Dave wrote:
I have an ancient autohelm 1000, probably built when the boat was in 1979.
It stopped working last weekend, so I sent it in to Raymarine for repair.
The day after they got it I got a call from the repair technician. He said
they no longer stock parts for such an old model. But he took it apart,
found a wire that needed to be soldered, made the repair, and said he'd
charge me a modest hourly repair charge. And he'd send it back by overnight
(my cost of course).

How many consumer electronics products do you get that kind of service on?

What kind of service is so impressive?

He fixed the thing and is charging you for it, plus
shipping. That *should* be the way business is conducted.

Goodness, is everybody so corrupted by the
throw-it-away-and-buy-a-new-one attitude that it's
"impressive" to actually have a service technician who
performs technical service??

DSK

DSK wrote:
Dave wrote:
I have an ancient autohelm 1000, probably built when the boat was in
1979.
It stopped working last weekend, so I sent it in to Raymarine for repair.
The day after they got it I got a call from the repair technician. He
said
they no longer stock parts for such an old model. But he took it apart,
found a wire that needed to be soldered, made the repair, and said he'd
charge me a modest hourly repair charge. And he'd send it back by
overnight
(my cost of course).

How many consumer electronics products do you get that kind of service
on?

What kind of service is so impressive?

He fixed the thing and is charging you for it, plus shipping. That
*should* be the way business is conducted.

Goodness, is everybody so corrupted by the
throw-it-away-and-buy-a-new-one attitude that it's "impressive" to
actually have a service technician who performs technical service??

DSK

Yes. We bought a new tv in Jan for the apt. and it went dead. I
sent in all the registration cards etc when we bought it. Emerson
refused to honor the warranty. Threw the thing out an bought a
Toshiba...

I have a soldering gun and a screwdriver.

Joe

He fixed the thing and is charging you for it, plus
shipping. That *should* be the way business is conducted.


Dave wrote:
It should be, but seldom is. Particularly when you're dealing with a 27 year
old piece of gear. Matter of fact it's getting harder and harder to talk to
a real live person on such matters. And these guys call the morning after
they get the item.


Well, that sounds pretty good. At this point I can still
refuse to do business with an answering machine or with
"technical service" people who can't speak English, but it
seems the time is coming when I won't have that luxury.

Your experience speaks well for Raymarine.


Goodness, is everybody so corrupted by the
throw-it-away-and-buy-a-new-one attitude that it's
"impressive" to actually have a service technician who
performs technical service??

Dave wrote:
Unfortunately, yes.

And that explains the booming success of my relatively
modest engineering contracting... in the kingdom of the
blind, the one-eyed man is king!

A couple years ago, a storm ripped off some of our gutters.
I called literally every single gutter & home-repair company
in the phone book. Took about 3 weeks for somebody to call
back, another 2 or 4 weeks for the job to get done. 6 months
later, a gutter company guy called us about wanting to take
the job, when told he'd missed the boat by half a year he
grew irate with us! It's amazing the attitude that some
people bring to business....


katysails wrote:
Yes. We bought a new tv in Jan for the apt. and it went dead. I sent
in all the registration cards etc when we bought it. Emerson refused to
honor the warranty. Threw the thing out an bought a Toshiba...


Fortunately they're not expensive... still, that's rather
galling. Couldn't you just return it to the store and demand
a credit from your charge card? Some credit cards are very
good at that, unquestioned 90 day returns etc etc.

Regards
Doug King

Well, that sounds pretty good. At this point I can still
refuse to do business with an answering machine or with
"technical service" people who can't speak English, but it
seems the time is coming when I won't have that luxury.


Dave wrote:
That is, of course, after you figure out what number to call because there's
no phone number on the manufacturer's web site.

For some companies, you can call the Vice-President in
Charge of Stockholder Relations and get some
halfway-intelligible answers. I can sometimes cheat by
looking in my contractors directory and call the Chief Engineer.

In any case, a polite & professional demeanor is a lot more
constructive than threats, abuse, and profanity directed at
underlings & helpless drones.

If a company is completely and totally devoted to the
principle of being unresponsive & irresponsible to their
customers, the question you have to ask yourself is: why are
you a customer? Of course in some cases, it's the only game
in town. In other cases, you don't find out until too late.

But remember, you can in fact fight City Hall. But you have
to bring the right weapons... intelligence (both kinds) and
tact are the heavy artillery!

