On Jul 21, 9:26*pm, "Arfa Daily" wrote:
"klem kedidelhopper" wrote in message

...









On Jul 20, 7:40 pm, "Arfa Daily" wrote:
snip

Fifteen years ago the local Yellow Pages was full of TV repair shops..
Except for me there are now two other guys still involved in
television within 50 miles. One is 85 and rarely opens the store. And
even if he did it looks like a page right out of 1950. The other guy
is about the same age and does some sales I guess but little else. So
for all intents and purposes, for the time being anyway, (and I don't
see any young guys lining up *to be TV repairmen) *it's me, and I've
been told only me. If not for the commercial work we would really be
scratching.

I wonder how some of you guys also in the consumer electronics repair
business have handled these sort of things?
Lenny

Most electrical / electronic stores do not employ any kind of service
technician these days, because there's simply not enough work to justify
it.
Enter me. I hire myself out to multiple stores as a self-employed tech.. I
have fixed charges per equipment type, which allows the store to quote to
their customer with a high degree of certainty. For sure, it's a 'some
you
win, some you lose' situation when you are working on fixed prices, but
overall, I win, and so does the store. Also, I don't get involved with
holding accounts with manufacturers for parts. I let the store do that.. I
just tell them what part is needed when it's not a simple resistor or
transistor or whatever, and it's then up to them to liaise with their
customer about any extra costs. If it's all agreed, they get the part,
and I
fit it. That allows them to mark up the part cost as well, if that's what
they want to do. If the customer decides not to go ahead, then I still
get
my fixed exam and admin charge, which comes out of the deposit that all
of
the stores charge.

It's win all round for me really, as I have a steady supply of work (most
of
the time anyway) from multiple sources. I don't have to get involved with
the public and their shenanigans, and I don't have to do field calls. The
stores are happy because they don't have to employ anyone that might be
idle
half the time, and they still make a good wedge for themselves, for
merely
'fronting' me.

Arfa
Hi Arfa
I spoke to another guy on a different group who also does a "flat
rate" sort of thing. I guess if you really feel confident in the long
run that you will prevail on most jobs then I suppose I could see it.

I charge 50.00 for a TV diagnostic fee. It's 25.00 for receiver,s
VCR's, (don't see too many of those anymore), and small stuff like DVD
players etc. (I don't know what that would equate to in British
pounds). In the case of TV sets, 50.00 covers my looking at the set
and giving an estimate.

50 USD is around 35 UKP. That's a pretty similar rate to what a customer
would be charged here.

*However when a TV set is dropped off at my

shop, (house), I collect 100.00 up front. I explain before they bring
it in that the additional 50.00 will cover the disposal fee if the set
is abandoned. (Because in this country it's getting to the point where
you almost can't throw anything away anymore without paying someone to
do it).

It's been that way here for a while now. My local tip will no longer take
polystyrene in any form, or black bin bags because they can't see what's in
them - even though it's likely to be just domestic general waste like food
packaging, that sort of thing. They have a bin for absolutely everything
now, and as soon as you open the back of your wagon, you are descended upon
by the tip stasi (or 'recycling advisors' as they like to be called) to
check on what exactly you are trying to get rid of, and to make sure that
you walk it all from one end of the facility to the other, to put it in what
they consider to be the right skip. They do, however, take defunct
electronic goods for free, as long as it doesn't look like you are a
commercial operation.

However if the set is repaired the entire 100.00, (or if the

job is less then what ever portion is necessary) will be applied to
the repair. If the set is not repairable or if the customer declines
the estimate and picks up their set then 50.00 will be returned.
Although I do get some calls from outraged freeloaders who expect you
to work for nothing, most people find this policy agreeable.

It's a pretty similar arrangement to how the stores that I do work for go
about it, and generally, their customers understand why the charges are
being made, and are accepting of them.



But lets say you get a set in and diagnose a bad power supply. So do
you have the store obtain the part for you?

Yes

*And if so then what

happens if you ultimately determine that in fact it wasn't the power
supply but a secondary circuit that was putting the supply into shut
down?

I would hope that in general, I can bring enough experience and diagnostic
skill to the table to avoid such situations ...

*If something like this were to happen, who winds up eating the

power supply? Lenny

In reality, none of us is perfect, and of course, it does occasionally
happen that way. I am in the somewhat fortunate position of having worked
with almost all of these stores for 15 years or more, so am good friends
with the owners and their staff. So when such a situation arises, they fully
understand and appreciate the difficulties that may have led up to it, and
we normally come to an 'arrangement' that suits us both. Usually, this will
involve them putting the wrongly diagnosed item 'into stock' for either use
at some future point, or disposal on eBay, and me waiving part or all of my
charges, depending on whether the item ultimately does get a correct
diagnosis, and does earn some money. Even if it finally doesn't get fixed,
the store still has the non-returnable deposit that they took from the
customer up front, and this will go some way to mitigating any losses from a
wrongly ordered part. Sometimes, we agree to just 'split the difference', so
we both lose out a bit - "some ya win, some ya lose ..."

I have to say though, that it is pretty rare to get into this situation, but
I could see how it might not suit everyone to work on this sort of basis,
and how it relies to a great degree on mutual trust between me and the
stores - in that I am not going to put them in the situation often, and on
the odd occasion that I do, they will be objective about it, and not crucify
me for getting it wrong.

Arfa

It's nice that you have that kind of relationship with the people you
work for. I do warranty work for Sanyo but no local stores.
Essentially the local stores are Best Buy or Sears. Best buy has their
own service team called "The Geek Squad". I don;t know What Sears
does. Mom and pop stores find it hard to compete with them so it kind
of leaves the little guy out in the cold/. Lenny