Are there any tv repair shop left in the U.S.A.?
 

After I've read a discusion about how profitable is the job of tv repair man today I got a curiosity: are there any longer tv reapir shops in the U.S.A. (and Canada)?

Up until about 10 years ago, there was probably 15 between here and Casper, including my shop. Now they are all closed. Now, I think the nearest one is in Cheyenne, 110 miles away.

I work on TVs but not very often. I wouldn't call my shop a TV shop but an electronics shop. We usually work on cruise ship and hotel TVs. Lately that has fallen off as they are all trashing the old TVs and going LCD.

There are a few, but very few. Maybe 5% or less compared to how many were in business in the 1980s? The ones that are keeping busy seem to be doing mostly warranty work. Their territory keeps getting bigger and bigger as competitors close. I know of one town locally that had 5 or 6 shops 20 years ago but now has none.

To be honest my biz is mostly keeping old sets going so they don't have to replace them. I have started working on LCD, LED, and Plasma just to keep my fun. They just ain't as fun!

There is just one TV shop left in my area (actually, the shop is about five miles away in the next town), but I'm not sure if they do much more than warranty service on flat screens. Haven't been there in years; in fact, I don't know if the shop is even in business anymore. (Another TV shop that was in my home town moved to another part of the county several years ago, then apparently went out of business as they are no longer listed in the telephone directory.) The last time I called the shop in the next town was about 13 years ago, when I had problems with my then-new RCA CTC-185 color table model TV.

I think there are 3 left in my area.

Number one has been here the longest and is the only one I'd trust to work on anything; but, he won't work on anything old and his attitude is not the best.

Number two was around during the later CRT days; but, he made most of his money off of up-front check-out fees and he'd eventually tell the customer that parts were NLA. Now, I think all he does is warranty work on flat screens. Honestly, about all he has sense enough to do is change boards.

Number three is actually a satellite dealer who used to farm out most of his TV repair business to a friend of mine who had a shop in his backyard. Then, my friend got out of the business and the satellite shop owner was forced to fix TV's himself. His usual practice is usually to get a big estimate approved before pulling the back. If the estimate is approved, he'll look for a simple problem and/or check the online TV repair tips pages. If it takes him more than 15 minutes to do a job, he's not interested. He was giving me a lot of TV's that he claimed were junk; but, many turned out to be easy fixes. I stopped talking to him when I found out that he told someone that all I knew how to work on was that old tube shit that ought to be thrown away. He had a lot of nerve to talk about me, since I was fixing most of the solid state stuff that he was writing off as junk.

There was another shop, who's now out of business, who's owner was an arrogant, crooked jerk. He wanted me to work for him and he thought he could pay me in junk TV's. I know for a fact that he often charged customers for major parts replacement on sets that actually had minor problems.

During the '80's, there were TV shops on just about every corner and most of them stayed busy.

Still a few around here. The one I deal with has been around since at least the end of the tube era, and still has some tubes and other parts that I occasionally buy. I don't think he works on the really old ones anymore but he will work on tube amps and other vintage audio gear.

I'm still doing it but may stop in about a year or so. Most of my work is vacuum tube audio as it is still profitable. I try to keep the older TV's (BPC types) working for a lot of older customers who are "technically challenged".
I do one old tv at a time. I just finished a Philco Predicta for a customer and will probably start on another 7 inch TS-4 for myself while I wait for another "marathon repair".
My CTC 9 Latham is sleeping here also right now.

Yes, theres a few old shops near my house here in Toronto Canada still that repair CRT's.

http://www.ringaudio.com/ 17 Carlaw Ave

American Electronics Service - 3058 Dundas St W.

Howard Tv - 3893 Bathurst St, 416-636-4822

Absolute Electronic Service Inc 2904 Dufferin St, Toronto, 416-782-3448

Found one.
 

There is one in Pt St Lucie Florida. I stoped in one day and spoke with the fella. Just him for the most part and his wife. Old chassis around from the solid state era. Plasmas are junk he says with power supplies and bad mother boards. He has an old self serve tube tester in the corner, kinda cool but not much for "legacy" parts or sets.

Truely the end of an era.

I closed up shop back in 1998. I suppose I "saw the writing on the wall" a little earlier than some.

Up until the early 90's, there were plenty of repair shops in Knoxville and the surrounding communities. Many were owned by older guys who had been repairing TV sets since WATE channel 6 went on the air in Knoxville. I knew a good many of them, and (for the most part), we were friendly with each other and shared parts and expertise freely.

The first wave of closures came mostly from retirements. I remember buying parts and service literature from several shops where the owners retired. The second wave of closures came as folks went broke.

My last friend in the business closed up last year. He had kept his doors open by doing work for a hospital, a few motels, the school system, and a local college. When they changed over to LCD sets, his repair jobs from those sources dried up. I remember him telling me in about 2007 that he couldn't make enough on retail customer jobs to stay in business.

I'm still in business, and there is a guy about 15 miles from me. That's it for this area. Not near as much business as in the 80s and 90s though. I'd like to stay around for another 10 years or so, but time will tell.

There used to be at least one shop in every little town around here, but they're all gone now except for one in the tiny town of Caldwell, nearly 50 miles from me. I've stopped in and talked to the owner. Nice guy who works on new stuff, but still does repairs on old sets and even repairs radios as old as the late 20's. He has a Zenith Space Command B/W set from the early 60's in the shop that I'd like to get if possible.

I know of at least 3 shops in New York City and Nassau County which are now all gone. One in Rockville Center, one in Marine Park, Brooklyn and one in The five towns L.I. The last one I tried going to in order to ask about parts told me no one looks for old junk anymore. Ha!