Mark Modrall wrote:

: Thanks for the advice. I called Panasonic support today. They have
: a "get an estimate" fix line; when I finally got put in touch with
: someone I gave her the model number and her immediate response was
: "It'll be $200 to fix". I said "I haven't told you what's wrong with it
: yet" and her response was "for that model, it will be $200 to fix". I
: told her that it would be less expensive to buy a new one, and she said
: "suit yourself." I said it didn't reflect well on her company that I
: have to throw out the unit after a year and a half, and she said "have a
: nice day".

They just want you to buy a new one.

We had a managed 24 port ethernet switch made by 3Com. We paid around $800
for it from a local retailer. It broke. Called 3Com for a repair estimate,
they wanted $1300 for an outright exchange (we needed to send it back).

Same switch, slightly better model (web interface for config) was still $799
from the local retailer.

Just doesn't make sense, $1300 for a referb?

Probably some logic on sales count, repairs don't to the bottom line.

-bruce