Reasonable turnaround time for repair/service?

Richardj

57Deluxe said:

Fender/dealer had my warranty   59 Bassman  over 7 months before Fender gave up and ordered a full refund through the dealer... was very annoying. The reason it wasn't replaced was cos the dealer sold the 'floor' model for silly money to me... Left me with few options to get same deal so gave up on a Bassman altogether.

Given my (so far) positive experience with Fender and amp repairs I find this surprising. It shouldn't matter how much you paid for the amp, if it was new, under warranty and couldn't be repaired it simply should have been replaced. Any wrangling is between the dealer and Fender and isn't anything to do with you. 

DarnWeight

OK, so a resolution, of sorts.

No reply to my most recent email after 48 hours led to me calling ampguy this morning.  He couldn't tell me what he'd found so far (despite telling me the amp was "on the bench" on three separate occasions), but promised to call me this afternoon (under threat of me driving around to pick the amp up immediately).  Duly called at 3pm explaining what he had and hadn't done...  

• Footswitching issues?...ampguy's response: leave it as is, and work around it.  Offered to install a jackplug for the vibrato where someone had replaced it with a toggle switch.  Cost? £20.  My response: leave it.
  
• Squealing at high volume?...ampguy's response: can't replicate so unable to comment  
  
• Dodgy bright slider on normal channel?...ampguy's response: contact cleaner appears to have sorted it.
  
• Electrical safety?..ampguy's response: everything in order.
  
• Biasing?...ampguy's reponse: within tolerance.

...so that's it.  The sum total of 8 weeks wait...2 of my 3 issues completely unaddressed, the remainder ticked off with a squirt of contact cleaner and the wave of a probe or two.  Picked it up a few hours ago...he briefly demo-ed it at just-over-comfortable-living-room levels.  I paid him for his hour and a half, held my tongue and fled.  Plugged it in at home...volume above 6-7?  Yep, there's that deafening squeal, same as it ever was.  Switch to the Normal channel and flip the Bright slider back and forth a few times...nothing, nada, squat.  Unbelievable.  Piss duly extracted, bottled, and piped back into my face at high velocity.  That'll be £37.50, thank you.

So there you have it.  A waste of both time and money, but at least I have my amp back.  In honour of this brazen spleen venting exercise, I'd like to suggest a Bad Techs sticky thread to go alongside the Recommended Techs one, and I propose ampguy (no beating around the bush this time, eh?) as it's inaugural member.

ThePrettyDamned

Clearly his 'high volume' does not match yours.  

Sounds like a pretty poor tech, tbh.  The footswitching issues is really a joke - work around it? NO I'm paying you to fix the bloody thing!

ICBM

I agree, that's very poor.

matone

Astoundingly bad service!
Seemed a decent bloke when I spoke to him at a show a couple of years ago,just goes to show................

nickb_boy

DarnWeight;193077" said:

So there you have it.  A waste of both time and money, but at least I have my amp back.  In honour of this brazen spleen venting exercise, I'd like to suggest a Bad Techs sticky thread to go alongside the Recommended Techs one, and I propose ampguy (no beating around the bush this time, eh?) as it's inaugural member.

You've got me worried now!

I'm meant to have one of my amps booked in with this guy in a couple weeks time. It's an old 60s Dynacord Jazz which although a simple circuit isn't exactly something every tech would have come across on a regular basis. If he needs any parts for it then I could be waiting 6 months if your timescale is anything to go by.

Might have to look elsewhere now!

57Deluxe

Richardj said:

57Deluxe said:

Fender/dealer had my warranty   59 Bassman  over 7 months before Fender gave up and ordered a full refund through the dealer... was very annoying. The reason it wasn't replaced was cos the dealer sold the 'floor' model for silly money to me... Left me with few options to get same deal so gave up on a Bassman altogether.

Given my (so far) positive experience with Fender and amp repairs I find this surprising. It shouldn't matter how much you paid for the amp, if it was new, under warranty and couldn't be repaired it simply should have been replaced. Any wrangling is between the dealer and Fender and isn't anything to do with you. 

