Amp repairs taking too long?

Guitarse

Took my Vox ac30 in for repair at a local repair shop with a good reputation. Woman behind the desk said they'd have a look at it either that same week, or early the following week and ring me. No phone call. They've had it 2 months and I've just been told it's still 'on the bench.' Phoned a fortnight ago to be told it was the mains transformer and they need to order a new one. 2 months? Bit of a piss take if you ask me!

ICBM

That may be down to Vox customer service... I think it took about that long, with the hassle I had with them last time I had to get a transformer.

It sounds like they should have let you know much sooner that it was going to be something expensive though, which makes me think they didn't look at it until you chased them.

Guitarse

Yeah, they kept telling me they'll let me know when they know what the problem is with it (was told they'd replaced a couple of valves), but didn't. Apparently the guy fixing it will ring me this afternoon, but I won't hold my breath!

57Deluxe

Fender had my 59 Bassman LTD for 5 months....

Danny1969

I generally look at something and talk to the customer within 3 days tops. Amps are only generally here a few days as most people need them for the weekend. If he's waiting on parts then that's fine but there's no need for no communication, you gotta let people know whats happening

ecc83

The "retail electronics service" trade has ever been so IMHO.

When TV and video repair was in its heyday there were lots of "cowboys" ready to rip you off, piss you about and generally give poor service.

There were a LOT of guys who really did not know much. They had a few lucky jobs that got them what they thought was easy money but when they got stuck the customer suffered. Find out what day the guy's post code signs on at the JC. You will probably find him there or at the nearest pub!

Making a living as a self employed service tech' is hard work. I tried for about 6 months in between redundancies but could not make it pay.

Now I DO not  want to upset the likes of ICBM etc but a reliable shop should give you a copy of terms of business which should include a time scale. Do not be surprised if the guy wants a non-returnable deposit! If someone cannot front a score to have a £500 amp looked at he is a timewaster in my book!

Dave.

ICBM

ecc83 said:

Now I DO not  want to upset the likes of ICBM etc but a reliable shop should give you a copy of terms of business which should include a time scale. Do not be surprised if the guy wants a non-returnable deposit! If someone cannot front a score to have a £500 amp looked at he is a timewaster in my book!

Yes, we give a written estimate of the expected time on the sheet the customer gets. We don't take a deposit though - I tend to feel that having the amp is enough.

And no, I could not make it pay either, if it was necessary to support myself - let alone my family - from it. Luckily I am the lesser wage earner/child carer.

ecc83

"We don't take a deposit though - I tend to feel that having the amp is enough."

Ah! Probably ok for you because you have something of high intrinsic value and which can be easily sold. Problem is, in Eng' at least you have to jump through quite a few legal hoops to be able to sell an Uncollected Repair and the guy can STILL come back quite some years later and demand the goods or the cash balance!*

The guys in tv/vcr I knew that did well'ish were more bothered by the workshop clogging up with crap tellies!

Dave.

ecc83

* Won't let me edit!

Meant to say that of course, you always made sure the repair bill + storage was at least equal to the sale value!

Blueingreen

I would also have thought normal good practice would be to get specific authorisation from a customer before ordering expensive parts for a repair, unless it was clear from your original instructions that they were authorised to do that.

Guitarse

Exactly Danny. Not much to ask is it? I would have no problem if they'd stayed in touch a bit. Still no call from the guy doing the repair too. Woman behind the desk told me this morning he'd ring me later today!

Danny1969 said:

I generally look at something and talk to the customer within 3 days tops. Amps are only generally here a few days as most people need them for the weekend. If he's waiting on parts then that's fine but there's no need for no communication, you gotta let people know whats happening

Danny1969

I did a huge Arcam AV amp yesterday, the thing was huge with multiple cards plugged into the main planner. I had a pre agreement with the owner, I would spend all day on it if necessary and either fix it for £150 or if I couldn't I wouldn't charge anything. Complete nightmare thing to work on but luckily I was able to find a bad bridge rect amonst the many (there's 7 amps in this thing) and did the thing within 4 hours. I've had other jobs where I have worked on boards for hours but couldn't find the fault or I couldn't get the IC I needed. The repair business is a hard game, I have to take in pretty much anything, TV's, guitar amps, Mixing desks, I even did a washing machine logic control panel the other week. The laptop motherboards are getting harder and harder to repair now as well, the scale of integration is just too high

@Blueingreen Yes you generally ring up and say it needs X amount for the part and  X amount for labour .... do they want to proceed ?