DSK

The technician obviously wants to keep his job and wants Raymarine to keep
service in the US.

It is amazing that when the expected is done it is regarded as exceptional.

I have a fairly expensive Sony Handycam DVD 402 where the automatic lens
cover no longer works. The camera has been in the wilderness, on boats and a
few parties in less than a year of ownership. It's $150 for Sony to fix
their design error (this is a very frequent mode failure for the device) .
Thanks to the expense and Sony repair horror stories I'm going to glue the
lens open and hope that's the fix. I'll never buy Sony again and Capt RB is
right, buy the service contract.

I think that 15 years ago I would have thought that. I would have been
wrong.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"Dave" wrote in message
...
On 24 May 2006 10:14:42 -0700, "Joe" said:

I have a soldering gun and a screwdriver.

As do I. And 15 years ago I'd probably have pulled it apart to have a
look.
Today my time's a bit more valuable.

Dave wrote:
Perhaps the advice is specific to Sony. For most products a service contract
is just plain stupid. I'll bet I've saved at least double the costs of all
repairs by never buying a service contract. Most electronic items, at least,
fail, if at all, during the warranty period.

and Mys Terry said:
Service contracts for almost anything are a sucker bet. Not everything
you own is going to break. If you have 20 or 30 items with extended
service contracts, add up how much you spent on all those pieces of
paper.

I agree generally but agree with Dave's comment about specificity. To
harken back to Rob's minivan thread, my brother bought a Chrysler
minivan back in the 80s. He generally avoids buying extended warrantees
or service contracts; but being the anal nitpicker he is, he reviewed
the service history of this vehicle and bought the extended warrantee
in this case. He used the heck out of it, too. FYI, this is how
"particular" he is: When he bough the car, he went over it and gave the
dealer a two-page list of things he wanted corrected before he'd accept
it!

Frank

"katy" wrote in message
...
DSK wrote:
Dave wrote:
I have an ancient autohelm 1000, probably built when the boat was in
1979.
It stopped working last weekend, so I sent it in to Raymarine for
repair.
The day after they got it I got a call from the repair technician. He
said
they no longer stock parts for such an old model. But he took it apart,
found a wire that needed to be soldered, made the repair, and said he'd
charge me a modest hourly repair charge. And he'd send it back by
overnight
(my cost of course).

How many consumer electronics products do you get that kind of service
on?

What kind of service is so impressive?

He fixed the thing and is charging you for it, plus shipping. That
*should* be the way business is conducted.

Goodness, is everybody so corrupted by the
throw-it-away-and-buy-a-new-one attitude that it's "impressive" to
actually have a service technician who performs technical service??

DSK

Yes. We bought a new tv in Jan for the apt. and it went dead. I sent in
all the registration cards etc when we bought it. Emerson refused to
honor the warranty. Threw the thing out an bought a Toshiba...

Why did they reject your warranty claim? For the record it is not necessary
to send in the reg. card at the time of purchase, but recommended. The
company must honor the warranty, card or no, as long as you have proof of
purchase.

You should file a complaint with your state's attny. general.

Max

Maxprop wrote:
"katy" wrote in message
...
DSK wrote:
Dave wrote:
I have an ancient autohelm 1000, probably built when the boat was in
1979.
It stopped working last weekend, so I sent it in to Raymarine for
repair.
The day after they got it I got a call from the repair technician. He
said
they no longer stock parts for such an old model. But he took it apart,
found a wire that needed to be soldered, made the repair, and said he'd
charge me a modest hourly repair charge. And he'd send it back by
overnight
(my cost of course).

How many consumer electronics products do you get that kind of service
on?
What kind of service is so impressive?

He fixed the thing and is charging you for it, plus shipping. That
*should* be the way business is conducted.

Goodness, is everybody so corrupted by the
throw-it-away-and-buy-a-new-one attitude that it's "impressive" to
actually have a service technician who performs technical service??

DSK

Yes. We bought a new tv in Jan for the apt. and it went dead. I sent in
all the registration cards etc when we bought it. Emerson refused to
honor the warranty. Threw the thing out an bought a Toshiba...

Why did they reject your warranty claim? For the record it is not necessary
to send in the reg. card at the time of purchase, but recommended. The
company must honor the warranty, card or no, as long as you have proof of
purchase.

You should file a complaint with your state's attny. general.

Max


Becasue all we had was the credit card record and not the store
receipt....