I got all sorts of spurious answers and I think they tried to repair on the cheap then it'd go back to dealer and still have issues etc etc. I was even told by the dealer that they would be giving me a further discount to the effect that a new 59 LTD would have cost just £500...

Anyway... was overly loud and shrill anyway if you pushed it. So the 57 Deluxe was the better bet ultimately... I did like the look of the Bassman though...

So far out of 5 new Fender amps - 3 have had to have warranty remedial work (since 2007)

jpfamps

DarnWeight said:

OK, so a resolution, of sorts.

No reply to my most recent email after 48 hours led to me calling ampguy this morning.  He couldn't tell me what he'd found so far (despite telling me the amp was "on the bench" on three separate occasions), but promised to call me this afternoon (under threat of me driving around to pick the amp up immediately).  Duly called at 3pm explaining what he had and hadn't done...  

• Footswitching issues?...ampguy's response: leave it as is, and work around it.  Offered to install a jackplug for the vibrato where someone had replaced it with a toggle switch.  Cost? £20.  My response: leave it.
  
• Squealing at high volume?...ampguy's response: can't replicate so unable to comment  
  
• Dodgy bright slider on normal channel?...ampguy's response: contact cleaner appears to have sorted it.
  
• Electrical safety?..ampguy's response: everything in order.
  
• Biasing?...ampguy's reponse: within tolerance.

...so that's it.  The sum total of 8 weeks wait...2 of my 3 issues completely unaddressed, the remainder ticked off with a squirt of contact cleaner and the wave of a probe or two.  Picked it up a few hours ago...he briefly demo-ed it at just-over-comfortable-living-room levels.  I paid him for his hour and a half, held my tongue and fled.  Plugged it in at home...volume above 6-7?  Yep, there's that deafening squeal, same as it ever was.  Switch to the Normal channel and flip the Bright slider back and forth a few times...nothing, nada, squat.  Unbelievable.  Piss duly extracted, bottled, and piped back into my face at high velocity.  That'll be £37.50, thank you.

So there you have it.  A waste of both time and money, but at least I have my amp back.  In honour of this brazen spleen venting exercise, I'd like to suggest a Bad Techs sticky thread to go alongside the Recommended Techs one, and I propose ampguy (no beating around the bush this time, eh?) as it's inaugural member.

Firstly, I would agree that this is poor service, and I recommend that you take this up with the person who didn't fix your amp. None of the faults were difficult to fix, and quite frankly if you can't fix a SF Fender, then you shouldn't be business.

However, I would not be that comfortable with a "Bad Tech" sticky.

Whilst not excuse this poor level of service, I think you have to very careful posting adverse comments on the internet, especially as the recipient may not be in a position to respond.

Of course I'm in a position where there is a conflict of interest, as it could benefit my business by slagging of other repairers (or indeed amp builders). 

In fact a make a point of not criticising independent repairers/ builders on internet fora, as I want my business to stand up on it's own merits.

DarnWeight

matone said:

Astoundingly bad service!
Seemed a decent bloke when I spoke to him at a show a couple of years ago,just goes to show................

nickb_boy said:

You've got me worried now!

I'm meant to have one of my amps booked in with this guy in a couple weeks time. It's an old 60s Dynacord Jazz which although a simple circuit isn't exactly something every tech would have come across on a regular basis. If he needs any parts for it then I could be waiting 6 months if your timescale is anything to go by.

Might have to look elsewhere now!

Don't get me wrong, the guy is an affable, friendly sort...perfectly nice guy to chat with.  No issues there.

@nickb_boy : I've subsequently had a few PMs from someone else whose had very very similar experiences to mine, so I'd be inclined to consider other options if you can find someone suitable.

jpfamps

57Deluxe said:

Richardj said:

57Deluxe said:

Fender/dealer had my warranty   59 Bassman  over 7 months before Fender gave up and ordered a full refund through the dealer... was very annoying. The reason it wasn't replaced was cos the dealer sold the 'floor' model for silly money to me... Left me with few options to get same deal so gave up on a Bassman altogether.

