N. Cook

[bitrex]

On 05/13/2017 06:05 PM, jurb6006@gmail.com wrote:

"**Yup. I had a guy who brought in an NAD amp for service. It was duly
fixed. He brought it back 2 weeks later for an almost identical repair.
I was surprised, so I checked my records and noted that the serial
numbers failed to match. Arsehole. "

I know I said I almost never call the police, I lock and load, but in this case I would have called the law and had him charged with fraud.

People think Trump U committed fraud but if that's the case all colleges do it, especially liberal arts, art history and all that. And making you take all kinds of irrelevant courses for shit you'll never use. Trumpp gioving the money back was just good public relations, they would have never made it stick because the "elements of the crime" simply were not there. There is enough to criticize him about without making shit up. Every college in this country should be sued. Look for a video called "The College Conspiracy".

What's wrong with art history? Do you not like art?

You have a weird notion of what colleges, even liberal arts colleges,
are like.

 

On Saturday, May 13, 2017 at 11:42:42 PM UTC-4, Clifford Heath wrote:

On 14/05/17 07:35, ohger1s@gmail.com wrote:
On Friday, May 12, 2017 at 10:38:26 PM UTC-4, Phil Allison wrote:
I can't speak for anything in Australia, but I assume China ships to Oz, no?
Cos it is completely uneconomic.
Can't speak for your country, but the only way we make money over here is to replace at the smd component level. It is the *only* economic way to repair over here.

I'm curious now - where is "over here"?.

I'm guessing your average wage is under $5/hour.

"Over here" is the United States. I work in Waterbury, Connecticut and live in the 'burbs. It's on the East Coast about 90 minutes from New York City.

I don't know why you'd guess a wage of $5 per hour, but let me pose this to you: A TV (say) comes in and it has no HDMI functions. The main board cost me $130 dollars from the salvage companies, and $220 new (if available).

In stock, I have the HDMI port processor IC that's a 72 pin QFN. We see a lot of these fail in the summer because the HDMI is hypersensitive to storm damage.

https://www.semiconductorstore.com/pdf/newsite/SiliconImage/SiI9287_DB.pdf

The IC cost me $2.50 delivered and takes 20 minutes to change - 15 of that is the board sitting on the preheater (during which time I can have a snack, listen to sports radio, or watch porn on my computer...).

Tell me, do I make more per hour replacing that IC or do I make more spending $130 to $225 for the board?

One universal truth in any business is *Time Is Money*. It's just as tangible as any other cost a business will incur. I can have said TV on and off the bench in one hour complete. Buying a board cuts my profit by a large margin and the TV needs to sit a week while I wait for it (and hope the board is good or carries the correct software).

It's been said that necessity is the mother of invention, and I can promise you that if you needed to adapt to doing surface mount work to make money, you'd do it. Yes, there are some people who haven't the hands for this type of work but I'd say the majority of people can learn these techniques if suitably motivated.

 

[rickman]

On 5/13/2017 6:05 PM, jurb6006@gmail.com wrote:

"**Yup. I had a guy who brought in an NAD amp for service. It was
duly
fixed. He brought it back 2 weeks later for an almost identical
repair. I was surprised, so I checked my records and noted that the
serial numbers failed to match. Arsehole. "

I know I said I almost never call the police, I lock and load, but in
this case I would have called the law and had him charged with fraud.


People think Trump U committed fraud but if that's the case all
colleges do it, especially liberal arts, art history and all that.
And making you take all kinds of irrelevant courses for shit you'll
never use. Trumpp gioving the money back was just good public
relations, they would have never made it stick because the "elements
of the crime" simply were not there. There is enough to criticize him
about without making shit up. Every college in this country should be
sued. Look for a video called "The College Conspiracy".

Uh, didn't Trump settle that issue? I believe there were a number of
lawsuits and the state of New York was pursuing him. "Trump had
publicly vowed not to settle the lawsuits", but he did. I think it is
pretty clear his university was a crock.

If there was no case there was no reason to settle the suit. Legal
costs would be a fraction of the $25 million paid out. Trump would not
have been bothered any more than he was in running the University which
he didn't do. It couldn't have possibly looked any worse for him than
the multitude of crap he has pulled since being in office. But then I
guess he couldn't see that since he thinks everyone is overreacting to
the anti-constitutional acts he has made.

Why is it that when it is discovered that Trump is doing something wrong
the common response is to say "Johny is doing it too!" Let's just talk
about Trump.

But when they pull that shit it is out and out fraud.

