By Steve Weiss

SERVICE CENTER ETIQUETTE

  This month we take a break from the more technical  stuff and begin a three part series about what to expect when you bring a piece of electronic musical equipment to a repair center. For those of you who don't know, I have run the repair department at Sam Ash Music In Margate for the last sixteen years. In my twenty plus years in the repair business I've seen many misconceptions by customers concerning the repair process.This month I will discuss checking in your equipment for repair. Next month we will cover  the repair process itself and two months from now will be a discussion of warranty and extended warranty repairs.


CHECKING IN EQUIPMENT FOR REPAIR

Much of the time checking equipment into the service center is an easy process. We encounter many friendly, intelligent people who come to us asking for help. They listen carefully when we explain service center policies and fees. They are prepared to state their needs and are able to provide a clear explanation of what is wrong with the equipment they need repaired.

We have plenty of these type of customers and many of them loyally come back whenever they have equipment to be serviced. But there is also a dark side to the service business of people who don't quite fit the above customer description. Below I list the many issues we repeatedly see in the hope of  educating  people who are not clear on working with a service facility.


1-The most frustrating thing to the repair center staff can be the customer's attitude.
Many  customers arrive at the service counter frustrated and angry because their piece of gear stopped working. Maybe it stopped in the middle of an important performance or they had to drive a long distance to the repair center. Certainly they know it is going to cost money to fix and maybe they are  suspicious they  will be taken advantage of and charged for work that is not done. It is important to realize that the technicians in the service center, did not design or manufacture your broken equipment. We also did not break it. We are here to get it back in working order so you can continue to use it, so it will help if we do not have to take the brunt of your misplaced anger.

2-Those with the egotistical  attitude
of "I am an artist, I don't need to know how to operate my equipment or understand anything- just fix it". These people are leaving them selves open to the unscrupulous tech who will see this as an opportunity to charge as much as he can.

3-"Can I get a professional musician discount?"
Can  I get a discount for the church?" I do offer those discounts. The discount rate is 0%.

4-I've got a lot of gear I can bring for repair- can you do better on the price?"
My answer to this is bring all that gear in for repair and then we can talk.

5-"This broke a couple of weeks ago. I have a gig tomorrow, can it be ready?"

Do people really think we are sitting there idly, waiting for equipment to come in to work on? Especially for those who earn their living from using a piece of equipment, they need to have a backup plan. Even an inexpensive substitute for a keyboard etc is way better than nothing. There is a huge difference between no sound at all and sound that is not as good.

6- "I could fix it myself, but my tools are in storage"
"I could fix it myself but I don't have the time". What purpose is served by saying this? If you are bringing something in for repair you are the same as anybody else irregardless of whether or not you could fix it.

7 -"I watched a video on the Internet on how to fix it." Again, why does this matter?
Although sometimes it matters in the service center's favor. We had one guy who watched a video on You Tube on how to change a broken key on a Korg Triton. He did really well  changing the key, but when he turned the unit back on after reassembly, it wouldn't start. He brought it to us to see what had happened. He had managed to pinch one of the wiring harnesses in the keyboard between the key bed assembly and the bottom panel of the unit causing a direct short to ground. This caused major destruction to the circuitry on the unit's main board requiring it to be replaced. This went from  a minor repair to a $1000.00 plus nightmare.

8- "I'm sure it just a fuse or something simple."
A fuse is a protective device only. It is in the unit to prevent further damage or fire when something else in the unit is not right. It is not very often that replacing a fuse without other repair service will fix a unit. And why are you sure it is something simple? Do you have any factual evidence to support that or are you just saying it because you are hoping for an inexpensive repair bill?

9-" The problem is
A capacitor( resistor,transformer or the name of that one electronic component you know the name of)." I had one guy that while checking in his keyboard for repair told me the problem was a capacitor in the power supply. I thought I was getting some information that would help the repair go faster, so I asked him how he knew that. He replied he didn't, that he was just guessing. Surprising how often this happens.

10- "I read on an Internet forum....... ."
Internet forums are groups of people who for the most part have no technical hardware repair knowledge. From a software standpoint I see a lot of useful info out there. But it is rare that I see any posts that have a clue when it comes to hardware/circuitry failure. There are a lot of posts that are guesses, but these posters don't have even the most basic electronic troubleshooting skills, therefore a lot of misinformation is out there. I once called the national service manager of Korg to ask him a question about a resolution to an amplifier problem that was posted on the Internet as a common failure and solution to that amplifier model. He started laughing pretty hard. I asked him why he was laughing and he replied. "It's on the Internet so you know it must be true." Turns out it wasn't.

11- This applies to the tube amp crowd who read stuff on the Internet
About their amps and come to me to modify their amplifiers. Their is a proliferation of  self proclaimed Tube Amp "Gurus" on the Internet. Many of them will steer you in a very bad direction of expensive modifications that yield little results. Many of them  also have self serving interests to steer you into buying their transformers speakers etc. If you are not schooled in electronics even a little electronic explanation sounds impressive, so how can you really know this guy knows what he is talking about?

12- "I have owned this for fifteen years and have never had a problem.
I can't understand why it is not working." My answer to This is to put on a real serious look and ask "Do you know why"? They get all excited waiting for my answer which is "because it is  broken". Why do people assume equipment can be manufactured that will never break. If that was true why do they need to put redundant backup systems on airliners. If fail safe equipment is possible it certainly would be on an airplane. If Boeing or NASA can't do it do you really think Fender can?