Given my (so far) positive experience with Fender and amp repairs I find this surprising. It shouldn't matter how much you paid for the amp, if it was new, under warranty and couldn't be repaired it simply should have been replaced. Any wrangling is between the dealer and Fender and isn't anything to do with you. 

I got all sorts of spurious answers and I think they tried to repair on the cheap then it'd go back to dealer and still have issues etc etc. I was even told by the dealer that they would be giving me a further discount to the effect that a new 59 LTD would have cost just £500...

Anyway... was overly loud and shrill anyway if you pushed it. So the 57 Deluxe was the better bet ultimately... I did like the look of the Bassman though...

So far out of 5 new Fender amps - 3 have had to have warranty remedial work (since 2007)

Chatting with one of the Fender Dealers here, they've noticed an increase in warranty repairs on Fender amps, although they have gone somewhat now they caught the courier throwing them off the back of the van!

DarnWeight

jpfamps said:

Firstly, I would agree that this is poor service, and I recommend that you take this up with the person who didn't fix your amp. None of the faults were difficult to fix, and quite frankly if you can't fix a SF Fender, then you shouldn't be business.

However, I would not be that comfortable with a "Bad Tech" sticky.

Whilst not excuse this poor level of service, I think you have to very careful posting adverse comments on the internet, especially as the recipient may not be in a position to respond.

Of course I'm in a position where there is a conflict of interest, as it could benefit my business by slagging of other repairers (or indeed amp builders). 

In fact a make a point of not criticising independent repairers/ builders on internet fora, as I want my business to stand up on it's own merits.

Point taken.  Everyone can have an off day, and I'm not looking to besmirch someone's reputation unjustly...the "Bad Tech" thing was just me reacting.

I dare say the guy may be perfectly well-qualified and capable of far better work than I got out of him, but for the continued lack of communication and the perfunctory nature of his work, I have to draw a very different conclusion.

ecc83

It may well be that the guitar amp market is the last refuge of the "repair cowboy"? 

When I stated in the telly retail industry around 1962 there were perhaps 1/2 doz competent and straight TV&Radio stores with service depts in the bustling boot and shoe town of Northampton. We also had big industry like Timken Roller Bearings, Brown Bros, Express lifts (still have the tower of course!) All gone now (thanks Maggie!).

But there was also about another score of "lesser techs". Some were just incompetent, others really nasty rip off artists and bloody dangerous. This slime was kept alive by successive technical innovations. A second Band lll ITV channel needing another aerial and re-tune. Then BBC2. New telly plus new aerial. Then colour (and probably an aerial upgrade!)

TV  sets were generally poorly designed and thus went wrong a lot but the faults were easy 75% of the time so even a pretty poor technician could make a living. Colour TVs were also expensive and so there was a big incentive to have them fixed. But the bubble burst about 15 years ago when imported sets were far more reliable and cheaper. Also when they DID go wrong they were much harder for the poorly skilled tech to fix. The cowboys have now all but gone from the domestic electronics scene. 

But! A basic guitar amp is a simple fix. Not much brain power needed to fix my Mersey Super 15 (15 watt Dominator clone) but of course if you set up in business things come in a LOT more complex than that!

I would dearly like to see a return to the days of fully qualified tech's, well supported by the industry with readily available spares and service information. Maybe some sort of trade body? We had the RTRA . Mainly set up for the benefit of its members it is true but it was at least ONE route for customer complaints. 

As a "world" we cannot keep on landfilling unrepairable crap forever, stuff MUST be designed to be repaired and people trained to do it and make a decent living from it without ripping off Joe Public.

Dave.

Antique_Guitars

My usual bloke would take about 7 -10 days to check something out and fix unless he had some other commitments.