Either that or I would just keep the unit and say I don't have it.
"Look, this is the serial number of your unit, if you can find a unit
with that serial number on it in this shop it is yours". In fact I
would write a ticket for the unit with the "new" serial number and
put someone's name on it I knew and tell them what is going on.

And when the crook shows up tell him "Go ahead and call the law MF"

As someone has already pointed out, that makes YOU the con artist.

--

Rick C

 

[Ian Field]

<jurb6006@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:c38b0bba-99f1-4a11-8c7a-c62cf1f9cbaa@googlegroups.com...

"**Yup. I had a guy who brought in an NAD amp for service. It was duly
fixed. He brought it back 2 weeks later for an almost identical repair.
I was surprised, so I checked my records and noted that the serial
numbers failed to match. Arsehole. "

I know I said I almost never call the police, I lock and load, but in this
case I would have called the law and had him charged with fraud.

No doubt its a criminal offence - but so far I've never heard of anyone
filing charges.

 

[Clifford Heath]

On 15/05/17 00:51, ohger1s@gmail.com wrote:

On Saturday, May 13, 2017 at 11:42:42 PM UTC-4, Clifford Heath wrote:
On 14/05/17 07:35, ohger1s@gmail.com wrote:
On Friday, May 12, 2017 at 10:38:26 PM UTC-4, Phil Allison wrote:
I can't speak for anything in Australia, but I assume China ships to Oz, no?
Cos it is completely uneconomic.
Can't speak for your country, but the only way we make money over here is to replace at the smd component level. It is the *only* economic way to repair over here.

I'm curious now - where is "over here"?.

I'm guessing your average wage is under $5/hour.

"Over here" is the United States. I work in Waterbury, Connecticut and live in the 'burbs. It's on the East Coast about 90 minutes from New York City.

I don't know why you'd guess a wage of $5 per hour, but let me pose this to you: A TV (say) comes in and it has no HDMI functions. The main board cost me $130 dollars from the salvage companies, and $220 new (if available).

In stock, I have the HDMI port processor IC that's a 72 pin QFN. We see a lot of these fail in the summer because the HDMI is hypersensitive to storm damage.

I can have said TV on and off the bench in one hour complete.

Good for you. I'd waste more than that chasing faults.
Changing the IC not so much of a problem once you know
what's wrong, but apparently you do.

 

[Gareth Magennis]

"Clifford Heath" wrote in message news:GV4SA.69347$sS7.38832@fx40.iad...

On 15/05/17 00:51, ohger1s@gmail.com wrote:

On Saturday, May 13, 2017 at 11:42:42 PM UTC-4, Clifford Heath wrote:
On 14/05/17 07:35, ohger1s@gmail.com wrote:
On Friday, May 12, 2017 at 10:38:26 PM UTC-4, Phil Allison wrote:
I can't speak for anything in Australia, but I assume China ships to Oz,
no?
Cos it is completely uneconomic.
Can't speak for your country, but the only way we make money over here
is to replace at the smd component level. It is the *only* economic way
to repair over here.

I'm curious now - where is "over here"?.

I'm guessing your average wage is under $5/hour.

"Over here" is the United States. I work in Waterbury, Connecticut and
live in the 'burbs. It's on the East Coast about 90 minutes from New York
City.

I don't know why you'd guess a wage of $5 per hour, but let me pose this
to you: A TV (say) comes in and it has no HDMI functions. The main board
cost me $130 dollars from the salvage companies, and $220 new (if
available).

In stock, I have the HDMI port processor IC that's a 72 pin QFN. We see a
lot of these fail in the summer because the HDMI is hypersensitive to
storm damage.

I can have said TV on and off the bench in one hour complete.

Good for you. I'd waste more than that chasing faults.
Changing the IC not so much of a problem once you know
what's wrong, but apparently you do.




*************************************************************



Well that comes with experience.

Every time I have had a soundcard repair where the Firewire doesn't work, it
has been successfully repaired by changing this chip.
They are cheap. Takes maybe half an hour.

https://cdn.europosters.eu/image/1300/1124.jpg


Gareth.

 

[Gareth Magennis]

Oops, that appears to be Kylie Minogue on a rocket.


Not sure how that happened.



Here is the chip:
http://www.shtengel.com/gleb/Scanners/Nikon_8000_Firewire_replacement_n2.jpg



Gareth.

 

[Trevor Wilson]

On 13/05/2017 3:47 AM, Ian Field wrote:

"Phil Allison" <pallison49@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:0402dda5-23f5-411d-89a3-13b754a3aa43@googlegroups.com...
Ian Field wrote:

----------------


I found that signing and dating my repairs made it difficult for
customers
to present entirely different items as returns.



