Re: The Neighbourhood Technician.

On Oct 23, 8:19 pm, D from BC <myrealaddr...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Tue, 23 Oct 2007 19:34:18 -0700, "Ken S. Tucker"



<dynam...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Oct 23, 7:16 pm, D from BC <myrealaddr...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Tue, 23 Oct 2007 10:15:09 -0700, "Ken S. Tucker"

<dynam...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I'm sure many of us in this group have interesting
stories to tell, I have dozens.
Seems as soon as neighbours find out you have
serious equiptment and part supplies they figure
you can fix anything electronic,
(80% I fix for $20), but....

1) A local yokel has a large collection of 8-track
country tapes, but no tape player and finds a $5
unit at a flea market. He dumps it on me, 1 hr
later it's working ok and I charge him $20.
The yokel bach's, "how can you charge me $20
for something that's only worth $5 !!", so I ended
up with an 8-track that I played "Don't look Ethel"
etc. for awhile.

2) Friend brings in a VHS unit, I open it, the damn
pulleys are all hairy. The fella explains his cat sits
on the unit for years and years.
How much would you charge to sort out cat hair
in a VHS unit...5 hrs, and $100 on the cheap,
the unit is worth $50 new.

I've got lot's more, hoping to hear some from the
rest of this clan.
Ken
ET (Electronic Technician) at large.

I'd charge $20.00 just to put it in the trash bin. :P
D from BC

Yeah, lol, a friend was moving his portable 20" color
TV and dropped it on is back and cracked the PCB
on the CRT. I took a chance and fly-wired over the
cracks, amazingly it worked fine after that.
The real buggers are those 20% of faults that need
a damn manual, the manuals are $75 so I quit them.
Ken in BC

In the past, I suspect most of the junk I've fixed, people didn't keep
it...They don't trust the repair or lose confidence in the product. So
they sell it and then buy new stuff.

By the way..
Aside from charging $20.00 to put their junk in your trash bin....You
could also charge an additional $20.00 consultation fee on why it
shouldn't be fixed and how the money can be better put to use on a new
and better product. :)
D from BC

I'm/was a professional service engineer.
Based out of toronto (yuk), I get an order
to fly out to Brandon Manitoba, nice place,
to service an intermittent fault in a medical
imager.
Naturally everything is perfect when I arrive,
but the staff kept photo's of the problem.
I cleaned and kicked the machine, hot gunned
it, froze it, and couldn't reproduce the fault.
So I hit the manuals, and circuit trace to
Jumper J1 J2, guess what...there is no Jumper
to either J1 or J2! Factory forgot to install it.
Well the lack of Jumper left open a gate that
would get bouncy in the right circumstances,
skewing the image.

Get's worse, the *** hit's the fan. Who pays?
That landed in my lap, of course somebody's
gotta pay for the flight, hotel, time etc. so I
recommend to the Service Manager that we
do not profit on this mission. Personally, I
think a good organization should not profit
from faults in the equipment they sell/sevice
because that allows poor quality, but instead
make your money at point of sale, and service
at cost, that's an executive decision.

Incidentally, I got into hot water for NOT
covering for the factory oversight. IOW's
I could have surreptiously blamed the
hospital staff (unfairly) and cover the company's
ass, but instead I went honest with the report.
What would you guys do?
Regards
Ken

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