it back to him, oh, kindly do not rise your voice to staff who are helping you, good day!...

 

[unclejed613]

i once worked at a TV shop in the Boston area. there was this customer we had who would get discarded electronics by "dumpster diving", and bring the stuff to us to fix. since he brought us stuff to fix regularly, the boss would waive the $35.00 estimate charge. the boss, however made it a point not to tell the customer what we found wrong with it, and usually the customer was ok with that, and usually would pay about $50.00 to fix about half the stuff he brought in. some stuff was really far too gone to fix, and we would estimate over $100 for those (this was 30 years ago, so fees were much lower then than they are now). he brought in a small black and white TV one time, and it took me less than 5 minutes to fix it. a mylar cap in series with the yoke wasn"t properly soldered in, and came loose while i was doing my initial visual/mechanical inspection. the boss only charged $10.00 for the repair, but the customer wanted to know what was wrong with it. i wouldn't tell him and neither would the boss, just that it had been a bad connection we resoldered. the customer got irate and wouldn't pay for it, and the boss brought back the TV and told me to un-fix it and make the problem hard to find, so i unsoldered the wire on the cap, resoldered the pad to be exactly as it had been before, and super-glued the cap lead back in the hole so the end of the cap wouldn't pop up when the cap was nudged (which is how i found it in the first place). then i cleaned the board well, put the TV back together and gave it to the boss. the boss came back and said he decided that this customer would have to go back to paying the estimate fee, and if he didn't like it he could take his junk elsewhere. i learned somewhere else, that if you charge too little for a repair, people don't respect your work, but if you charge too much, they look for a "second opinion"

 

[magvi]

a student asked me for a project here through the forum. i made the code in vb which runs for 20 times and then dies. but he found a way to re install it and he used it, no payment for me though .

 

[unclejed613]

a few years ago, there was a "glitch" in the billing system where i work (actually it was what i call "lazy programming", but please don't get me started on that subject). if you brought something in for repair, and refused the estimate, then brought it in again for repair within 30 days, the computer system wouldn't bill you for the "repeat repair" (i.e. the repair was free). this got out on the internet, and we got flooded with refused estimates and repeat repairs. once we got our billing system fixed, people learned real quick that this "trick" didn't work anymore (after all you can't believe everything you see on the internet ) but we occasionally have somebody try....