** Recording serial numbers is the usual precaution against that one.

Plus recent repair work is generally visible.

Recent repair work could've been done elsewhere - warranty repairs for
items someone else fucked up is the oldest trick in the book.

Taking the back off and look if I signed and dated it is *MUCH* easier
than searching through a notebook of longer than phone number serial
numbers.

**Whilst I have tagged my repairs with a job number and date for a very
long time, I keep an old Windows database (originally ported from dbase
III) where I can search for repairs, by date, customer name, serial
number, job number or even part number. It takes less than a second to
search any parameter. Since the software was originally DOS based, it is
extremely compact (even in Windows form). I can run it from a USB stick
as small as 10MB. The whole thing cost me a slab of beer to have written.

--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au

 

[Ralph Mowery]

In article <N45SA.44608$M66.42923@fx27.am4>,
soundserviceleeds@outlook.com says...

Good for you. I'd waste more than that chasing faults.
Changing the IC not so much of a problem once you know
what's wrong, but apparently you do.




*************************************************************



Well that comes with experience.

Every time I have had a soundcard repair where the Firewire doesn't work, it
has been successfully repaired by changing this chip.
They are cheap. Takes maybe half an hour.

https://cdn.europosters.eu/image/1300/1124.jpg


Gareth.

The first time one runs into a problem it often takes time to find it.
After 2 or 3 times one does not take time to do any trouble shooting,
just replace that part that is bad 90 or more % of the time.

Many problems are often caused by the smae part or parts. If they are
not too expensive or hard to replace, just try that first.

 

[rickman]

On 5/14/2017 1:58 PM, Ian Field wrote:

jurb6006@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:c38b0bba-99f1-4a11-8c7a-c62cf1f9cbaa@googlegroups.com...
"**Yup. I had a guy who brought in an NAD amp for service. It was duly
fixed. He brought it back 2 weeks later for an almost identical repair.
I was surprised, so I checked my records and noted that the serial
numbers failed to match. Arsehole. "

I know I said I almost never call the police, I lock and load, but in
this case I would have called the law and had him charged with fraud.

No doubt its a criminal offence - but so far I've never heard of anyone
filing charges.

It's only criminal if there was intent. This could easily have been a
mistake as someone else pointed out. I'm not saying it *was* a mistake,
but I think there would need to be some proof of intent to get a charge
filed.

As others have said, it would be completely reasonable to fix the
problem and bill the customer. No harm, no foul, you get paid in full.

--

Rick C

 

>"No wonder people hate you kind of people. "

If someone tries to defraud me I am perfectly justified in defrauding them. If you don't like it, just don't try to defraud me.

You aren't in the US I assume. Well that is the way it is, how much hate do you have ?

 

>"Or repair it and not hand it over until the repair bill was paid."

Can't do that in Ohio. It used to be, and I never heard of any change, that if you repair the unit they can go to the law and make you pay them double the repair bill and give them the unit repaired for free.

It is a harsh law for servicers but was written to punish unscrupulous car repair shops that either just fixed it or went way over the repair estimate and then took the car. People were losing their car because the bill was twice what was expected and they simply did not have the money. Now they don't have a car either.

We had to have a rubber stamp for the invoices until the ran out and the new ones had the estimate statement on them - pretty much what was on the rubber stamp.

 

.."You are such a bull artist. "Lock and load" That's a laugh if I ever
heard one. "

Try climbing in my back window in the middle of the night to test your theory.

Buy I will admit it is bullshit because I have a revolver and the term "lock and load" does not apply. And it will be cocked so grabbing the turret so it can't turn won't save you.

 

>"The customer likely made a mistake about which amp was recently serviced. "

Maybe where you are, but this is the US.

 

>"What's wrong with art history? Do you not like art? "

There are very few jobs in the field. Learn something useful and then study arts in your spare time.

 

[rickman]

On 5/15/2017 2:59 AM, jurb6006@gmail.com wrote:

"Or repair it and not hand it over until the repair bill was paid."

Can't do that in Ohio. It used to be, and I never heard of any change, that if you repair the unit they can go to the law and make you pay them double the repair bill and give them the unit repaired for free.

What are you talking about??? If you repair a unit you have to pay
THEM? How do you make any money?


> It is a harsh law for servicers but was written to punish unscrupulous car repair shops that either just fixed it or went way over the repair estimate and then took the car. People were losing their car because the bill was twice what was expected and they simply did not have the money. Now they don't have a car either.