13-"What is your hourly rate?"
This is a question we sometimes get. People are used to automobile repair where there are specific labor times for repairs. There is not much component level troubleshooting going on in auto repair. If your car's air conditioning control module is blown you are getting a new one even if it is only one blown resistor. They don't know how to figure that out. But they do know that to put in a new module takes X hours so they bill you for that plus the part. In electronic musical repair we need to troubleshoot where possible at the component level which can be an untold amount of time spent. Otherwise you will be billed for $1200.00 to put a main board in your Yamaha Motif when actually you had only one connection to be re soldered. This is where the problem lies with the hourly rate .There are techs around with varying degrees of ability. Would you rather pay $90.00 to a tech who can fix it right in half an hour or $35.00 an hour to someone who will take five hours and not fix it correctly. Basically labor charges become a flat rate based upon a formula that each shop develops.

14- "Why do I need to pay a diagnostic charge?"

Most professional repair centers require you to leave a diagnostic charge in advance when you check in your equipment. It is applied against the final repair cost if the item is repaired. The reason for this charge is the service center must spend time to diagnose the problem. It is possible that due to parts unavailability or if the repair cost will exceed the value of the unit, the customer may elect not to repair the unit. When this happens the repair center needs to be compensated for time spent diagnosing the feasibility of repair. How long could I stay in business if I repeatedly have to diagnose things for free? It is also amazing how many people ask if the diagnostic charge will be refunded if the unit is not fixable.

15- "I won't leave my equipment unless I can talk to the technician.
Many larger shops employ customer service personnel trained to handle the check in and out of repairs. We do so at my shop. Our service administrator PJ is also a highly competent  guitar repair and electronics technician, well qualified to discuss the repair process. But there are many customers who get nasty with him and demand that I stop what I am doing to talk with them. It never ceases to amaze me that I have to  say the exact same things that PJ tells them in order to satisfy them and this also subjects me to listening to all the irrelevant minutiae these people have to say. In the words of a former service manager for Marshall, "Excuse me while I put you on hold so I can find a razor blade to slit my wrists while I listen to you tell me what song you were playing when your amp died".  I instantly lose respect for this type of customer. If you are bringing me something to fix and have the confidence that I can fix it then respect my business practices as to how I operate my service center. This seems to be a problem only with musical instrument service. I can't remember ever being at the Chevy dealer and seeing someone demand to talk to the mechanic who will work on their car. Or try calling up your doctor and ask to speak directly to him. I can't even get the girl who cuts my hair to come to the phone at the salon I go to. I am flattered that people want to talk to me and love to educate people but I do not always have time. This is one of the reasons I write these articles.

16- Rush Charges
On occasion there are customers who must have their equipment repaired right away. If they want to pay a Rush Charge we will move them to the top of the list. We don't recommend this for two reasons. First of all if needed parts are not in stock there will be rush shipping charges in addition to the rush labor charge. Secondly, a rush charge does not guarantee we will fix the unit right away. It means we will look at it right away and see if we can fix it. If  we can't finish the repair right away due to part back orders etc, you will still be billed for rush service possibly weeks later when the repair is completed. As I mentioned before, having a backup plan  takes a lot of pressure off by substituting another piece of gear while the main one is being fixed. To me that is the true definition of a professional. It can not be the service center's problem that your gear is not working, you need it right away and have no backup plan.

17- " I had this here for repair recently and it is still doing the same thing.

Usually accompanied by "I never tried it until yesterday." While it is entirely possible that this is true I find that a lot of the time it is not. We maintain an extensive database of our repairs with meticulous information of when and what was done to a specific unit. The customer's perception is that they paid to have it fixed and it is not working now implying that we didn't fix it correctly . We had a person the other day who brought his keyboard in and claimed the same three keys we replaced less than a year ago were not working. Looking it up in the database showed it was three different keys over three years ago. But the best I ever encountered was a guy who claimed he had just recently had something repaired and it was still doing the same thing. We looked it up and the repair was ten years and two weeks old.Even if I had a ten year warranty on my repairs he was out of luck. And saying that it was fixed a while ago and you never tried it until now, well you are out of luck. It is your responsibility to check the operation of your repaired equipment during our warranty period.

That's all for this month. Let me say again we do love our customers who are friendly,provide a clear description of the problem and are not demanding about pricing or how long the repair will take. Next month I will discuss the repair process that occurs once the equipment is checked in and also the completed and post repair processes.



Steve Weiss is the owner and main technician of Steve Weiss Electronics Inc. He is experienced in the repair of analog and digital musical equipment. This includes everything from Vintage Tube Amps and Pro Audio equipment to Digital Keyboards There is also a guitar repair shop staffed by some of the areas top guitar repair techs. He is authorized for warranty work on most major brands. Steve Weiss Electronics is located inside of Sam Ash Music at 5460 West Sample Road Margate, FL 33073 954-975-3390 Ext 272. Steve has also spent 25 years on the road as a performing guitarist and is the designer of Primal Guitar amps that can be seen at Primal Audio.com Steve can also be reached at stevew@metromusicmayhem.com
Sam Ash Quikship Corp.

 

 
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