Technical Services

Bruce Marlin:\r Except for general maintenance, when customers bring their equipment into our shop it’s because there’s a problem. They’re understandably unhappy, but usually reasonable to deal with. Others, we just have to let vent and we understand this about our business and take it in stride. I’ve reviewed this job and where we may have let this young man down was not taking enough time to explain what it takes to keep a tape machine of this vintage going. His Tascam MSR-16 has been out of production for many years and in fact Tascam doesn’t have all the parts it would take to successfully service potential problems that could arise from normal use. To make it even more of a challenge, this is a two head tape machine making it much more time consuming and complicated to work on than a typical three head machine. Only a small handful of service centers throughout the U.S. would even consider working on this kind of a machine.\r \r Technical Services has a reputation of being one of the few who can successfully work on vintage tape recorders of all brands. We have an extensive library of schematics and manuals and we’ve developed a network of suppliers of quality parts that have been out of production for many years. So when this customer brought his Tascam MRS-16 to us we didn’t hesitate to take it in for service.\r \r Having the schematics and manuals on how to service this machine and knowing who the third party parts suppliers, who sell quality parts for this specific machine were, we felt confident we could do the repairs. It’s important to note, there are suppliers who sell parts that look as good as the original component, but just don’t meet the original manufacturers’ specs or seem to last nearly as long. Considering that new component manufacturers and suppliers are popping up all the time, we’ve done a reasonable job of identifying those manufacturers and suppliers whose products are of equal or better quality to the original. So, often times, when servicing these vintage machines, we spend an inordinate amount of time researching and qualifying sources for replacement parts. \r \r The following text, is a blow by blow explanation of the events surrounding this job. What the customer fails to tell you is, we fixed every problem as we worked through his machine. In the end, we finally confirmed that the motherboard also had problems and needed to be rehabbed or replaced. It’s important to know that all the other repairs needed to be done before we could isolate and confirm that the motherboard, in fact, also needed service. The customer wasn’t interested in going any further with repairs and had no patience for us or his machine. So we not only refunded all his money, but didn’t charge him for the new parts we had purchased and left installed in his machine. So, with the knowledge that his machine needed a new motherboard, the customer left with his machine and all his money. As hard as we try, you know, we just can’t win them all. Pros: Excellent Service more

Customer:\r \r “I went up there to pick it up, and I realize that a tech in training named Johnny is the one that worked on it the entire time. From the few minutes I talked to him, I could tell he wasn't very knowledgeable, and wasn't really sure what he was doing.”\r \r Johnny Phillips T.S. Service Technician:\r \r The customer did not specify that he wanted a specific tech to work on the unit. Although I did not have specific experience on this model, Technical Services has schematics and manuals to service this machine. I have 20 + years experience working as a bench repair tech in the electronics industry and our General Manager John Eldridge, has lots of experience servicing these machines.\r \r The Tascam MSR-16 is a very labor intensive unit to troubleshoot and adjust. Because it is a 2-head machine instead of a 3-head, each of the 16 tracks must be individually adjusted without the ability to monitor the adjustments until playback. This means the tech must guess at each adjustment and play it back to see if the adjustment was within specification. In this particular case, there were six (6) adjustments per channel (x 16), totaling 96 separate adjustments. It took days to accomplish this because adjustments could not be made until the channels were checked and the needed repairs made.\r \r I was taking time to ensure each step in the trouble shooting process was successful. So, if as the customer has indicated, I wasn’t talking to him much, it was because I didn’t want to upset him more than he already was. I decided to allow management to communicate with him hoping they could better assure him all was being done while I kept working on his machine. \r \r Customer:\r \r “Technical Services never gave me a quote at any point during the process, even though I repeatedly asked for one… When I found out the machine was done, they were trying to charge me more than I paid for the entire machine.”\r \r Johnny Phillips T.S. Service Technician:\r \r John Eldridge was updating the customer, but new problems kept developing – making it difficult to estimate. For instance, after adjusting all 16 channels (96 separate adjustments) the tracks started acting flaky. We addressed the problem and started the adjustments all over again. We did not charge for the actual labor time when we saw how long it was taking. We were being pushed by the customer to finish, yet we had already invested unreasonable amounts of time that we could not recover. We ran the unit extensively to be sure it was solid enough to turn back to the customer.\r \r Customer:\r \r I asked to speak to the owner, named Bruce. He tried to make me feel like an idiot for asking them to lower the price, saying ""This is a legacy piece. John was designing studios in the 60s; you're going to be VERY HAPPY with the work being done.""\r \r Johnny Phillips T.S. Service Technician:\r \r In all fairness, I believe I was the one, not Bruce, who brought up the fact that John Eldridge was designing studios in the 1960’s. Having gone to great lengths to fully checkout the unit, I suggested that the customer would be VERY HAPPY with the work being done.\r \r more