Sometimes though you gonna bite the bullet and buy a part because you need a good known part to progress further, and if you get that wrong it's out of your own pocket which can hurt!

Guitarse

OK. So first I was told they'd replaced a couple of valves, a week later I'm told it needs a new mains transformer, now I'm told it's the output transformer that's gone! Do these people have a f*cking clue what they're doing?

jpfamps

Guitarse said:

OK. So first I was told they'd replaced a couple of valves, a week later I'm told it needs a new mains transformer, now I'm told it's the output transformer that's gone! Do these people have a f*cking clue what they're doing?

Sounds like they don't to be honest as the manifestation of the faults for failure in the mains and output transformer are very different.

I would echo what ICBM says as well, getting parts out of manufacturers can be a tiresome proceedure.

Voxman

Such delays and poor customer comms are in-excuseable. Which company is this, are they a registered Vox Dealer/repair service outlet and is this warranty work or are you having to pay for it?  

Guitarse

Paying for it, it's not warranty work. I won't say who they are though and they're not a registered Vox dealer.

John_P

I'd check out other places to get it repaired and go collect it from them.   It sounds like they are guessing and messing you about now.

ICBM

ecc83 said:

"We don't take a deposit though - I tend to feel that having the amp is enough."

Ah! Probably ok for you because you have something of high intrinsic value and which can be easily sold. Problem is, in Eng' at least you have to jump through quite a few legal hoops to be able to sell an Uncollected Repair and the guy can STILL come back quite some years later and demand the goods or the cash balance!*

Same here. But as long as you follow the rules and keep records you should still end up in the clear. We've had to do that a couple of times.

An odd one like this happened a while back - I had a job on a tatty old Marshall head which needed a new PT. I gave the customer an estimate, and heard nothing back. For a year. We phoned multiple times (always no answer) and sent letters, recorded delivery stating that it would be sold if not collected. Finally after about 18 months I decided that the best course of action was not to just fix it, but to fully restore it to as close to new condition as possible and sell it for the the most money we could… which I did. So about two years later it was in the shop for sale. Then out of the blue, we got a phone call from an annoyed-sounding bloke who said "is that my amp you have for sale on your website?" !!

After explaining that he couldn't just have it back, or even pay the original repair estimate because I'd done about three times as much work to it as the original quote, he came into the shop - we were expecting a difficult situation, but actually after the whole thing was explained and he'd tried the amp, he was so pleased with it - it having turned out he was the original owner from new and he'd never expected it to ever look or sound like that again - that he paid for the full restoration job and went away a happy man. As was I! It must be one of the highest-paying amp jobs I've ever done. Still never found out why he didn't respond to any communication for two years though.

jpfamps

Guitarse said:

Paying for it, it's not warranty work. I won't say who they are though and they're not a registered Vox dealer.

If they are not a registered VOX dealer, then Korg will not generally sell spares, or provide any technical support.

I order my VOX spares through a registered dealer, and even then it take weeks to get parts (although at least I can get them).

ThePrettyDamned

@ICBM that's a pretty cool story

Paul_C

ICBM said:

ecc83 said:

"We don't take a deposit though - I tend to feel that having the amp is enough."

Ah! Probably ok for you because you have something of high intrinsic value and which can be easily sold. Problem is, in Eng' at least you have to jump through quite a few legal hoops to be able to sell an Uncollected Repair and the guy can STILL come back quite some years later and demand the goods or the cash balance!*

 Still never found out why he didn't respond to any communication for two years though.