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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Customer:\r
He went on to suggest that I leave it at the shop and get them to clean the motherboard. \r
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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
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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
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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
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