I think you have not explained the law very well. What does the law say
exactly?


> We had to have a rubber stamp for the invoices until the ran out and the new ones had the estimate statement on them - pretty much what was on the rubber stamp.

I also can't make sense of this. What does the rubber stamp have
written on it?

--

Rick C

 

[rickman]

On 5/15/2017 3:05 AM, jurb6006@gmail.com wrote:

"The customer likely made a mistake about which amp was recently serviced. "

Maybe where you are, but this is the US.

That's right, in the US everyone is out to get you! Only the mistaken
make mistakes!!!

--

Rick C

 

[Foxs Mercantile]

On 5/15/2017 9:16 AM, rickman wrote:
> I also can't make sense of this.

It's jurb6006, he makes as much sense as Cook does.
Except Nigel does it without all the conspiracy theories
and dick waving.

--
Jeff-1.0
wa6fwi
http://www.foxsmercantile.com

---
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
http://www.avg.com

 

On Monday, May 15, 2017 at 10:16:41 AM UTC-4, rickman wrote:

On 5/15/2017 2:59 AM, jurb6006@gmail.com wrote:
"Or repair it and not hand it over until the repair bill was paid."

Can't do that in Ohio. It used to be, and I never heard of any change, that if you repair the unit they can go to the law and make you pay them double the repair bill and give them the unit repaired for free.

What are you talking about??? If you repair a unit you have to pay
THEM? How do you make any money?

I'm pretty sure he's talking about prior estimate approval. I haven't run into this personally because I communicate directly with every customer and I'm very clear on this (well, there's one exception I may bore you all later with).

If an item is repaired without the estimate being approved, the customer doesn't have to pay for it. I'm only aware of double or treble damages being awarded to the customer in small claims court cases in the event of fraud, but laws vary state by state.

In the case we're talking about, if said customer brings in an identical item for warranty repair in an attempt to defraud, and you complete the repair and bill for it because you know it's not the same item, he doesn't have to pay for it if you haven't gotten prior approval. You of course have the option of unrepairing the item and returning it in it's original condition..

In the auto business where I live (CT), a work order *must* be signed by the customer before any work is done. Even if there's no complaint by the customer, the DMV here in Connecticut will heavily fine or even shutter an auto business that doesn't get work orders signed. If anyone thinks the Nazis moved to Argentina after the war, they're wrong: they moved to Connecticut and are writing business regulations here.

 

"What are you talking about??? If you repair a unit you have to pay
THEM? How do you make any money? "

You make money by not repairing a unit until you have an OK on the estimate..

"I think you have not explained the law very well. What does the law say
exactly? "

I just looked it up and there was a change in 2015. I was in business in the 1980s.

The tamp just read

[] Written estimate
[] Oral estimate
[] No estimate
Cust init _________

It was a very punitive law and actually needed to be changed. There are alot of circumstances in which it is completely off base.

Let's say the mechanic thinks you need a head gasket but must check to see if the head is cracked. Well you can't reuse a head gasket so once apart he has to put in a new one anyway. In fact in newer cars you can't even reuse the bolts and the last set I bought was $80.

Actually if he finds the head cracked and you don't OK it's replacement (or repair) the gasket doesn't matter. But it is about the same labor.

This law was over 30 years ago and of course things change. One thing that seems to be lacking on the net is old laws.

It was very consumer oriented. Buddy of mine bought a new car battery, but it was a discontinued model. They refused to honor the warranty when it went bad on that basis. It is not so biased for the consumer anymore. Jut like landlord tenant laws, they had to be changed. People could not evict dope dealers because they had kids, and then the house gets boarded up. People got sick of it.

I agree the law was crazy, but there are plenty of crazy laws in this country. That's why even if there were any jobs to come back they aren't coming back.

I don't even want a service business these days. People are too stupid. "The power switch is broken", yeah after you rammed it with a friggin hammer because you have a "Dead set". And you put a flyback in a bigscreen and the convergence goes, they think you have to fix that for free.

All the explaining in the world doesn't do shit for the really ignorant. I told them they would be paying agsain at any other shop, but the boss was a softie. Guy says "No I wouldn't" and I said "Then you would have a non working TV". Try to explain to them the if I put a transmission in your car and the engine blows, that is not covered. They are so dense these days I want no part of it. Maybe I'll do a little bit of vintage audio in the basement but that is about it.

Looks like USA stands for United Stupid Assholes.