Customer:\r After a 45 minute conference, I take the machine home to find out that the problem isn't only not fixed, its MUCH WORSE. \r \r Johnny Phillips T.S. Service Technician:\r I actually spent more than a week on this customer’s machine, and we were only asking for one day’s labor. The customer approved parts and received progress reports from me as he continued to push for the unit to be completed. When the unit came back with even more problems, it was only then that we realized the root problems were on the motherboard. Access is also labor intensive, and it would have required rehabbing the motherboard since parts are not available (not just “cleaning”). Yet, for all of this we would have stood behind our work, and invested more time to protect our reputation. However, the customer wanted his money back, which did not allow us to address the deeper problems with this machine.\r \r Customer:\r I called Bruce the next day ... I took off work and brought it to them immediately after getting off the phone with them.\r \r When we started to plug the cables in, John asked Johnny to bring him an xlr-rca converter. Johnny acted like he had never even heard of this converter, and held up several different cables, saying ""this one?"" Finally John Eldridge grabbed the right cable and went to work testing the machine.\r \r \r Johnny Phillips T.S. Service Technician:\r It is true that I didn’t immediately recognize the abbreviated term John used to ask for the testing cables harness. It only took a moment though to figure it out, since these were the cables I had been using throughout the whole testing process of rocking tape reels back-and-forth for days.\r \r Customer:\r The original problem I had was verified, and it was MUCH WORSE, both techs agreed. Luckily, Bruce walked in at that time and saw that the machine was broken. He was very rude about it and tried to blame it on our transit back to Denton. \r \r \r Johnny Phillips T.S. Service Technician:\r If there are flaky problems with equipment pieces, handling in transport will often reveal problems that were not apparent during bench testing. I took it that Bruce was attempting to help the customer understand the difficult nature of troubleshooting vintage electronics equipment that had intermittent problems.\r \r Customer:\r He went on to suggest that I leave it at the shop and get them to clean the motherboard. \r \r \r Johnny Phillips T.S. Service Technician:\r We suggested rehabbing the motherboard since it finally became apparent that the root problem had not been addressed. It also would have meant starting all over with adjustments AFTER repair of the motherboard.\r \r Customer:\r I told them I would absolutely not leave the machine and I wanted a full refund. After considering the situation, Bruce realized that I was going to be a pain in their side until they finished the machine or gave me a refund, and agreed to the refund.\r \r \r Johnny Phillips T.S. Service Technician:\r In the end, considering all that had been fixed on the machine and then to add the additional cost of rehabbing the motherboard, the repair costs would have totaled more than the machine was worth. As much as we try, this was one that couldn’t be resolved to anyone’s satisfaction. \r \r more

I have just finished the most frustrating business transaction I have ever dealt with. I took my machine in to John Eldridge, hearing how great his work was and how nice he is. Two months later, after calling in MANY times (they never called me, I had to call them every week), they told me they couldn't find the parts for the machine. I found the parts in about 2 minutes through a google search. I brought them in, and they said it would be a week or so before they were done. Two months later, I'm calling them almost every day, begging them to finish my machine. Finally I call one day, and another tech says ""Oh, no one called you? Your machine's been done for a week."" I went up there to pick it up, and I realize that a tech in training named Johnny is the one that worked on it the entire time. From the few minutes I talked to him, I could tell he wasn't very knowledgeable, and wasn't really sure what he was doing. Technical Services never gave me a quote at any point during the process, even though I repeatedly asked for one. When I found out the machine was done, they were trying to charge me more than I paid for the entire machine. I asked to speak to the owner, named Bruce. He tried to make me feel like an idiot for asking them to lower the price, saying ""This is a legacy piece. John was designing studios in the 60s, you're going to be VERY HAPPY with the work being done."" After a 45 minute conference, I take the machine home to find out that the problem isn't only not fixed, its MUCH WORSE. I called Bruce the next day to tell him how extremely upset I was about the entire situation. His response was ""I'm upset we're having this conversation, it's wasting time that I could be using to work on other projects."" He went on to tell me that he's positive that our studio equipment is broken, and their work was exemplary. He proceeded to argue with me about an interface that wasn't even plugged into the tape machine, claiming the return load was unbalanced and this was causing the problem. He obviously had no real knowledge of the situation. I took off work and brought it to them immediately after getting off the phone with them. When we started to plug the cables in, John asked Johnny to bring him an xlr-rca converter. Johnny acted like he had never even heard of this converter, and held up several different cables, saying ""this one?"" Finally John Eldridge grabbed the right cable and went to work testing the machine. The original problem I had was verified, and it was MUCH WORSE, both techs agreed. Luckily, Bruce walked in at that time and saw that the machine was broken. He was very rude about it and tried to blame it on our transit back to denton. He went on to suggest that I leave it at the shop and get them to clean the motherboard. I told them I would absolutely not leave the machine and I wanted a full refund. After considering the situation, Bruce realized that I was going to be a pain in their side until they finished the machine or gave me a refund, and agreed to the refund. I asked if they were part of a better business beuro, and Bruce hesitated, then said no. I can definitely see why. These guys tried to take advantage of us, never admitting they were wrong, and very rudely apologized. I have already told all of my friends that had work in their shop to pull it out immediately and not pay for any of the work. I have no problem with calling Bruce and making sure this happens. I really hope these guys either get their act together or shut down. This is the worst business experience I've EVER had. Pros: John Eldridge is very good at what he does Cons: He won't be the one working on your machine more